Changes since 1.3.1

[Aardwolf]

I've been using Wings3D for a long time, but I never upgraded past 1.3.1 because of some changes I didn't like. I recently got a new computer and was going to reinstall Wings3D, but first I am wondering if there is any way to get some of the improvements I've been missing out on, without the parts I don't like.



The two things I didn't like were:

1. Power-User Temporary Selections --- used to be optional, but nowadays it is on by default with no apparent way to turn it off. For those who don't remember what this refers to, it's the feature where if nothing is selected it treats what the mouse is over as a selection.

2. Stipled face/object selections instead of solid selections.



Is there any way to restore the old behavior in recent versions?

Is there anything awesome enough that was added in recent versions to keep me from just installing the old version?

[micheus]

1. Power-User Temporary Selections --- used to be optional, but nowadays it is on by default with no apparent way to turn it off. For those who don't remember what this refers to, it's the feature where if nothing is selected it treats what the mouse is over as a selection.

Go to the Preferences dialog and in the General tab look for Highlighting group. There you must mark the Condition Selection checkbox.

[Aardwolf]

Thanks for responding ... but I don't see an option like that? Using 1.5.4

Attaching a screenshot of my Preferences > General

I tried checking/unchecking the two options in the Highlighting section, but neither seems to be what I want. Checking "Conditional Deselection" had no visible effect. Unchecking "Objects" caused it to not highlight what's under the cursor when in object mode, but it still behaves as if the object under the cursor were the selection.



There are two significant use cases that this is breaking.

1. The Frame command (Shift+A):

In version 1.3.1, if I pressed Shift+A with something selected, it positioned the camera to fit that something in the viewport. If I pressed Shift+A with nothing selected, it would fit the entire scene in the viewport.

In newer versions, if I am zoomed in close to something, it is impossible to have nothing selected. The only way to zoom out to fit the entire scene is to first manually zoom out using the scroll wheel. Suppose I'm working zoomed in on a particular small, detailed feature of my object, and I want to zoom out to the entire scene. In 1.3.1 I would press Space to deselect everything, and then Shift+A to zoom to fit the scene. But with newer versions, if my object is filling my entire viewport and I press Shift+A, even though I have nothing selected, it zooms in on whatever the cursor is over. Even in vertex mode. It will zoom to fit a single vertex, which has zero size, in the viewport.

So I have to manually zoom out until part of the viewport contains open sky, before I can use the hotkey to zoom out.

2. Creating new objects:

In Wings 1.3.1, I can press Space to deselect all, and right click bring up the menu to add a new object to the scene. In newer versions, I cannot add a new object to the scene without first zooming out far enough that there is no object under my cursor.

So I have to manually zoom out until part of the viewport contains open sky, before I can create a new object.



I do not like this feature. It was optional, and should have remained optional IMO.



(The stipled face/object selections I could probably get used to.)

[micheus]

... but I don't see an option like that? Using 1.5.4

Attaching a screenshot of my Preferences > General

I tried checking/unchecking the two options in the Highlighting section, but neither seems to be what I want. Checking "Conditional Deselection" had no visible effect.

Checking the "Conditional Deselection" as I suggested this that way:
- You can see the three modes buttons down (vertex/edge/face), but you start to select a face and the only mode button down becomes face; then, your press space bar to clear the selection; the only mode button down is still the face one. You can continue selecting faces and so on...
- You can change to edge mode and the only mode button down becomes the edge one.
- Do you want to see the three mode buttons down again? Hit space twice. But, as soon as you choose a selection mode it will be the default until you repeat this action or select another selection mode.

About the Shift+A, I believe that can be an eventual situation and you always will have the option to use the main menu View->Frame with a mouse click.

Anything else can be wast of time to discuss, because we are going forward and I don't believe something that was changed and not discussed in the proper time would be bring back now. (my own thoughts)

[dgud]

These are the ones we have remembered to write down :-)

And we have also introduced new bugs :-)

--- 2.0.5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

- Updates to the Japanese translation [tkbd]

- Fixed a hotkey issue that was not enabling replace a previous binded key as
well as it was ignoring the hotkey deletion. Thanks ggaliens. [micheus]

- Added logic that allow the Yafaray - after the engine path be provided -
get its render option available under File->Render option whithout need to
restart Wings3D. Thanks oort for ask about it. [micheus]

- Fixed the problem with crash in the Ambient Occlusion plug-in. [Björn Gustavsson]

- Fixed the bad text formatting in the module wpc_constraints that was
causing Wing3d crash. Thanks to tkbd. [micheus]

