Everything related to Studio
#400061
First day of use, this version does not crash all the time, a big relief. I hope it allows industrial designers (Alias, Catia, Fusion 360, Siemens NX and SolidWorks users) to leave dreadful Keyshot behind. I will do a course for 30 with it this autumn.

Things I like:
  • Higher speed than V4 on the same computer
    FIRE does not crash when changing lights or making objects visible and invisible
    SL displayed in FIRE window is a plus (why not also in the viewport when viewport rendering?)
    Random UVs and high-res Arroway textures are an easy and great way to avoid visible repetition when showing multiple product copies
    Pre-made very simple photo-studio lighting set-ups for novice designers a big plus
    Keeping the easy to understand material and camera free from the popular but confusion "node everything madness" is a relief
    Substance Painter workflow inclusion is very useful
Things that need improvement:
  • While FIRE is running, the mouse pointer lags substantially when using only the trackpad, unlike in V4 and V3
    When FIRE is stopped, immediately appearing transparent coloured bands across the image render it not useful
    After launching Studio, the Open MXM, Load (texture, layout, etc.) dialogues point to the main Maxwell folder, not the last folder the user used
    Renaming of cameras, triangle groups and modifiers should be done with a double-click instead of having to use a dedicated "rename" button
    Copypasting materials and objects should be renamed "copy", not "clone", which apparently much confuses novices
    Input fields are small and the green highlight and border when active obscure the value or name to be changed
    Unlike in Maya, when an object is selected "C" and mouse pointer over viewport does not "frame" or center the selected object
    Ease-of use "match photo" functionality to get camera right much easier for backplate rendering; Keyshot and VRED do it right
    Deselecting a material does not change material editor and materials panes, but deselecting an object in the attributes panel makes the object parameters pane disappear and the right hand side jumpy/jerky
    Better material presets/library and more forum discussions would be a huge plus for novices
#400068
Nice ones!

Many are subjective obviously - but for sure a great look at how we use things differently.

Have to agree - that feature to Match the camera to the backplate image - is pretty cool. I saw it the first time in Adobe Dimension (yeah yeah - I know 🤷‍♀️) It used to analyze the backplate image you provide and match your camera so that your object is kinda "sits" on the foreground surface (of course photo should be kinda relevant, like tabletop, or road, or something detectable) - now this feature in Adobe Dimension (really - check it out) matches not only Camera angle but also can try to match the lights - which is probably analyzing shadows and highlights with intensity and colours and set's them around the scene. Results are mixed - but the idea is pretty cool.

And yeah jumpy panels - are too responsive Altho I kinda get used to them - been with them so long so I think I even got attached to them on the pretty emotional panel. Not sure if I'm ready to let them go .. but if ya want to - then I think that when nothing is selected (empty space on viewport) it could just show the last selected info.
Or make that size of the window is keeping it's dimensions no matter what is shown inside (just empty space if something small and maybe scrollbars if something big)

