Content Creation Improvement Informal User Group/Archive/August 14th, 2012 Meeting

15:06 	Geenz Spad  	well get started, so any interesting things people want to bring up?
15:07 	  	JIRAs, ideas regarding content creation, etc...
  	  	if not, we'll move on to the UI discussion
15:08 	Trinity Dejavu  	Nothing that isnt better suited to the pathfinding ug ㋡
  	Geenz Spad  	haha
15:09 	  	so last week, I believe we left off with Kadah and I discussing possible ways we could approach the building UI, and this week I believe Trinity has a few ideas to bring to the table on the subject
15:10 	  	now for anyone who isn't aware, the build UI we currently have has gotten fairly cramped over the 9 years we've had it
  	  	localizations actually break in some cases, and daring to add anything new to it can be a bit of a nightmare
15:12 	  	so ideas and feedback on the issue are most certainly appreciated
15:13 	sachi Vixen  	I don't know if this is particularly relevant so forgive me if it isn't but when the new viewers came in there were certain changes to the way things happen in appearance that made creation for people who make a lot of skins or clothing that way into a bit of a nightmare.
15:14 	  	More clicks to do things etc is there anyway that process can be simplified again?
  	Trinity Dejavu  	Yeah the build floater is 10 years of packing packing and squeezing and jamming more and more and more into that one floater, that was never really a great idea in the first place. if anyonehas tried to edit the XUI for that you will know exactly what I mean. I'm not really thinking about the UI for editing an avatar ir making a clothing layer which could certainly do with some love
  	sachi Vixen  	It's little things but I'm sure there are a lot of us who would appreciate those clicks being gone
  	Geenz Spad  	sachi: we'll get to that if we have time, okay?
15:15 	  	if not today, then next week
  	sachi Vixen  	Thank you Geenz
15:16 	Trinity Dejavu  	There are basically two different use cases for content creation UI and I think it's time to separate them
  	  	the needs of a user who is moving a couch, or rezzing a car, or editing a hat are very different from the needs of the person making that item in the first place
15:17 	sachi Vixen  	That's very true Trinity but the problem is often if you don't these things for hours, there often isn't an understanding of peoples needs.
15:18 	Trinity Dejavu  	basically what we have been tossing back and forth between kitty and myself is breaking the tools into two parts. Something for the consumer thats easy, clean, simple and painless. and then something for the builder who wants all the bells and whistles
  	sachi Vixen  	Like the changes I mentioned, you can tell whoever did those has never stood in appearance for a few hours making skins.
  	Trinity Dejavu  	thats not true
15:19 	sachi Vixen  	what isn't true?
15:20 	Geenz Spad  	I'm assuming you're speaking amongst the people who designed the current appearance UI sachi?
  	sachi Vixen  	yes Geenz, its just apparent with some changes to how you work that the people who made those changes have never spent time working in that way
  	Trinity Dejavu  	they took the V1 UI designed to fill a need by an engineer and jammed it in a tall slim sidebar form factor, it. other stuff then got redesigned following guidelines .. to make a shirt you do a, b , c d and so on. It just happened that the method the v2 sidebar based UI was based off doesnt match how the few hardcore creators used those tools
15:22 	  	which kind of comes back to breaking things down into consumer/casual and expert level tools.
  	[noctis.mesh leather wingback chair (13p, 9 pe) whispers [noctis] MESH leather wingback chair (13p, 9 PE) whispers] 	
(⇞PgUp or ⇟ PgDn ) change your pose. Touch for menu.
15:23 	Trinity Dejavu  	no
15:24 	Geenz Spad  	it may be a good idea to break it down to "how simple do we make operation X"
  	  	and if Oz is saying anything, I think he'll need to move closer :p
  	Trinity Dejavu  	the simple edit tool set would be persistent between both
15:25 	sachi Vixen  	Breaking it down might mean a much much simpler UI for new users and I think that would seriously help retention. I've seen a lot of newbies come and go over my years in Sl and I know many get frustrated by the complexity of SL at the beginning
15:26 	Geenz Spad  	so I'm guessing something like, simple edit tools to advanced properties (think for setting flexi params)?
  	  	do I have the right idea here?
  	[noctis.mesh leather wingback chair (13p, 9 pe) whispers [noctis] MESH leather wingback chair (13p, 9 PE) whispers] 	
(⇞PgUp or ⇟ PgDn ) change your pose. Touch for menu.
15:27 	Typhaon Nishi  	what would the expert/advanced tools entail?