Also, as suggested by the user tkbd, it was added a message dialog that
shows to the user the message about the constraint that just has been set. [micheus]

- In OSX, when merge dialog is shown the mouse cursor becomes a clock.
Thanks to tkbd. [micheus]

- Handle filename with unicode characters, reported by beng27 [dgud]

- Moving the mouse over 'Various Plans' dialog icon was causing Wings3d
crach. Thanks to tkbd. [micheus]

- Fixed other hotkey issues. [dgud]

--- 2.0.4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

- Further updates of the German translation by Roy. [Björn Gustavsson]

- Improved connect cut command to work in more cases [dgud]

- Fix memory duplication when opening face/edge menu. [dgud]

- Fixed a crash caused by the format_hotkey routine when an error was
handled in wings_hotkey module. Thanks ggaliens. [micheus]

- Update French translation. [Enzo]

--- 2.0.3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

- Added possibilty to cut and connect 2 or 3 vertices with MMB
[Mark Whittemore] [dgud]

- Fixed the crash/hang caused by the slide color control. [micheus]

- There was a strange black line being drawn in the background starting from
mini axis. Thanks to Asticles for report it. [Micheus]

- Fixed fragment shader code for Marble and Noise that was causing
render crash in texture creation. Thanks tkbd. [micheus]

- Fixed tweak information line and hotkey handling back to as it in
previous releases. Thanks Fonte Boa. [micheus]

- It was not possible set a hotkey for commands assigned to
RMB. Thanks Fonte Boa [micheus]

- The German translation has been updated by Roy. [bjorng]

- Fixed typo in absolute move, thanks Loefet [dgud]

- Fixed crash in plugin-manager, thanks tkbd [dgud]

- Fixed installation of vcredist package from Microsoft. [dgud]

- Some keyboard fixes on Mac

- Improved EPS/SVG Exporter [tkbd]

--- 2.0.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

- Fixed the background color exported when a Ambient light is used. Thanks oort;

- Fixed a crash caused by editing an old projects that a material can contain
modulators with values out-of-range; Thanks oort.

- Fixed a bad path formation caused by a missing condition in the routine to
get relative paths used by POV-Ray plugin. [micheus]

- Fixed the sub- menu location for the "Drop picked object" option.
In the current implementation it seems there is no need for translate the
cursor cordinate. Thanks oort; [micheus]

- Fixed the cause of Wings3d crash when 'Enable Develop Menu' was
enable/disable. Thanks oort; [micheus]

- Fixed the missed control over the transparency color of magnet
in the Tweak tool. [micheus]

- Fixed the missed dialog prompt action before overriden a file. Thanks oort.
- Fixed wrong beharviour when trying to save an untitled file. Thanks tkbd. [micheus]

- Added help content to Yafaray Export dialog. by oort;
- Fixed Transparency Refraction option in the Yafaray plugin. by oort; [micheus]

- Fix autouv texture generation, reported by tkbd.
Many bugfixes and new shaders [micheus, dgud]

- For two mouse buttons settings the menu was ignoring the combo CTRL+RMB
and was acting just like a RMB. Thanks to ggaliens. [micheus]

- Various other bugs reported on the forum. [dgud, micheus]

- Rewrote the internal rendering to use vbo instead of display lists. [bjorn]

- Fixed keyboard handling on mac. [bjorn]

--- 2.0.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

- Added OpenGL version check, for future version requirements [bjorng]

- Unselected vertex size was not changed after changing it in the
Preferences. [micheus]

- Fixed color selection for lights by using wings color selector
when alpha value is required. [dgud]

- Added support for loading multiple images in Import Image command. [micheus]

- Fixed labels and textbox aligment for Absolute Command->Move/Scale [micheus]

- 1) Yafaray plugin update:
- Reworked in the layout of the Yafaray "Render Options" dialog;
- made some changes asked by oort;
- fixed some bugs found by oort
- updated the help information for material and lights;

2) POV-Ray plugin update:
- fixed some controls alignments

3) Kerkythea plugin update:
- fixed some controls alignments

4) wpc_absolute_move.erl
- fixed control alignments

5) wings_light.erl
- fixed alignment [micheus]

- Fixed double click drag selection [dgud]

- Fixed other minor problems reported in the forum including
- Log/Console window related issues
- Linux installer problems
- Set keyboard focus in dialogs
- Multisampling preference
[dgud]

--- 2.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

- Rewrote to use wx as backend for graphics
It allows us to use more (native) widgets in the future and
copy-paste in text widgets, native fonts and so on.
Much have been rewritten so much can be broken,
please report bugs in the forum.
[dgud] and [Micheus]

- Removed/Changed some features that was hard to port to wx
Setting/removing keyboard shortcuts have change, see help.
Preview rendering is always on.
Right Click menu icons have been removed.

