Preferences and other little things

Started by KlausK, May 23, 2016, 09:42:25 AM

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KlausK

Hello.

Well, since I started to evaluate Terragen again a few weeks back, little things came forth in the way I`d like Terragen to behave.
I hope I did not overlook anything I am describing here. Forgive my ignorance, if I did.
But that would be also due to the scattered information about Terragen all over the place, I guess.
I really did search a lot. So, here it goes:

01 - Are there any preference files stored somewhere for settings, filepaths etc which are not obvious to the user?
02 - Are there registry keys a user could change?
03 - Is the "Edit / Preferences..." dialog the only way for the user to alter preferences?

04 - There is a keyboard shortcut for "Project / Render Current Render Node" (Crtl+R).
Is it possible to change it to a 1-finger shortcut (like the F9 in LightWave to render a frame immideately)?
I know F3 followed by Alt-R too, but that is also two stops.

05 - Would it be possible to show the name of the Render Node or Currently Used Camera in the render view header?
That would make it easier to keep control over which settings are used presently.
I use quite a few different cameras and render settings while working on scenes.

06 - Would it be possible to put the "GI Settings..." on the Render Quality Property page to its own tab?

07 - It would be nice if, when an object is selected in the "Objects"- list top left in the interface, the object is selected in the 3D viewer to be able to move rotate scale. There is of course the right click mouse button menu in the viewport but that is also another step / click away.
Could be managed with a preference setting as well.

08 - When I set "Change object display mode" to "Show as textured" I wonder what I should see in the viewport?
Sometimes image maps are being drawn, or procedural stuff from the blue nodes and sometimes I do not see any of those.
I do not use hi-res image maps atm. 1024x1024 pixel resolution at most.
Is there a cache setting I am missing or is it my Display Adapter (Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 / Win7Pro x64)?

Surely, some more to come. Thanks for your consideration.

cheers, Klaus
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)

Dune

As for 08: until the latest public version you can only see what's before the default shader. If you add any surface map or whatever between the (standard) default shader in the object's part and the part node, you won't be able to see it.

ajcgi

For 04, could you remap the keys in the preferences?
That's how I've moved the frame all shortcut to R as that's more convenient to me than F.

KlausK

@Dune - I did not know that. But I think that is not what I am doing. I have attached a screenshot. The diffuse colour of the tree is set ridiculously high to just see a colouring of the tree at all in the viewport. Usually it looks like it is black - no matter where I put the sun. In the render view in the bottom right corner you can see the image map of the tree and the foliage. Overlit by the diffuse colours setting, of course. Maybe I expect to see something which is not meant to be seen? Anyway, no big deal, I am simply not sure what I should be seeing.

@ajcgi - there is no entry for the render view in the custom bindings dialog of the preferences as far as I can tell. Or it must have slipped me.
Looks like some of the keyoard shortcuts are hardcoded into the software and not to be edited (like ctrl + r for Render current Render node for example).
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)

ajcgi

Quote from: KlausK on May 25, 2016, 08:25:46 AM
@ajcgi - there is no entry for the render view in the custom bindings dialog of the preferences as far as I can tell. Or it must have slipped me.
Looks like some of the keyoard shortcuts are hardcoded into the software and not to be edited (like ctrl + r for Render current Render node for example).

Oh yes... you're quite right.  ???
I like remapping keys in general.

Kadri


In the Lightwave forum they talked about this (i think?) a lot.
I haven't tried it but if you want more key remappings it might be useful maybe?

https://autohotkey.com/

KlausK

@kadri - yeah, I know autohotkey already. To me it is more a question of what is possible in Terragen itself.
I am simply not sure - with the not really up to date documentation an information scattered all around - if I am missing something.
But thanks anyway, of course.
cheers, Klaus
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)

Dune

It looks a bit like your tree hasn't got normals or isn't mapped properly. Is that the textured view?

KlausK

I guess you are right, Ulco.
Have to figure out what that little old treegenerator app does here exactely.
Cheers, Klaus

btw: that is the textured view viewport in that image
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)