  	Trinity Dejavu  	simple case, I want to move a chair in my home. I dont want to see a full on build floater. I want something very very minimal. say a single tool bar that folds up from the bottom of the screen
15:28 	  	just enough to grab the item, move it on the XY and rotate it on the Z.
  	  	the user has no need to see its name or description or properties or numbers or contents
15:29 	Geenz Spad  	so kinda like a toolbar?
  	Trinity Dejavu  	at most , yes
  	Geenz Spad  	well the idea does sound kinda interesting
  	Trinity Dejavu  	simple obvious tools that might be more akin to a video game
15:30 	Nal  	A right-click with a MOVE in the popup and then show handles on the object...
  	Geenz Spad  	so how about, say, applying a simple texture to an object?
  	Trinity Dejavu  	well, once you're texturing then you step up to expert
  	  	I dont want there to be any fuzzy middle ground
  	Helpless  	drag-and-drop from inventory if you're doing it for a picture frame in someone's home :o
15:31 	Nal  	Your getting into building, to do textures you have find or upload them, that seems like a big step up from simple controls
  	Typhaon Nishi  	I think the line thats been drawn is a user / creator line
  	Trinity Dejavu  	you're either using or making. one is no skill, the other requires all the same skills you need now
15:32 	Kadah  	For code refactoring simplicity (since the viewer currently assumes only one instance of any form of build tools floater/panel/UI, we could do something where the same floater covers both usages by being expandable to show the rest of the "advanced" build tools. (Similar to this https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26299591/samples/build_floaters3.png)
  	sachi Vixen  	I think that would be a very interesting direction to go in
  	Trinity Dejavu  	I hate build tools in a flaoter. period
  	Geenz Spad  	so, we're going more into a full blown "UI" than a floater, thus far the idea is pretty interesting
  	Typhaon Nishi  	so what you're saying is you have your basic menu intended for users and then a sort of advanced menu for builders
15:33 	Helpless  	even the collapsed one there is horribly overcomplicated for anyone trying to move a couch or fit an attachment
  	Typhaon Nishi  	I think for a basic menu that could even be too much
15:34 	  	11 tick boxes
  	Trinity Dejavu  	could then have a side bar for the full toolset
  	Kadah  	I would hate build tools not being a floater. Often I find that I don't need it on screen for a lot of building and minimize it so I'm just in "build mode". Docked panels or toolbars would only cause my workspace to be permanently smaller.
  	Geenz Spad  	from the sounds of it, it's not really a "basic menu", more like a full blown UI of basic functionality that persists across both user level things and expert level operations, am I correct Trinity?
15:35 	Trinity Dejavu  	yes. you have no editing at all. the basic toolset and then basic + advanced
15:36 	Geenz Spad  	Kadah: is there any ways you could think of that the impact you've mentioned could be mitigated using Trinity's idea?
  	Kadah  	Well, what would a basic "move my furniture" UI actually need for a UI? Doesn't all the overlayed movement controls on the obejct server all the basic move, rotate and scale functions without needing an UI?
15:37 	Trinity Dejavu  	yes, but it requires keyboard shortcuts
  	  	basic user - point and click friendly
  	Kadah  	What is Trinity's? I missed most of it.
15:38 	Trinity Dejavu  	2 modes for editing. basic and basic + advanced. basic is tailored for consumers specifically. very simple editing tools that are more video game in design than 3D modelling
15:39 	Kadah  	(Also, I'm partly distracted atm writing a GUI frontend app for semi-automated disc duplication. :p)
  	Trinity Dejavu  	say a tool bar that folds up from the bottom of the screen, half an inch on screen tops
15:40 	Kadah  	Define what "more video game in design than 3D modelling" means? I've seen many different ways that is done in video games.
15:41 	  	And most of the ones I've used use ONLY keyboard shortcuts for mode changing and an aim vector in 1st person viewer
  	Trinity Dejavu  	point and click friendly, visual
  	Geenz Spad  	I'm assuming that what Trinity's talking about is what amounts to a simple toolbar that has all of the basic functions someone needs to place something
  	Trinity Dejavu  	exactly
15:42 	Geenz Spad  	"need to place something? well here's your position, rotation, and scale; now go nuts!"
