Henry Townshend

More non destruciveness in paint room /texturing: I would like to see: * black and white masking to control a layers and layer groups opacity, instead of invisible clip layers. Clip layers have no benefit and imho can be removed. -> Reference for this can simply be how it is implemented in photoshop Optimally, the masks can have their own build up stack that is tied to a layer or group layer, so that infinite complexity can be build-> Marmoset has this and beats Substance Painter out of the water, so I would use their implementation as a reference. Their powerful masking approach would suite 3D Coat very well. * real group icons (e.g. folders) instead of a dropdown triangle, would make groups more clear * non destructive adjustments like in photoshop, substance painter or marmoset. Could be either an "effect" tied to a layer, or a layer itself that can influence all layers below, or just anchored to a single one or a group below. Optimally you would be able to even copy paste or move an adjustment effect around from layer to layer or entire groups. -> current "Texture->Adjust" is great, but we need all the included adjustment options there to be non destructive. "Color Operations tool" is also great and super useful and unique, but not the same or sufficient to stay flexible to art direction changes. In particular "Levels", for any channel, is an adjustment effect that is cruically needed for texturing, but non existing in 3D Coat * real blend modes with same or a selection of similar modes that Color channel has (add, overlay, passthru, etc.) for rough/gloss and metallic, and emissive. Current layer blending panel is fine for broader adjustments, but user needs more control over exactly how rough and metal layers are blended together, in a same way as it is possible with color * AO, Opacity, Emissive, Curvature as true viewable channels instead of being tied to layer stack, so you can cycle through them and view them like any other channel like roughness, and don't necessarily need to keep a copy of them inside the layer stack->reference: substance painter, mixer, marmoset * the ability to mask layers by an ID map color selection is a crucial, fundamental missing feature every texturing app should have. Best orientation for this is Marmosets implementation. Would be sufficient if we can just bring in ID maps from external bakers and use the colors as non destrutive selections on layers. -> Marmoset has imo the best and flexible implementation of this, mixers is also a good reference * the ability to have smart material preview show the true texture resolution, not only a higher quality that will get blurred once applied * smart materials that can be truly attached to a layer, meaning "Fill Layers". So, even after applying a Smart Material, you should be able to adjust tiling(scale) and all the maps on the fly and see results in real time, without a refill. -> Reference for this to look at would be Substance Painter or Marmoset * an opacity "lock", with which you can control all channels of a layer simultaniously, meaning not having to go to every channel (color, rough, metal) to adjust the opacity, but adjust everything at once. This makes sense when thinking in terms of full "Material Blending" rather than per map blending. -> Reference for this would be Marmoset, they are the only ones who have this great addition. 3D Coats texturing toolset is breathtaking and unmatched for a hands on, "feeling like a painting" program experience, and I absolutely love that aspect. No other software feels this artistic and 3D Coat is ahead in a ton of aspects other software feels super rigid, lacking and restrictive in comparison. Even industry standards miss things 3D Coat has, like curves, selection tools, cloning, copy transform, incredible text tools, best and pain free resource managment... list goes on... Only thing is, the non destructive sides of things are lacking and make it difficult on some ends to be fully an option in todays day and age of quick, non destructive toolsets. If that will be handled via nodes tied to a layer or directly in the layer stack, or both, it is urgently needed. If you guys manage to get some of these contemporary functionalities and non destructive approaches into the app, it will significantly raise the competitiveness of Textura as an alternative to Substance Painter as well. All fhe best and thank you for your hard work.

Also, how would I go about merging this selected geometry into a single vert in center? I there a command for this maybe? The way I found is scaling them towards center with the gizmo so they have very little distance, then use the vertex weld tool. An instant command would be more convenient.

Is there a way to scale "individual origins" in 3D Coat like in Blender? I mean such a situation here: I would like to scale down each edge individually and not towards bounding box center. I can't figure out if its possible. Quick demonstration what I am looking for: 2022-07-30 00-31-39.mp4

I did some more testing on the long standing "Slow layer blending slider Problem". I recorded a video for demonstration, because I found something out (maybe it is already known): -> The problem is depending on the amount of objects or pixels you fill if the layer sliders are still responsive or not. This is good news one the one hand, cause it means it makes layer sliders usable when only applied to a few objects or UV islands! But on the other hand, it makes blending of larger, overall affecting layers still slow. Additionally, the problem is, once you have filled a whole layer, and then delete the layer contents again, it will stay laggy unfortunately... Maybe this information is useful to you. For me, this is a good finding, because it helps me to have a bit more usable texturing in 3D Coat, which I enjoy. But I wished that the sliders would be responsive in any case, so the texturing feels swift and organic. Because as I mentioned, this is one of the most important things for texture artist: Fine and responsive blending of layers on top of each other. I also noticed layer blending sliders when dragged also cause a lot of audible coil whining on my graphics card, once a whole layer got filled, but not so much when only individual objects where filled. So I feel this might be an heavy load problem that might could be solved somehow, as other texturing software do not have these problems, for instance Quixel Mixer, Substance Painter, or Marmoset. All have fluid layer blending, no matter what and how much of a mesh/map gets filled. ExplainLayerBlendingSlowDownProblem.mp4

Question about Applink: Would it be possible to have the "Auto Smooth" option deactivated by default when sending any mesh from 3D Coat to Blender? It causes in most cases unwanted shading on object anyways. It is kind of a bit tedious and time consuming having to disable it every single time after sending an object over. I looked in the Scene Properties if there is an option to already do so, but it seems there is none?

