[Bf-committers] Compositing View Port Proposal

Gustav Göransson gustav.goransson at gmail.com
Fri Mar 30 18:16:09 CEST 2012


I'm glad to see that you're interesting in improving the viewport,
especially since you did such an awesome job last year. :)

Personally I think (and I know that many other users agree) that speed
should be the number one priority. Yes, there are many fancy features
that would be good to have, but these won't matter much if the
viewport is unresponsive. In other words I think it's better to fix
the underlying mess adding more stuff.
Speedwise, Blender is way behind compared to commercial competitors .
There are probably more reason for this that just the view port code,
but every speedup possible is more than welcome.

/Gustav

On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 22:58, Jason Wilkins <jason.a.wilkins at gmail.com> wrote:
> This year I am considering proposing a new viewport for Blender as a
> Summer of Code project.
>
> Name is subject to change.  I've already had one person think that I
> want to preview compositing nodes in the view port.  That is not my
> proposal.
>
> This email is to solicit some feedback so that I can write a good
> proposal or change my focus and propose something else.
>
> The problems as I currently see them:
>
> * The current view port rendering code in Blender is a mess.
>
> * Extending the view port has to be done ad hoc and is even
> recommended against due to its complexity
>
> * Taking advantage of modern opengl features might be especially
> difficult.  These include:
> - pixel buffers
> - floating point or HDR formats
> - depth textures
>
> Parts of a possible proposal:
>
> * re-factor all view port drawing operations into a set of composable commands
> * enable rendering to pixel buffers
> * compose pixel buffers using GLSL and/or blending operations
> * new view port modes can be written as scripts, like Render Monkey or
> DirectX Effect format (or even Quake 3 if you wanna go back that far)
> * re-enable all current view port modes as just simple scripts in the new system
> * create new view port modes (like Material Capture or SSAO)
> * let expert users create their own custom viewports
> * the ability to control view port script parameters using RNA, i.e.,
> automatically add controls to the UI
>
> I am not proposing doing anything with the GLSL code generator that is
> used for materials.
>
> I have not looked into how this integrates with the different view
> port drawing modes (triple, etc.)
>
> I am concerned that PBVH drawing in 'partial redraw' mode may be more
> difficult to integrate, or not.
>
> Cursor rendering probably is not affected.
>
> I discussed this briefly with Ton, he had some ideas about glowing
> outlines around objects.  That kind of feature would be possible.
> Part of my proposal could include a set of example view ports scripts
> like that to get the expert users started.
>
> I'd like to really focus this year on a single goal with an easily
> defined deliverable.
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