[Bf-funboard] Large Texture buttons redesign proposal

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi,

Thanks for the proposal! I agree with most of the reactions here.  
William overshoots somewhat in his attempt to organize it. :)

-> channels
Since this is hardcoded in Blender (8 for material, 6 for lamp/world)  
it's quite hard to make the system dynamical. Currently, being able to  
see all available channels is preferable. Using a pulldown for it is  
just abuse.
There are ideas in development to improve material/texture editing in  
Blender, but that might more become something as Wavk proposed with his  
'shader editor'. All research in progress...

-> lamp / mat / world buttons
the purpose is that this switches automatically on selecting objects. I  
added in 2.30 to have the Camera object showing world buttons and  
textures. ALso when you previously were editing world buttons, and  
switch to texture, it switches automatic.
The buttons are more useful to indicate extra for the user which  
textures are being displayed, and correct occasional errors when you  
*do* want to see world texture, even when a Lamp is active for example.

-> texture type chooser
Indicating difference between procedural and image-based texture is  
fine, but not this way.... for the time being one pulldown is  
sufficient. When we add several more procedureals it might become time  
to look at it again though.

-> improved button drawing
I've been working on added grouping information to the buttons. The  
drawing routines then can nicely align and visually merge groups. As  
test and to verify it works I've made a rounded theme. Here's a  
screenshot, but its also in CVS to play with. Matt promised he'll  
rework his theme based on this as well.
http://www.blender.org/bf/rt.jpg
http://www.blender.org/bf/rt1.jpg

-> preview render
On my (really long) wishlist is to expand the preview render system  
with *actual* rendering of 3d models. This could be either built-in  
primitives, or the active object itself. The preview image then also  
can be made wider, filling up a default panel completely.

-Ton-


On Monday, Nov 17, 2003, at 17:39 Europe/Amsterdam, William Reynish  
wrote:

> Here is is:
> http://www.shadeless.dk/ui/texturebuttons.htm
>
> Please take a close look at the changes before you
> comment.
>
> It will be followed up soon by a Material Buttons
> redesign proposal.
>
>
> On a related note, I have updated my Further UI
> Improvement Proposal, found here:
> http://www.shadeless.dk/ui/
>
>
> -William Reynish (Monkeyboi)
>
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------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton@blender.org  
http://www.blender.org