garbanzo
 |
i decided to install the genetica demo and have a look. i know it's different from filter forge in a lot of ways, including its main goal in life, but as both programs are node-based graphics programs with mathematical underpinnings, i figured genetica is the closest competitor FF has, and wanted to see what i was missing.
i'm really not impressed. the GUI is messy and confusing. it took a lot longer to get the basics down than with FF. the whole idea of having labs to do the work for you (wood lab, substance lab, weathering lab) really spoils the fun! i like the idea of having groups of nodes that can be minimized, but the concept is not implemented very well at all in genetica. i do like the matrix command, it lets you make iterations of the current image in any direction, distance, and number. FF could use something like this, which tiles the current image. the 'floating view' is nice too, it lets you open a little window with the result in it, at various sizes, so you can always see what happens when you tweak something. finally i really like the photoshop-style gradient builder, it allows for very fine control over gradients that i miss. in the end i'm definitely going to stick with filter forge, but i'll keep genetica until the trial runs out, as there are some clever techniques used in some of the presets that can easily be done in FF. might learn something! anybody else used genetica? what are your thoughts? |
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| Posted: November 11, 2007 1:58 am | ||||||
| jffe |
----I had the demo for about 2-3 hours one afternoon. It seemed very late 90's, very underdeveloped. All the features in the world just didn't add up for it since it had no underlying user friendliness, or global controls at all (ie = to make presets without basically making a new filter). Unless I missed something. If it had controls that could be accessed from another screen, and had preset storage capabilities, then I'd maybe only rank it a few steps below FF, as it is, it's worth basically nothing compared to FF. I was as suprised as I was disappointed, I wanted Genetica to be another FF, but I didn't see 1/10th the potential with Genetica. In some cases, I suppose Genetica could be said to be equal but different, but by no means in any kind of overall way could it be considered equal or really a competitor as far as I could tell. jffe Filter Forger |
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| Posted: November 11, 2007 2:59 am | ||||||
|
garbanzo
|
yep
me too. i love FF so much that when i found out about genetica i was thrilled. but then i was just let down. oh well, FF has enough variety to keep me busy for a long, long time! |
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| Posted: November 11, 2007 3:57 am | ||||||
Crapadilla
 |
That was my impression too. The GUI is terribly confusing at times, and constructing textures seems awkward at best. You can't publish important controls, and since there is no randomizer, creating variations of textures means editing their internals. However, Genetica does come with some interesting 'preset' textures that are worth studying for some techniques. Plus, it sports some features (dare I say 'components') that FF misses (see here and here).
The interesting thing about the lab nodes is that you can convert them to basic nodes via their context menu. This allows you to explore their internals and see how the devs assembled the various noise and pattern presets. --- Crapadilla says: "Damn you, stupid redundant feature requests!" ;) |
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| Posted: November 13, 2007 5:17 am | ||||||
|
garbanzo
|
oooh i didn't know that! i'm gonna go look right now...  |
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| Posted: November 13, 2007 1:26 pm | ||||||
|
Crapadilla
|
Hehe. That's the secret to reverse engineering Genetica textures. I've been trying to get filter authors to look into Genetica for quite a while now (see Suggest a new filter), simply because the 'preset' textures that come with Genetica do provide good inspiration. There is a lot of stuff buried there that could be 'ported' to FF, including many potential editor's pick candidates... (*hint hint*)  --- Crapadilla says: "Damn you, stupid redundant feature requests!" ;) |
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| Posted: November 18, 2007 6:34 am | ||||||
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