[Why Do People Keep Changing Things?]

I was really concerned about the new forum updates at first, especially since I knew from past experience, that the IP.Board software is notorious for breaking backward compatibility on many levels.

However, after I created a few custom CSS fixes for myself (which I can also share), I noticed there are also many nice improvements in this version of IP.Board - so I soon started to enjoy the new version. Everything that is wrong with it, is something that I can fix for myself by injecting javascript via Greasemonkey (assuming that the webmaster is unable or unwilling to apply the fixes globally).

The new "Unread Content" activity stream is really very useful, and works identically to the old "View New Content". It's THE most important/useful way of keeping track of new/undread messages on this forum.

I'm willing to "work with you" to get you up to speed on this new forum version.

[Forum Updates]

@webmaster:

Please post here some big screenshots using embedded IMGUR links. Thanks.

That's a rather general request. =) Did you want me to show you some examples of what I was talking about, when I wrote:

Is it possible to limit the size of images when posting?

Well, let me clarify, I already know about the automatic image scaling (max-width: 100%) and lightboxing that IP.Board implements.

I was asking, can I limit the width of linked images manually, for example, by using BB-code tags with attributes, like:

[img width={width} height={height} ...]{url}[/img]

Because - sometimes the linked images look quite large, especially since the IP.Board scales to 100% width...

So, is there any way to set the image width manually when adding image links to a post? (Of course, without having to resize the original image bitmap!)

Cheers,
AgentSam

[Forum Updates]

@Carlosan

Yepp, it will look normal, when viewed with a browser on a desktop computer. But try using a mobile device and turn the screen to portrait orientation. The "responsive mobile layout" is enabled only when the browser screen width is reduced, like it is on many mobile devices, or if you manually make the browser window smaller in width on a desktop computer.

Cheers,
AgentSam

[Forum Updates]

@webmaster:

There's something weird going on with the quote you used earlier.

Take a look:

There are a couple of easy ways to fix it...

Either set max-width to 100%:

.ipsType_richText .ipsContained {
    max-width: 100%;
}

Or enable scroll bars on overflow, in the container:

ipsQuote_contents {
  overflow: scroll !important;
}

 

[Texturing workflow]

@Tony Nemo, @Ballistic_Tension

You could also override the text-color, by applying the following user style in your browser:
 

@-moz-document url-prefix("http://3dcoat.com/forum/index.php?/topic/") {

  /* This style is required to override all user specified "richText editor" 
     text colors.
     
     Some users, who read the forums using the light-color theme, set
     their text color in the editor to be a dark color - which is then
     either almost or completely invisible for those users who read the
     forums using the dark-color theme. 
     
     By using this CSS override, ALL user specified colors in all posts,
     are reset to "light gray" so that they are readable using the dark
     forum-theme.
     
     */

  /* Topic View, Message text */
  .ipsType_richText > p {
    color: #C3C3C3 !important;
  }

}

 

[Forum Updates]

On my screen, the forum index now looks like this (with some custom CSS tweaks):

[Forum Updates]

36 minutes ago, Ballistic_Tension said:

My thoughts on the web page layout. I would like to be able to collapse the Images, Topics, and Post  headers.  The Topics and Post  Headers I don't need at all. Having the same information  in 3 different areas is redundant . thank you for the dark theme

I think you just got your wish granted... Because I can no longer see the "5 Latest Topics" and "5 Latest Posts" panels at all. And I agree they were a bit redundant, because the easiest way to check for latest content is still by using the "Unread Content" stream, which is what I use all the time.

The Images banner should be collapsable.

If I remember correctly, in the old V3 forums, the latest Topics and latest Posts panels were collapsable.. (there was a triangle button that collapsed the entire side-panel section).

[Please Don't Blind Me . . .]

The Theme selector option just moved a bit...

Also, take a look at this thread. It contains some related discussion.

[Steampunk TriTruck]

Thanks for the link - those videos were great. (I can't understand why my Youtube search gave me pretty my everything except that, even though I used the exact search terms you provided.)

[Steampunk TriTruck]

10 minutes ago, Vladukenzo said:

If you want to know the secret how i find the details search for: Foundation Patrion on Youtube.

This lessons were the turnpoint where i have started serious work

I'm certainly curious about that video now, but didn't find it. Would you mind posting a link to it.

[Forum Updates]

QUESTION: Is it possible to limit the size of images when posting?

For example, when posting screenshots using embedded IMGUR links, the images look huge in the post. It would be nice to be able to scale them down a bit; in a way that they are shown smaller in the posting, but become larger/fullsize when clicked.

