EnigmA Amiga Run 1997 July/EnigmA AMIGA RUN 20 (1997)(G.R. Edizioni)(IT)[!][issue 1997-07 & 08][EAR-CD IV].iso/lightwave/lwmlist/96.lightwave-0222/[e-mail] _Fri Feb 23 18:58:12 1996.msg

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Subject: Re: LW interface (was Re: Projector lights)
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In a message dated 96-02-22 11:47:23 EST, you write:

>Not only is selecting multiple items needed, the whole idea of interacting
>with ONLY ONE window at a time needs to be tossed out the window. You should
>be able to bring up multiple motion channels, envelopes, displacement
>mappers, etc. while still interactively working and viewing the results in
>layout. The whole concept of "do this one operation, back out, and see the
>results" is what cripples animation productivity more than anything else
>in LightWave.

      My latests thoughts about lightwave interface re-design would be to
take better advantage of the screen modes you get on a nice system. I'd like
to see something where the current interface is kept (at whatever res you
like, 640x480, or 800x600, lets use 640x480 for this example) but pushed into
the corner on a higher res screen. Lets say you have a 1024x768 screen open,
with lightwave taking 640x480 in the upper left corner. Then, with the
remaining space, you could add a lot of functionality. I'd like to see a
system where you can click on a button to enable 'lightwave interface
editing', not the common drag the windows around approch other programs have.
Once in this mode, you could open up, lets say, the objects pannel, grab some
buttons out of the object skeleton window, and drag it down into a section of
your unused space.
     This way, each user would have the current layout interface fully
intact, with all the sub-windows fully intact, but his own configuration of
short cuts in the extra space his screen res alows. Of course you'd have each
configuration specific to a certain screen mode, so you'd have to configure
differently at 800x600 (with 640x480 layout) than at 1024x768 (with 640x480
layout). You should also be able to label and section the extra space as
well, so you could easily have a scene, objects, images, and surfaces panel
on the side of your screen, so you'd not have to enter those sub screens to
get to those controls. You could also have a togle between the user moved
shortcuts, and something like the scene panels heriarchy windows, which a
very handy tool when working on large scenes. Multiple selections from that
window could then be made, without the need to go into the scenes panel..
     This violates one belief I have in interface design, I believe it should
be consistant and the same on every system, no matter who sets it up. The
reason I could deal with this is that it would be consistant, in that 640x480
space (which, contains everything) but would have a nice area of shortcuts
around the side and bottom.
      This is a kind of wierd approch to interface design, but lightwave
already gracefully breaks every rule in interface design as it stands now, so
I wouldn't mind further rule breaking.
     Obviously, this type of design would require some pretty fancy
programing. But I have confidence in Stuart and Allen, even if I don't in
Newtek. Also, the current crop of windows should be altered to alow for
multiple edits at once. I agree with mark that this is the most crippling
thing in lightwave now. The integration of modeler tools in layout would also
be a great bonus, as being able to clone objects with modelers tools would be
extremely handy for my work. I find myself writing a lot of strange plugins,
which no one else would probrobly ever need, but I think it's just because of
what I do with lightwave. A game designer definately has some different needs
than your standard lightwave artist. In something I'm currently working on, I
have to load up hundreds of objects and manualy position them around the top
of a building. I could do this very easy if I made them a series of objects
in modeler, and just moved and cloned them into place their - however, this
will not surfice since the normals of those objects must be inside thier
polygons, not 200m away at 0,0,0. I'm writing a simple plugin to take care of
this, but in order to make deadlines, I'm doing a lot of it by hand. Oh
well...
    Anyway, just a few ideas I've been tossing around lately..