- Changed the installer for all OS'es, to behave more like native apps.
-- Linux: includes desktop shortcuts with icons.
-- Windows: allows the wings to moved after install
-- Mac: More native apperance, menu in the top bar

- Added edge/hardness/invert command [Mark Whittemore]

- Removed YafRay plugin and added a new YafaRay plugin [oort]
Ported all render plugins to use the new gui. [Micheus]

- Added a file merge dialog so the user can choose what to import. [micheus]


--- 1.5.4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

- The grid size is now adjusted automatically [Micheus]

- Fixed crash in saved views (Thanks to Stem) [Micheus]

- Fixed a bug with the routine to get vertex and point for
move/scale/rotate operations. (Thanks PuzzledPaul) [Micheus]

- Fixed crash in Set Constrain->Percentage in Edge mode,
Thanks Arg Arg. [Micheus]

- Fixed a crash caused by Flip command when the object has virtual mirror.
Thanks VladD for report it. [Micheus]

- Made it possible to bind a hotkey to 'Lift' command, reported by
ptoing. [Micheus]

- Fix autouv crashes. [Micheus]

--- 1.5.3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

- Use (and require) OTP 17.0 which hopefully fixes unicode issues on
win32 [dgud]

- Fix OpenCL so that it works on nvidia cards even though it's built
with a 1.2 framework [dgud]

- JPG import now works on the Mac. [Björn Gustavsson]

- Added a new option to Snap[RMB] (in Body mode) that enable the user
duplicate the object between reference and target. Thanks to Optigon
for suggest it. [Micheus]

- Added a new option to auto save an unsaved project. [Micheus]

- Fixed an issue related to font selection under Windows 7 - fonts'
name aren't displayed. [Micheus]

- Fixed an issue related to edges highlight in Tweak and Sculpt that
was crashing wings when the object have hidden faces or
holes. Thanks to Extrudeface for the report. [Micheus]

- Fixed a issue related to Select Group and Saved Camera windows not
be drawn using the alpha settings as defined in the
preferences. Thanks to Justanother1 for the report. [Micheus]

- Fixed the duplicated IDs in the language file for "Rename"
operations available in the "Geometry Graph" window. Thanks to
TulipVorlax. [Micheus]

- Fixed some issues related to images of materials exported by POV-Ray
plugin. Thanks to RyMopar that reported it. [Micheus]

- Fixed an error in the "wings_u:relative_path_name" routine that was
rebuilding the full path in a wrong way. [Micheus]

- Added support to save and restore the last view settings of a project. [Micheus]

- Added option to customize the grid size. [Micheus]

- Added a new option to Absolute-Move command (MMB) that enable the
user set the reference point. [Micheus]

--- 1.5.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Fix various crashes and instabilites. [dgud]

- Automatically freeze mirrors when exporting, thanks to nemyax for the report. [Micheus]

- Window can be used by users with unicode chars in the name on windows [dgud]

- Fixed an issue setting the camera position with the dialog.
Thanks to ekolis. [Micheus]

- Fixed more PovRay output formats
Thanks ekolis. [Micheus]

--- 1.5.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Remove the erlang window and make Wings appear more as a native application

--- 1.5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Several levels of subdivision in smooth proxy can be drawn
This feature can be enabled in Preferences/Misc if OpenCL drivers can be found. [dgud]

- Added the possibility to view normal/bump maps in the model window,
for uv-mapped surfaces. [dgud]

- Added a Japanese translation provided by Tsukubado(tkbd), thank you. [dgud]

- Korea3d and Szzz have updated the Korean and Chinese translations. [dgud]

- Fixed secondary (always add temporary) selection, to only create temporary selection
if nothing was selected. Reported by Siber. [dgud]

- Fixed selection bug where 'Select By Non Quadrangle Faces' did not work if anything was
selected. Reported by Deerwood. [dgud]

- Fixed crash in autouv if every vertex was selected before unfold, reported by Deerwood [dgud]

- Images loaded by "Import Image" now preserve its file extension
in its name shown in the Outline window as already is done by using
"Make External". (Thanks to FranOnTheEdge that reported this issue)
[Micheus]

- Fixed the wrong placement of object in a folder after the project
has been loaded/reloaded. (Thanks to deerwood that reported this
bug) [Micheus]

- Fixed merge cameras.
Now, any existing cameras in both files are maintained.
(Thanks to deerwood that reported this bug) [Micheus]