Can this be done? Without using the built-in attachment feature, which has a limited size quota per user.

Cheers,
AgentSam

[Forum Updates]

This new version of IP.Board is great! My thanks to the webmaster for doing the update.

There are so many small things that make this version better; like that visual separator between read and unread content.

The new "Activity" displays are pretty decent also...

However, I just had to minimize some of those margins and padding, because they were just crazy - so much empty space taking up my screen real-estate. Just had to.

But all in all, I have to say this forum update was worth it from the end-user perspective.

Cheers,
AgentSam

[Forum Updates]

Applying the attached stylesheet will give you the following.

I didn't remember exactly what the old dark-theme looked like, so I just tried to get it as close to it as possible.

This was tested in Firefox. To apply the user style-sheet, you need to save the attached .CSS as "userContent.css" into a "Chrome" subfolder inside your Firefox profile folder.

Note: This was just a quick fix for my personal use; and I'm sure I didn't catch all of the new IP.Board color-definitions yet. It may be better to wait for the official Dark-Theme. This is just for those people who know what they're doing.

Cheers,
AgentSam

 

userContent.css

[Seven wheels for speed]

Very impressive sketches...

[Forum Updates]

@Tony:

I sort of understand if the Webmaster doesn't want to implement additional themes, because it will require more maintenance, and there are other problems with the themes also.. One of which is "font colors".. the rich text editor allows users to set background and foreground colors for the text that they write, and if someone uses the light theme, but sets a dark font color, then people using the dark theme will be having a hard time seeing that text... And vice versa.

But - I don't think I could live without the dark theme (this bright color hurts my eyes), so I'm considering implementing some custom dark forum styles as a Greasemonkey script that anyone can install and use if they like.

Cheers,

AgentSam

[Forum Updates]

@Carlosan: OK, no worries, I'm sure he's doing his best.

He should propably reset or delete some of the bug reports concerning forums, on the Mantis website too. (Although there's only one, and it was reported by me a few weeks ago. Now that report is no longer valid, because everything has changed.)

One additional question comes to mind...

Does the webmaster intend to restore the legacy "Dark 3D-Coat Theme", which was available in the old forum version? I loved that dark theme.

Cheers,

AgentSam

[Forum Updates]

Looks like the new version supports BB-code directly, without having to switch to BB-Code mode.

I wonder what new BB-code tags are supported... Also, is the new version fully backwards compatible with the previous version?

[Forum Updates]

@Carlosan: Does your own post look like this on your screen?

EDIT: Noticed you just fixed your post... now it looks normal. (The picture above no longer reflects the latest situation.)

[Forum Updates]

Looks like the 3D-Coat forums are being updated silently in the background even as I'm writing this.

Webmaster, which version of IP.Board have you updated to?

 

Cheers,

AgentSam

[[REQUEST] Support for XML comment tags in Navigation Preset files.]

EDITING NAVIGATION PRESET FILES

I often edit the 3D-Coat "Navigation Preset"-files using a programmer's editor, because I find the existing "Setup Navigation" UI-dialog limiting and hard to use. This is the dialog I'm talking about:

One of the things I like to do, is to use "XML comments" to indicate different "sections" or "blocks" of controls. (Examples of this can be seen at the bottom of this post.)

3D-COAT XML PARSER ERROR

Here's the problem... the XML parser in 3D-Coat that reads the "Navigation Preset"-files does not understand XML comment tags.

If I try to load a "Navigation Preset" that has comments inside, 3D-Coat will throw up an "XML Error!"-dialog and stop processing the file. The error looks like this:

So, before I can use "Navigation Presets" containing comments in 3D-Coat, I will have to run them through a regular expression that removes all of the comments, and save the output as an uncommented "Navigation Preset" into the 3D-Coat "NavigationPresets" folder.

However, I would like to avoid stripping the comments. Normally, a well designed XML-parser would simply ignore and skip the comment tags, and continue processing the remaining tags without an error.

FEATURE REQUEST

My hope is that the XML parser in 3D-Coat would be enhanced to handle (skip) XML comment tags.

Andrew, could you please enhance the 3D-Coat XML parser so that it skips any XML comment tags that it encounters inside the "Navigation Presets" and other XML files that 3D-Coat uses.

Before anything more comprehensive can be implemented in terms of a better Custom Navigation UI-interface, this would help me so much in keeping my presets well organized internally.

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMER'S NOTES

The structure of the "Navigation Preset" files could be further enhanced by adding proper tags for sections, which could be displayed in the 3D-Coat "Navigation Setup" UI as a treeview, allowing control definitions to be categorized by section.

