Would it be possible to change Terragen's field input handling?

[sboerner]

It took me a while to get used to Terragen's bare-bones interface, but I've learned to appreciate it. There is one thing that bothers me, though.

The program responds to each keystroke as values are typed into any input field. This can be cumbersome when updating camera coordinates, for example (the 3D view attempts to redraw with each keystroke). And it makes it virtually impossible to enter file paths by hand. In the latter case TG throws an error for each keystroke until the path is completed. I prefer to type filenames for a couple of reasons . . . to use relative paths, and to make it easy to duplicate and edit references to similarly named files. It's usually faster than using the mouse.

Could this be changed so Terragen reads the input when the focus changes - when the user presses tab or clicks out? This little change would make a big difference in workflow and productivity. I realize this is a basic programming change and may be easier said than done. But it can't hurt to ask.

[WAS]

Yeah it would be nice if updates only happened when pressing enter, or focusing away from the input (like moving on to the next input field or closing box)

This is one of the main causes of preview crashes.

[jaf]

... and to take this a little further, I'd like to see all inputs, other than saving (tgd), pause and stop (render), to be locked out while a render is in progress.

I usually work and render on a 4K monitor, so there's times when the active render window is behind another app or the TG UI and I forget a render is active (I'm getting old!)

[D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet)]

I also manually type in my relative paths, because I do work at home and at work and my TG files need to load up no matter where I load them and find all the associated assets.  I set up a Scene directory, with a "Project_Assets" directory with sub-directories for different categories of assets etc.

I got annoyed so many times I finally just started manually editing my TG files in Notepad++ to convert my scenes that had absolute paths to relative paths.  So it would be nice to have the option to choose how TG responds to Input.  I always naturally want to type in an input and press Enter/Return.

Derek

[zaxxon]

Same here.  When previewing v3 Clouds in the RTP I've resorted to copy/paste off of Notebook to make entries, typing can lead to annoying delays as TG starts updating as you type.

[Dune]

I sometimes write in the title of a node, and ctrl+X/ctrl+V that into where it belongs. Like in object default nodes where I know a certain texture has extension _BUMP for bumpmap. But I've gotten to live with it.

[bobbystahr]

Same here.  When previewing v3 Clouds in the RTP I've resorted to copy/paste off of Notebook to make entries, typing can lead to annoying delays as TG starts updating as you type.

Same here for most inputs, way faster for me

[Oshyan]

I have entered this into our internal issue tracker. I don't know if Matt is agreeable to it, but I certainly think it's a better approach.

- Oshyan

[sboerner]

Thank you, Oshyan. Appreciate the follow-up.