Hello studio, on Montag, 26. März 2007, 07:14:54, you wrote:
>> As I don't use the View Properties very often I ask myself: "Why >> studio often needs this window?" How looks your workflow that you >> often need this window? Which properties do you change often? > Hi Marc : > Well , the important part is that I do , and this new Tab > will help me a lot . What do you “do”? Perhaps it’s possible to fine tune it. Without the knowledge of your using of the view properties window it’s possible that I misunderstood your following words. >> That's a main advantage of RS3D in my opionion. I don't use this new >> window! It should not be a part of the default environment IMO. > OK , fine , but it's not all about you , or about me , but it > _IS_ all about the new user & the newcomer to the community , or > the person who has heard about RS and decides to download the Demo . It is about me. And the new user. I need a fast and dependable tool to realize my ideas. “Fast” on the rendering engine but also in the usability. > For those people , information _Must_ be easily obtainable . For > those people the default interface must be tailored to suit them , > not you or I or other seasoned users . Putting the view properties > control right up front where they can see it , is a no-brainer . Yes, the default interface should be created with the new user in mind. But you have to pay attention not to overblown the interface. Here we are getting into the magic sphere of marketing. The new user wants a big list of features. But he don’t want a big user interface. Big in the meaning of many many buttons and long lists of functions. The danger is simply that he could be lost in the information. Have you seen the interface of Real3D? So many buttons. As a new user I would ask: “Ok, and where is the area where I see my model?” Think of a new user to computers. An admin has installed windows for him on his new machine and installed all programs he could use in the future. Some ftp-clients, some ftp-servers, some webbrowser, some web-server, a big bunch of graphic programs, from simple pixel based programs like Adobe Photoshop, Photoline, SatoriPaint64, Gimp, Painter, PhotoPaint, PhotoImpact, to vector programs to 3d programs to cad programs. And yes, video editing programs are also very useful! The admin then placed icons for the programs directly on the desktop so the user can find and start them very fast. THIS WOULD NOT WORK! The user would be simply beaten by the flood of data. So the admin has to carefully think of the working and thinking of the new user. RS3D is a tool more for the professional. And professionals need the ability to alter the program. Look, in a professional workflow you have a modeller, a rigger and an animator. Beside all the other specialists. And at each stage the program must be meet the needs for the specialist. >> But RS3D allows every user to create his own environment to >> meet his special workflow. > Yes , one of the most pleasurable wastes of time come with > trying to figure out how to customize your interface . This > is perhaps one of the best examples of Chinese Puzzle play- > ing that RS has to offer . > By this I mean , so much potential , so little information ! The problem is IMO that they simply can’t start at the very beginning. This would end in a work like the series “The Art Of Computer Programming” by Prof. Donald E. Knuth! <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Computer_Programming> He decided to write a book about compilers. But then he thought it would be good to write also some texts around this topic. He ended up in 7 Volumes. The first Volume was released in the year 1968. The third volume was released in the year 1973. The fourth volume is planned to be released on paper in the near future. Volume 5 is planned to be released in the year 2015. Do you really want to wait for the final documentation for RS3D so long? Should they begin by describing how computers build images internal? How pixels work? How the raytracing process works? > It is very seductive ... "you can customize the interface any way > you want !" ... but how ? Where are the RS tutorials to show how a > new user can easily do so ? One page in the Manual and a couple user > contributions . The gui-system RS3D uses is a standard system. It’s simply based on windows and subwindows. A window is an invisible rectangle. Each window has properties and is of a specific type. Like a main window. A window of type main window will draw a title bar and a window border on the screen. Like on your Windows Desktop. The Windows Desktop is also a window. But you see only the background of it. All programms you start create a window of type main window as a sub window of the Desktop Window. Each window also has a Layout Manager. This component describes how subwindows are sized and positioned inside the window. Especially when the window is resized. At the end you’ll have special windows which can’t have subwindow. This are the buttons and such a like. In RS3D also the View Properties Window is such type of final window. But internally the View Properties Window is also a window with subwindows. The whole structure will be a tree. > Obviously , RS absolutely depends on the user community to > chip in and help make this software more accessible , via > tutorials and plugins and scripts and shaders etc etc etc . Do you think Adobe Photoshop would be so widespreaded even when there are not this many plugins available from independent parties? There exists many advanced books to different kind of programs. Why this books exists? > Ask a lister for an example render and the answer is always > the same "OK , I'll try and get some together for posting " . > Don't hold your breath ... ... ... you'll turn blue . Or the > ever "Ok , I'll try to write a tutorial ... someday " . They simply have not the time to do it. They use the program to earn money. > Contributions like your recent ones are critically re- > quired , although it appears you don't think so . A little bit. I write tutorials or something like that to test if my thinking is correct. For example, in the beginning I thought about how light works, and how cameras works. Why a camera has a lens and not simply a big hole? So I grabbed some paper and my pens and began to draw. This was very impressive to me because I simply build up a correct model of a pinhole camera. I understand why a lens is a good thing, how different sizes of the camera hole influences the picture and also came to the Lambert’s cosine law. But to create a tutorial about it would need some time. Would it be worth? Sometimes I’m going further and write programs to test something. Like my IsoGfxWorkbench, where I have tested how graphics work in games like Command and Conquer or Diablo. -- Best wishes, Marc Michael