Here's a draft of the proposed enhanced XML-structure, with sections. Note that this is just a draft of concept, which can be even further enhanced:

  <NaviSystem>
    <Events>

      <Section name="PANORAMA CONTROLS">
        <NaviEvent>
          ...
        </NaviEvent>
        <NaviEvent>
          ...
        </NaviEvent>
      </section>

      <Section name="VIEWPORT NAVIGATION, ROTATE">
        <NaviEvent>
          ...
        </NaviEvent>
        <NaviEvent>
          ...
        </NaviEvent>
      </section>

      <Section name="VIEWPORT NAVIGATION, ZOOM">
        <NaviEvent>
          ...
        </NaviEvent>
        <NaviEvent>
          ...
        </NaviEvent>
      </section>

      ...

    </Events>
  </NaviSystem>

EXTRA, SOME EXAMPLES OF MY USE OF COMMENTS IN XML

I added this sub-heading to my post, just to give my request some context; so that you could see why these XML comments are important to me. (And after I have demonstrated this, possibly to others also!)

Here's an example of a "Navigation Preset" inside the editor, with all sections fully collapsed. You will notice that I use the "XML comments" to indicate different blocks of control definitions. This helps me keep everything organized.

Here's an example of a "Navigation Preset" inside the editor, with all sections expanded further to reveal the "hotkeys", while still keeping additional "NaviEvent" details hidden. This gives me a simple overview of what controls are defined in any section.

Last, here's an example of a "Navigation Preset" inside the editor, with two fully expanded subsections, when I want to edit additional "NaviEvent" properties.

Cheers,

AgentSam

PS. In regard to what Javis posted here: http://3dcoat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17192, I'm a bit confused about where to actually post FEATURE REQUESTS, because it looks like this forum section about feature requests has been about to "go away" for two years now, but it hasn't... so I guess this is the place to post in.

However, for what it's worth, I think this board might be the perfect place to post feature request even in the future, because here we can use much richer formatting with embedded images and whatnot, than we could in Mantis.

EDIT: Just fixed a typo.

[GeForce GTX 1080]

The number of display outputs from the GTX 1080 card is disappointingly low-end.

Here's a quote from TECHPOWERUP.COM

 

Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, one HDMI 2.0b, and one dual-link DVI.

How am I supposed to hook a 3x2 multidisplay setup to that without an external muxer or an additional second card.

In any case, I'm sort of disappointed now.

Cheers,

AgentSam

[[Solved] Disable banking in 3DCoat]

I like 3DCoat's default orbit around the object (without banking), but when I use my Cintiq with ZB navigation, it adds banking.

I never liked the banking behavior either. Here's how you can fix it:

1. Look for this section in the "Setup Navigation" panel, while you're using the ZB-Like preset:

 

2. Change the Action from "Rotate in Screen Space" to "Rotate Around Vertical Axis".

 

That should fix it. Just click "OK" to save changes and you're set.

Cheers,

AgentSam

[Keyboard Shortcut for E-Panel]

Just posting to confirm, that I too have encountered several similar cases where my customized shortcuts are not sticking (perhaps they are being overridden by some built-in default). It has annoyed me greatly.

[[Solved] State of UI setting "Preferences, Hide Scrollers" is incorrect]

"Hide scrollers" means that actually no right scroll bars will be shown. Instead top-bottom buttons shown that are not eating right space.

Based on the above, the label of this option is quite unintelligible. To verify, please tell me if I understood this correctly...

Here is how I interpreted Andrews reply:

When "Hide Scrollers = Checked", then top-bottom scroll-bars will be shown, which appear at the top and bottom of a panel.

And when "Hide Scrollers = Unchecked", then vertical scroll-bars will be shown, which appear on the right-side of a panel.

However, I don't think have ever seen any vertical scroll-bars in a 3D-Coat panel, no matter what the "Hide Scrollers" setting is.

UPDATE : Ok, scaled a few panels and toggled the option a few times in an attempt to find the "right scroll bars" and I did get the "Right scroll-bars" to appear. (I think I actually like them better than the top-bottom scrollers.)

I guess I would still maintain, that the label name is misleading; so if it ever gets fixed, I'll be happy. But if the common consensus is that this issue is now resolved, then so be it. Who am I to seek exactness, where none is desired.

Cheers,

AgentSam

[[Solved] State of UI setting "Preferences, Hide Scrollers" is incorrect]

Mmh, it could be just a translation issue. I mean, if you label the option as "Show Scrollers", then the behavior is correct.

So, either change the label (and make sure it's correct in all languages) - or change the logic.

Cheers,

AgentSam