Using v39 retopo room: There is no "ball" or "points" indicators when using either Add/Split or Points to Polygons tool. Same with Smart Retopo Brush. You can still use the tools though, but they are invisible. With Points to Polygons this of course is difficult to work with. Is this intended? Or now a setting somewhere? EDIT: Just noticed this is not version related, I have the same now when going back to 38 or 37 ... not sure what I did wrong. I seem to can not get them back. EDIT 2: Ok, now they re-appeared after I opened a fresh file and then my work file again. No idea whatcould have caused this. Nevermind. Glad they are back.

Gratitude!

@Gorbatovsky Let me demonstrate in Blender. Here, I am in Retopo "mode" in Blender (Surface snapping via projection and shrinkwrap modifier active). You can see, no matter how what I select, if verts, edges or faces, the tool works equally on all selection types during retopo. It would be great if the user could use the Vertex Align Tool the same way in retopo room as in modeling room. Meaning also having the ability to align vertices to a circle, without leaving retopo room, maybe even regardless of selection type (verts, edges, or faces). I feel there should be no need to select only faces to align verts to a circle. During a retopo session, you wanna be able to align something to be circular while snapped on top of your referenece mesh, not in air. This is because if you reproject the circles afterwards, their circular structure will inevitably get messed up again. The cube example I have shown in Blender was jus an example to quickly illustrate what I mean without any retopo setup. It would be much beneficial to have this also in retopo room, as often times it can be very useful, especially on hard surface meshes, to just get circular structures in order/clean distribution again, without having to throw in a 2D Primitve and reconnect it to existing geometry. 2022-07-28 05-36-10.mp4

@Gorbatovsky It would be great if the user could use it the same way in retopo room as in modeling room.

Thank you for showing! Only thing is, I am in Retopo Room! Not in modeling room ... which is where I would like to do that on my retopo mesh! :p Which is where the message "sorry, no selected faces" occures and prevents me from the ability to use the tool on faces. Do you might know how I would go about doing that there? Or do I need to hopp into modeling room to do it?

If you can't remember hotkeys in the 3D world, you're kinda doomed, no matter how many softwares you use. 3D coat is an app made for professionals, not casual users. By the way, Quixel Mixer does the same way of cycling through channels, and it is used in AAA productions all across the board. If you have trouble remembering 5 numbers and what they represent, you have larger problems than 3D Coat being complicated. I have seen people claiming similar things you do about zbrush. Not every software is for everyone. But one should be aware about cutting down possibilities for efficiency with such a mindset, cause every software has its strength(and weaknesses). And there you are wrong again: Retopology is one of 3D Coats absolute unmatched strength. Thats the thing , 3D Coat excells at 3D concepting as much as creating production ready low res meshes fast and efficient. Retopology feels artistic in 3D Coat in a way not found in any other retopo toolset. (I used Blender with all the addons and Topogun for almost 8 years before). But ultimately it doesnt matter what you use... you jus need know the basics, gain expertise and practice. The principles are the same across softwares. Then, the question remains what you are trying to achieve here with this frustrated rants? Do you really wanna contribute to the program, you should be constructive, organized and kind with your feedback. It works, the devopers would listen if you know how to speak respectfully and constructively. (I only use 3D Coat for about 6 month and already two feedbacks of mine have been implemented, such as ACES tonemapping and passthru blend mode) Or, do you wanna bash inside an offical development discussion forum on how bad this software is? Does it make sense? Do you go to MCDonalds and scream how they should up their game to become more like Burger King? Or do you simply eat what you preffer? Sure, you can tell them to enhance their Big Mac by throwing in a certain ingredient, but you cant ask them to throw their whole recipes over boarx because YOU think so....

