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Separate enables and visibilities per Object/Figure/etc.

10 (90.9%)

One global set of enables and visibilities per Project

1 (9.1%)

Total Members Voted: 11

[Steve]

They should work in scene mode too.  There are separate settings for each Object and each Scene currently so if you hide a layer in the Object editor it does not change how the Scene editor works, as has been suggested in the forum.  I'm considering how to proceed.

I've already added code to save the settings the the .an8 file and eliminated the default locking of layer 7.  I'll post an update in a couple of days with that and some other changes.

[kreator]

No its not functioning for me...
Windows 7 Ultimate.... I tried compatibility modes without any success at all does not seem to play ball on any computer I have at hand

Screenshots

[Water Music]

Figure editor: I wanted to think about this before I replied before. First, I think that, yes, adding layers to it would be an improvement as rigging a skeleton can be tricky when there is lots of clutter. I would actually prefer, though, if the skeleton were its own layer in the object mode. That would probably muck up backwards compatibility, though it wouldn't be too tough to write a script to change the old format to the new format - run once per model and forget. Mostly I have to say that the figure editor is my least favourite section of Anim8or and I'd rather time be spent redesigning it, rather than adding to it. I'd rather see greater support for reusing and re-proportioning skeletons from one model to the next, more finite control over the weighting (influence sliders or alterable fields showing the precise degree of influence on each vertex), and a smoother control over the bones when positioning them. My thoughts, for what they're worth.

My other thought with the layers, specifically in object mode would that it would be useful to have a visibility priority level that one could set for each layer. For example, if I have a generic person model, wearing a shirt, with a necklace or backpack or sword harness overtop of that we would normally expect to see accessories over shirt over the figure. If you tried to build the three with separate objects then clipping and z-fighting is inevitable. Priority level would tell Anim8or to draw the back faces first, then overwrite with the figure, then the shirt, then other accessories or hair or whatever. For your consideration.

[Steve]

Interesting ideas, Water Music.  I hadn't thought of layers as a rendering aid.  It's clear that layers will take more thought than I had first thought to get the most out of them.

[thecolclough]

...it would be useful to have a visibility priority level that one could set for each layer...

this would have to be an optional thing, or at least have all layers set by default to the same priority, because otherwise it could open up quite a can of worms with more complex objects - for example, hypothetically, suppose you tried to model a jet engine, with the cowling on one layer and the turbine blades on another:

• if you set the blades layer to higher render priority, then in any view except straight-on to the front, you'd end up with the blades being visible through the near side of the cowling
• whereas if the cowling layer is higher priority, then the back of the cowling would completely occlude the blades when viewed from pretty much any angle.

...unless layer priorities were only effective within a certain (user-controllable?) distance, e.g. only affects faces within 1 unit of each other?

not saying it's a bad idea at all, just "proceed with caution"

[Steve]

The newly posted build 1066 saves the layer settings in the .an8 file and doesn't lock layer 7 by default.  See the initial post in this thread for details.

[thecolclough]

in contrast to my previous post, i've just thought of an application where the ability to set layer z-priorities (per Water Music's suggestion) would be really useful: putting sky elements behind/around large scenes without having to make the sky pieces absurdly huge.  some of my previous projects have involved mapping a sky texture onto an object several thousand units wide in order to cover the required area without clipping objects in the background of the scene.  (i'm aware of the ability to render with a preset background image in scene mode, but that works less effectively with a moving camera!)

[CoriDavis]

I've noticed a small bug, or possibly something that was forgotten. If I try to put a group on a different layer, the parts of the group remain on layer 0 and behave with layer 0. Basically it's still on layer 0.

However when I show/hide the layer it belongs to, the group will behave correctly.

[davdud101]

AUGH I must see this layering system in action! I haven't DL'd any of the more recent releases :S Great stuff coming along, Steve

[Steve]

Cordiali, that's how I intended it to work when I first implemented layers, but it could also be defined so that the group setting overrides the subgroup layers. Both ways are useful.

[CoriDavis]

I personally would prefer it that way. I don't know how the majority feels though.

I also discovered that when I set everything to level 1 and then group it, the group gets set to level 0 and behaves with level 0. Setting everything in the group to level 1 at once is much easier than one by one.

[thecolclough]

had an idea out of the blue this morning - not sure how easy it would be to implement, but would it be possible to use layers as a rigging method, i.e. attach the object to a parent bone, but then attach different layers of that object to child bones?  e.g. if you were building a wheeled vehicle, you could have the body on layer 0, the front wheels on object's layer 1 and sub-attached to a child bone to rotate them, and the back wheels on layer 2 sub-attached to another child bone.  i can picture the concept inside my head, but i'm not sure if my description came out making sense there...

[MvGulik]

Cordiali, that's how I intended it to work when I first implemented layers, but it could also be defined so that the group setting overrides the subgroup layers. Both ways are useful.

Aha. I was wondering about that when I run into this behavior.

I think the ability to toggle subgroup-parts its a interesting feature.
Although I also think its somewhat of a advanced feature that probably is in need of a some sort of additional user control(s) on it.

[thecolclough]

been doing some modelling in Build 1103, and got a request: when you copy-and-paste and element which isn't set to layer 0, please could the pasted version stay on the same layer as the original instead of defaulting back to 0 every time?  i understand new elements defaulting to 0, but when you copy-and-paste elements you kinda expect them to retain everything from the original - or at least that's how my brain works!

[Trevor]

Aggreed, This also goes back to Raxx's initial suggestion of Current Layer Selection where new items go into the current layer.

Trev