Jump to content
3DCoat Forums

Features request priorities - share ideas for improving the program


Carlosan
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • 3 weeks later...
  • New Member

Hello there.

I'd like to suggest some brush dynamics options, the most important feature missing imho is the ability to setup a pressure decay according to the distance. It would be tremendously useful for creating wrinkles and such, also, it would boost the functionality while using the mouse. Just look at Cinema4D sculpting tool, it has many of these useful features and none of the competitors have them (Mudbox, Zbrush, 3d-coat, and even Blender), if 3D-coat could replicate all those features it would be on the edge of mouse sculpting and would allow a level of control not seen before. C4D sculpting is only subdivision (like Mudbox, except the performance is much better), so it doesn't compete on the same league as 3D-coat for sculpting (although it's by far the best non-specialized sculpting program, even surpassing Mudbox in a lot of features).

At the moment, the result can somewhat be obtained by using splines and creating a custom falloff profile, but the distances may vary and it's boring like hell. From a programming standpoint, it should be easy enough, I also would suggest to make it even better than C4D and offer the options of pressure decay based on the 'real' distance and also on 2D space (like, pixels on screen travelled). It would be really awesome if you ask me.

 

Another feature that is much needed imho but I'm afraid may take some programming effort is to undo all spline operations at once, not one-by-one.

 

Thanks in advance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Contributor

Excellent idea Ajz3d! I would really like an "undo history" panel like in Photoshop.

Also, I've noticed that the undo in 3D-Coat does not always work as expected. Sometimes undo goes too far back, and sometimes it does not work at all...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

What I would like to see is something Javis mentioned a long time ago...an Outliner Panel that contains a hierarchy of ALL assets in the application. With that done, It would make sense to move all UV Editing operations to the UV room, exclusively. No more UV tools in the Retopo Room and having a separate UV room for the Paint room. Very confusing and seemingly unnecessary.

 

I also would like to see a more streamlined process of sending assets back and forth, between rooms/workspaces. For example....if you wanted to send a model from the paint room to the Retopo Room to subdivide it or perform some additional modeling edits, that process is too convoluted, right now. You got to export outside the app > import back into the Retopo Room > export back out of the app > import into the App (File > Import > Replace Mesh).

 

Same thing if one was working in the Paint Room room (having already gone from the Voxel Room > Retopo Room > Merge to Paint Room), and decided they wanted to do some additional sculpting edits in the Voxel Room, and simply bake a normal/displacement map from it and add it to the Paint Room as a new layer....only. Again, that process would be too convoluted, currently. You're almost forced to stick to a certain progression, and to deviate from it requires a lot of workarounds. To do this now, one would have to sculpt their edits in the Voxel Room > use the Texture Baking Utility in the Retopo Room, to bake a new normal/displacement map to an external folder > go back to Paint Room and TEXTURES menu > Import > Normal/Displacement Map.

 

I raised this last issue with Andrew and he agreed that some kind of internal script should handle this for the user, rather than them having to do a bunch of import/exporting. Should be MERGING subsection of the Retopo Room (as well as an AUTO-RETOPO section) Tool Panel. And within it, one button should be the TEXTURE BAKING tool. This should not be hidden in a Retopo menu list. And a new Option in the  in the TBT Dialog box should be to select the mesh in the Paint Room as the target mesh and an option to BAKE to PAINT LAYER.

 

What do you guys think? Any other ideas to streamline the movement of assets within the application. Doesn't make a lot of sense to have to send texture files and meshes outside of 3D Coat, and import it back in just to edit them. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

I agree with everything that has already been posted. 

 

I think an overall cleanup of the UI is needed. Naming conventions fixed, palettes optimized for space saving advantages, more drag and drop options in the VoxTree instead of right-click menu actions (Photoshop is a good example to follow). I think the Voxels/Surface/LiveClay tools need to be looked at to see if there are redundancy between tools and maybe those tools could be combined. 

 

I would like to see the problems with mesh bugs and explosions dealt with. There are various workarounds but it really makes sculpting in 3DC less enjoyable than it could be. I guess stability is always welcomed in any app. I mainly have used 3DC to sculpt, so that is where my issues are focused.

