Sorry for the bump but I just wanted to say I downloaded this and tried it (I use PGE but was aware that this existed) and I just want to say, I'd rather use PGE instead. In no way am i trying to insult the application or it's developer. I consider this a HUGE advancement in SMBx, and I am sure plenty of people have the same consideration in their own books. But this editor is just way too damn confusing and clunky in my opinion. (I am going to repeat
"in my opinion" a lot because there are a lot of people who will probably assume this as an attack on the application.)
Anyway, this editor took the HUD and layout of the legacy editor (Legacy editor being the original SMBx Editor) and made it 10x more confusing. Yeah there are plenty of new editor features like being able to click and drag selection fields and other goodies, it still has a bunch of buttons to the far left that I don't even know what their functions are. There are no labels or text that pops up when you hover your mouse over the icon. That annoys me. The tutorials probably cover the features 100%. but its still nice to have labels or at least something like that.
This next thing bothers me the most. This editor has a tileset system like in PGE. In PGE (SMBX2 beta 3) you simply make a new tileset by grabbing desired assets from a list onto a field which represents the tileset. Boom, done. In SMBX 1.4 however, I'd explain to you how its tileset system works, IF I KNEW HOW. Yes, the system is so confusing and there are so many buttons and junk that I couldn't figure out how to even START a new tileset. I have provided screenshots of each tileset editor. SMBx 1.4's editor is on the left and SMBX2 beta 3's is on the right.
In SMBX2 that list of NPCs, can literally be dragged right onto the field you see with the coins, robotic Toads, etc. In SMBx 1.4 though, like I said, I couldn't even find a way how to start a new tileset. Now I am sure there are people who can use either editor without the tileset feature. But most people (Including me) have been spoiled by PGE's tileset system, which makes switching from tab to tab and category to category to find that one corner block we need, a thing of the past.
Now there are many other things I could complain about in this software but that is for another day. Like I said before, this editor isn't a terrible mess and I'm not posting this just to ridicule it. This editor has almost as many IMPROVEMENTS to SMBx as it does flaws. One of those things being the more advanced tools mentioned earlier. If they were properly labeled, they would make very handy tools. There are also a LOT of new items (mostly NPCs) that are
currently exclusive to this editor. One of those said things being the spinning platforms from SMB3. There are a lot more, but I am not going to list them all. This editor also has a lot of more NPC features, such as allowing you to choose what hammer brothers throw instead of changing the graphic of their default hammer. Another thing is allowing most if not all enemies and NPCs to have wings. You can really be meta and attach wings to a Parakoopa. Hell, screw editing NPC's attributes in a text file, because in 1.4 you simply right-click an NPC in the selection toolbox and the magic begins. Although PGE has something similar to this, I actually prefer the one in 1.4.
The features above are cool, but they don't cover the clunkiness and confusion of the editor itself. SMBX2 has less objects and NPCs, but makes it up with PGE's outstanding interface and editor (Plus the fact that most of those 1.4 exclusives are in the works for SMBX2). This editor needs a major layout adjustment and much more. And if those and a few more things are changed, this editor could be just as good as SMBX2. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH WHEN I SAY THIS IS ALL MY OPINION. If you use SMBx 1.4 and are happy with it, then you do your thing and you use it all the way. To wrap this up; SMBx 1.4 is an SMBx advancement, but in my opinion, its often caught in the shadow of SMBX2, which seems to have a longer life-span and more followers.
