[Bf-committers] New event system / MPX

[mindrones]

Hi Jean-Luc,

please have a look at this video
http://multi-touchscreen.com/

There's a great interest in multitouch displays nowadays. IPhone has the pinch
feature, and according to [1] and [2] Apple means to release multitouch
displays in the future. So does Microsoft with "Surface".

Trying to simulate those features with 2 mice, I've found and tried MPX,
http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/mpx/
a modification of the X Server [3], though I don't know if making this work can
help with a future multitouch display :)
It works well, supports multi-head setups, and seems a good collaborative tool
[4]. On its live CD you can test it with up to 3 mice.

Unfortunately, since in MPX with 2 mice you have 2 CorePointers, Blender
doesn't seem to know what to do with both of them, so you don't have any mouse
in Blender under MPX.
Gimp accepts and use different mice, and you have them in the Input Devices
config panel under MPX.

All this said, in your document [5] you say "Each view data change or update is
handled by a single controller. The controller can handle more than one view",
so from a non-programmer point of view, I have some questions.

a) Will it be possible to have different controllers in different views?
In this case, many interesting things could be done, for example having a
pointer on a timeline and another on a model to be moved. Also, it would
greatly help interaction in a team when discussing/working on a blender
project.

b) Would it be possible to have more than a controller for each view?
Imagine having 2 mouse pointers in the same view: one for
grabbing/scaling/modeling an objects, the other one changing the point of view.
The examples are many, and can be inspired by the first video. Note the
interaction with the 3D cow: one of the mice in Blender could set the pivot
during the rotation given by the other mouse. Or, you could drag a camera AND
its target at the same time, in the same view or not, and so on..

Also, in the Game Engine multiple inputs might increase interactivity a lot :)

Remember I'm thinking at those displays, I know multiple mice can't be
productive. I'm sorry for this long post, just wanted to share some impressions
about what kind of events Blender might have to manage in the next future.

Many thanks, Luca


[1] http://www.macrumors.com/2006/02/14/apple-multi-touch-display/
[2] http://guides.macrumors.com/Gallery_of_Gesture_User_Interface_Patent
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MUOn_nJmRA
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AryCQ8Ybp6A&mode=related&search=
[5] http://jlp.nerim.net/dev/event%20system/new-event-handling.html




	
		
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