I just played a bit with Soft Bodies in the GE and this bug from 2008 http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=143748 is still in 2.49b. I downloaded 2.5 svn r24064 to see whether it has been fixed in 2.5, but I could not find any panel to set a game object’s type to Soft Body. Is this setting hidden somewhere or just not ported yet?
If it’s not fixed yet, this bug should be added to the tracker, since soft body objects are unusable for anything more than simple effects without proper collision detection.
Am I just too stupid to find the game object’s type setting panel? I would hate for 2.5 to arrive only to find that this bug is still there, because I think it would make soft bodies more or less useless in the GE.
Erwin, I think the purpose of the render mode tab is so that when you choose the BGE, you only get options supported by the BGE, so for example, the material buttons would only show stuff supported by the BGE so no tabs for things like SSS and reflections.
This way we will not get questions like (why is SSS not showing in the GE or why isn’t refraction working in the GE), because the buttons will only show what the BGE supports.
Erwin, I think the purpose of the render mode tab is so that when you choose the BGE, you only get options supported by the BGE, so for example, the material buttons would only show stuff supported by the BGE so no tabs for things like SSS and reflections.
This way we will not get questions like (why is SSS not showing in the GE or why isn’t refraction working in the GE), because the buttons will only show what the BGE supports.]
This is a terrible idea that makes even more confusing…
I agree with Erwin a 100% on this one.
They could just put in game a engine material options button… somewhere in the material tab… if you really want to see what material setting are or aren’t supported.
If you watch one of the mxfoxdogs previews of the new interface they added a render with the GE or render the with Software renderer… which TOTALY ignores the fact that you use BOTH renderes at the same time…
I mean… what happens when you are modelling… and bake a normal map… will you have to go and change the renderer every time you want to bake a map and then hop into the GE to look at it?? That change made me rather cross because they are changing things to do with the game engine without talking to the game engine devs… and the game community at large… or maybe it just appears that way to me??
What also happens when more material settings are supported in the GE…? How will the old hidden setting be re-incorporated… I think that the justification for the changes of the old layout is a very poor excuse. It worked well enough before did it not?
I sometimes feel that common sense gets thrown out the window with new interface ideas… especially when “new easier” ideas remove existing functionality. Meh whatever.
The game engine needs to be selected (top header), before you see game buttons.
Logic buttons have their own space now, rather then in the properties window.
Physics buttons moved into the physics properties window.
Removing a link is done by re-making an existing link. (needs to be fixed)
World settings are one per scene (not one per World object as before)
“Physics buttons moved into the physics properties window.” Erm… curious to know who decided that splitting the logic apart from the physics in the GE was a good idea… when you control the physics simulation using logic bricks?
I always found it helpful to see the physics setting of the objects I was manipulating with logic bricks… while those objects where linked to other objects logic bricks without having to hunt some-where else in the interface for settings that all relate to the game engine. I.E. All the game logic specific settings…which physics is a part of…should all be in one place.
I think this deserves a poll… and some feed back from the GE users… what do other people think? Opinions please.
I tried the latest build of 2.5 and I must say, yes, at first you can find it a little confusing, but thats normal, after playing a while with it, I find it more easy and fast, since now the proprierties are all in one window, and you don’t have to hunt to use them; also, now you have a separate window for the game logic, wich I think it’s a nice idea; and I find the render separation great, so now you can select “Game Engine” and use all the features you see knowing they will work…
To me it’s ok, of course more opinions are always welcome, I’m sure a lot of improvements could be done
well the problem is that physics is part of the attributes that are controlled by the logic… even Erwin the original coder of the game engine agrees with that. .and the other problem is that separating the renderers up breaks workflow that uses the hardware and software rendering unnecessarily… so it restricts your choices instead of increasing them.
I’ve worked in max and other apps that have a separate physics panel… which made sense because you were running a physics simulation only… but I prefer the original blender game engine interface because I found it faster to use… because everything is all in one place.
Have you tried baking shadows etc when the game engine is set at the renderer.
I’m of the opinion that any interface change should add features not remove them. I feel it unnecessarily complicated in order to make it simpler. Thanks for sharing your experiences ;-). Anyone else been using it?
It’s kinda funny because they are changing all the cool things about the blender interface that I like after having worked in tonnes of 3d apps that use vertical panels… I must say I liked the horizontal panels because I get much more screen space to model with… ho hum.
I like the fact that 2.5 can be customised by setting eg a specific Game / Render / Other mode.
However the default mode should show all of the panels for everything ( the same as 2.49 now ), even if it means mixing eg game physics panels with non-game physics info. At least it means that everything is available and not hidden until the user notices the Render option and knows to switch it to Game. With everything shown, a user who knows about the option can then specifically pick Game or Render if they like.
Have you tried baking shadows etc when the game engine is set at the renderer.
For this I would suggest a little easy to locate checkbox that makes all the Internal Renderer features features available, but instead of having the render with BI buttons, you have the bake buttons.
Try PM’ing William about this as he’s the core UI designer.
It’s kinda funny because they are changing all the cool things about the blender interface that I like after having worked in tonnes of 3d apps that use vertical panels… I must say I liked the horizontal panels because I get much more screen space to model with… ho hum.
Just delete all the windows, change the remaining window to 3D view, make a new properties window at the bottom of the screen, rightclick and select horizontal mode. (You may need to move the scrollbar a little)
For the Bake button I will suggest just to make it available for the game engine renderer, and for the horizontal layout, well, now I don’t think its very practical, the panels seems made for vertical use, but maibe its because the UI its a little broken now ( in the buttons window in horizontal layout I can’t scroll down when I can’t see some options, and the little figure in the top right showing the relation Scene->etc. occupies almost 1/3 of the space but still most is just empty ) :S
As for the physic buttons, taking them apart to me seems logical since the physic properties are part of the object properties ( like vertices constraints etc. ) though maibe they could have merged the Logic Window in the Buttons Window, making another sub-window ( since again Logic is inherent to the other object properties )
Well at the end is no big deal since the Blender interface should be fully customizable now, right?