- Visible and Locked states of lights were not restored after the
project has been loaded, despite they have been saved.
(Thanks to deerwood and ggaliens that reported this bug) [Micheus]

- Multiple mouse buttons options in the context menu of Outliner window.
The option Select by material in the Outliner window doesn't
select the right elements if the selection mode isn't Face or
Body. It was fixed and added new parameters
that enable us to add support for "add to selection" and "remove from
selection" in context menu.
(Thanks to deerwood that reported the bug
and suggested the new options) [Micheus]

- Fix unc paths on windows
(Thanks to jentzenm.unofficialsony that reported this bug) [Micheus]

When trying to saving a wings scene file to a path on the network
using unc path, an error occurs (Save failed: no such file or
directory) and the file was not saved. For some reason the first
slash is removed from the path name when Save dialog returns the
file name in the function wings_file:export_filename_1/2(after
executed wings_plugin:call_ui()). The same occurs with Open dialog
too. It seems to be a Erlang issue (I'm not sure). I did a
workaround, then I could Save/Export/Import using an "unc" path
without any problem. (Thanks to jentzenm.unofficialsony that
reported this bug) [Micheus]

- Improvements to Information line management made it auto-sizable
when the message is longest than window width. [Micheus]

- Fixed UV Torus crash
If a zero value has been inputted it will be overwritten with 3;
- added information for the fields U and V on Torus dialogs;
- Deutsch translation of 'lang' file by deerwood;
(Thanks to deerwood that reported this bug) [Micheus]

- Text Primitives should be centered according to bounding box
that surrounds the text primitive being created. [Mark Whittemore]

- Dialogs can now support model previews.
- Camera remains usable while dialog is active.
- Preview has 3 modes: Auto, Delayed, and Manual.
- Many existing dialogs have been updated to support
the new changes.(Shapes, Drag Args, Absolute Cmds,
Numeric Camera, and Selection tools).
- Combined primitives into single dialogs to save menu space.
- Values for Sliders and Text Entry Boxes with numeric
data can be increasd/decreased with the Scroll wheel.
- Constraints [Shift, Ctrl, Alt] work when changing
values using the scroll wheel within dialogs.
[optigon]

- Move edges along normal fix. [optigon]

- Added constraints to Sculpt mode menu. [optigon]

- Fixed the wrong selection of elements when using the option
Material->Select in the Outline window if selection mode isn't Face
or Body. Also, its context menu supports multiple options and it was
added two new options: "Add to selection" and "Remove from
selection". (Thanks to deerwood that reported the bug and suggested
the new options) [Micheus]

- Added a new option to Windows menu ("Selection Groups") that implements the selection commands in a window as follow:
LMB
- Select the group itens in the Geo win;
RMB
- With a group selected:
- above it self or in empty area: Delete/ Delete Invalid Groups;
- above another group: Delete/ Delete Invalid Groups/ Union/ Subtract/ Intersect;
- Without a group selected and none selection in Geo win:
- above a group: Delete/ Delete Invalid Groups;
- Without a group selected but with an selection in Geo win:
- above a group: New Group/ Delete/ Delete Invalid Groups/ Union/ Subtract/ Intersect/ Add to/ Subtract from;
- in an empty area: New Group;

It was suggested by Fonte Boa. [Micheus]

- Added a new option "Rename" group; suggested by Fonte Boa
Improved visual feedback by adding mouse tracking - the group name under mouse pointer is framed;
Changed the default window position to up/left side of the window desktop. [micheus]

- Wings core (wings.erl and wings_plugin.erl) was changed in order
to make possible all windows used in a plugin be saved/restored
automaticly; updated wpc_sel_win.erl in order to use the new
resource, saving and restoring its placement on Wings
desktop. [Micheus]

- Added constraints to Sculpt mode menu. [optigon]

- Fixed the wrong selection of elements when using the option
Material->Select in the Outline window if selection mode isn't Face
or Body. Also, its context menu supports multiple options and it was
added two new options: "Add to selection" and "Remove from
selection". (Thanks to deerwood that reported the bug and suggested
the new options) [Micheus]

- Added Select|By|Name option in which selections using a matching name can be made by combining the "*" wildcard.
Added new options for Renaming objects in the Geometry Graph window:
LMB -> "Rename selected objects" (the current option)
MMB -> "Rename all selected objects" (the option already enabled in Body mode)
RMB -> "Rename objects filtered using a mask for name" (new option)

Now, Rename objects can be applied to several object at once, by
using a selection or a search mask (like *box*). Also, the new name
has a sequential number appended to it or placed in a defined
position by using the "%" wildcard. It's possible to define the
starter number by puting it between two "%" character (like:
Cube%100%). [Micheus]

