POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.tools.general : Real-time ray tracer with POV-Ray SDL support : Re: Real-time ray tracer with POV-Ray SDL support Server Time
2 Dec 2024 02:57:08 EST (-0500)
  Re: Real-time ray tracer with POV-Ray SDL support  
From: Bald Eagle
Date: 21 Jun 2016 08:25:00
Message: <web.5769319c72f911cd80403a200@news.povray.org>
Thanks so much, Tuomas, for working on this!  :)
I think that a good modeler is something that a lot of people want, and it's
been a long time since I've used one for creating scenes in POV-Ray.

Finally have some time off work and a bit of time, so I downloaded from your
site and took a quick look.

I'll give you my unfiltered initial impressions, since I myself find that sort
of feedback most valuable when developing something new.  Familiarity tends to
sweep things into the cracks.

The download was very fast - I like the small (13 MB) executable.
Install was fast and trouble-free.
Very nice sample scene - simple, elegant, pleasing to the eye.

I was unsure what to do next, so I explored the menu.
I tried "Viewport" - "Walk mode"
Whatever method you're using to move the scene with the mouse is very similar to
some of 3D molecular modeling packages I've used.  I tend to "lose my way"
easily, and the scene gets canted ever further from the starting point.  I have
to do a "swirling" motion with the mouse to progressively rotate the scene back.
  I find it a little awkward - perhaps something to think about.

Something very nice would be an "origin marker" that could be moved, and then
all rotations of the scene would be relative to that.  I'd think that typically
when one models a scene, one wants to hold there focus on a specific part of it,
and then switch back and forth between various "views"
Maybe there could be a toolbar and some hotkeys to "bookmark" these for quick
access, and a way to return to the default view.

I tried to "rotate" the scene, but it appears that what happens is that the
scene is rotated around the camera location.

The arrow keys perform the same rotation - I was unsure of how to do a straight
PAN and slide along an axis.

Then I tried to exit "Walk" mode, and the modeller (modeler?) seemed to keep
full control of the mouse.  Perhaps there ought to be a way to release the mouse
so that it can be used outside of the modeler window in the rest of the OS.

I tried using the [ALT] key to access the menu, but there seems to be some bugs
there.   [ALT] brings up the underlining of the menu options, but [ALT]-[V] did
nothing, [ALT]-[W] zooms in, [ALT] - [Q][W][E][A][S][D][Z][X] all control the
screen view.  [CTRL]-[C] Turns on "walk" but does not toggle it off as might be
expected.  [ESC] works.

OK, my son is up, and so the rest of my day is tied up  :)   ;)
Hope this helps a little, and thanks again!


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