Changing materials

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    Thank you keithwales , your feedback and upvote will be forwarded of course. :)

    Forwarded your upvote cboivin , thanks!

    Forwarding your upvotes, thank you all.

    Demian Gutberlet


    The new roadmap mentiones: "Custom Asset Library Import and tweak your own assets to be displayed and usable locally within Enscape Asset Library."


    Could you elaborate a bit what you understand under "tweak"? Is this related to changing materials? Does this mean we will be able to


    - change the material on custom assets when importing?

    - change the material on custom assets of previously imported assets? (e.g. objects that somebody else imported in the library)

    - override custom assets (changing materials) in the project without having to add a new asset to the library?

    - override enscape library assets (changing materials) in the project?


    Regarding changing materials on assets (custom and Enscape default ones): one critical suggestion I have is that ideally it would be possible to override asset materials within a project using materials already defined in the project.


    It would be a huge burden on our design workflow if we had to create/add a new asset to our library every time we want to play around with its finishes. It would also very quickly pollute our library with hundreds of variations because we 'just wanted to see how it looked with a slightly different fabric'. Also, people could accidentally mess up an asset that is being used in another project. It would be much safer if the overrides happen on the project level.


    The ability to reuse materials already created inside the project as overrides on an asset is also a big plus: it would safe time and help to bind the elements in the scene better together (for example: assign custom fabric that we used on wall panels as upholstery to a chair).

    Demian Gutberlet (gentle reminder :) )

    Quote from Pieter

    Demian Gutberlet (gentle reminder :) )

    Pardon for the delayed response. :)


    Thanks a lot for your feedback Pieter , I'd love to answer these questions but I gotta say that it's simply too early yet to really give any concrete information. I'm definitely forwarding your feedback though for our developers to have a look at. Also, be aware that it's currently a stretch goal, which means that we're trying our best to implement it with 2.8, but it may be delayed and released with an upcoming preview afterward for example.


    Bruce Ma , Leo4su , forwarding your feedback and upvotes as well.

    Quote from Demian Gutberlet

    Also, be aware that it's currently a stretch goal, which means that we're trying our best to implement it with 2.8, but it may be delayed and released with an upcoming preview afterward for example.


    I was afraid of that. I really hoped custom assets were going to be the main target of 2.8


    When you guys get to it, please consider sharing design mockups before fully coding it ;)

    Quote from Pieter

    I was afraid of that. I really hoped custom assets were going to be the main target of 2.8


    When you guys get to it, please consider sharing design mockups before fully coding it ;)

    I am pretty sure that we'll release previews before that which will include the custom assets feature - once that is the case feel free to share feedback with us Pieter. :)

    The thing with the preview releases is that features are often very far along before they appear in a preview release. Minor tweaking is possible but major changes are more painful of course at that point.


    Case in point: We had high hopes for the settings refactoring, but unfortunately it doesn't meet our requirements. We communicated that as soon as it appeared in the previews, but it was said that it was too late now to do big changes.

    Quote from Pieter

    The thing with the preview releases is that features are often very far along before they appear in a preview release. Minor tweaking is possible but major changes are more painful of course at that point.


    Case in point: We had high hopes for the settings refactoring, but unfortunately it doesn't meet our requirements. We communicated that as soon as it appeared in the previews, but it was said that it was too late now to do big changes.

    I see Pieter, I understand you. What I can do is discuss this internally to maybe provide something like a selection of different design mockups before development actually starts, so that users can have a look themselves and give us feedback. I'll see what I can do, but as mentioned, it may still take a while until development even starts, thus something like design mockups may not be released soon, at least not in the next few months. :)

    Also note that Enscape has taken on dedicated UI developers - they may be looking at an over-all cohesive look/feel to Enscape that we users are not aware of.


    It's their job to produce an end result that meets the requirements: I think that asking to approve their work before even pushing out a preview is not showing very much faith in their abilities or the Enscape team for selecting them. (I still reserve the right to trash-talk the preview, but at least give them a chance!)

    Quote from Gadget

    I think that asking to approve their work before even pushing out a preview is not showing very much faith in their abilities or the Enscape team for selecting them.


    That's not my intent at all. Also don't agree with that statement. My clients usually like to see the designs before we start construction :) I've never taken it as an insult to my abilities as a designer.


    Also, most software we work with gather client feedback using mockups before features are programmed. Revit, Autocad, 3ds Max and Blender all do this. We shouldn't look at feedback as a negative thing.


    Quote

    It's their job to produce an end result that meets the requirements:


    Yes, and gathering feedback based on mockups is one of the ways to make sure it meets requirements.

    Quote from Gadget

    Also note that Enscape has taken on dedicated UI developers - they may be looking at an over-all cohesive look/feel to Enscape that we users are not aware of.

    Hence a reason why we started this survey here too. We are looking into giving the current Enscape UI an overall rework in the long run.