Poll: Most Popular Feature Requests.

[Nichod]

Just thought I'd start a poll on here to determine what features, that have been requested, are most popular among the community. You may vote for more than one option, but please pick the features that are most high on your wish list.

If you'd like, post a detailed description on what improvements/features you'd like to see in the areas you have voted on. Be clear and concise.

[LoneGunman]

Hair & cloth simulation:

What to really say about this ? C4D R9 is a good example how it should be done (it would be interesting to also have a secondary approach with particles, which do need lot of speed improvement BTW, like in Blender3D)

Lights:

Long due, I believe this is the most important aspect of any rendering app. More accuracy, speed and full interaction with volumetrics (fog and clouds) with dust particles option.

Solving these (expecially light cone rendering in spot-light problem) should be even done before it reaches version 6, that's how important it is...

Scripting:

I would like to see this, but, what I would like to see even more is some sort of approach which is more atractive to intermidiate users too (not just experts).

Cheers

[Cyborg Commando]

The most important feature that Eovia need to improve in my opinion
is the character animation tools, it will be nice to get some Softbody Dynamics/Hair/Improved Physics
and Fluid Simulation, but the most important is the character animation tools.

[Sarissi]

The one you left out in the poll options, is Poser thumbnail support.

Daz Studio has the best OpenGL preview that I have seen so far.

I would like to see better native Poser support, with parameter dials at the top of the list. This is one of the Key things with Poser and Daz Studio, and native poser support is not all that useful if we can't adjust the morphs (parameter dials) that are built into the figures.

I would like to see a 64 bit Windows native version, so that XP64 and Vista users don't need to go through the 32 bit emulator.

Two things that need to be added to the Terrain editor: Shield Cone volcano and Stratovolcano. Volcanic craters are not cones cut out of the peak of a mountain, rather vertical sides or nearly so.

[Jolran]

Exellent idea!!!

Yes! Character animation tools most important!! Intergrated Compositing, you mean Render passes right? Cant understand why its not getting more than 25%. Render passes will give faster renders, and more flexibility for compositing in for ex. after fx.

3D paint and displacements? Why bother? Theres Z- brush and Deep paint and Bodypaint so why try to compete in that aspect? What would be REALLY good in my opinion is a good UV editor. In Hexagon or in Carrara (instead of storyboardwindow ughh) , with pelt mapping, respect to polygonal size, smoothing, relax etc. all the good stuff.

I've got XSI 4.2, and I know theres a lot of good animationtools in there, but I dont have the time and patience to learn them. XSI interface is based on cluttery windows.
I just cant figure it out. And they have no updateplan!! If I want XSI 5 I would have to
buy the whole lot again! No UPGRADE. They had a deal when 5 got released but I did
not take the bate. Now they lost me forever.

Carrara you can learn fast. NOT because it has less feutures. It is a really good interface and I sence you can almost figure things out without a manual.
I feel Carrara has something going on. Its improving by every upgrade. But I must make
a confession, I am looking at buying Cinema 4D big bundle cause I want the complete package. Really good animation tools(as mentioned), hair and soft bodys, renderpasses.

For hair in XSI you will need the advanced version, and that one ladies and gents
is a lot of money!
Maya, 3D max, way to expensive. C4D also to expensive but reasonable.
A More feuture packed Carrara with all the goods above and a Strong networkrender
will attract the big boys! Even with a higher pricetag I would buy it.

[Jolran]

Be clear and concise. Sorry dident see that one Nichod. You can delete my post if its to extravagant.

[bwtr]

I have put in my limited vote. Lots of the items on the list are outside my knowledge base.

[AlainK]

Me too. Being in the novice stage, the only items I could relate to are:

1.More Hexagon Modeling Tools Intergrated
2.Intergrate the VM and Assembly

For 1., I'm not sure how developers would go about implementing it. The workflows are vastly different and it will probably consume a lot of coding time that will encroach the more important ones like the much-needed missing features. My suggestion is make VM at least resemble popular modelers such as Wings3d or Silo. Right now, a lot of people are avoiding Carrara precisely because of VM's awkward workflow. So, Eovia should at least add optional standard SDS workflow into VM.

