The good and the stupid of 2.8, UI wise

General Forums Blender Development Discussion
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In the past, I have been VERY critical of 2.8, after using it’s new UI for several hours on projects. I found, and still do find, the UI very annoying and asinine, but I needed to use eevee for a new project, so i had to become accustomed.

All of my previous complaints still apply, so I will just give a bullet point list of what I like and what I dont.

#1: Controls are moved to the top and aligned vertically. I dislike this. Previously, everything was on the bottom, which made it easier to select as you didnt have to move your mouse as much, and all the menu selection was horizontally. (for example, in the sidebar for materials, renders, etc.) this is now all assigned vertically. For someone whose mouse is more sensitive horizontally than vertically (and I like it this way!) This was really annoying. Not to mention, the change seemed to have no reason, other than to trip old users up. Seriously, what was the point of that change?

#2: Useless quick favorites/pie menu assigned to space. Dislike. Previously, the menu search button was assigned to space. This was REALLY helpful for quick actions that you do not do frequently, like bridge edge loops, auto clean up, or even UV unwrapping (I almost never used the U menu in 2.79). The space function was thereby very useful, if in doubt as to where a command is, just press space. It helped streamline my workflow massively. It is now assigned to f3, which on my my keyboard requires fn+f3, and space is now assigned to a very annoying quick-favorites pie menu, which sort of is against the point of the space feature, which is quick selection for commands that are less used.

#3: The fact that when you do any command or operation, you need to click a drop down. Dislike. Whenever you, say, extrude, there is a small menu in the bottom right that tells you how far you went, what direction, and allows you to edit said values for more fine-tuning. Now, that menu is in a drop down. This is not a big dislike, but is still not ideal.

#4: The different layouts for different modes. I am mixed on this. On one hand, it is very useful to have specialized layouts for the different edit modes, and it is much easier to switch and edit than previously, where tab just switches between edit and object, and there is a dropdown for the other ones. On the other hand, there is no quick command to switch between tabs, and it ends up being a mouse-movement fest. Not to mention, you can still switch modes normally, which leads to confusion when modeling is in object mode and vice versa.

#5: The new icons. I dislike this. The colors are now monochrome with some teal, not orange and easy to find like before. Seriously, it takes me twice as long to find any icon or command now.

These are my thoughts on the 2.8 UI, after having used it for a while. It is still very much beta, and I will not use it for anything other than Eevee until most of these are fixed.

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#1:

image
image321×824 71.8 KB

#2:

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image971×531 75 KB

#3:
once you expand the tool redo panel, it stays expanded, just like the t panel in 2.79

#4:
ctrl + pgup/pgdn to change layout tabs

#5: I agree, the new icons will take a while to adjust to. Thankfully, custom icon sets are in the works.

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I know that you can change #2 but I wanted to use stock 2.8

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…Ok. Seems kinda like complaining that it’s dark, but not wanting to turn on the lights to me.

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I agree with you the default should be search, play animation is already present as first result in the search.

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I think the first-time splash-screen lets you change the spacebar key to be the search menu before you even do anything.

To get that, you need to go into the app. data folder and delete the 2.8 files (if you have already run 2.8).

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I have also been critical of the whole UI in the alphas, but with regards to the beta, I’m with SterlingRoth, your complaints are a non-entity. Every single one can be addressed via a tiny bit of customisation.

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Off-topic slightly, sorry. Didn’t we have these types of discussions when 2.5 came out? I realize folks have been used to the way Blender works for many years now, but 2.8 is different, mainly because it has addressed a lot of the shortcomings of previous versions. We all need to use it for a time while the kinks are worked out… Any time you make changes like this, there are a million things that have to be fixed/adjusted, so patience is required; and keep in mind this is a BETA. We should be reporting bugs instead of trying to reconfigure the thing to make it work like previous versions.

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Post 2.8 I still think the interface will still be the most criticized part of Blender.

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I’ve only got small issues with 2.8, now that I’ve learned you can right click on the header and flip it to the bottom of the viewport. Other things I’d like to see:

Smaller, less ugly gizmo it’s a real eyesore imho
Ability to move gizmo back to lower left corner
Setting to turn off the 4 buttons in the upper left of gizmo independently of gizmo, don’t need them
Colored icons
User preference to display pies as vertical menus

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I found a couple threads that disliked 2.5. Modifying the GUI, keymap, and apparently icons, seems to always be controversial.

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I was also critical regarding the radical UI and functionality overhaul of 2.8, but I’m really getting used to a lot of things, and am starting to appreciate them.

I’ve created this summary of changes for reference. If anyone has got additions or corrections, I’d appreciate it.

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Er… Howcome?

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Maybe, but this time it seems to be more criticised by old Blender users and less by new users coming from other software. Which for me means that it is developing in the right direction.

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The removal of the global brush palette/menu is what I can call the most stupid thing that happened in 2.8. (UI wise)
Also the redo panel not showing in the properties editor is terrible.

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I remember back when I first tried the 2.5 alpha and hating the design. For a while I adjusted the layout to be more like 2.49, until I read why the changes had been made, realized it made sense, and when I went back to it with an open mind suddenly I was able to get used to it and never wanted to go back to the old interface.

2.8 is the same for me. I’ve switched over almost completely except to use a few addons that haven’t been ported yet, and every time I go back to 2.79 it feels more clunky and dated. While there are things that I feel need refining, overall I’m happy with the way it’s turned out.

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I was only an occasional user before 2.5 because I felt Blender was difficult to manage in a productive way. When 2.5 came along, I was hooked and it instantly became my go-to tool. I believe the same thing will happen with 2.8 – a lot of the folks that didn’t like Blender before will now take another look and find that it’s much better. I’m hoping veteran users will see its benefits and embrace the changes all the while helping the BF with ways to improve things further.

People are always going to be resistant to change, but if there’s one thing you can count on it’s that the BF has always listened to the Blender users. If there are things that need to be fixed, they’ll be fixed.

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My experience is similar. I was still fairly new when 2.5 was in development, but the first time I opened it, I don’t think I ever opened 2.49 again. I tend to be pretty flexible with change myself, though.

I’ve seen several comments stating they’re probably going to move to Blender once 2.8 is released. :slight_smile: Usability improvements and Eevee are getting a lot of attention. Grease Pencil seems to be gaining interest in entirely new markets. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next few years. It’d be nice to get some full time development on some of the weaker areas of Blender.

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And we will see similar threads about the time 3.00 comes around. And again later on.

I cannot wait for the Jarvis hologram interface to be finalized, and the speech recognition input will be amazing.

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Only if they don’t do it right this time. They just need to make it right one time, and will be no need to change it again anytime soon.
See c4d for example, the UI basically hasn’t changed in almost 20 years, but you won’t see people complaining, why, because it was done the right way.