Can we have something like this? (navigation)

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
41

Make that an ‘enable’ option and you have a deal. :wink:

42

I think that the bge needs this instead-

CLIPPED walker camera !!!

walk around in scene, edit in the scene… potenially with real time cycles…

but the important part is . no walking through stuff, and falling though “ground plane”

this would be VERY nice for map making…

43

I don’t work with BGE, but i’m glad you see some usability to this too.

Anyone knows if it’s possilbe to make a addon like this, I mean, buttons overlaying the viewport?

44

Wow… just wow.

Before I ever started using Blender regularly, I used Wings3D to model.
Wings’ navigation options have presets that match most other apps, plus a Wings/Mirai hybrid by default.
One of those presets in “Blender”.

Of all the presets available, even back then I chose the Blender preset as the primary nav. is on the MMB.

Flick the wheel to Zoom in/out. Press the wheel to rotate. With the “Zoom to cursor” option set (Wings OR Blender), you hardly even have to hit the SHFT key to pan… just flick the wheel, zoom out, move mouse, flick the wheel to zoom back in.

One stop shopping.

Hate having to fly the mouse back and forth away from the work area to hit a icon for viewport navigation. Lightwave has it, Messiah has it, 3dsmax has it… blech!

45

Just to make myself clear, my view is that:

  1. Everything, no matter how good, can be made a lot better. This is reality vs human perception -which is naturally, always limited.
  2. We should struggle to evolve things and make them better -especially open software.
  3. We should listen to feedback, including from new users, as reality changes and even the most objective old user, still has a slightly different point of view -inside vs outside.

Now, I understand original poster’s view and point as valid, but I also think that 3 buttons will not make much of a difference for new users.
In general, the goal should not be keyboard vs mouse, or more mouse less keyboard etc, the goal should be the most efficient interface possible, no matter what it is. I recognize that the keyboard shortcuts solve many usability problems, but the interface as a whole leaves a lot to be desired. Personally, I’m using a mouse with several buttons and I have assigned functions to them, to minimize (a bit) the keyboard use. Still, after working many hours, I find the different left-hand keyboard shortcuts tiresome.

[BTW, here is an Off-topic idea:
The generic qwerty keyboard with it’s homogenous buttons doesn’t help as much as it could.
The ideal would be a Blender-specific keyboard with all buttons placed ergonomically in visually recognized patterns and proper coloring, in such a way that it would maximize efficiency both in use and in learning (definitely doable at a few $ cost, with member donation)].

Anyway, IMO the major improvements can be done on the interface itself. Like Regnas (OP), I have this in my mind and I might make a specific interface suggestion in a more holistic version (for the whole interface) -if I find the time in the near future, as I’m too busy this period of time.

46

Oh yeah, I can see it now:

47

Nope. This is even more homogenous.

48

I am a fan of the concept of using only the mouse to navigate.

Has anyone had experience with the Editor for Unreal Engine?

In my opinion the editor for Unreal Engine does this right. I was able to get used to it quickly and I find it most efficient for navigating environments, large spaces, and between objects. If you want to see what I am talking about you can download UDK.

In the 3D view: Moving the mouse while holding left button moves the camera forward and back and can steer it on the X/Y plane. Moving the mouse while holding right button rotates the view. Moving the mouse while holding both buttons pans the camera side to side and up and down the Z axis.

This is something I wouldn’t mind as an option per context for object mode and edit mode.

49

I downloaded the SDK as I’m generally interested in interfaces (for 3D flash) and saw the mouse navigation. It was interesting although I’ve seen something similar before. With only two buttons you have a full navigation in XYZ (forward, backward up, down and sideways) and full rotation of the view. But to be honest, I like more the Blender’s fly-by function -except in cases I’d need it to be precise.
Also, I always enable in Blender “Rotate around selection” (I wonder how other Blender users work without this) something I didn’t saw in that navigation. I guess this is be possible to set, right?
As I was a beginner on this system it felt awkward, but my …usability 6th sense tells me that it also can be made a lot better!
If there is a precision-alternative to fly-by in Blender, then it can be fully replicated, at least with a moue that has more than two buttons.

