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Beware the default!


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was just offering a solution that works... Don't hurt me. I do have to throw out that this method allows you to go beyond the defaults in that you can put expressions and all kinds of other nice hscripty things around a node. Good for the power user, no?

And a good solution it is. Definitely one for the wiki...

I sure can but you have a point especially if you are tweaking at the end of the pipeline and the geometry is loaded with predefined attributes including normals.

Which is most of the time if you're doing effects work.

If you are modelling on some geometry inherited from another package that has normals on it, or somehow normals were added to the geometry and you start to sculpt that geometry then you will quickly get incorrect shading at the very moment where shading is most critical in the viewport. How do you edit geometry in shaded mode and get reasonable surface topology feedback? The ony way I can do it is with flat wire shading where normals are not used for shading. How do you do it?

Well I'm not saying remove the buton entirely, just have it off by default. If you're modeling something and notice that your normals are wacky, then hit the button and soldier on.

But then I'm a little old school anyway, I always append a facet SOP onto a file SOP if I'm reading in geo from other packages. This way I can clean up any crappy excess points and compute the normals in one go. :P

oh, and I generally model in flat shaded mode anyway, especially for the beginning stages, and I switch to smooth shaded to take a look, then back again to pull points around.

Maybe I'm not normal?

There is no easy solution realy so....

Bring back permanent defaults. Yes? No?

I think this would be the best solution. I agree that the software can't be all things to all people, but IMHO if you can't decide which way something should be, then put in an option. If you can't decide what the default should be for that option, then allow someone to change it permanently to suit their own working style.

Ciao

Marc

P.S. I just re-read my post and realised I didn't liberally sprinkle it with smileys. So here's a selection for you to use where you see fit in the above post : :o:lol::D<_<:ph34r::blink::unsure:

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Perhaps the Bricker section in the Divide SOP should also be 10x10x10. I've had a few mistakes on that one with terrain geometry and buildings. Not so bad now that you can interrupt cooking, but still pretty dangerous.

The Divide brickering is really dicey as it is completely dependent on the size of the incoming geometry. Perhaps an initialize button that gives you reasonable starting values before you jump over the deep end and hit the display flag? We seem to add more initialize buttons on more operators. I am sure we all have had to interrupt our fair share of bricker operations before we realize that the object is 1000+ units in size. :P

Yeah, you have to remember the Kung Fu of either NOT displaying the Divide SOP or turning the view update to Never before clicking on Bricker. This is the Houdini Family Long Fist technique.

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