Cheers,
Artem.
#400071
Thank you for taking time to give us your feedback. I'm Commenting some of those:
Andreas Hopf wrote:
Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:04 pm
When FIRE is stopped, immediately appearing transparent coloured bands across the image render it not useful
I can't reproduce this. Can you give more information about the steps you follow, cpu or gpu?
Andreas Hopf wrote:
Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:04 pm
After launching Studio, the Open MXM, Load (texture, layout, etc.) dialogues point to the main Maxwell folder, not the last folder the user used
We need to check this kind of behaviour.
Andreas Hopf wrote:
Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:04 pm
Renaming of cameras, triangle groups and modifiers should be done with a double-click instead of having to use a dedicated "rename" button
Double click of camera already has the function to select that camera on viewport and fire. Not sure if that change would make people crazy. We can check the other cases.
Andreas Hopf wrote:
Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:04 pm
Copypasting materials and objects should be renamed "copy", not "clone", which apparently much confuses novices
I don't agree with this one. You complete clone the material or object in that case. Copy paste for me means copying the values from one material to another, no creating a new material that it's identical to the first one.
Andreas Hopf wrote:
Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:04 pm
Input fields are small and the green highlight and border when active obscure the value or name to be changed
This is funny, never noticed it, but a few weeks ago, another programmer told me about it and we already fixed it, and will be fixed on 5.1.2.
Andreas Hopf wrote:
Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:04 pm
Unlike in Maya, when an object is selected "C" and mouse pointer over viewport does not "frame" or center the selected object
You mean the same behaviour like clicking viewport and press 'c', but without clicking, just hovering the mouse, am I correct?
Andreas Hopf wrote:
Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:04 pm
Ease-of use "match photo" functionality to get camera right much easier for backplate rendering; Keyshot and VRED do it right
We have to study how to do this.
Andreas Hopf wrote:
Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:04 pm
Deselecting a material does not change material editor and materials panes, but deselecting an object in the attributes panel makes the object parameters pane disappear and the right hand side jumpy/jerky
This one is tricky. You can see that Material editor has it's own file, edit, etc menus. This is because it's another program (mxed) inside studio. So Material panel has to comunicate with it, and has some restrictions you don't have on other panels. We have to check this kind of things on other panels.
#400076
Thanks for the feedback feedback. It would be good if some of the UI issues mentioned can indeed be resolved. Three days of usage, switching things on and off with FIRE on, and no crash yet. It seems that this version is far more stable than V4 and V3. The preset photo studios are a good start, but more quality materials are needed for beginners, considering competitors' libraries. If you are against "copy" material or "copy" object, which is software convention, at least you could call it "duplicate" instead of "clone".

The translucent material assistant is nice; Smooth-Sil 940 silicone to SL16 in 20 minutes, then Topaz Labs DeNoise, which is incredibly easy to use.

Image
Industrial designers neet top results quickly on a daily basis, so this is good fun.
#400090
Thanks, Luis; yes, I do know the library; it could do with some improvements to entice novices who nowadays are accustomed to well curated libraries.

So far still no crashes, which is really impressive considering V4 was practically unusable on any of the PC I had at my disposal, especially with FIRE on. Normals from Fusion 360 no longer wonky. Much more enjoyable and functional now.
Image

Apart from the bugs/quirks regarding the Viewport display, etc. in the other threads, I noticed that the Textures List display is a bit odd. It would also be useful if one could export it as CSV, ODF or other Excel compatible file format.
Image
#400091
Other things I like:
  • The new(?) library under Resources Browser is very good in terms of industrial and product design materials and colours, accuracy out of the box is convenient
    The new(?) method to use a greyscale high frequency noise textue for anisotropy angle yields stunningly realistic anodised aluminium and car paint colours
Usability improvement:
  • A fixed grid in all views (mm, cm, m) as in any other 3D design application, ideally a grid one also can snap to, would be immensely useful
    The UV Operator should keep its last settings, now every time all nine parameters are active every time the tool is opened
    When importing a material from the Resources Browser, it should retain its name, not show up as temp_1
    When saving the layout, also the Atributes Panel settings should be retained
#400092
Some of these "observations" bother me, just a tiny bit.

It appears to me that some of the first listed "needed improvements" might be due to issues with the author's hardware. I don't experience any lagging peripheral devices (trackball or mouse or pen) when Fire is running. This surely is a motherboard northbridge type of chip issue (this chip, or the equivalent on some Macs regulates the traffic among various components of the motherboard - such as the peripheral devices, cpu and gpu). I doubt this kind of thing can be fixed by software rewrites for Maxwell Render. I, too have experienced those colored bands across Fire, but infrequently and only when pushing my too-old gpu to limits for which it was not designed. Again a hardware issue, really.

I'm not sure why the author is required to use the Rename option when renaming cameras, Groups, etc. For me, I have always been able to double-click on one of these things to rename it. So, it is puzzling that the author is unable to do so.

Probably an opinion that "Clone" in unacceptable and "Copy-Paste" is preferred.
"Clone" doesn't particularly bother me. In fact, as a Maya model-builder used to having to distinguish between an "instance" (not real geometry) and a "duplicate" (real geometry), I prefer "clone", as I know what it is that I am getting here. My vote would be to keep the word "clone."