Edited by SilverCity
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Contributor

I fully agree with you AbnRanger. These things really need some automation. And the idea of 3D Coat getting an outliner is brilliant.
---

  1. Batch rename utility for all kind of layers would be very handy. Especially in situations when you mirror a long hierarchy of objects. This would save a lot of time.
  2. Multi-monitor support. I believe someone has already mentioned it in the past.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Contributor

A freeze factor multiplier in the pose tool: pressing 150x smooth on high density mesh to get nice transitional freeze for posing is a real pain.

A multiplier would allow you to click less by adjusting the factor.

Also a sharpen mask in the pose tool ? Cause those two in the freeze menu are nice, but why only having smooth in pose tool ?

 

smoothsharpen.png

 

Keep current freeze when switching to pose tool.

 

Copy ALL channels with the stamp tool in paint room: right now you can't clone spec with symmetrical copy for instance.

 

Use falloff value to diffuse paint when using more in cavity etc to get natural cavity painting when needed an not that dry brushing effect you get with 3dc currently.

 

 

True backface culling in wireframe mode: sometimes you can't estimate your polycount density because you get the backside:

truebackculling.jpg

 

One possible solution to this one would be to have a solid surface coloring and solid wire (no shader rendering which is very annoying with hiliights hindering wire visibility) on top of it, best would be color customisation as any other ui item.

 

 

 

Hide but current in ALL rooms:

Very annoying to have to use the alt+click on eye on the voxtree in the paint room because hide but current is not available here (linked to voxel menu). Especially since you need to isolate a mesh from the rest in that mode or you may paint over two differrent meshes otherwise.

 

Multithreading (or adding a check for key input before processing a message in the queue) of the renderer: cause having to wait 2-4 secs for it to finish its queue before switching back to paint room when you work empirically on your textures is a pain.

That or fix an ui redraw bug (if you hide the tool tray and switch between room during a render, the topbar changes but it's still the renderer viewport, maybe that's the problem).

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To add render preview to Sculpt and Paint Room.

http://3d-coat.com/mantis/view.php?id=1340

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

0001141: A unified Outliner to replace the currently fractured data management

http://3d-coat.com/mantis/view.php?id=1141

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I would like to see is something Javis mentioned a long time ago...an Outliner Panel that contains a hierarchy of ALL assets in the application.

 

I also would like to see a more streamlined process of sending assets back and forth, between rooms/workspaces.

 

Yes! An Outliner is desperately needed. Switching between rooms is a complete mess as well; it shouldn't take new users time to learn how to switch between rooms, it should just work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

Yes! An Outliner is desperately needed. Switching between rooms is a complete mess as well; it shouldn't take new users time to learn how to switch between rooms, it should just work.

I don't mind the different workspaces, and if you think about it....if it was all in one unified environment, you'd still have the same effect of clicking on a tab to open up certain tools, contextually. You'd still click a tab for Voxel sculpting, Retopo, UV, etc.It's less of an issue now, switching between the rooms, cause it has gotten faster, but I still notice a few seconds of lag switching from the Voxel Room to the Paint room. I think that may have more to do with the Brush Alpha's dumping from memory what's in one room and reloading what's in the other.

 

Even though I'm OK with a multiple workspace environment, I don't think it should be so arcane sending assets back and forth within the app. A good example of it working correctly is the Merging Option (within the Voxel Room), "PICK FROM RETOPO." There should be a EDIT MESH IN RETOPO icon, in the Paint Room (with an outliner, you could select just the mesh object you want....not the entire model), and a REPLACE MESH IN PAINT option in the Retopo Menu. A list dialog should appear, letting the user choose which object in the Paint Room to replace.

 

Right now, to do these things, it's actually easier and more streamlined to send/retrieve these models/meshes to a host app. using the Applink plugin, than it is to do these kinds of tasks within the application. That should never be the case.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Contributor

Mark and pin vertices in Retopo Room - in order to prevent them from being moved or smoothed by tools like Brush and Relax (an enhancement to Keep bounds while smoothing checkbox in Brush options).

 

Typical scenario:

You retopologise a face area. You place key edge loops around the eyes, around the mouth, etc. You want these loops to remain exactly in places you specified, but at the same time you want to smooth all other parts of the mesh. You pin vertices of key edges so that they are not affected by Brush or Relax tools and either you brush over mesh with Brush tool in Smooth mode or press Relax a couple of times. Pinned vertices stay in their places while mesh around them gets smoothed or relaxes.

