Hey guys,

I haven't been able to participate very actively recently, so I'm a
bit out of touch with the going-ons in the POV-Ray community. I hope
to be able to increase my presence a little.

So, without promising anything :-), I would like to collect some of
your thoughts and comments around what the biggest pain points
currently are in Moray. I hope to have some time to work on it, so I
thought I'd get a list going to make sure I'm not working on the wrong
things.

If you have multiple items, please list them in order of importance
for you, starting with the most important.

I'll start off the list. 

1) Fix it so that it works with POV-Ray 3.6 and later. :-)


Cheers,

- Lutz
- Lutz
  email : lut### [at] stmuccom
  Web   : http://www.stmuc.com/moray

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1.  A Linux version (even running under WINE would be great).  I do
realize this would be a huge undertaking (I've read the FAQ on this one),
but at the moment I run Moray under VMware - it's usable, but I find it's
now one of a very small number of applications that I actually need
Windows for any more.

2.  Occasionally, the communication between Moray and POV-Ray dies and
then Moray becomes really unresponsive.  I can eventually get the programs
talking again, but it's a matter of "click menu, wait 15 seconds,
click menu item, wait 15 seconds" - it's doable, but really annoying when
you're in the "zone".

3.  Import of .pov files would be *great* - even if it was limited to just
standard primitives and CSG-type operations.  While SDL is a very rich
language that allows things like looping and that sort of thing, a lot of
times I'll generate SDL using Inkscape or something like that, and being
able to import those files into a scene I'm working on in Moray would be
fantastic.

4.  If #3 isn't possible, how about import of SVG files and allowing them
to be manipulated (extrusion + create face)?  This would allow for very
easy conversion of bitmaps into translational sweeps, which is something I
use Inkscape to do - but because there's no "import .pov" option, getting
those objects placed in an existing scene is fairly time consuming (making
sure the scale is right and performing the translation/rotation operations
is something I just can't seem to get right).

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- Support for additional camera types
- Coordinate entry for mesh vertices
- Limit selection of points in mesh edit mode to those displayed
   (prevent accidental selection of points not in clipped view)
- Fit height/width, keep aspect ratio option for backdrop images
- Allow negative light source values
- Fix duplicate layer names when importing objects with same-named
   layers
- Ability to extrude/scale face of mesh so can 'inflate/deflate'
- Group polygons of single mesh, treat as separate meshes but keep
   together as original mesh

-- 
Tim Cook
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-empyrean

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scq3e2tudrh0crt8uaafom3n58ibvc4u2k@4ax.com...
> Hey guys,
>
Hey Mutz nice to see you back :-)

I have lost my wish list but it'll come back soon in my mind.
I'd like a check box in render settings to export automatically pov files to
the same folder as .mdl
in rotational sweep edit mode, scaling reffering to axis and not points
middle.
The choice of rotation and scale  center in other editors

Thank you Lutz

Marc

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Hi, Lutz, nice to hear from you.

Here are a few things I'd like to see (given time I could think of more)

1. More node points on the rotational sweep.
2. The ability to quantify the movement (translate, scale, rotate) of points 
or faces in mesh editing.
3. The ability to change the center of rotation on a mesh in the mesh 
editor.
4. A solution to this problem: when a large enough number of objects is put 
into a scene, Moray slows down to a crawl. I'm pretty sure it has to do with 
Open-GL having to draw every single object. This has nothing to do with 
parsing or rendering time. Maybe if objects could be put into a box, which 
could be sized as desired, and then only a wireframe of the box would show, 
like the POVinclude plugin....
5. Resolve compatibility problems with certain video card drivers, for 
instance I cannot update my ATI drivers and still use Moray 3.5. Another 
thing I'm not sure is related, every once in a while, when I start Moray, 
just before it opens, I get the blue screen of death, and the machine 
reboots and goes into checkdisk.

Steve Shelby

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> ... I would like to collect some of
> your thoughts and comments around what the biggest pain points
> currently are in Moray...
1) The one you suggested :-)
2) Improved support for large scenes.
Currently I'm using the udo object to help manage smaller scene elements for 
inclusion into a larger one. This has the benefit of a nice responsive 
computer with the smaller scene elements(complicated object). The slowdown 
in workflow comes from the editing of the myfile.udo, myfile.pov into a 
myfile.inc and keeping all the names matched correctly and not bumping into 
the myfile.inc(materials). I (and others?) would benefit from a File/Save 
Object As.../ "UDO/inc", and have Moray take care of this for me. I don't 
want to have to keep merging and repositioning the object each time I add 
some more detail. I don't need to keep turning on and off different layers 
to hide parts of the scene in an effort to keep the screen refresh rate up. 
Or maybe I need to use a different approach.
3) I love the feature of seeing a preview of a scene when I 'Merge Object', 
except I can only save a preview with a scene if it has a camera in it. When 
I merge the scene, I now need to go through and remove the added camera, and 
lights. Can I save an object only, but with a preview? (even if it's only 
the OpenGL view)

Stephen

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Hi Tim Cook, you recently wrote in moray.win:

> - Limit selection of points in mesh edit mode to those displayed
>    (prevent accidental selection of points not in clipped view)
So, you use the depth settings of the GL view? That would be hard to
take into account when selecting points.

