Hey gang,

Since SideFX is working hard on the new Vulcan viewport (experimental in h20 release) thought that it would be a good idea to start listing pain points, frustrations, enhancement requests, etc based on the current, non Vulkan viewport.


Hoping that perhaps SideFx can comment as we go through this on whether the items have already been addressed (with the Vulkan framework) or if they will be addressed or even just to raise their awareness.

I would like to keep this real. Point form - here’s what’s frustrating, missing, here’s what I would do, here’s why I need it type of thing, etc.

Please refrain from opinions about where Houdini is going, how ML will change the future and how great Blender is, and anything of this nature.

This is a facts only, to the point conversation.

I’ll start with some, in no particular order…

1) Separate Undo for the viewport
2) Modern looking gizmos
3) Better group selection view - the one there right now looks almost archaic

5) Objects appearing correctly and not going missing - without having to reset the viewport
6) Isolines and directly editable subdivision surfaces
7) Sometime in the interactive mode seems like my selections are lost. I should be able to very quickly and temporarily create ‘selection sets’ that are not really as heavy as groups
8) shortcuts for everything in the viewpoint
9) Not just a viewport thing but in general - more interactivity
10) Ability to still rotate and at least interact to some degree while dynamics is cooking. I find in Houdini I have to constantly press Esc
11) Ability to set multiple display flags at at time

A useable and useful gnomon. See: https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/87788/ [www.sidefx.com]

I have already written in another branch, but I will add it here.
1) bugs with displaying the visibility of the current node. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, it's unpredictable. Some shading modes work, while others don't.
2) in 4k everything is very small in the viewport. Gnomon is almost indistinguishable. It seems to me that this is the main source of hatred.
3) in 4k, the indexes are completely indistinguishable. We need to do something with the color and borders of the text.
4) the size of the dots can be increased in the settings, but this does not apply to the size of the dots in all built-in functions - snap, polysplit and others. The same goes for the thickness and size of the gizmo. Everything is very subtle and barely discernible. Getting the mouse is difficult. The program "asks" to switch to 1920*1080.
5) the ambient occlusion looks very untidy, but it is very important for the 3d illusion.
6) WE REALLY NEED a built-in HDRI that can be turned on with one button. Any. This would greatly improve the appearance and save thousands of hours for thousands of users.

Mike_A
A useable and useful gnomon. See: https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/87788/ [www.sidefx.com]

It’s fine as long as it’s not a viewcube thing

HGaal
2) in 4k everything is very small in the viewport. Gnomon is almost indistinguishable. It seems to me that this is the main source of hatred.
3) in 4k, the indexes are completely indistinguishable. We need to do something with the color and borders of the text.

This comes down to the ratio of resolution and screen size. Tying the size of gizmos directly to the resolution would be absolutely horrible.

Some people like higher pixel density (e.g. 4K at 27", which I once tried and hated), others prefer more screen real estate. And in the latter case on a large screen, the size of gizmos is fine at 100%.

So make it scaleable but please please please do not double my gizmo size just because I run 4K, that would be a disaster.

defenitly: Modern looking gizmos! with new design like thicker, solid colors, simple flat design no funcy mouseover highlights (insted whole axis highlight) and all other cool stuff that are invented in other apps.

GIZMOS are used ALL the time. it must be piece of art

The Shift-B viewport reframe feature from blender, one of the fastest way to navigate a scene across different scales while maintaing a good sense of where you are. In two clicks you can focus and set orientation to a place of interest.

seems redundant to pressing "Num ." upon selection, which is Space+Shift+H in H
looks like more of a muscle memory thing, can't say it is necessary or whatnot

a few that come to mind

- Undockable menu's would be great. Having to select a menu three or four levels deep several times becomes very frustrating after while.

- RMB popups based on current selection would be especially helpful for modeling. Currently one gets the same options no matter if prims, points or edge selection is active. It would improve workflow a lot if filtered modeling options for the current selection would be directly available with a RMB click instead of having to do a search with the TAB every time.

- Hide / unhide geometry, but viewport independent and without adding a visibility SOP.

