Filtration ♦ Item Filter Script Editor ♦ [ v1.2.2 ] ♦ Updated 2019-09-11

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The problem with showing rarity-based colours in the preview is that they're only relevant if you have a Rarity "equals" BlockItem - if the BlockItem was "Rarity <= Unique" then what colour should be shown in the preview? Also for blocks that don't have any Rarity BlockItem, what colour should be shown? Those Blocks could apply to any item rarity.

Edit: As for actual item names, what names would you expect to be shown? A filter block can apply to thousands of items so I chose the generic "Item Preview" text.

Same as for the next question: it'd need a database, but it'd make the app a lot more user-friendly.

If multiple items are stated, only show the first one with a "show more/expand/collapse" button next to it. If multiple rarities are states, show all of them (next to each other).

The problem right now is, that without proper item names, without font sizes and without accurate font colors, the previews are only good for testing color combinations and even then they are flawed, since the text color has to be explicitly stated.

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That's something I've thought about but I decided to prioritise the actual editing of filters due to the existence of the web-based one. It'd require Filtration to have an item database of some sort too. It's certainly something I'd like to implement in the future but I think focusing on the core functionality should be the priority right now as there's a lot to be improved.

I think the application would definitely benefit from a database, as explained above. Maybe it's just me, but the major reason for me to use tools such as Filtration, is to test, visualize and find loopholes in my script. Actually writing and editing (aside from fine tuning color comninations) is usually much faster in NotePad++.

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You aren't the first person to request this so I'll look into it - the reason I've not done it so far as addressed in a previous reply in this thread but I'll add this to the todo list.

Yay

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Could you elaborate on this? I'm aware of WinDirStat but I'm not sure how its visualisation would be applied to item filters? The visualisation in WinDirStat is based on disk space usage to spacial mapping of sorts, how would this work with item filters?

Think of the sum of all possible items that get displayed by the script. It'd cluster the rules, by common properties, creating a topology and than display it, as one big graph. It'd also display things that are hidden and things that are not covered by the script.

I think I'd need to make an example figure to explain it better, it's also a rather difficult and experimental programming task

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Also: I don't want to sound too harsh. You've done a nice job programming the app. Thank you :P

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NeverSink wrote:

The problem right now is, that without proper item names, without font sizes and without accurate font colors, the previews are only good for testing color combinations and even then they are flawed, since the text color has to be explicitly stated.

I was actually thinking about this and the "loot explosion" preview on the drive back from work - I think adding the loot explosion preview actually solves two issues at once. I can't see any logical way to display the item previews in the main script editor other than how they are now - a Block doesn't know what kind of item it's going to be applied to, so it has to be "dumb" at some level.

With the loot explosion preview however, all of the rules around how filter colours are applied could be taken into account, because each filter will be being applied to an actual representation of an in-game item.

I'm actually in two minds as whether to bump the this above theme support on the todo list, as I've kind of talked myself into it now...

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NeverSink wrote:

Also: I don't want to sound too harsh. You've done a nice job programming the app. Thank you :P

No worries - I'd much rather have an open discussion regarding concerns and suggestions than people tiptoe around worrying about offending me :)

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Navarin wrote:

The tiered blocks in the block browser is brilliant - is there a way to have that apply to sections too?

Not really - I have thought about this but the fluff I'd have to add into scripts to actually support tiered blocks wouldn't be worth the reward. Right now Sections are just a special kind of Block - their only relationship with other Blocks is the order that they're in. In order for Blocks to belong to a hierarchy of Sections you'd need to store some sort of metadata in the heading for each Block. Adding hierarchical relationships between Sections, without having Blocks "belong" to Sections seems pretty pointless to me. So in summary - unlikely to happen, sorry!

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Navarin wrote:

EDIT #2: Would it be difficult to put "Expand All" and "Collapse All" buttons next to the "Filter to Selected Block Group" button in the block group browser?

Sure, good idea. Added to todo list.

I've been making a filter starting from a gutted version of Muldini's. So far Filtration is amazing compared to text editors. So far there are a couple of things I find missing.

1) Colour themes: Once you have a bunch of blocks using a colour it is tedious to change that colour if you realise you picked something bad. It would also help to reuse custom colours, rather than copying the hex code from the advanced colour picker.

2) Multi block copy and paste: I'm hiding normal items at a certain level and magic versions 5 levels later. I ended up using Notepad to copy paste the normal item blocks to reuse them for magic items. A way to do this inside Filtration would be great.


Thanks for the great tool, I probably wouldn't have bothered editing a script without this.

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DracoArgentum wrote:

1) Colour themes: Once you have a bunch of blocks using a colour it is tedious to change that colour if you realise you picked something bad. It would also help to reuse custom colours, rather than copying the hex code from the advanced colour picker.

Did you see the Replace Colours tool? If you right click an existing block and hit Replace Colours you can replace all instances of particular colours throughout a script. I'll be extending this functionality to full theme support in the next release (some time this weekend). Adding recently used colours in the colour picker is something I'll look into - the colour picker control does support this but I need to make it use a global list of recently used colours, when I enabled it previously it only showed recent colours for that particular colour picker.

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DracoArgentum wrote:

2) Multi block copy and paste: I'm hiding normal items at a certain level and magic versions 5 levels later. I ended up using Notepad to copy paste the normal item blocks to reuse them for magic items. A way to do this inside Filtration would be great.

Features like this fall into the future plans for making Filtration better for script creators discussed in my last development update post. There's definitely some work needed around drag and drop, multiple selection, etc.

Quick question, will the color theme thing work the same way as SmartBlocks with different levels of depths?


#Normal Item Highlight - Flasks
#Normal Item Highlight - Chance


This would enable people to change colors for the whole script or certain sections only.