 

Optional:

  1. Specify a weight (0-100%) of pinned vertices. 0% means the vertex (or maybe a group of vertices) is fully affected by Brush and Relax tools. 100% means it's pinned and completely unmoveable.
  2. A checkbox named: Respect pinned state (or something like that) on Brush and Relax tools. If the checkbox is turned off, mentioned tools will ignore pinned state of vertices.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

 

Mark and pin vertices in Retopo Room - in order to prevent them from being moved or smoothed by tools like Brush and Relax (an enhancement to Keep bounds while smoothing checkbox in Brush options).

 

Typical scenario:

You retopologise a face area. You place key edge loops around the eyes, around the mouth, etc. You want these loops to remain exactly in places you specified, but at the same time you want to smooth all other parts of the mesh. You pin vertices of key edges so that they are not affected by Brush or Relax tools and either you brush over mesh with Brush tool in Smooth mode or press Relax a couple of times. Pinned vertices stay in their places while mesh around them gets smoothed or relaxes.

 

Optional:

  1. Specify a weight (0-100%) of pinned vertices. 0% means the vertex (or maybe a group of vertices) is fully affected by Brush and Relax tools. 100% means it's pinned and completely unmoveable.
  2. A checkbox named: Respect pinned state (or something like that) on Brush and Relax tools. If the checkbox is turned off, mentioned tools will ignore pinned state of vertices.

 

You can already something similar...relaxing only selected vertices:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoACvyEMOAk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Contributor

You can already something similar...relaxing only selected vertices:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoACvyEMOAk

Yes, I am well aware of this, but I see three problems with what you suggested:

1. I didn't mention it before, but I'd like 3D Coat to remember pinned vertices (or whole key loops) so I don't have to re-select them each time I want to smooth things out. Currently there are no means of storing selected components.

2. Unless there's an invert component selection command (or maybe Relax deselected?) that I am not aware of, you need to select every vertex in the mesh and then deselect all edges that form key loops. Not very convenient, because Edge Loop command can't deselect loops, so you are forced to deselect one edge at a time.

3. Brush tool ignores selection.

 

Do correct me if I'm wrong in any of those points.

Edited by ajz3d
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

One of the Retopo Room requests I submitted on Mantis, about a year ago, and have tried to get others here to add their +1 support to it (pretty much in vain), was the ability to grow/shrink an edge selection along it's loop or ring with the arrow keys. This would be similar to what is available in 3ds Max. I also agree it's a good idea to store a selection and name it.

 

http://3d-coat.com:8081/mantis/view.php?id=1058

 

http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14525

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaR6ppWg2hQ

Edited by AbnRanger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Numeric Input for FOV/Focal Length

 

cf:

http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11629

http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11013

 

as postulated by digman:

"38 FOV seems to closer to human vision in 3DCoat. The higher you go from there the FOV depth lens distortion becomes greater. The lower you go the Depth FOV gets closer to an othro view."

 

 

   dopey me, i just figured out where they are seeing these FOV numbers.  but there doesn't seem to be a way to be able to type on in, for example. 

 

   i have just been working with doing (trying to do) morphs for poser, and all my noses are coming out honking huge.  i've just figured out (duh) it must be the focal length of the camera in 3d coat.  because you know, it looks FINE in 3dc.  so i was thinking, being able to set the fov or focal length of the camera would be helpful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Advanced Member

I would also like to see a flattened representation of a model (as in how you see a flattened texture in the Texture Editor or as you see in ZBrush when you flatten a UV unwrap).  In this case, however, I'm talking about the model in the Voxel Room BEFORE the UV unwrap.  This would allow us to sculpt details of a rope or whatever without having to actually work our way around the hole model bit by bit.  

 

A user here just requested help with modeling this: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/corrugated-plastic-pipe-2906909.jpg  This would be a perfect time to use the feature I just requested.  I realize a loft could be implemented, which would also be a great feature, but a loft wouldn't help if you only wanted to go so far down the structure with a pattern.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Advanced Member

Exploding UVs would be great, as well.  Headus UV does this.  I don't know if it's patented tech, or whatever, but it's probably the one biggest thing that differentiates it from 3D Coat's UV Unwrap tools. 

