Impressive!
Generally, for my part, I would love to see SI first and foremost evolve
in this directions:
- extensibility
- customizability
- consolidation (general bugfixing, SDK fixes/cleanups, UI fixes/cleanups)
Am 18.08.2012 05:05, schrieb Matt Lind:
Here's my short list, some dating back to v1.x:
1) Inspecting a mixer source or mixer clip via the RMB context menu
displays a collapsed PPG that must be manually resized via dragging
the mouse to see it's contents.
2) Transfer / Merge Attributes editor found in the Poly.Mesh merge
tool, GATOR, and a host of other tools only shows top two rows in the
upper pane of the dialog and is NOT resizeable.
3) Transfer / Merge Attributes editor defaults to pairing up cluster
properties (UVs, vertex color, user normals) by chronological order of
creation instead of by name.
4) Updating a mixer source does not update mixer clips pointing to it
from the mixer timeline.
5) No easily accessible UI for looking at image sources/clips on a
mixer timeline. Must navigate to the image clip folder in the scene
explorer and know to select the image clip(s) to see anything at all.
Images should be an available option from the mixer.
6) No SDK access to Spreadsheet view.
7) No option for scaling objects on axes other than local (such as
global, object, or COG)
8) Cannot adjust explorer view filter to only show custom properties
or other property type data without showing the rest of the object's
structure.
9) Deleting selected object from the scene when in an explorer set to
"selection" scope causes scene explorer to go blank even when it's
locked (auto refresh deactivated). Really? Can't it just maintain the
current view?
10) Texture Editor relax tool doesn't relax.
11) No place to hide custom userdata that isn't in plain view of the
user. Would be very useful for custom tools.
12) No paint UI or ability in SDK to create a useful 3D paint system.
13) Performance very bad with many objects in scene regardless of
object complexity.
14) No ability to auto update self installing custom properties in a
scene after code changes.
15) No falloff icon/manipulator for point lights
16) No ability to send events/callbacks to netview for custom tools to
respond (example: on selection change, would like a netview based tool
to respond)
17) No ability to preserve work on NURBS Surface when converting to
polygon mesh....other than trivial geometry.
18) Realtime shader system overhauls that shows vertical improvement
instead of lateral.
19) Lack of UI customization throughout. Makes custom tool
development more difficult than it should be.
20) Ability to substitute operators/operator inputs in the
construction history outside of text and curves.
21) Ability to read/write the construction history from the SDK other
than a trivial XML dump. What's needed is low level access to
operator inputs/outputs so the operators can be recreated exactly
using custom importers/exporters. Example: the 'movecomponent'
operator does not expose any parameters. Therefore a custom tool
which needs to build an object from a file description cannot recreate
the movecomponent operator on the generated object's stack.
22) ASCII file format for all presets, scene files, models, and other
externally referenced data specific to the application.
23) A finished NURBS modeling toolset.
24) Ability to read / write NURBS data in parameterizations other than
Non-Uniform.
25) Ability to get access to a reference model's Delta via the
scripting object model.
26) Ability to write to a PointCloud from scripting. Example: apply
color values to the points in the point cloud.
27) Ability to duplicate an object contained in a referenced model.
That is, the resulting duplicate should be local to the scene and have
no affiliation with the referenced model from which it was derived.
28) Ability to define presets / default values for commonly used tools.
29) An Image clip viewer available directly from the viewport menus
which allows panning, zooming, resizing, channel component viewing,
etc... that was written in the last 15 years.
30) Tools for selecting subcomponents from samples (eg: uv -->
polygons). Needed outside the texture editor.
31) Customizable context menus for tools allowing removal and
rearranging of tools, and allows arbitrary ordering/placement of
custom tools.
32) Tear away controls from any toolbar that doesn't require an entire
package of buttons/controls to be torn away with it. Example: I just
want to tear the snapshot button off the FCurve editor toolbar. I
don't want the swap buffer, HLE, and other tools to come with it.
33) A toolbar/layout/shelf editor that was built in the last 15 years
and works on drag n' drop and tear away editing principles. Heck,
even the old SI3D dialog editor was more intuitive than the XSI version.
34) Ability to put expressions, constraints, and other data types into
mixer sources via the SDK, AND the ability to do so without requiring
the parameters contained in a mixer source to exist in the current scene.
35) Why do primitive NURBS circles and squares default to having so
many control points?
36) Using any tool which creates a sample clusterproperty (UV, vertex
color, user normals, ...) results in the newly created property being
inserted into the most recently created sample cluster. If you work
in a system which requires clusters to be named (oh, I don't know,
like a games development workflow) you cannot control how data is
generated resulting in a lot of misplaced data breaking stuff.
37) Value locks that actually work would be appreciated when used in
referenced models.
38) When transforming subcomponents individually in local mode, there
should be a 'center' icon drawn for each subcomponent so the user can
see where each subcomponent will move.
39) subcomponents should transform relative to the selection's center
when working in symmetry mode. Example: a character in a T-pose. If
a ring of polygons around the wrist are selected, rotating the
polygons when COG and Local are active should result in the polygons
rotating around the wrist, not the global origin.
40) Shadow icon colors should show up in the schematic, scene explorer
and other views.
41) There should be an easy way to view the R, G, B, and A channels in
the viewports. Important when working with vertex colors and other
metadata which isn't necessarily used in the traditional context of
beauty pass color. Example: normal maps where the unused blue channel
is used for another purpose. Sometimes we need to see that blue
channel on it's own.