Now, working with Blender (in contrast to a game SDK) doesn’t require just a great navigation, but also a way to change the view quickly (front, left, right, top, bottom, orthogonal, perspective). A multi-mouse button helps a lot: I have embedded all Blender’s navigation plus the above view changes on a 7+2 button mouse + the wheel, with the help of only two keyboard keys (shift and Ctrl).

50

Edit: Wrong thread… Too many tabs open

51

It will make a huge difference for sure. Think in a laptop with a touchpad only…

And as you may know, laptops are the most used computers these days, it would be a plus not only for new users, but seasoned users as well.

Btw, I’m writing in a laptop right now…:smiley:

52

Hey, I changed the icons to make them more relevant to the actions they do:

##### BEGIN GPL LICENSE BLOCK

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or

modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License

as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2

of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,

but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the

GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,

Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

##### END GPL LICENSE BLOCK

bl_info = {
“name”: “Change View Buttons”,
“author”: “ramboblender”,
“version”: ( 0, 2 ),
“blender”: (2, 68, 0),
“location”: "View3D > Header ",
“description”: “Add View Buttons”,
“warning”: “”,
“wiki_url”: “”,
“tracker_url”: “”,
“category”: “3D View”}

import bpy
from bpy.types import Header

class MyButtons(bpy.types.Header):
bl_space_type = ‘VIEW_3D’
bl_region_type = ‘HEADER’

def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    row = layout.row(align=True)
    
    row.separator()
    row.separator()

   
    row.operator("view3d.rotate", text="", icon='FILE_REFRESH' )       
    row.operator("view3d.zoom", text="", icon='ZOOM_IN')
    row.operator("view3d.move", text="", icon='HAND')

def register():
bpy.utils.register_module(name)

def unregister():
bpy.utils.unregister_module(name)

if name == “main”:
register()

53

this would be a nice addon if somebody can do it… just an idea and funny. I will definitely not use it but just for fun :smiley:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]297121[/ATTACH]

54

Keyboard shortcuts. If you have to go find buttons to move the model around in the viewport, you aren’t going to get very far.

The added bonus of this is that it requires no coding, no feature changes and no special builds of Blender. Also, it will automagically make you a better computer user and a better artist (faster and thus more productive).

You are trying to make 3D assets on a tablet? Why don’t you also try to sail around the world in a kyak?

55

Does anyone know if there are any GUI plans for tablet users? Plans to advance?
Working on a tablet is easy…
(note: at least 2 years old videos)
MoI:

SpaceClaim:

56

Its not really worth it to design a UI for tablet PCs and historically those have never worked out well. (Case in point, Sony Vegas/Movie studio 13 vs 12) That said, you can use blender now on a tablet. Grab Art Dock + make some pie menus. Its not really worth it though, not yet anyhow. I can see some kind of extremely simple streamlined tablet mode maybe in the future, but the UI for normal desk/laptop users (which are obviously the extreme majority of the userbase) is still being worked on. A tablet based UI, while I think silly and gimmicky, is a luxury for another time. Too many other priorities exist for the foreseeable future.

-Just an opinion.

57

We often disagree, but in this case I completely agree.

58

I think it’s a fine idea. Just have a little disable feature in the preferences (I mean, really the fuss that this is making is silly - even maya has a disable function for their box navigation). And I personally like the little box that 3dsMax/Maya has.

It’s kinda nice just having to double click it on the side if I’m using my laptop to look around the viewport. Trackpads suck with blender. So yah, it’s a nice convenience to get implemented into the trunk. And I don’t see it taking that many resources away from Blenders development. It could probably be implemented with their new UI design that they’re working on.

59

Design for ease of use. Experienced users can then disable those features if they seem like visual clutter.

60

Still nothing??? :frowning:

UI team, where are you???