PBR Switching for Edit Mode
under review
Pazako Karu
When trying to make things look proper in both BP and PBR modes, the only things visible in BP mode are things currently selected. When working with a lot of prims, or with Edit Linked, this makes 'seeing the whole picture' rather tedious.
I'm requesting a toggle-switch, as a debug option or edit window feature, which can 'Show BP only', 'Show PBR only' and 'Show normally' (how it is now) while editing.
This will let us change our 'gears' into PB and PBR editing modes and see more clearly what things need to be done before showing normally. Including an option to show PBR only should put placeholders (perhaps blank white, or the classic wood texture) so we can recognize what hasn't yet been given a material.
Log In
Andromeda Quonset
Well, the Edit-window as it appears in the latest Firestorm IS a nightmare and probably should have been split into multiple tabs. I can only assume it follows a standard menu design example provided by Linden Labs. At the risk of annoying a bunch of people who work hard, I am going to suggest that PBR is a mistake. Like Mesh. They both promote building items off-line instead of on-line like you can do with prims. To change my mind about Mesh, you would have to incorporate all the functions of Blender or equivalent (preferably something friendlier) into the online-session whether that means putting the code for Blender in the client, or the server, or some split between the two. Likewise, I don't know what tool one uses for PBR, but it really needs to also be incorporated into the client, server, or split between both. Otherwise, I would wish to hasten the demise of mesh and PBR, completely. The sooner the better. I'm sure this is an unpopular approach. Most of what I find fault with always turns out to be unpopular.
Dana Enyo
My answer to this has been so log in my alt on a non-PBR viewer (like Firestorm 6.6, Singularity or Genesis). It's not a great solution but I think it's the only practical one. Firestorm has said that they will never block that final non-PBR version, so this hopefully will keep working.
Maestro Linden
under review
Logan Elf
BP textures appear differently in PBR viewers to non-PBR viewers. So, you need more than a "switch textures" option. You need a complete switch of renderer.
Pazako Karu
Logan Elf This would primarily be to make sure correct textures are placed, colored, alphad, scaled, to simulate the PBR alternative, rather than leaving a giant blank object. The exact lighting and color-matching isnt the point, just that it still looks decent.
Beatrice Voxel
Logan Elf Something I would like LL to look into (feasability) is a "Bake PBR" function, that takes the current PBR textures and lighting together, and does a 'best guess' baked texture based on the person's viewer and local hardware, to be used as a BP 'matte' layer.
We got BOM to work, mapping system textures onto mesh objects by 'baking' all of them into one supertexture matte that is then applied to the mesh. It's sometimes a little glitchy adding or removing a layer, but it works.
PBR should have something similar, nothing complicated or involved, just "render this PBR texture on this object as a matte with an alpha channel, from the camera's current position and using current lighting, upload it, and assign to the BP matte layer on the same object". Put it into the Build menu, perhaps even assign a texture upload cost to keep people from spamming new versions every time the lighting changes... maybe with a preview option to verify they got a good shot of the object before committing to it.
Pazako Karu
Beatrice Voxel They said no https://feedback.secondlife.com/feature-requests/p/can-blinn-phong-textures-be-autogenerated-from-pbr-data
Beatrice Voxel
Pazako Karu Well that's rather sad. I know they're wanting to transition away from the BP model, though.
Lordy Boo
Not sure this is going to be needed at some point. Once GLTF uploads is implemented you won’t have to texture objects or scenes in world anymore. I don’t even bother with PB.
Pazako Karu
Lordy Boo Some of us build with prims, lol. If BP is going to be
removed
eventually, then sure the switch ability is unnecessary. But as long as I need to make something visually appealing to both possibilities, I need to be able to see both. The view as seen in Edit when switched to BP on Firestorm is effective enough for me. Its not accurate, but its enough to let me adjust texture repeats and validate correct textures are placed.Pazako Karu
Looking at LL's viewer, do we not even get BP at all once a material is added? I cant switch to view them like I can in Firestorm. Is the intent to do away with BP entirely? If so - this post is superfluous.