And Hexagon should be developed further.

For 2., I have no problem with that as long as it doesn't affect the program's overall speed.

[Grendel]

Character animation without a doubt needs to be improved alot..

The post render lighting would be great, I've had to re-render many times to make it just a bit brighter or move a shadow.

The Softbody dynamics would be nice but if it was not there with better animation tools it could be fake

Hair would be nice, I have not seen any hair from anything grows that looks good and controlling everything with shaders is cumbersome. Spline guide hairs seem to be the easiest to use.

[medeamajic]

Better Real Time animation previews.

Carrara bogs down way to quick. We need better animation previews in order to make use of the new features being requested.

I notice my animation previews bog down with Daz/Poser models or when I use the surface replicator. It does not help to use wire frame and 15 FPS for the preview. I am only replicating 25 trees. The GUI of Carrara is good but now I see why some might use True Space or Cinema 4-D. I would have to say better previews are needed in Carrara ASAP. The surface replicator, native Daz/Poser figure import and other features of Carrara work but I wonder if there is a way to "not show" replicated items in preview so I can animate my figures easier. The anything grows plugin could hide the features in preview mode. My system is 3.2 GHZ with 756 MB of RAM and a Geforce 5200 with 64 MB of RAM. I think the Eovia software preview works better than the Open GL.

I think we all want the same things but we must be able to preview them in order for the new features to be usefull.

[Sarissi]

756MB ram? more like 768 MB total physical ram. This is why it is bogging down on you so quickly. The other reason is the stuff from Daz: insanely high polycounts and insanely high resolution textures, and either eats ram.

How about a way to temporarily substitute primitives for replicated trees and such? That would certainly speed up the rendering for your animated preview (pre-vis).

As to your last sentence Medamajic, I couldn't agree more.

I speak of the 'working preview', such as Daz Studio or Poser 5's Textured Preview in the working 'pose room' area. You speak of animation preview. I think both are needed. What do you think?

[Jolran]

Hi again. Try to be more specific this time. Dont have any source code knowledge so I dont know what is possible with the current Carrara code.
But in comparison to "other" software this would be nice in my opinion:

For animation: (timeline) In similarity to XSI animationmixer, the possibility to bake animations as clips on the timeline, blending between them. That way you can reuse animation and make smooth transitions. Real timesaver.

Possibility to attatch curves to mesh and weighting. For shape animation really good.
Must be able to scin multiple sceletons then. Dynamics on sceletons or attatched curves. That way one could make nice tails like in XSI. Mirror Weights. That way you
just work on one side(fast) Sometimes when weightpainting in Carrara I accidently brush through the mesh messing up the other side. Maybe there allready is a solution to that.

UV:
UV editor in Carrara is not that bad. I like the way you can pluck the vertices directly.
In other programs Ive seen, you have to select and then move. In Carrara you can use a tablet and move real quick. The 3D viewport is way to small, cant see much.
Multiple 3d views would be nice. And must must be able to zoom in closer on 2D view.
Sometimes when having a lot of points they are hard to select individualy.
UV TOOLS: Unwrapping tool. That respect the size of the normals. Relax, smothing.
Proportional editing. Or maybe just being able to move, scale vertices prop.

3D paint? I may reconsider. Displacement no. Z-brush is to good to beat for that.

Maybe then a feature like Zbrush plugin - Zapplink. Where you project from the viewport directly in photoshop(or other psd compilent) and edit there with photoshops
brushes etc. When you are ready in photoshop send it back for a quick look and a new
projection angle. Problem in Z brush a the moment is that when projecting you end
up with smearing distortions sometimes. Due to projection angle problems. And the problems between pixols and pixels makes Zapplink texturs look somewhat pixely even at 4K. There may be a solution to that, but its fiddly.
If that could be made better in Carrara or Hexagon Evoia would really have a strong contender.