  	Kadah  	What would these basic functions be? So far it seems that its just mode changing
  	Trinity Dejavu  	place a couch. I need to be able to see it, I need to be able to move it on the XY and rotate it on the Z. and that's the lot
15:43 	Helpless  	right now with the build floater, the most user-friendly pieces of the UI are useless because they represent the different tools rather than the different actions most users perform (move, rotate, resize)... instead those are text options amidst what is to most user gibberish and scary
  	Geenz Spad  	(also, I apologize if I'm slightly less responsive; getting last weeks logs sorted out while I have a bit of time to do so)
  	Trinity Dejavu  	yeah. you should not be able to break your object using the basic tools
15:44 	Kadah  	Break meaning no edit linked? Right
  	Trinity Dejavu  	why would a consumer need to edit linked?
  	Geenz Spad  	well, how about we define what tools we should have in this basic toolset; position, rotation, and scale thus far, how about numerical inputs?
  	Kadah  	Excatly
15:45 	Trinity Dejavu  	numerical inputs are probably to techie
  	Kadah  	I'd at least have numerical readout of the current position, which I think v3 has already on screen
  	Geenz Spad  	should we keep those away? or should we devise some sort of simple way of doing this (such as Maya and Max's little numerical input fields)
  	sachi Vixen  	Light, I think its important to have a simple light button with a lightbulb and some presets to introduce people to setting their own light in SL. It's shocking the number of people who still don't understand how
  	Trinity Dejavu  	the numbers get shown top of screen, that's more information than you need
  	  	define setting your own light
15:46 	Kadah  	"My face light isn't bright enough."
  	sachi Vixen  	Just simple front page access to light presets
  	Helpless  	and for resizing I would add a slider for size as well... one reason resize scripts still get put into stuff is because it's just easier to understand +5%% than the precision dragging of the resize handle
15:47 	sachi Vixen  	Its a bit obscure for new users to change default light atm, a simple button and a preset drop down would be a great intro
  	Kadah  	A resize slider is a bit of a technical challenge
  	Geenz Spad  	hm
15:48 	Kadah  	Since minimum size isn't obvious.
  	Geenz Spad  	there may be a way that we can sort that one out
  	Kadah  	And with the 64m max, the default slider scale would be pretty wild
15:49 	Trinity Dejavu  	bounding box and corner handles are probably more then enough
  	  	defaults to stretch all sides
  	  	and keeps the bottom of the bounding box Z pos fixed
  	Helpless  	problem with those handles is that if you get near the edge of the screen, the camera rotates and your resize flies into extremes :p
  	Trinity Dejavu  	so when I drag rezise my couch, I dont end up with a floaty couch
15:50 	Helpless  	same with the position arrows for that matter :o
  	Kadah  	If you slider control is, say, 250px wide, 1px of movement could be over a quarter meter change.
  	Trinity Dejavu  	combination 3D UI for move XY and rot Z - does not allow any other rotation or movement would be nice too
15:51 	Geenz Spad  	heh, where this is going, let's throw the position/scale/rotation gizmos in with this little redesign while we're at it :p
  	  	(kidding of course, but who knows!)
  	Trinity Dejavu  	3d gizmos are great
  	Geenz Spad  	personally I love how they went about it in the newer versions of the Unreal Editor
15:52 	  	position, scale, and rotation all in one (or not if you don't want it)
  	Typhaon Nishi  	how do you switch between them in unreal editor?
  	Trinity Dejavu  	crud .. cant rez here
  	Typhaon Nishi  	when you say theyre all in one
  	Trinity Dejavu  	wouldn't it be an idea if you could rez at a CC UG :P
15:53 	Geenz Spad  	Oz, can you enable rezzing temporarily?
  	Typhaon Nishi  	I think if there is going to be a revamp in the move control, can there be something to prevent objects from "pinging off"
15:54 	Oz Linden  	done
  	  	what is "pinging off" ?
  	Trinity Dejavu  	thats a couch or similar furniture item .. imagination required
15:55 	Typhaon Nishi  	its happend a few times before, you move something with the gizmo and all of a sudden it "pings" off into the distance
  	Helpless  	that's because you got too close to the edge of the screen :o
  	Typhaon Nishi  	yeah
  	Geenz Spad  	ah, I appear to be mistaken! the object gizmo in UDK hasn't changed much, but I did find something handy for rotation: http://udk.com/elements/img/clip_image008_0003.jpg
15:56 	Nal  	I think 'pinging off' is when moving something toward the end of the visible area near the end of move snap marks it rockets away.
  	Typhaon Nishi  	yeah
  	  	I know why it happens
15:57 	Trinity Dejavu  	a tool like that as a really obvious first choice
  	Kadah  	What determins the corners to touch?
15:58 	Trinity Dejavu  	move it, drag resize and rotate. its also visually familar with the exiting tools
  	  	bounding box
  	Kadah  	Keep in mind that the BB on linksets with sculpts or mesh can be far larger than the apparent size of the object.
