How to Setup using an older version of Node Info

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After using the new node info for a while, I think the UI doesn't show the properties to the maximum extent, but focuses too much on flatness, and I don't understand why the color distinction of different properties is removed, 95% of the time I use this panel is to view attributes. My suggestion is to inherit the advantages of the old layout and display all properties concisely and clearly. The current design takes up too much space, and the panel directly grows to the entire screen when there are too many properties.

So I spent some time to improve some of the nodeinfo python source code.
This is the final result.




I found that the new cop2 still uses the old node info, so I started to look for the python files related to the network editor in the installation directory, and finally I found the function to set the use of the old ui in the nodegraphui.py file.




So you only need to add the HOUDINI_USE_OLD_INFO_WINDOW environment and set it to 1 to use the old version of node info.
I don't understand why this is not added to the documentation.
Edited by Xr_Blood - July 28, 2024 23:31:05

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The attribute names not being color coded was a bug in the release version, it's since been fixed in the nightlies.

If you prefer the "word wrapping" of attributes in the old window to having them in columns, sorry, I don't think there's anything I can say other than I fundamentally disagree.

the panel directly grows to the entire screen when there are too many properties.

If we didn't size the window to show the maximum number of attributes we can, we'd definitely get a ton of bugs immediately saying we should do that. If I MMB on a node, I'm focussed on the info window contents and want it to show as much info as possible, so I don't see why we'd limit the window height.
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mchaput 麦克查普特
If you prefer the "word wrapping" of attributes in the old window to having them in columns, sorry, I don't think there's anything I can say other than I fundamentally disagree.

If we didn't size the window to show the maximum number of attributes we can, we'd definitely get a ton of bugs immediately saying we should do that. If I MMB on a node, I'm focussed on the info window contents and want it to show as much info as possible, so I don't see why we'd limit the window height.

First of all, thank you for your reply.

The problem of the window panel being too long that I mentioned is mainly compared to the old UI design, which includes several situations.

Especially the volume display. The new UI takes up too much space. Originally, you could see all the volume attribute display at a glance, but now you have to operate the scroll bar to see it.

It is certainly a good improvement to display the attributes in columns, but by default, only two columns of attributes can be displayed in one row. When there are super many attributes together, it is impossible to see all the attributes by clicking MMB once, especially when there are some warnings that can be ignored, you have to manually pull the scroll bar every time. I think this greatly affects the experience.

Sometimes when you view another node info and then come back to click a node with super many attributes, the show more below is missing, and you have to click it several times to restore it.

It may also be that the new node info directly covers the status bar at the bottom when displaying multiple attributes. Maybe this makes me feel that it seems longer than the old UI.


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Xr_Blood
by default, only two columns of attributes can be displayed in one row.

If you Ctrl+MMB to get the persistent info window, you can then resize that window to be wider. This setting will then later be inherited by the temporary MMB popup (even if you close the persistent window), so you get more flexibility with how you want that to display.
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If long list is a problem mayby there should be search feauture for it? Also Search feature with adwanced filtering option where you can type keywords and make them pernament (as UI buttons) and combine keywords using logic operators fe. (capt) (_23 - _45) (r)

I saw such filtering on google website where a lot of data was listed and it worked fine. It could be shown in UI as pushable rectangles so you can quickly make them ON or OFF for faster filtering once you make them by entering keyword.

Here is how this filer looks on google website:

.
Edited by oldteapot7 - July 31, 2024 04:50:49

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oldteapot7
If long list is a problem mayby there should be search feauture for it? Also Search feature with adwanced filtering option where you can type keywords and make them pernament (as UI buttons) and combine keywords using logic operators
Surely, at this point, you would switch to the Geometry Spreadsheet, that has filtering and sorting built-in? The info dialog is meant for a quick glance overview, I'm not sure that bloating it with fringe functionality is the way to go.
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eikonoklastes
If you Ctrl+MMB to get the persistent info window, you can then resize that window to be wider. This setting will then later be inherited by the temporary MMB popup (even if you close the persistent window), so you get more flexibility with how you want that to display.

Adjusting the width may allow one or two more attributes to be displayed in one row, but if there are a large number of attributes and vdb together, you always have to manually pull the scroll bar.
I still don't understand why the vdb and volume display has to be changed like this. The old version can display all the corresponding data in one row. The current one takes up such a large range.
The node info displayed by MMB should show the operator the most information about the node attributes. I think it is too bloated now. It is a good thing to update the UI, but most of the usage scenarios must be considered. At least the artists around me would rather choose to use the old one. I hope sidefx can optimize these parts later.
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Some things didn't get finished in time for the release, and shipped not quite perfect. The display of volumes is one of those. We're still working on it, and will backport improvements to 20.5.
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