[Bf-committers] Texture properties weirdness

[Roland Hess]

As I've been working with materials and texturing in 2.5 for the past 
week, a weird interface notion keeps sticking out at me. When choosing 
the texture type, certain panels enter and exit existence, which is 
fine. The problem is that there is no visual distinction between which 
panels in the texture window belong to the texture type, and which 
belong to the texture slot. The fact that you can mix and match the 
panel within the window doesn't help (i.e., I could put the Image 
Mapping panel below the Influence panel). It seems to me that panels 
that are dependent upon a particular texture type ought to have some 
kind of indication that they "belong" to it. The time when this is most 
surprising is the first time you fill a new texture channel, choose one 
of your already created textures, and none of the slot-owned settings 
come along for the ride.

Right now, when explaining this to someone learning Blender's 
texturing/materials system, I'm left with saying "even though all of 
things are in the same place, some of them are attached to the slot, 
while others are attached to the Type choice in the topmost panel." It 
just seems a clunky compared to the other great interface and 
information display choices that have been made so far. Are sub-panels 
an option?

-- 
Roland Hess
harkyman