15:59 	Trinity Dejavu  	the intent is a tool for domestic personal items
  	  	add in a button to position the camer automatically
  	Kadah  	Which often are poorly made sculpts or mesh :p
16:00 	Geenz Spad  	alright, well, I think this discussion is headed in an interesting direction
16:01 	Trinity Dejavu  	you cant factor in everything with a simple toolset, and well, it if means creators have to pay a bit more attention then it's no bad thing
  	Kadah  	Would the rotate ring be around the obejct?
16:02 	Trinity Dejavu  	yeah
  	Kadah  	That could be an issue for large things like landscaping or buildings
  	Trinity Dejavu  	as long as there is a button to move the cam to a position that you can see all the controls + a margin
  	Kadah  	Oblong objects would be odd as well
  	Geenz Spad  	hm
16:03 	Kadah  	Imagine having something around that size
  	  	And brb
  	Geenz Spad  	well, we could go on for hours on this, but how about we form a little working group here if no one's opposed to that?
  	Trinity Dejavu  	yeah, well its not like 3D widgets are hard to mock up
16:06 	Geenz Spad  	the reason for a having a working group would mostly be to discuss and work on this beyond the constraints that we have for the meeting we have every week, this way we can use the meetings more to present what work's been done during the rest of the week
  	  	what do you think Trinity?
16:07 	Trinity Dejavu  	that would be great, especially if there was somewhere we can leave the results out
16:08 	Geenz Spad  	well, there is the sandbox in Hippo Hollow
  	  	not unless someone can come up with a better place
  	Trinity Dejavu  	that works
  	Geenz Spad  	alright
16:09 	  	sachi: would you like to discuss the appearance editing issues you have now, or would you rather bring it up next week when we'll have more time?
  	Kadah  	I've got a permanent build platform at my sim :p
16:10 	sachi Vixen  	I can give you a quick idea if you think its helpful
  	Geenz Spad  	we have 5 minutes left, so it's up to you
  	Kadah  	Is someone talking in voice?
  	Geenz Spad  	and I'm fine with where ever Kadah, discuss it with Trinity and Kitty as well though
16:11 	Trinity Dejavu  	prefer a public place and hippo seems ideal
  	sachi Vixen  	Basically when you are amking something like skin yu need to change a lot of head textures, the body usually stays the same. In the old 1.23 you could go into appearance, stay there, change the head, save, change the head, save.
  	Kadah  	Hippo Hallow is likely better, fewer random body parts laying around there :p
  	Geenz Spad  	alrighty then
16:12 	  	I suppose that makes Oz the guy to talk to if you're not a part of the open source contributor's group already
  	sachi Vixen  	Now every time you save you are thrown out of the window, you have to reopen, reopen the texture box and start again. I can't tell you how annoying this is then you have to do 48 heads and I know a lot of designers of texture clothing also find this not a fun new feature.
  	  	We do get carpal tunnel injuries as it is fromt his kind of work and the extra clicking is just unfortunate.
16:13 	Geenz Spad  	so would I be correct in assuming that you'd like to have the ability to keep the skin and clothing editors open after saving something?
  	  	is that the basic gist of it?
  	Typhaon Nishi  	maybe cliking some kind of preview button perhaps?
  	  	which updates the texture
  	sachi Vixen  	oh yes please Geenz
  	Geenz Spad  	alright, something to look into
  	sachi Vixen  	want to keep it all open, save, do another one and so on
16:14 	Kadah  	Doesnt it already have that, but its not labeled clearly?
  	Oz Linden  	separate Save & Close ?
  	sachi Vixen  	It used to be that way and its just not a happy change
  	Trinity Dejavu  	well at it's simplest thats just a button if you can write up *exactly* what you want to see different
  	Kadah  	Save and not close.
  	Geenz Spad  	a separate button maybe Oz?
  	Kadah  	I haven't actually used V3 to edit appearance or a skin ever.
16:15 	sachi Vixen  	It used to be that using save as worked, but I find this is no longer the case int he newer viewers
  	Oz Linden  	maybe... would have to look at the specific screens involved
  	Geenz Spad  	alright then
  	  	well, on that note, how about we wrap up?
  	sachi Vixen  	Thanks
[16:15] KadahKadah has not heard any prase for the v2/3 appearance UI.
  	Kadah  	Lottas complaints though.
16:16 	Geenz Spad  	thanks everyone for coming out today, seems like we got some stuff done, which is great!