[Papervision3D] Model Viewer updates

[Yaakov Albietz]

I sometimes build 3d models by mapping images to the xz, yx or yx planes
first as references. it works best if the images are laid on top of the grid
and it's possible to adjust the transparency, scale and position of the
image. But that's for model building, which I don't think we're getting to
any time soon... :-) So now I'm thinking more about what would be useful for
object placement/arrangement and scaling.

I agree that more than one planar grid would be disconcerting. Now that I
think about it more, the boxes are going to overlap with each other and
it'll be impossible to get good spacial references out of them. I only
really used the top, left and right views for positioning and scaling when I
couldn't get things to position or scale properly in the 3d perspective. I
think that this is really an issue with the x/y/z axis "move arrow handles"
that objects get. It's just maddening trying to move an object along an
angle using the arrow handles, so it was much faster to use a combination of
the other views. But it is really inefficient, especially if you have to
move something along more than one axis.

I remembered that Homeworld 2 had an interesting 3d interface/control
scheme. I'm just brainstorming that a similar interface would be really good
to use to set up 3d environments, or models with multiple elements for use
in papervision. I took a screen shot to show you. Basically, to place
objects in 3d space, with an object selected, you click once with the right
mouse button which creates a circle along the xz axis to indicating your
selection along that axis, then to move your selection along the yx axis you
hold the shift key and move the mouse up or down. Letting go of the shift
key keeps that selection and goes back to selecting your movement along the
xz axis. In the game, holding down the right mouse key rotated the 3d
perspective around the current "focus" object. focus objects were selected
by selecting an object and pushing the "F" key. The scheme worked well, but
the developers didn't properly implement the "right-click held down"
rotation when the shift key was also held down, which really irritated me.


On 1/3/07, Jon Bradley <jbradley at postcentral.com> wrote:
>
> They are, but in Maya it's disorienting to work in a single view with
> multiple grids. I've found over the years that using multiple views
> is much quicker and more effective since you don't have to rotate
> around to see what your object looks like from different perspectives.
>
> That's just my 0.02 though. :)
>
> cheers,
>
> jon
>
> On Jan 3, 2007, at 10:01 AM, Yaakov Albietz wrote:
>
> > even though maya and 3dsmax don't do it by default, it would be
> > nice to be able to check a box to enable a yx axis planar grid
> > also. grids are just really helpful for 3d modeling.
>
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