Doubt about Default Material

[MikeJ]

Well, to me it is a big deal because before you get to the material creation stage there's a whole lot of modeling to do. And when I model I like to have a texture that has full shininess and specular because it makes the model much easier to see when I'm working with it. Is truly unfortunate that this is hardcoded because I think a default material would be much more useful if you could set it in the settings of the particular .wings file that you are working in such that it always stayed however you wanted it to. The current way forces you to change it every single time you restart Wings3D or, alternatively, every time you create a new object you have to manually set the texture for each of those objects individually. Truly inefficient.

So, given that it is hardcoded, the next challenge is figuring out the most convenient workaround.

To that end, I have seen old posts in the old forum from a long time ago where people mentioned that they were able to hot key individual materials. I am scratching my head trying to figure out how to do this in a current version of Wings3D. So, is it simply not possible anymore? If it is, how can you do this?

[micheus]

alternatively, every time you create a new object you have to manually set the texture for each of those objects individually. Truly inefficient.

It doesn't need be that way.
In the Outline window you can use the context menu of default material and use [LMB] option in the .Select. command. Then, with the elements selected, you can select the other material and in the context menu use the Assign to Selection options. It's easy and you can use that as a workaround.

I can consider add new settings for the default material and submit it to the main devs. By now, maybe you would create a "start" .wings file with that material and use it for every new project.

I have seen old posts in the old forum from a long time ago where people mentioned that they were able to hot key individual materials.

I don't know about that. As I know, only menu options can be "hotkeyed".

[MikeJ]

It doesn't need be that way.
In the Outline window you can use the context menu of default material and use [LMB] option in the .Select. command. Then, with the elements selected, you can select the other material and in the context menu use the Assign to Selection options. It's easy and you can use that as a workaround.

I understand what you are saying, but it does not help me solve the problem. In order to assign a particular material to several objects that don't already have that material, you would need to already have those objects on the screen. However when I am modeling and I add a new object, I want my default material to be on that object so I can see it better when I model it. The flat, non-specular material that is the hardcoded default material is much harder to see. Therefore, I need to apply my own "default" texture to every single new object that I bring into the scene to model.

I can consider add new settings for the default material and submit it to the main devs. By now, maybe you would create a "start" .wings file with that material and use it for every new project.

Would using such a "start" file prevent the default material from being replaced when Wings3D was closed and then reopened for work the next day?

I don't know about that. As I know, only menu options can be "hotkeyed".

It may not still exist in the current versions of Wings3D. For your reference, here is the thread that I was speaking of from the old forum:

http://nendowingsmirai.yuku.com/reply/27...eply-27983

[micheus]

Would using such a "start" file prevent the default material from being replaced when Wings3D was closed and then reopened for work the next day?

No. It would only be a shortcut for you don't have to create your new material and use it as I suggested before. The default material will be always what it is now. Sorry.

reference, here is the thread that I was speaking of from the old forum:
http://nendowingsmirai.yuku.com/reply/27...eply-27983

It's too old. I joined the group only in Jul/2009. Maybe any other "old" guy could help us with this.

[MikeJ]

No. It would only be a shortcut for you don't have to create your new material and use it as I suggested before. The default material will be always what it is now. Sorry.

No need to apologize, it's certainly not your fault. I really do appreciate your taking the time to respond to my questions! Even if the answers are not what I would want them to be, it's nice just to get answers from someone who is knowledgeable!

I guess I will start investigating possibilities for workarounds to this issue.

[micheus]

Take a look at this unofficial .beam update on my Google Drive
You will need to replace it manually into the C:\Program Files (x86)\wings3d_1.5.2\lib\wings-1.5.2\ebin folder (or a name like that).

After that, you should see an new "Save" button near to OK/Cancel. It will save only the Wings3d default material properties (not the plugins ones).

In order to enable the Diffuse color field can be changed you need to change Vertex Color to Ignore. It's already this way - just in case you don't know about it.

Play with it and tell me if it's ok. here, at least it didn't break wings.
I'm still playing with it and it can still be changed.

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Important! Don't forget to backup the old file before replace it.

[MikeJ]

It works – almost perfectly!

The new Save button does indeed save the default texture and make it "hardcoded". If you close Wings3D and then reopen it the new default texture will indeed have the saved settings! Excellent!

In my quick testing I have only found one small bug which is that when you do reopen Wings3D it still creates a new default texture and renames the old default texture default2. They now thankfully have the same settings (which is wonderful!) But it will still result in multiple default textures being created.

You are an absolute treasure!

[micheus]

In my quick testing I have only found one small bug which is that when you do reopen Wings3D it still creates a new default texture and renames the old default texture default2.

Yeah, I know about that. This bothers me for long time, because I during some time I switched between the colors schema and every time I open a project which was created in a different schema I always get a new default* color added. It's something to think about now that I'm playing with this code.

I'm also adding a Restore button to restore the default material to Wings3d default settings.

[MikeJ]

I am happy to test whatever you come up with! Thank You!

[micheus]

I'll try to upload a new update tomorrow. Also, it would be good if someone else could comment/suggest anything else.