#W I S H – L I S T
9 messages in this thread
Thus begins the first official, user-inspired, Wishlist for Visual Reality and
Renderize Live. Please post any options, features, etc. that you think would
make this the greatest product of its kind.
To start off:
-Path Based Animation:
Path based animation can be much more precise and is easier to set up for quick
reviews and the results are easily predictable. joel*
Hi Joel,
How does path based animation differ from the animation in VR? I have only
done one animation so far so I am extremely inexperienced.<g>
Here's my suggestion, it is the first thing I have to deal with upon starting
the program…
-Give VR a maximize button right next to the minimize button. I have to drag
it out manually to cover the screen.
Jim
Jim:
I concur that we should make our interfaces _and_ viewport completely
resizable. I'll make every effort to get that into the v.4 release.
Hi Nick,
I have another wish…<g>
– Upon startup, RL doesn't remember where the toolbox etc were placed from the
last session. Corel has a neat way of accomplishing this, there is a choice of
"Current Placement" or "Placement on Exit". Is this or similar possible?
Thanks!
Jim
Jim:
Yes, that's a good suggsestion. I'll admit, we're all so used to the
"standard" interface configuration that we might not give enough mind share to
the Floating Toolbox and Floating Resource Manager configuration.
I'd be interestes to know from you and any others how often you use the
floating windows config. as opposed to the standard config. And if there is a
way we can make the floating config even better…
Nick
Hi Nick,
I prefer the floating Toolbox and Resource Manager as it allows me to place
them where it is intuitive for me. I have the RM off to the right and the Tbox
under the view port. I believe the floating boxes will be used even more once
the viewport is enlarged. Then the user can move them over non-pertinent areas
of the image.
An improvement to the floating Resource Manager would be…
-Allow minimizing of Resources that are not being used at the time being. Like
in shrinking the Image recourses to provide more Object space etc. Often there
are un-used slots in some resources while others are packed with things.
CorelDraw does a similar trick with thier "Rollups", they can roll down when in
use and be rolled up to gain screen space.
-Enable the RM to be resized, I can't stretch to the top or bottom of the
screen to maximize space for the resources it contains.
-Redo all of the scroll bars. When clicked on, the top and bottom arrow should
scroll up or down exactly one frame. When clicked on, the area above the
slider should take you to the top of the frame, and if you click on the area
under the button it should take you to the bottom of the frames.
Thanks!
Jim
Solid input, all of it. Thanks.
OK, my turn at the wishing well!!! <g>
My MAIN wish is for a little re-thinking of the UI part of RL. The drag-drop
metaphor is fine, but in general the information density in the interface and
dialogs is quite low.
Since the viewport only takes up a smallish total amount of space there isn't
really a need for such a large maximized window — that would leave room on the
desktop for other apps.
So….
1. Use "standard" sized buttons like Word/Excel (don't forget to support
small/large buttons for 96/120 dpi displays resolutions — see Word for an
example).
2. Reduce the size of the various enclosing boxes around the toolbars etc. They
are really just wasted space.
3. The various object managers (dialogs) could do with some size reduction too.
Try looking to see how Word and Excel stuff large numbers of options into a
smaller space, but still end with clearly understood dialogs.
4. The various object managers could actually be folded into a single tabbed
dialog (read property sheet under Chicago).
Hope you don't mind the feedback — the product is really excellent and the UI
aspect is pretty much the only thing I think needs some work. The drag-drop
concept, BTW, is really very good.
(As you may guess, in between my other work, I consult on UI design.)
Tim
P.S. Oh yes, one other request… Have a couple of testers hammer on the NT
version for a few days and do a quick bug fix — it's still a little shaky.
Tim
HI Tim:
Good input, all of it. We're definitely going to optimize use of space as we
move toward the Win95 UI. We've had some good user suggestions on this front
and look forward to implementing them.
Nick Josephs
Visual Software