 

Example:  http://www.headus.com.au/doc/uvlayout-demos/videos/UVLayout-Cutting-Meshes.mov

 

The "cuts" made to the mesh are not real, but show how unwrapping/seams are done and can free the user from having to work around an object that could be getting "in the way" of seeing what's to be unwrapped behind it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Advanced Member

I also realized that while ZBrush has a function for subdividing with or without smoothing (to keep hard edges), 3D Coat doesn't have this.  If you increase resolution of a layer, it appears to want to smooth the existing shapes.  Most of the time, this is fine, but sometimes it's destructive.  Having a T-Smooth option during resolution change could be useful here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

I do like the idea, but let's be honest, here...trying to sculpt with a mouse is like trying to paint a portrait with a stick...and a big fat one, at that. You just shouldn't do it...period. Same with texture painting. The tools and brushes are largely predicated on the assumption you are using a stylus, rather than a mouse. You can model things in 3D Coat, just fine with a mouse, but it makes no sense, whatsoever, to even attempt to sculpt and texture paint with one. With that in mind, you have natural decay for your brushes. It's called "pressure sensitivity." Some of the E-panel brush modes work better than others in this regard, but you can adjust the pressure sensitivity profiles as well.

 

There is a pressure decay profile available when using the Spline Stroke draw mode (E-Panel), so maybe Andrew can add it to the brush options panel for normal brush modes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Advanced Member

What I would like to see is something Javis mentioned a long time ago...an Outliner Panel that contains a hierarchy of ALL assets in the application. With that done, It would make sense to move all UV Editing operations to the UV room, exclusively. No more UV tools in the Retopo Room and having a separate UV room for the Paint room. Very confusing and seemingly unnecessary.

 

I also would like to see a more streamlined process of sending assets back and forth, between rooms/workspaces. For example....if you wanted to send a model from the paint room to the Retopo Room to subdivide it or perform some additional modeling edits, that process is too convoluted, right now. You got to export outside the app > import back into the Retopo Room > export back out of the app > import into the App (File > Import > Replace Mesh).

 

Same thing if one was working in the Paint Room room (having already gone from the Voxel Room > Retopo Room > Merge to Paint Room), and decided they wanted to do some additional sculpting edits in the Voxel Room, and simply bake a normal/displacement map from it and add it to the Paint Room as a new layer....only. Again, that process would be too convoluted, currently. You're almost forced to stick to a certain progression, and to deviate from it requires a lot of workarounds. To do this now, one would have to sculpt their edits in the Voxel Room > use the Texture Baking Utility in the Retopo Room, to bake a new normal/displacement map to an external folder > go back to Paint Room and TEXTURES menu > Import > Normal/Displacement Map.

 

I raised this last issue with Andrew and he agreed that some kind of internal script should handle this for the user, rather than them having to do a bunch of import/exporting. Should be MERGING subsection of the Retopo Room (as well as an AUTO-RETOPO section) Tool Panel. And within it, one button should be the TEXTURE BAKING tool. This should not be hidden in a Retopo menu list. And a new Option in the  in the TBT Dialog box should be to select the mesh in the Paint Room as the target mesh and an option to BAKE to PAINT LAYER.

 

What do you guys think? Any other ideas to streamline the movement of assets within the application. Doesn't make a lot of sense to have to send texture files and meshes outside of 3D Coat, and import it back in just to edit them. 

 

I agree.  While I don't bother going through these difficult processes, I can definitely see the benefits for both new and advanced users.  I usually just set out to do exactly what I want and then let it be that.  I don't mind having to rebake and/or repaint something, but then it does cost more time than actually necessary.  I work fast, so it's usually not a big deal, but I can see where it could be.

Edited by alvordr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Advanced Member

It would also be helpful to see a preview of the layer's contents pop up like you do when you float your cursor over a model or spline.  This could help in situations where a user is passed a file from another user who doesn't follow a clean or understandable layer naming convention.  I would recommend this new "feature," be toggled, so that it doesn't affect performance for those who don't want to use it.

Edited by alvordr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...