> - Fit height/width, keep aspect ratio option for backdrop images
Can you elaborate?

> - Ability to extrude/scale face of mesh so can 'inflate/deflate'
How is this different from inset scaling?


- Lutz
  email : lut### [at] stmuccom
  Web   : http://www.stmuc.com/moray

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Hi Steve Shelby, you recently wrote in moray.win:

> 1. More node points on the rotational sweep.
More than? There isn't currently a limit, is there?

> 2. The ability to quantify the movement (translate, scale, rotate) of points 
> or faces in mesh editing.
Quantify, as in enter an exact number?

> 3. The ability to change the center of rotation on a mesh in the mesh 
> editor.
You could select all points and move them so that it's correctly
centered :-) 
 
> 4. A solution to this problem: when a large enough number of objects is put 
> into a scene, Moray slows down to a crawl. 
Do any of you have any scenes that are that large for me to
play/experiment with?

> 5. Resolve compatibility problems with certain video card drivers, for 
> instance I cannot update my ATI drivers and still use Moray 3.5. Another 
> thing I'm not sure is related, every once in a while, when I start Moray, 
> just before it opens, I get the blue screen of death, and the machine 
> reboots and goes into checkdisk.
Boy, that one's tough. I don't really do any advanced OpenGL stuff,
only very basic OpenGL, so I wonder why your system has this problem.

- Lutz
  email : lut### [at] stmuccom
  Web   : http://www.stmuc.com/moray

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"Lutz Kretzschmar" <lut### [at] stmuccom> wrote in message 
news:nvf5e2t7fuvev04h1o1kot0b5fkfq5q5to@4ax.com...
> Hi Steve Shelby, you recently wrote in moray.win:
>
>> 1. More node points on the rotational sweep.
> More than? There isn't currently a limit, is there?

Oops, now I'm really embarrassed.

>
>> 2. The ability to quantify the movement (translate, scale, rotate) of 
>> points
>> or faces in mesh editing.
> Quantify, as in enter an exact number?

Yes, maybe something like on the modify tab.

>
>> 3. The ability to change the center of rotation on a mesh in the mesh
>> editor.
> You could select all points and move them so that it's correctly
> centered :-)

That's true, but now that I think of it, what's needed is "local 
coordinates" for the mesh itself.

>
>> 4. A solution to this problem: when a large enough number of objects is 
>> put
>> into a scene, Moray slows down to a crawl.
> Do any of you have any scenes that are that large for me to
> play/experiment with?

When this has happened to me, I gave up and found a different way to do it. 
The last time was when using B-spline with spheres and cylinders. Here's a 
quick way I just tried that will show you what I mean: make a sphere with 24 
divisions; use "Convert to Wireframe" on it; in the duplicate dialogue 
create 9 copies of the wireframe group, with references. This slows mine 
down so much that I would not want to proceed any further.

>
>> 5. Resolve compatibility problems with certain video card drivers, for
>> instance I cannot update my ATI drivers and still use Moray 3.5. Another
>> thing I'm not sure is related, every once in a while, when I start Moray,
>> just before it opens, I get the blue screen of death, and the machine
>> reboots and goes into checkdisk.
> Boy, that one's tough. I don't really do any advanced OpenGL stuff,
> only very basic OpenGL, so I wonder why your system has this problem.

Me too.
>
Thank you,
Steve

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Lutz Kretzschmar wrote:
>> - Limit selection of points in mesh edit mode to those displayed
>>    (prevent accidental selection of points not in clipped view)
> So, you use the depth settings of the GL view? That would be hard to
> take into account when selecting points.

The clipping distance is invaluable when editing meshes, particularly 
large ones.  I don't know how the OpenGL views are handled, but if the 
information regarding what depth to display is known to Moray, could a 
'if point depth isn't in this range, ignore it' work?

>> - Fit height/width, keep aspect ratio option for backdrop images
> Can you elaborate?

If the 'fit to view' backdrop option is selected, it stretches the image 
to fill the view.  Not very useful then.  The desired effect would be 
keeping aspect ratio, locking the image to the viewport so it (instead 
of the entire scene/model) could be repositioned...that in mind, an 
option to specify location of backdrop as well as scale would work.  At 
that point it'd become convenient to be able to use multiple backdrops. 
  Other concern is resolution...is that OpenGL setting, and is there a 
way to define that if detailed backdrops are used?

>> - Ability to extrude/scale face of mesh so can 'inflate/deflate'
> How is this different from inset scaling?

Ahh...ok, that is part of what I want to do, but a) doesn't move face 
along normal and b) shared edges of adjacent faces don't remain a shared 
edge.

-- 
Tim Cook
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-empyrean

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GFA dpu- s: a?-- C++(++++) U P? L E--- W++(+++)>$
N++ o? K- w(+) O? M-(--) V? PS+(+++) PE(--) Y(--)
PGP-(--) t* 5++>+++++ X+ R* tv+ b++(+++) DI
D++(---) G(++) e*>++ h+ !r--- !y--
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

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