42) Ability to work on multiple texture projections simultaneously in
the Texture editor without having to lock any.
43) No tools available to convert instances to objects and
vice-versa. Same for clones. No tools exist for finding/selecting
the masters of an instance or clone. I've written my own, but it's
annoying I have to do so.
44) ICE Modeling is restricted to the modeling marker within the
construction history.
45) XRay mode is per object. Doesn't take occluded objects into
account for doing useful things like making translucent image planes
for roughing out the modeling or texturing of new assets.
46) sliders in the KP / L are lmitied to on/off states and cannot set
to other values. Example: a parameter defined as siFloat with range
[0...1]. In a PPG this shows up as a slider which can be set to any
value in the range, but when this same parameter is edited in the KP /
L, the user is restricted to 0 or 1 as accepted values when dragging
the slider. Must manually type values to get anything inbetween.
47) Cannot view an animation layer without the base layer. There are
times users want to only see the upper layers in isolation so they can
see only what has been changed beyond the base layer.
48) Snap to texel is missing from 3D snap toolset.
49) Proportional modeling settings apply globally, but how the values
are interpreted by tools are different depending on the view which the
feature is used. Example: in the 3d viewports the proportional
modeling settings are defined in SI units, but in the texture editor
they're defined as UV values. The problem is falloff as used in the
3D viewports is usually on a fairly large scale (several units) as
objects are usually modeled fairly large. But UV editing is usually
in range [0....1], so any proportional modeling adjustment defined for
the 3D viewports will have no effect in the texture editor because the
falloff radius will be larger than the entire UV space which texture
editing takes place. Reducing the falloff to satisfy the texture
editor results in the falloff being too small for use in the 3D
viewports. ARGH!
50) Anytime those nested layers want to work is fine by us. Especially
with referenced models.
Matt
*From:*[email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Paul
Griswold
*Sent:* Friday, August 17, 2012 9:09 AM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: Small Annoying Things
Is the new dev team making a list out of this? This list is gold.
I'd absolutely love to see this kind of stuff addressed in 2014.
-Paul
On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Eugen Sares <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Am 17.08.2012 15:42, schrieb Jeff McFall:
If the render tree window is open and one assigns a new material
to the selected object the window does not automatically refresh
to show the new material
Not sure if this is intent or not but I often end up changing the
wrong material because I expected my new material to be there
+1
Even asked VRay support two days ago if this is related to the
connection plugin, but no, it's a SI bug.
everything else is perfect
jeff
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of
Eugen Sares
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 8:42 AM
To: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Small Annoying Things
Hi list,
Softimage has one of the slickest interfaces known to man, but
nothing's perfect.
Let's be nit-picky for a moment... what glitches, small flaws or
inconsistencies annoy you most in Softimage?
Any SPDL hacks worth doing when SI is installed freshly?
This is about polishing, not cool new features (borders are blurry
of course).
Maybe the new developer team has nothing better to do (ha ha) and
feels motivated to do a little mop-up...
Here we go:
- Render Tree
When multiple objects are selected and all share the same
Material, the RT should not nag with the message "Update can't be
done with two objects selected" and display that Material.
(besides, it says "two", even when more are selected) 3ds max can
even display multiple shader trees... would this make sense?
- Material Manager
...should remember it's layout, expecially the horizontal divider.
There's a bug with the text input field of the Shader balls names.
It sometimes does not update, and you have to type blindly. After
pressing enter it updates, however.
- Timeslider
When the Range Slider is moved, the timeslider should update with
it interactively (does so in Maya).
- Project Manager
Would be nice if a double-click would open a scene in the list on
the right hand side.
- Operator Stack
A double click on a Construction Mode Marker in the Explorer
should activate that mode.
Also, highlighting the markers in some way (bold or different color or
whatever) would clarify which mode is active in the Stack, besides
looking at the dropdown in the menu bar.
- Operator Context Menu
... should contain all Commands related to Operators. Now they are
strewn across the interface - some are to find in menu Edit >
Operator, others in MCP > Edit > Operator.
"Collapse Operators" is a good example. Would you go looking for
that in the MCP menu?
"Freeze" in the menu freezes everything below an operator, not the
whole stack. Thus it could be named "Freeze down" or "Freeze all
below" or whatever.
- Texture Projection Operator Stack
The "Texture_Projection_Def" property has buttons "Reset" and
"Freeze" - somewhat hidden. Could reside in the Op Stack context
menu as well.
- Texture Support
... should show parameters GeoX, GeoY, GeoZ by default. This can
be fixed with a litte hack of texture.spdl.
I see no reason why it should not be possible to set the size of a
TS numerically. I need this often.
- "Texture_Projection_Def" property
Checkboxes U,V,W are off by default. Should be on, because when
texture coords are outside the 0,0 - 1,0 range, textures render
black, and the head-scratching begins.
3D-Coat AppLink for example shifts UVs around that way.
- UI graphics
The browse icon (...) besides a path input field tends to draw
artifacts when the PPG is resized. Could be graphics driver
related (GeForce 460 here).
Does one need to go for an expensive Quadro card for this?
- Render Region Options > "Use current Pass options" should be on
by default.
Often enough I have drawn an Render Region, tweaked the render
parameters in the Render Manager and wondered why nothing happens...
More to come...
Thanks for reading!
Best regards,
Eugen
