This year I am considering proposing a new viewport for Blender as a Summer of Code project.
Name is subject to change. I've already had one person think that I want to preview compositing nodes in the view port. That is not my proposal. This email is to solicit some feedback so that I can write a good proposal or change my focus and propose something else. The problems as I currently see them: * The current view port rendering code in Blender is a mess. * Extending the view port has to be done ad hoc and is even recommended against due to its complexity * Taking advantage of modern opengl features might be especially difficult. These include: - pixel buffers - floating point or HDR formats - depth textures Parts of a possible proposal: * re-factor all view port drawing operations into a set of composable commands * enable rendering to pixel buffers * compose pixel buffers using GLSL and/or blending operations * new view port modes can be written as scripts, like Render Monkey or DirectX Effect format (or even Quake 3 if you wanna go back that far) * re-enable all current view port modes as just simple scripts in the new system * create new view port modes (like Material Capture or SSAO) * let expert users create their own custom viewports * the ability to control view port script parameters using RNA, i.e., automatically add controls to the UI I am not proposing doing anything with the GLSL code generator that is used for materials. I have not looked into how this integrates with the different view port drawing modes (triple, etc.) I am concerned that PBVH drawing in 'partial redraw' mode may be more difficult to integrate, or not. Cursor rendering probably is not affected. I discussed this briefly with Ton, he had some ideas about glowing outlines around objects. That kind of feature would be possible. Part of my proposal could include a set of example view ports scripts like that to get the expert users started. I'd like to really focus this year on a single goal with an easily defined deliverable. _______________________________________________ Bf-committers mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