- More "info" in the "node info", currently there's hardy any useable info there. Would be great if there were some pointers in there as to how to use a node.

- A hotkey to quickly align and snap a transform handle to any geo in the scene.

- Viewport independent "Hide", "Ghost" or "Show" objects in Quad View. And only show points of currently active geo node, and not turn the viewport into a blue sea of points when "show all objects" is active.

- Viewport independently hide / unhide a selection of objects without having to toggle display for every node.

- The possibility to keep he current active Tab open when a different node / object is selected. So when I open the Transform tab on a geo node, it should keep the Transform open when I select another Node. Currently Houdini switches back to last open Tab for every object, but very often I'm editing the same options for different objects in a row. So this makes working in Houdini very clicky.

-Dropdown menu's for every input field. Most of the time it's possible to select a Group or Attribute or something else from a dropdown menu. But strangely enough one has no manually type in the name of the group or attribute every now and then. As if someone forgot to add the dropdown menu

- Automatically rename stuff downstream. More often then not a node tree breaks when something is renamed upstream, for instance when I rename a group used for a SOP downstream like Polyextrude or Transform, or materials in a Lopnet material library. After the rename the group or material can no longer be found. Me thinks that's a bit silly for a procedural app.

toonafish
a few that come to mind

- Undockable menu's would be great. Having to select a menu three or four levels deep several times becomes very frustrating after while.

- RMB popups based on current selection would be especially helpful for modeling. Currently one gets the same options no matter if prims, points or edge selection is active. It would improve workflow a lot if filtered modeling options for the current selection would be directly available with a RMB click instead of having to do a search with the TAB every time.

- Hide / unhide geometry, but viewport independent and without adding a visibility SOP.

- More "info" in the "node info", currently there's hardy any useable info there. Would be great if there were some pointers in there as to how to use a node.

- A hotkey to quickly align and snap a transform handle to any geo in the scene.

- Viewport independent "Hide", "Ghost" or "Show" objects in Quad View. And only show points of currently active geo node, and not turn the viewport into a blue sea of points when "show all objects" is active.

- Viewport independently hide / unhide a selection of objects without having to toggle display for every node.

- The possibility to keep he current active Tab open when a different node / object is selected. So when I open the Transform tab on a geo node, it should keep the Transform open when I select another Node. Currently Houdini switches back to last open Tab for every object, but very often I'm editing the same options for different objects in a row. So this makes working in Houdini very clicky.

-Dropdown menu's for every input field. Most of the time it's possible to select a Group or Attribute or something else from a dropdown menu. But strangely enough one has no manually type in the name of the group or attribute every now and then. As if someone forgot to add the dropdown menu

- Automatically rename stuff downstream. More often then not a node tree breaks when something is renamed upstream, for instance when I rename a group used for a SOP downstream like Polyextrude or Transform, or materials in a Lopnet material library. After the rename the group or material can no longer be found. Me thinks that's a bit silly for a procedural app.

Thank you. I don’t see how all of this is viewport related though…?

LukeP
Thank you. I don’t see how all of this is viewport related though…?

Ah, sorry about that. Got a bit carried away I guess :-)

I'd like to see the manipulator even if its position is not within visible boundaries of the viewport.

ajz3d
I'd like to see the manipulator even if its position is not within visible boundaries of the viewport.

That almost looks like a bug in that video lol

LukeP

ajz3d
I'd like to see the manipulator even if its position is not within visible boundaries of the viewport.

That almost looks like a bug in that video lol

When it was first introduced, I thought so too.
But after realizing it's not, I began to appreciate it. It saves a ton of time which otherwise is spent on navigating the viewport in search for the manipulator.

ajz3d
I'd like to see the manipulator even if its position is not within visible boundaries of the viewport.

As a curiosity, in UE, you can manipulate each axis of a gizmo that is off-screen by holding-dragging "Ctrl + LMB," , "Ctrl + RMB," or "Ctrl + LMB + RMB" on an empty spot while the tool is active.

Or just mmb+x/y/z keys for constrain to axis, mmb freeform?

I also would like to have the gizmos stay visible in the viewport even if the object leaves the screen.
I think the way Softimage had it was great.