Twitter discussion: What Andrew is currently doing.

[Mykyl]

Does the zbrush navigation scheme mentioned in the latest tweet include using shift to snap to ortho camera views too like in zbrush? This would be a very welcome addition - honestly it's something I feel should be available in all 3dc applications.

I asked that same question on tweet. Would be very welcome.

Cheers

Mike R

[Javis]

I know everyone loves the ZB "shift" snapping for the viewport.

But why should we think so linearly? Why do something that is the same, when it could be done better?

I've had the thought for some time now that all objects, even in the paint room, should allow the user to translate, rotate & scale. Thus allowing the user to rotate the object any degree on any axis. Imaging having this kind of control along with my proposed 2D grid changes... You could sculpt & paint some really cool stuff much more quickly than now, or even in ZB with it's "shift" snapping.

PS - All "transform" tools in 3DC should use a standardized translation, rotation and scale gizmo. One that you would find in an animation application FWIW.

[LJB]

I know everyone loves the ZB "shift" snapping for the viewport.

But why should we think so linearly? Why do something that is the same, when it could be done better?

Because it works so well! and because its an elegant solution and Required by Many, it will compliment Orthographic mode very nicely. Im not sure waiting around till some revoloutionary new implimnetation is invented is the best bet. lets not continually try and reinvent things. Here is my thought If Pole snapping is not implemented like ZBrush (Which i hope it will be) then remove the possibillty to rotate the view in standard orthograhic cameras, ie Front side top as it breaks the flow. the whole point of pole snapping the view is speed of use and currently in Elevated views its just to easy to accidently rotate the view and miss a critical action because the angle is not precise.

More conventional SRT gizmo throughout 3dc is very important I agree. Just like any other 3D software!!

Thats my two pence.

[philnolan3d]

Looks like the shift-snapping bit is done now.

[Digital777]

So i am wondering how does the Shift snapping work in ZB? What does it actually do, does it rotate to the closest side or center the view or something?

I am asking because i requested some snapping features here -

http://www.3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=6722

but i am guessing it is different though.

[JamesE]

Awesome! Just tried it and it works just the way you'd expect. This will improve the flow for me a lot and save bouncing in and out of orthos. That's why it's necessary. The fewer interuptions while sculpting/painting the better.

[Digital777]

Well since nobody answered me before about the snapping feature i guess i will just have to download the new version and try it. I haven't noticed much of what i have requested added yet but hopefully those will get added and the releases seem to have lots of cool things anyway so i am happy, the new clone tool sounds like it will be very useful. The new version seems like another quality update.

[philnolan3d]

If you follow Andrew you'd see that he tweeted about adding it a couple days ago

[Digital777]

I know that was why i asked as the tweet didn't explain what it does and i don't use zb so i have no idea. I wanted to know if it was the same thing as what i had requested in my ideas thread recently though. I still have no idea yet but i have downloaded the new version now and will test when i have have some time. Axis snap sounds like it will lock to the closest 90 degree which is what i wanted, 45 degrees would be very useful i suggested this in my thread also.

[philnolan3d]

Well I guessed what it was based on the tweet and when I downloaded the update it turned out I was right, all it does is lock the camera onto the nearest axis if you're holding shift while rotating the view.

[Digital777]

The axis snapping is very useful but after testing it is not what i was requesting as it's just for the view. I wanted it to snap rotation for the merge tool etc to align to the closest set degree. Basically what grid snapping is for positioning but for rotation and without the need of a grid. So annoying placements of objects with merge tool on rounded surfaces remains still because as far as i know if you don't position each it auto rotates with the surface, what i requested would avoid that but hopefully that will get added at some point.

[ifxs]

for a "point 5 .5" release, 3.5 is chock-full of features. 3.5 is a great milestone for 3DCoat IMO. Andrew has been outdoing himself over and over for the past few months.

[Andrew Shpagin]

"Depth based shaders will work in ortho mode too."

Does this include a bug fix for shader visual corruption in 3dc cuda 64 opengl ?

No, it is not that issue.

But I passed the issue you mentioned to NVidia guy, who usually responses quickly and likes to help me (same guy that made GL work faster).

I hope it will be resolved soon too.

[BeatKitano]

Ok, thank you.

[BeatKitano]

"It will be impossible to modify invisible voxel object. Invisible object can't be assigned as current."

Nice little adjustement, seems right, plus it will avoid breaking the "hide but current" function by selecting an hidden object and unhidding it

[Javis]

Airbrush strokes quality improved a lot, the same improvement expects other brushes - http://bit.ly/9UuzHe

Just spoke with Andrew on this new change to the brush engine... Very cool. I've been waiting for this one for what feels like ages.

[haikalle]

Those new painting improments are top notch. I'm very excited try them...

[BeatKitano]

Yep, it looks wayyyy better. I hope the voxel brush engine gets the same treatment too

[Javis]

I hope the voxel brush engine gets the same treatment too

I'm guessing here, but I think it may... At least that was what was eluded to.

[philnolan3d]

I am working over improving brush engine to get much cleaner strokes. It will take 3-4 days more at least.

Awesome, I can't wait to see what comes of this!

Oh and also:

Excuse, this time I can't be active in forum, so if you have something too urgent, contact me directly via support.

[BeatKitano]

Yep, I'm eager to see where this lead, could be the second best thing since surface mode integration in voxroom.

[Digital777]

This will be really great for painting and hopefully voxels also if that is done.

[Javis]

This will be really great for painting and hopefully voxels also if that is done.

It's for anything that is brush based, that includes painting and voxels... Tentatively of course, Andrew may hit a speed bump or two along the way that changes this plan.

[philnolan3d]

Andrew says the new brush engine for PPP is finished, he hopes to have it finished for MV and Ptex today.

[Digital777]

Nice this will be great

[BeatKitano]

"I made support of new brush engine for microvertex/ptex painting. Starting voxels..." - Andrew

Oh my \o/

I'm hoping some talented people (I'm not including me in this list btw) on these boards get to give feedback during this rewrite, cause as I made some comparison between zb and 3dc, I discovered 3dc is actually more responsive to high polycount than zbrush (zbrush is cheating with adaptive degradation, but export the full res with no subdiv level in both apps and see who's having a hard time :> ), it's only the brush precision which is lacking

[Spiraloid]

awesome to see the bursh system getting some attention.

hopefull stroke smooth amount, invert tool operation toggle and the various tool options (spline, spacing etc) will be saveable in the tool presets soon.

-b

[philnolan3d]

That's great, I was hoping the update would come before the server went down.

[Rich_Art]

2nd that.

Peace,

Rich_Art.

[3DArtist]

Out of curiosity, how is this new brush engine better? What changed under the hood?