[Bf-committers] Re: CVS commit: blender/release/datafiles preview.blend blender/source/blender/src preview.blend.c buttons_shading.c blender/source/blender/makesdna DNA_material_types.h

[Matt Ebb]

On 08/06/2006, at 06:49 AM, GSR wrote:

> Except when the material is no shadows or such setting. ;] There was
> some talk in IRC days ago about refraction, reflection, shadow casting
> and receiving... worth ignore or worth find proper solutions for a
> more realistic preview?

While having a realistic preview is nice, it's not the biggest issue  
here.

The purpose of the small preview in the panels is to provide quick  
feedback when tweaking settings. In a creative workflow, you need to  
be able to tweak things around and get instant feedback. Because the  
final result is a combination of so many different factors, setting  
up things like materials require careful nudging and experimentation,  
a bit more of this, a bit less of that, in order to get a good  
looking result. The faster the feedback, the better. I benchmarked  
the old preview.blend with buffer shadows vs the new one without, and  
on the default cube, the new one is roughly twice as fast on my system.

The shadbuf button isn't adjustable, it's binary on/off and the look  
of shadows are so dependent on the lights that are casting them and  
the objects that they are being casted on to, that having them shown  
in the small panel preview doesn't help tweaking the look - it's only  
a matter of being reminded that the setting is on or off for that  
material (which if you are using the Shadbuf button is probably  
something you're aware of already since it's not commonly used).

For realism, there is the live 3D View preview window, which is much  
more accurate and shows things that aren't shown in the small  
preview, such as mist, raytraced shadows, AO, which will also change  
how the shadows look.

Anyway! Having said that, I have a patch in the tracker that turns on  
and off the fake shadow in the preview based on the shadbuf button.  
It also enables raytracing depending on if the material to be  
previewed needs it or not. I won't commit anything to that part of  
the source, myself, so someone else  can check it: http:// 
projects.blender.org/tracker/index.php? 
func=detail&aid=4291&group_id=9&atid=127

cheers

Matt