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[Steve]

slex: I split the comments related to you posts to a new topic: High Memory Use and Slow Playback Problem

[Steve]

In celebration of PI Day  I've posted build 1227 dated March 14, 2016.

[ronaldefarmer]

I hope this is posted in the correct place: In build 1222 scene mode, show object and show axis buttons don't seem to be working. (Also true with build 1227.)

[nemyax]

Major changes for build 1227:
...
Topo Tool: Fix several mirrored mesh issues.  Should be fairly solid now.
...

It really is quite solid now. Thanks for the excellent job on the mirror!
The only real remaining mirror-related gripe is that you can only tweak components on one side. Anim8or should track which side you're applying the tweak to.

[kreator]

I repeat what i said in a post earlier, (see below) I am still not getting any bones showing when I load a figure into the scene, its not until I add a sequence that they show up. Builds 1222 and now 1227

Perhaps this is me (or my Little tablet) but I make up a Rig with some objects attached , go to figure editor to manipulate the bones do a sequence all looks good. Next I go to scene to build/Add figure and this is where it all falls down , I have a figure without the rig, I can add sequences to a non -existent rig, but obviously nothing animates. Build 1222

[Steve]

ronaldefarmer: "... show object and show axis buttons don't seem to be working ..." For clarification,  Show Object only affects Figures.  It's used to make the bones easier to see.  Show Axis only happens when you are editing bone angles and shows only the selected bone's axes.

nemyax: "... you can only tweak [mirror]components on one side ..." Oops! I forgot to fix this. It'll be there in the next build

kreator: "... bones [not] showing when I load a figure ..." Currently only bones that have controllers are shown, which I agree doesn't make sense.  I'll fix this, too. I think it might also be useful to be able to hide any particular item in the track window. 

[kreator]

I think what would be most useful, is the ability to amend weights whilst in the sequence editor, at the moment I am forever switching between the figure editor and sequence editor to amend the painted weights.

[Trevor]

Hide also doesnt work in figure mode, so painting verticies can be awkward if 2 verticies are close to each other but for different parts, like a hand and hip or something.

Trev

[ronaldefarmer]

Show Object only affects Figures.  It's used to make the bones easier to see.  Show Axis only happens when you are editing bone angles and shows only the selected bone's axes.

Thanks for explaining.

[Raxx]

Major changes for build 1227:
Fix #098-079: Cut Faces Can Crash.
Fix #098-082: Double clicking on a controller name in the Track Window doesn't show the Key Value Editor when the controller is a script.
Fix #098-083: Topo tool issues with Mirrored Meshes.
Fix #098-084: Screen doesn't update while rendering a movie.
Dialog Box Location: Locate dialogs within the current focus window.
Fix missing bounding box: on subdivision shapes when Subdivision Edges aren't shown.
Topo Tool: Fix several mirrored mesh issues.  Should be fairly solid now.
Topo Tool: Change color from yellow to orange when over a valid target to make it easier to know when this happens.
Edge Extrude: Update to obey Fast-Select rules.
Larger Icons: Added an option for larger toolbar buttons in the ConfigureUI dialog. to help tablet and touch screen users.  No larger icons yet - making them is a lot of work!
Color scheme: Update screen immediately when user changes scheme instead of on the next run.
Remove UpdateWindow() call: Under Win 10 when to main window is on a second monitor this seems to cause a crash before the window is shown.

Steve, many thanks for the updates! The topo tool updates definitely make it a much more solid experience. [edit]Thought the point picking was improved too but I think it was just me [/edit]

Double clicking the controller name works and is a big help.

I like the larger buttons. The icons may not be bigger but I like the roomier feel to it even on the PC. I kind of prefer it that way.

I can confirm that the UpdateWindow() fix solves the crashing issue I reported.

[nemyax]

Thought the point picking was improved too but I think it was just me

Yes, a bit of radius tweaking would help a lot. At this time component picking is only remotely comfortable at a low monitor resolution.

[Raxx]

Thought the point picking was improved too but I think it was just me

Yes, a bit of radius tweaking would help a lot. At this time component picking is only remotely comfortable at a low monitor resolution.

Glad I'm not the only one. Faces can partially cover the point based on the angle of the faces and the camera angle, like seen in the image below (I imagine this might be the result of recent changes regarding editing hidden elements). The majority of points become partially covered regardless of the camera angle. In this example, the orange point is a highlighted point on a mesh. The red outline is an approximation of where the mouse has to be in order to highlight the point. Obviously, it's ignoring a large portion of the point!



This is why it's so frustrating, because not only does mousing over the center of the point not work a large part of the time, but the location around the point that is ignored is random based on what's partially hidden or not. The topo tool is supposed to allow for a rapid amount of edits in a short amount of time, but every other point is where I get stuck wasting seconds trying to get it to highlight in order to edit it. Also, if I start a cut and hover over an ignored portion of the point and that area just happens to be on an edge, sometimes it's so close to the point I have no way of knowing that I actually cut the edge and not the point! This makes me have no confidence any time I make a cut connecting to a pre-existing point, and I waste further time verifying it. I end up having no desire to model as the picking frustrations build up.

I'll quote what I mentioned a little while ago:

Picking Radius: This applies to the RMB-move for the topo knife and the move tool in fast select mode. The picking radius for points is much too small for comfort. In XSI (Blender and Wings3D have advanced picking as well), it begins picking the closest p/e/f at 80 pixels. Points get absolute priority (this is important!) when the mouse is around 12 pixels away from it. Edges get next priority over faces, at about 12 pixels distance as well. I know I've been harping about this before, but it makes for an extremely smooth and natural experience when modeling and I can't think of any reason not to have this level of picking. When testing this and previous builds with the topo tool, it's been something of a sore point for me.

[nemyax]

The red outline is an approximation of where the mouse has to be in order to highlight the point. Obviously, it's ignoring a large portion of the point!

This hasn't been my experience. I think a point is always grabbed correctly regardless of how it's rendered. But I agree the highlight should be drawn "topmost".

[nemyax]

nemyax: "... you can only tweak [mirror]components on one side ..." Oops! I forgot to fix this. It'll be there in the next build

Great! Can you also make Frame Selected pick the correct side instead of the median? I think the side where the selection's closer to the viewer is a safe bet.

[Steve]

Raxx: I'm glad removing UpdateWindow() fixed it.  It was just a guess but since it's not necessary to call it there (the window will just update a little later, maybe causing an initial brief flash of a blank background) I thought I'd give it a try.

Yes I did increase the point picking sensitivity a bit.  I'm still working on it but I may need to rewrite the picking code.

"... [picking is] ignoring a large portion of the point ..." What you see on the screen isn't necessarily how it's picked since I use separate passes for point, edge and face picking, all using Anim8or's software pipeline. Just because only part of a pixel is visible it doesn't mean that it picks any differently than if it were all visible.  When picking is enabled for multiple things selecting a face at a steep angle will be closer to the user that the point so even if the point is within range the face could be chosen instead since the part of the face that the mouse is over is closer to the user.  This doesn't happen if face selection isn't on, of course, like for the topo tool.

BTW does the change in color of the topo tool help?  I thought it would since you can tell when you're over a valid end point.