This may be a lot of things to ask for. And somethings may not even be possible.
But one must try. In my case I have never used the modeling tools in Carrara.
Not even for morph targets. Hexagon is way better and faster. If Carraras modelwindows would be replaced by a dedicated animationroom I would drewl.
Maybe unfair for people not having an external modeler. But HEY! Hexagon is such
a good modeler. If you have Carrara you must own Hexagon period.
That Storyboardroom doesent make any sense to me..

As Sarissi said. The thing about poser models. They have so many polys!
Medeamajic. 3.2 GHZ with 756 MB of RAM and a Geforce 5200 with 64 MB of RAM.
You have a strong processor with little RAM and weak Graphic card.
I recommend at least 2 gig RAM and maybe 128 mb Graphic card.

About preview. Use a low polymodel for animation -)5 K polys(would be hard with posercontent:-). At rendering use subd. With or without displacem.
And you can use the "box" feature for skinned objects.

In Carrara you can even use subd in opengl view. Neat!

[steve_j]

Hexagon IS a much better modeler, BUT there is no common file format except *.obj, which leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion. How about a common file format between Carrara and Hexagon that allows me to go back and forth without losing anything?

[AlainK]

Hexagon is heaven-sent to Eovia. I'd like to think that the reason why people are now taking interest in Carrara is because of Hexagon. Former Amapi users had switched to Hex. Not a few still use Amapi then render their models in Carrara. This definitely shows that they are put off by Carrara's modeling features. Hate to repeat this, VM just doesn't have the standard workflow common in all SDS modelers. It's about time that Eovia starts doing something about it. Having said that, it is far easier to make it Silo-like than Hexagon-like, which is far better than being useless to most people. But like I said, this should be at the bottom of the priority list. I have Hex.

BTW, does VM have the CONNECT tool? Like selecting rings, or 2 edges and a line connects the two along their midpoints? What about the CUT? Hmmm... I just have to check myself. I guess my point is, I'd rather use Wings3d than Carrara's VM.

[Couerl]

Interesting poll, putting the physics with the hair is odd, but maybe that's why it's so high... Take the hair and put it by itself and lets see where it is?

I'm with Grendel, CA, CA and more CA..

[medeamajic]

I like the dissassociate tool in Hexagon to make mouths for my models. Duplicate with symetry is big plus.

I want dynamic hair and cloth along with a paint program but the figure animation needs an improvement. Instead of drop to floor we need to have the hands and feet recognize different objects. I am not sure if Evoia wants to make Carrara more like Poser for figure animation but I would like a lypsync editor and a walk designer. I like how Poser has the break IK chain icon. I can break the IK chain in Carrara but I must do it through the properties tray instead of a simple icon like Poser.

[Naes3d]

I chose the first 3, but IMO if Carrara gets realtime morror modelling and cloth it will have graduated to being a complete app. Having hair isn't a major priority for me, but cloth and mirror modelling just make me drool. Those 2 things are the only reason I am still investigating other apps.

[medeamajic]

Is mirror modeling the same as symetry?

[Freid]

Hi,

I would love in Carrara a chart and 3d pie editor. With animating solutions like pie growing clockward or reverse !

[handycam]

I would like to see things that improve the existing workflow rather than adding new stuff that might bog the program down. Like Poser -- nice-looking feature set but too, too slow for production work even on a Quad G5.

Specifically, I would like to see removing the "room" metaphor altogether. After using other apps like C4D, Maya, and LW, it's a pain to switch back & forth between the modeling room and the assembly room to tweak a model. I'd rather have the functions of the "modeling room" in a floating window over the "assembly" room, so I can see how a model change affects the scene. Same for texturing.

Does anyone actually use the storyboard room? I'd personally remove it, or make it a preference item whether you want to see it or not.

The less "modal" the process can be made, the better. The best 3D apps allow for fluid integration of features, and immediate feedback wherever possible.