SkIndigo 1.1.15

[Vidy]

Hi there pibuz n suvakas,
2 pibuz: thanks for your answer.. but i dont know how to deactivate shift lens

2 suvakas : yeah i guess what you said is true, but i never find any link to download indigo 1.1.11 or higher, could you give me one please? thanks
and sorry for the image, i was really anxious to ask you guys, until i forgot to resize the image

regards,
vidy

Edit : Ahh, finally got the link to DL indigo ver 1.1.15 it's in front of my face, careless me .. thanks guys

[Pibuz]

you're welcome!

[Whaat]

I don't know ANYTHING about programming, so i don't know: would it be difficult to re-introduce this feature, Whaat?

It was a lot of work to change the system to how it is now. I encourage you to keep trying with 1.1.15. Once you get used to it, you may like it much better. I am not sure if I will ever bring this feature back, but I will look into it. The new system does solve many problems that the old system had (i.e. material purging, huge file sizes, etc.)

[Pibuz]

I really understand your motivations Whaat, it's not that i think that external map referencing is not useful: it's quite the opposite in fact!
I used to complain about some huge file size, as you said!

I only think that it could be an IMPROVEMENT, and not a substitution, for the aforementioned reasons: one thing that really love about skindigo is its "portability", and I really think internal map referencing is sometimes necessary to this aim, mostly when working with components. So, i'd rather leave the choice to the user, whether to use huge textures inside or link them externally. If someone prefers to work with a 90MB skp file with all textures applied in sketchup, i say "Ok dude: do it".

BTW, thank you for your answer, i know you really care about this project.

As always: no hurry.

[crojack]

Now that I am getting used to the new system, it's not soo bad.

For me, with most materials, an external will look better in the final render.

A lot of times though it is nice to choose a sketchup color and than apply a small bump to it, say for interior walls or something. It seems like a hassle to create a material that is just a color if you want to add a bump or something to it. But if it is a lot of trouble, I understand.

What I don't understand is how to map the bump/exp/disp maps.

I have a scene now where I have a floor with carpet. I have a displacement map. Both are external. How do I set the size of the displacement map?

I tried setting them both the UV 1, but than got an error saying there is no UV 1, si I went back to UV sketchup.

Sorry if it is staring me in the face, I just want to learn this and I have never used this type of system before.

[Pibuz]

Oh, I've got to test this, but I think that if your bump/spec/disp maps are the same size as your (applied) diffuse map, they'll be correctly UVmapped.

If you have no diffuse map applied (which means that you actually want to displace a colour)... seriuosly: i wouldn't know which way to turn..

I always used additional maps to the diffuse one, and seldom applied a bump or an exp map to a plain colour..This to avoid the multiple UVmapping (that is an useful tool, but i don't feel too comfortable with it.. my fault..)..

[crojack]

sorry, didn't make myself clear.

all are external, I'm not using any native sketchup materials.

But, the carpet material is not the right size when I import it into sketchup, so I use the sketchup texture tools to resize it the way it should look, but than how do I set the disp map to be the same size?

and, than do I set the diffuse/albedo to sketchup? I have it at sketchup, and that way it gets exported at the size I made it in sketchup?

note, as per Whaat's statement above, even though the Albedo says Sketchup, it is an imported material, not a native material.

[cpfresh]

if you are using the SketchUp texture positioning tools, save that texture in a UV spot. then you can apply that same UV spot to your other external maps (assuming the external images are all the same size - dimension wise i mean.) after you save the UVs i think you can purge the map entirely from SketchUp.

[kellpossible]

what is really silly is that you have to import the maps into sketchup anyway to do the uv mapping so internal textures just makes a lot of sense!

[crojack]

Well, I agree with Kell, But I understand that at some point the complete wysiwyg nature of Skindigo and sketchup is going to be compromised to deal with a really good renderer, whether it is Indigo or something else.

There are two things that i think would make this system more intuitive.

1) A tutorial, like the others you've done Whaat, that shows how to do the UV mapping/assign UV maps/ etc. (I think this is in the works anyways)

2) I think that a big update to the Material Queue is in order.
I was thinking if the material que could be replaced with a window that shows; on one side, the material that is applied in Sketchup, and on the other side, maybe directly across, or something, the external material that is referenced to the material applied in sketchup.

Right now, as far as I can tell, there is no way to keep track of all the materials. When I click on a material and click the little box where you specify the external map, I can't even read the whole path, there is no way to expand that box, or even scroll through to the end since it shows the complete path to the mat.

So, what do you guys think? And especially you Whaat?

[Whaat]

I agree that a tutorial would definitely help clarify the new workflow. I have some ideas to improve the UV mapping workflow, especially with External maps. I will probably focus on this for the next release.

[kellpossible]

Oh great whaat!
We all appreciate the work you do to improve the plugin!

[crojack]

+1

[neo0.]

Thanks for this release, whaat! Works like a charm.

BTW, if sliders could come in handy for the blend mats. IMHO, they're always more intuitive than numerical imputs.

Another thing that could become more intuitive/flexible is painted materials (painted glass, painted plastic, etc) Every time we need to create a new painted mat, we need to copy our old one and edit the IGM to point to the new texture. In my humble opinion, the goal should be to keep us as much in sketchup/indigo without having to divert our attention to windows explorer or notepad. Going back and forth can be kind of disorienting. I know, it doesn't kill you, but that's not what making a better user experience boils down to. It would be nice if the interface was capable of graphically interpreting key parts of an IGS, and editing them. Kind of like the "inspect element" tool in google chrome.. Except not as scary... I

[Whaat]

What do you mean by painted materials? I don't understand why you would have to edit IGM's? Can you explain please?