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Muldini wrote:

Quick question, will the color theme thing work the same way as SmartBlocks with different levels of depths?


#Normal Item Highlight - Flasks
#Normal Item Highlight - Chance


This would enable people to change colors for the whole script or certain sections only.

I wasn't intending it to be hierarchical - I can't really think of why you'd want it to be though? My thinking with themes is that it would be an automated version of the "SmartColors" that Antnee uses in his script. At the top of his script he has this:

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Antnee's Script wrote:

### SmartColors
### SetBackgroundColor 0 0 0 0 #Hidden Flask Opacity
### SetBackgroundColor 0 0 0 0 #Hidden Obsolete Gear Opacity
### SetTextColor 240 240 240 #Normal Flask Upgrade
### SetTextColor 125 175 255 #Magic Flask Upgrade
### SetTextColor 190 190 190 #Normal "Junk"
### SetTextColor 120 120 230 #Magic "Junk"
### SetBorderColor 70 20 50 255 #Chaos Recipe Border
### SetBorderColor 40 80 30 255 #Regal Recipe Border
### SetTextColor 180 180 180 #Normal Jewelry ILVL > 68
### SetTextColor 120 120 230 #Magic Jewelry ILVL > 68
### SetTextColor 15 135 120 #Gems Zero Quality
### SetTextColor 135 120 90 #Common Currency
### SetTextColor 210 190 170 255 #Uncommon Currency
### SetTextColor 240 200 150 255 #Rarest Currency
### SetTextColor 255 255 255 #Normal Highlight
### SetTextColor 125 175 255 #Magic Highlight
### SetTextColor 255 255 119 255 #Rare Highlight

So the idea is that the script author defines what gets highlighted by "Normal Highlight" for example, and themes just allow you to change what "Normal Highlight" looks like - the places that it's applied to would be unchanged. I'm certainly open to suggestions for other ways to implement themes don't get me wrong - I just don't understand how they'd work hierarchically. Why would I want to overwrite an entire hierarchy with a single colour, therefore losing the distinction between each child of the parent, for example?

I don't know, my use case would be the other way around I guess.

The examples I posted (see below) would have the same color initially. Therefor you could either want to replace the color throughout the whole script (e.g. change "#Normal Item Highlight) or for a specific section (Flasks / Chance / ...) only. This would obviously be linked to the modifier (SetBorder, SetBackground, ...) in front of the comment.

SetFontColor 255 255 255 #Normal Item Highlight - Flasks
SetFontColor 255 255 255 #Normal Item Highlight - Chance

to

SetFontColor 255 255 255 #Normal Item Highlight - Flasks
SetFontColor 255 255 100 #Normal Item Highlight - Chance <- normal highlight to Chance only changed

or

SetFontColor 155 155 255 #Normal Item Highlight - Flasks <- both
SetFontColor 155 155 255 #Normal Item Highlight - Chance <- changed


If I included all sections, people would need to change them all if they wanted to have another normal item highlight throughout the script. If I leave them out, colors always affect the whole script rather than certain sections (and thus items) only.

It's sort of similar to the BlockGroup stuff I think.

I don't really mind either way, but I wanted to know before I enabled color management in my script as it would influence what is to be added and what not.

I think for the initial iteration of Theme support I'm going to go without support for hierarchies, but I may add it in the future if there's sufficient demand for it. So for now I'd advise you use "# Normal Item Highlight" with no additional groups after it.

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NeverSink wrote:

1) Let's take the following example.

Show
Rarity Rare
SetBorderColor 255 255 0

Filtration preview will display a white item, with a yellow border. Ingame you'll see a yellow text item, with a yellow border, because the basic text color was NOT changed. I'd like to see the tool know basic colors for different item types and rarities. It'd be also nice to see fitting item preview captions, not just "Item Preview", but actual item names.

I would have written the same suggestion here :)

@OP: If it has only 1 rarity mentioned, it's clear which color the text should be. If there are multiples, you can either cycle between the different colors (change the image every 1-1.5 seconds or so) or have them all shown underneath each other when the block is expanded. I doubt that the space underneath is too small for the number of previews needed (if so, the writing must be doing something wrong). Or you could of course have the combination of both (cycle when collapsed, all shown when expanded).


EDIT
What I'm also missing is a way to make a block inactive (which will be commented out in the file for example). This would allow me to add the high tier weapons into the script, and enable them if I start playing a character that needs those weapons. And also allows us to create a sort of template that we could share. Others will then have a much easier time to edit the file to their likings by simply activating or inactivating blocks. And people who share their template script will advice others to get Filtration for easy editing :)
/EDIT

Some less important stuff:
- Clicking the text box in a section doesn't select/highlight it. Thus when you then add a block, it will add one at an unintended location. Vice versa, you can only select sections by clicking on their borders.
- A collapse/expand all button could be useful.

Some minor stuff (nitpicking):
- I noticed you've made a restriction to 2 rarity conditions per block. It's indeed all you need if you use the '<=', but I don't think it's something a lot of people will see from the start and they might be bugged by it.
- The conditions are only ordered on load, not when adding conditions to a block. Add rarity -> quality -> rarity and they will stay in that position. My perfectionism doesn't like it ;(
- Currently you can't add items to the top of the list. I've seen other programs I worked with add an empty line at the bottom of the list and adding always means inserting before the selected element. However, for your program it's more logical that adding a block means adding below the selected element, and adding a section means adding before the selected element (you are more inclined to select the first element of the new section rather than the last of the previous one).


Besides that, I love this! So much better than the online editor. Clean, easy and fast with a LOT better structure than the ordinary text file and more flexible than the other editors I've seen. Thanks for this tool. (I'll add it to my signature ;))