Usability suggestions - First look

First off, very nice, I'm enjoying the simplicity of the interface and the shear amount of options. I've got a few *want* type of suggestions that I feel could make the interface more tactile, some that are possibly necessary. I also understand that it's just beta, so I'm not trying to be overly critical of features which are possibly in the works, or planned for later, so please just take them as first impression...

so imho:

- On subtree items (controls). If there is only a single input range(IE a slider) why not show the slider on the tree item itself? Also, the name could be changed by double clicking on its title bar area etc.
Similarly, the color-chooser window could be called from the node item's own color swatch. In fact, it seems alot of the controls could be moved on- node.

- Which leads to the next point, The left window bar, although it holds the preview result, seriously impedes the view of the Work Area.
It would be nice to have it break off, or, have the options section break off, and allow the preview to be resized. (I do like that the components tab hides with 'C'). Also, since the nodes themselves have a very visible preview, is it really necessary for them to update into the larger preview window (the 'lock preview' option not withstanding, i like that...)

-There should be a way to frame all of the items on the work area. As networks become larger, disconnected nodes--or entire subtrees-- might be disconnected and left far off (hehe unlikely I know).
(I also realize that framing all of them implies a zoom feature of sorts in order to fit them all into view, if that isnt possible... what about one that simply moves the other disconnected nodes closer to the rest)



- As a game artist, textures of this sort would be VERY nice if the attributes that define them are animatable (sin wave multiplying the input of a slider that controls random on a perline noise to create a ripple effect or something of that sort). Point being, that since the program has the ability to create bump, normal, and specular maps in addition to the color information (for certain filters of course) This could be very powerful if it could be harnessed to create animated textures from the output of the node network, (the other maps of course being animated to match).
We could create crawling oozing skin textures, or animated effects simply by animating an input (lightning, plasma, magical stuff etc)
I can't really express how cool, and important this could possibly be.
(It would be far more powerful than animating any of the results (IE render a large image, scroll over it, distort it, morph etc, and I'm not aware of another product that will produce animated normal maps, bumps, and specs to match color maps from this type of node-based creation process(in 2d) - so very next gen hehe)

- Components:
Gradients: why not n number of colors? Patterns: how can I make/get more of them? (making them would be nice, (how to produce them is of course the question)).
Channels: The tools that are there now are Awesome, can we get a Luminance? (modify the alpha output, create lighting effects via alpha channels - quite useful (unless theres another way to achieve this effect in network-maybe levels/gamma combo))

- Also, could there be an output node type which can be hooked onto the node network (at any stage) to output the current state to an image--or the ability to drop multiple result nodes.

Like I said, just a first impression, I find it very usable sofar, and these are just suggestions, some are likely things you've already thought of I would imagine.

-Thanks
Nicholas

I cant seem to find a way to import an image either, now that you mention it.

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bemused0 wrote: VERY nice if the attributes that define them are animatable

Technically, nothing prevents us from animating filter controls. And I think Filter Forge can easily be used as, say, an After Effects plugin. This is just a question of man-hours -- which we currently don't have.

Also, most animation in game textures is done via shaders nowadays, this is one of the reasons we didn't give the animation higher priority.

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bemused0 wrote: I'm not aware of another product that will produce animated normal maps, bumps, and specs to match color maps from this type of node-based creation process

DarkTree, http://www.darksim.com -- they even have Time components, and everything *within* the tree is fully animatable. However, DarkTree doesn't do bitmap-based operations like blurs and sharpens, and it doesn't generate seamless textures (well it does but that is done via torus-wrapping, and gives not very attractive results).

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bemused0 wrote: Gradients: why not n number of colors?

That'd mean variable number of inputs, which is possible but technically difficult. Filter Forge components "prefer" to have a fixed number of inputs.

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bemused0 wrote: Patterns: how can I make/get more of them?

True -- the patterns are pretty basic and too narrow at the moment. We do have some ideas for more pattern components, and probably will implement them in later versions.

Closing this post, will continue in the next one.

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bolba wrote: is External/Image component working in standalone version? Cannot find a way to add my own picture.

Yes, it does work in the standalone version. To open the picture, click File > Open in the menu (not in the Editor, but in the main window).

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bemused0 wrote: An AE plugin would be nice too, but only if it could output matching spec/diffuse/normal/bump map information in addition to the color maps.

Outputting extra maps is not a problem at all -- map type is just one of the filter parameters, and it can be controlled just like Size or Variation. The problem is developing the AE plugin itself

Well, blinky lights, and flashy console interfaces aside.

It's more like which game engine's dont support animated textures, I can't think of any decent engines that dont.. The crawling skin ooze in the latest Doom, plenty of effects in Quake 4, HalfLife2 also The new unreal engine supports them as well (just to round out the list)
http://unreal.epicgames.com/UnrealFeatures.htm


But there are still plenty of effects created via animated texture; the problem is that creating good animated textures is often tricky. Having the other maps output to match is a huge bonus. Often instead of animating a texture its just faked with animed UV's (for different reasons to achieve different effects, but often because animating the texture at the desired quality is too time consuming to achieve or difficult to achieve).

all sorts of things though, lava, water, fake-caustics, plasmas, (stuff i mentioned earlier), theyre often sprites on particles (if not just particles, these days) or theyre animated sprites on particles.
Animated textures can also be mapped onto light-outputs to create other effects, in some cases (not just games but general 3d use also).


I'm definitely not trying to push it as a critical life consuming issue, however, it would be an extremely useful feature to have in the bag . Also, I'm not trying to compare it to Darktree's functionality (hehe that's already coming up alot eh?) but if certain attributes were animatable then the options open up for effects creation.