Most things in 3D Coat you can already do, but often not know how, yet. The thing is, once you find out it actually is already there, it reveals to you that often not only it is already there, but a lot of things are implemented in a much more convenient and powerful and faster way than in other software (take symmetry for instance). So, for cycling through channels is pretty easy, just hit the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 buttons for bump, color, rough, wireframe, lit, metallic. You can display the desired map directly without cycling. 3D Coat is super powerful, you just need to keep at it and try to learn its paradigm, not fight it cause of wishing it would behave in a certain way like other software. Believe me, been there, it leads nowhere. It feels odd at first but once you get it and open to the paradigms, its worth it and you will see what a fantastic piece of software it really is. Am I saying it doesn't have missing things? No things I wish would be added? No, but the things that ARE inside 3D Coat are a powerhouse cross section of artistic tools you seldom find in other software. It is a generalist software. Can you sculpt or retopo in Substance Painter? Can you PBR paint with smart materials onto your sculpt or properly UV inside ZBrush? Does Blender let you work with tens of millions of voxels with ease doing boolean operations or have paint layers? ... no, but 3D Coat does. The only problem is you need to put in the effort and patience to learn it. Jus as with ANY other software. It is not something trivial you grab over night, even if you are a 3d veteran. Some people get quicker into it and like it right away, some take longer and learn to love it, some hate it, same with every other software. I jus wish people would stop trying to make the app something it is not. For instance, separating the Paint Room from 3D Coat is not a good idea. It belongs inside there. Why introduce the need to bridge something that does not need to because it is native part of the app? That said, Textura is indeed already separate for people who only want the painting. So I don't see the point to have separate development states between those softwares and introduce fragmentation and more effort for the devs to keep to different states.

@Gorbatovsky I am trying to understand something. Maybe you could help me. I started using the "Align Vertices" tool, which is awesome and works well when aligning vertices planar towards a certain axis. However, there are two other modes "Circle" and "Sphere". Circle is the one I wanna use, as I assume it aligns a bunch of vertices into a "perfect" circle. But, when I try to use the tool it says to me I have no faces selected, which confuses me. When I select faces, I of course leave Vertex Select mode and hence have no Vertex align tool at my disposal anymore, cause the tool only shows up if I am in vertex select mode. What I am looking for is in the video I attached. In Blender, you can make anything a circle, no matter what you have selected, over the "loop tools" menu (Addon needs to be enabled, it's included by default). I fail to understand what the Vertices Align tool in 3D Coat expects me to do when it says "No selected face, Sorry". It seems to me it is impossible to select faces in a tool that expects you to be in vertex select mode. On top, why would it rely on faces being selected? Maybe I understand the purpose of the "Circle" mode wrong ? 2022-07-24 19-09-26.mp4

Works like a charm!!! Thank you so much!

It would be great if we could have the ability to create N-Gon fills freely, like on here: For later triangulation. So far, I could force it by using R-Fill and delete all the resulting edges afterwards: But a one click fill solution like in Blender would be great!

Whoever implemented the "Align Vertices" Tool: THANK YOU so much! This was something I missed coming from year long Blender retopo. Actually not sure if this was always there...maybe I have missed it. I feel this popped up recently. I just discovered it. In any case: Great! It immensely helps for manual hard surface retopo. So glad to have it now also in my absolute favorite retopo tool. (3D Coat retopo tools leave me speechless every new session. Such a joy to work with)

That's awesome news! Please send Andrew a warm thank you!

Ok interesting. Then it seems to be unrelated to auto save. To me it happens when working on a long ongoing file which I always save incrementally by "File->Save Incrementally". I think I don't recall it happened to me when on working on a fresh project, but could be wrong.

I don't know if this is helpful regarding this issue, but I maybe observed at least one thing, a trace ... I extensively use the CTRL+SHIFT brushes functions, Tangent Smooth, Relax, Super Relax, Reconstruct (amazing stuff by the way!) It feels to me that those gradually increase some weirdness in the programs behavior. For instance, if I use Super Relax, often times after releasing the camera gets offset, very far from the model, nowhere to be found, it just jumps away and I have to press SHIFT+A to get the model back in focus. Then sometimes, when using relax or reconstruct, I also started to notice some flickering when at some point "Autosave" Countdown starts during the process. Could this maybe have to do with Autosave ? Maybe a coincedence when a crashs occurs during the exact time of autosave ? I have the feeling the more I use the CTR+SHIFT smooth function, the more wonky issues start to introduce, until, I am not entirely sure, the program crashes this way of losing all prefs and hotkeys... jus a vague assumption, maybe coincidence. I fail to imagine how these things could be related, but hopefully a developer might know if its the case and might be able to see whats going on.

Hey, yes, same here, no warning ,software jus closes. It holds on for a second, and you can kinda smell it will be "that kind of crash" again. I also fail to observe a pattern, it jus seemingly happens randomly. For me, sadly, during a work session, on an object I need to finish. Sounds like a valid approach. But, I feel this is a workaround of the "bad" thing that happens, which should not happen in the first place. I assumed that all these settings are already autosaved somewhere, they have to be, right? A question for me then would be how and why this data would be corrupted by crashes? It should not be intertwined with the programs runtime behavior, or failure, but persist, ike you said, stored somewhere, not overwritable.

Unfortunately not. I am using v36 and it happened again the same way as before.

Again today all my hotkeys and preferences where reset after a random crash (jus during smoothing parts of my model, v.2022.36). I never experienced a software when crashing killing all customization and hotkeys of the user and he has to set up the entire program again. This should never happen. Hope something about this can be done.

Same here. I reported this.

Hey! I always work with V-Sync On already. Thanks!

I just realized, that the only thing it does not reset, is my UI Layout. But it resets everyhting that was in my preferences, that is Font size -> medium and turned on ACES tonemapping and V-Sync.