- Added two new options: Remove Invalid groups and Delete All groups.[Micheus]

- It was improved the Image Plane resource by adding a dialog box for
enter options like: location, rotation around origin, lock it after
created and assign a transparent material for its back face (this make
possible to see trough the image plane in proxy mode). Thanks oort by the
idea and support as well to Ran13. [Micheus]

- Added two new options: Remove Invalid groups and Delete All groups.[Micheus]

- Move edges along normal fix. [optigon]

- Fixed View ClipPlane bug [dgud]

- Fixed crash caused by user hit ENTER in a dialog and the focus is in the expand/collapt button; (thanks to oort)
Fixed hard crash caused when a dynamic sub-menu (like Render) doesn't have any item; (thanks to oort)
Fixed the start value to Edge component. Different of the others it was starting from 1 - now it starts from 0;
(suggested by Caverman)
Fixed the bad display of values for the columns Volume and Area in the Tools->Scene Info. (thanks to ggaliens)
[Micheus]

- Fixed the crash when exporting an object converted to light
(Object as area light). Thanks to sandman for report. [Micheus]

- Fixed a bug when exporting an object converted to area light and that has hard edges. Thanks oort. [Micheus]

- Added the ip_helper image to the projectsources. [Micheus]

Notable new feature in 1.4 (compared to 1.2)
============================================

- Major rewrite of Tweak to integrate it into the Wings core. The new Tweak
features improved performance, additional tools, and more flexibility.

- Lots of new tools:
- Plane Cut and Slice for cutting objects or face selections
- Rotate Unconstrained for multi-axis rotations
- Sculpt Mode lets you push, pull, inflate, pinch, and smooth your model
- Face|Bridge now connects any two face regions
- Body|Weld now manages neighbouring faces
- View Along Nearest Axis (use 1 hotkey instead of 6)

- Interface improvements:
- Asian font support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
- Rollup windows into their titlebars
- Right-Click menus now sport a Menu Toolbar
- Folders and new icons for the Geometry Graph
- Four color themes to choose from in the Edit menu
- Save and load Preference Subsets from the File menu
- Automatic menu clipping for long menus
- Tweak Palette for selecting Tweak tools, magnets, and axis constraints
- Fix to properly restore the maximized Wings layout on Windows

- Many bugfixes and improvements

[jim]

I also griped about power selections way back when it was first rolled out .... You halfway fixed it, but it still has non optimal behavior for many modeling scenarios. Sometimes its nice, sometimes its just a pain.

Turning off conditional deselection does not work for some commands like absolute commands>snap, Tools>set default axis>set axis, etc. Wings just goes back to power selection mode for the duration of the command. Is this really the behavior you intended?

It would be better if the selections stayed modal for such commands too until the user decides otherwise and cancels it with double space. Sometimes users really want to just stay in one mode until a task is done.

I also agree that aim should honor only the deliberate selection.

[micheus]

I also agree that aim should honor only the deliberate selection.

I disagree. Aim helps a lot to move the camera around the object and using it with smart selection active is handy, because sometimes the current selection isn't the place I want to have as camera center and I don't like the idea to need to deselect something I'm working on just to move the camera.

[jim]

Usually, I want to look at what I have selected because this is where I am working. I guess looking at what is being highlighted would also be just as useful.

Please correct me if I am wrong about this, but currently aim points at a combination of the selection plus whatever the cursor is hovering over. Herein lies the gripe. This can be very unhelpful. It would seem more logical to either aim at the selection, or the highlight, not the combination. This would give better control of the viewport in my opinion. I cannot think of a general case where aiming at selection+highlight is particularly helpful.

Anyway, I have always mapped select>selection groups>store selection/recall selection to hotkeys, so its just a single keystroke to save or recall the current selection. I use F4/F5 for this, so its not too bad, but still gripeworthy.

Also, I don't think you can turn smart selection off any more, so there is no longer much control over this behavior.

Anyway, just my 2 pfennigs. Keep up the good work.

[micheus]

Please correct me if I am wrong about this, but currently aim points at a combination of the selection plus whatever the cursor is hovering over.

No. You can have two objects in the scene with a couple of faces selected - for instance - then you highlight a face elsewhere and hit [A] for Aim. That will become the camera center for look around.
Except if I misunderstood your point, that is like it works for me.

Also, I don't think you can turn smart selection off any more, so there is no longer much control over this behavior.

Try what's explained in this post,: http://www.wings3d.com/forum/showthread....16#pid6216