I agree, this is a great idea. Especially for the new artists who try Blender, hear about render engine XYZ and wonder why transparency isn't what they expect, or whatever.<div><br></div><div>Speaking off (off topic a little), will things like the material preview have the ability to be performed by the external render engine? That would be brilliant.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The trick I see is in the last part of your message, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; ">Brecht. I really have no idea on this, so I'm just thinking out loud, but doesn't the render engine have to provide a config file or such to let Blender know what exec to run and library info? If so, can't that just be expanded to include functions/features that the engine knows how to handle/target?</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">I really should get into the code someday and see what all y'all are doing to make things run...</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br clear="all"></span>Daniel<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 3:03 PM, Dalai Felinto <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dfelinto@gmail.com">dfelinto@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
+1 !<br>
I really think this is something useful/necessary.<br>
<br>
So how about a profile option? Blender could come with a few pre<br>
configurated profiles (Full, BGE, Yafaray, ...) and could have an<br>
option to let the user define it's own profile. (also an option to an<br>
external render engine to define it profile on-the-fly).<br>
<br>
My idea:<br>
When you go to [Profile Edit Mode] all the panels that are disabled<br>
appears as disabled/dissaturated/grayish (as we have already for<br>
disable buttons). You then have the option to go through the whole<br>
Blender and disable/enable editors, panels, buttons. Once you are done<br>
you click stop editing and all the disabled options disappear.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> F12 could even start the game (ok, perhaps that is a bit too far :).<br>
</div>It's a nice idea, but I think that mixing default keymaps is messy. I<br>
would rather stick to (1) Blender default keymap (2) User default<br>
keymap<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> Also then the scene and physics panels could show game engine related<br>
> properties instead of having them in the logic editor or a separate tab.<br>
</div>I'm not sure I like this panel-dancing thing :) I think a simple<br>
enable/disable option would make easier to remember where the settings<br>
are in different profiles.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> The main issue against I think is that for the game engine you also<br>
> sometimes bake something with the regular render engine, or do some<br>
> simulation you bake into shape keys etc. This would require explicitly<br>
> switching the engines each time. I'm not sure if this is a big problem,<br>
> i.e. perhaps separate files are used for this in many cases, need<br>
> artists feedback on this. There could also be a shortcut key for it of<br>
> course, to make switching fast.<br>
</div>I don't think switching engines (or profiles as I'm calling it) it's a<br>
big problem. And I believe that separate files are very common for<br>
that kind of stuff.<br>
<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Dalai<br>
<br>
<a href="http://blenderecia.orgfree.com" target="_blank">http://blenderecia.orgfree.com</a><br>
2009/7/22 Brecht Van Lommel <<a href="mailto:brecht@blender.org">brecht@blender.org</a>>:<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5">><br>
> Hi,<br>
><br>
> An idea I've been thinking about is showing / hiding panels and buttons<br>
> based on the output target / engine. By that I mean external render<br>
> engines, but also the game engine or external game engines. Hiding all<br>
> the settings that are irrelevant to that engine would make it much more<br>
> clear what is supported.<br>
><br>
> For example for the game engine only a subset of material options is<br>
> supported, and it would be much clearer showing only the supported ones.<br>
> Also then the scene and physics panels could show game engine related<br>
> properties instead of having them in the logic editor or a separate tab.<br>
> F12 could even start the game (ok, perhaps that is a bit too far :).<br>
><br>
> The main issue against I think is that for the game engine you also<br>
> sometimes bake something with the regular render engine, or do some<br>
> simulation you bake into shape keys etc. This would require explicitly<br>
> switching the engines each time. I'm not sure if this is a big problem,<br>
> i.e. perhaps separate files are used for this in many cases, need<br>
> artists feedback on this. There could also be a shortcut key for it of<br>
> course, to make switching fast.<br>
><br>
> Further there is also the implementation issue, for external engines you<br>
> can't just place if() statements in the panel code, there needs to be<br>
> some other way to define what to show. Not sure how to do this best yet,<br>
> ideas for that are welcome too.<br>
><br>
> Brecht.<br>
><br>
><br>
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