Not sure why deselecting a material in the Attributes Panel causes the author's and Nasok's panels to become jerky. I've never experienced this, and I use Maxwell almost daily, for normal sized and gigantic-sized (Forester, are you out of your mind!) projects. I wonder if it is another hardware issue.

I assume that the "observation" about things that require improvements - "Better Material Presets Library " must have been made before the author encountered the Online Material Library. And speaking of that --

A comment, such as this one about the materials library..."it could do with some improvements to entice novices who nowadays are accustomed to well curated libraries." seems to be critical, without being helpful. What kind of "improvements?" No doubt, Luis asked you if you were familiar with the Online Materials Library, that you praised in a following statement, (The new(?) library under Resources Browser is very good in terms of industrial and product design materials and colours, accuracy out of the box is convenient.) So, which is it? The Materials Library is either needing some unspecified improvements or it is very good in terms of industrial and product design materials. I'm finding these to be a bit confusing, as you can see.

Not meaning to be terribly critical myself - just that am not sure that all the "needed improvements" are things that can be addressed in software alone. And, I definetly want to retain "clone."!
#400095
  • Trackpad pointer lag is present on current MacBook Pros and MacPros, no deal breaker, but was not present in V4 and below
    In Studio 5.1.1.33 double-clicking the Camera, Triangle Group or Modifier does not set the cursor for renaming, one must click the Rename button
    All novice industrial designers I taught complain about oddball naming and there are, since decades, conventions like "copy", "paste" or "delete", so why not stick to them
    The Object Parameters panel opens and closes, jumps up and down since V3, so it is not a new issue; also the column width in the object/material list is not saved when saving the layout
    The online library found by a bing search is tedious to search compared to that of Keyshot et al. and the same one accessed through the resources browser displays only tiny preview icons, which is inconsistent
I think if users finds glitches, they should be pointed out, even when they aren't necessarily deal-breakers

Here is another glitch - the Constant Dome setting unnecessarily squanders space pushing the Sun setting out of view
Image

As I pointed out explicitly above, there are many excellent things in V5 which may well warrant Keyshit abandonment for industrial designers or product development engineers.
#400099
I run Windows 10 on the Macs.

A question and a new quirk in Studio:
  • Page https://nextlimitsupport.atlassian.net/ ... ha+channel says one can use the Opaque option with Custom Alpha channels, but I only have that option with the normal Alpha channel option right under Render - I have an AGS material on a window and want to photoshop a sky backplate into all window panes, but the Custom Alpha channel with AGS material turns out grey 123, 123, 123 instead of white 255, 255, 255
  • When many objects are grouped and one selects one of them accidentally in the viewport, the group is expanded in the object lister; a group should only expand when the user wants it to expand
Still no crashes. I'm well chuffed!
#400106
Andreas Hopf wrote:
Mon Sep 07, 2020 2:06 pm

Apart from the bugs/quirks regarding the Viewport display, etc. in the other threads, I noticed that the Textures List display is a bit odd. It would also be useful if one could export it as CSV, ODF or other Excel compatible file format.
I want to improve texture list and give it more functionality. That export to CSV can be a good idea, thank you.

For the thing in the image. Not loaded just means that it not already loaded by Studio inteface and it ignores some data. If you click on that row it would load it and give the information. It has nothing to do with it's use during render.

For all the other issues and sugerences we will check and report what is needed. Thank you for your time.

Pd: clone forever! XD
#400116
Thanks, Luis, so far I am by and large impressed by V5 from the industrial design usage point of view, meaning getting great results set up as fast as possible out of the box; as the job focus is on thinking and designing, not rendering ; )

So far one crash while FIRE was running, when making a hidden emitter plane visible in the object lister so it suddenly contributes to the scene lighting.

But now I discovered a serioius glitch, please see the image below. When applying certain materials, seemingly triangle smooting related glitches show up. Concave shading appears out of nowhere and one can almost see the triangle edges in some places, but strangely not everywhere, so the glitch is not consistent. When I delete all bumpmaps from the material in question, the same glitch shows up, but not on the bumpmapped plastic material version. What can one do about that?

Image

I will make a concise list of the things I found (UI, functionality, glitches) once I am done evaluating hopefully by the end of this week.

Much appreciated!

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