Wish: a little expert option section at the UI

    Hi,


    I understand the goal to keep the Enscape UI so simple like possible. It makes the first start easy and it's great for light users. But heavy users run against the limits and spend a lot of time to find work around. So, I would be very glad to get an expert option section. It could be a simple table like known for example from Octane - see screenshot. This expert options would allow to let the user experience grow over the time. It would allow to adapt Enscape to the need of specific projects and the used hardware. For example there could be options for:


    * far/near clipping planes

    * max number of lights

    * how much polygons are shown at mirros

    * how much details like textures and lighting are shown at mirrors

    * keep all emitters active and not faded of by distance or better control of the fade distance

    * disable preview thumbnails

    * set animation duration between saved views

    * higher output resolutions


    I suppose so the power users will have a lot of ideas what could be at this section. I see the problem that the current automatics can't know the need of an user. Some prefer fastest speed, other users need best quality. Some user need to save VRAM, other user see no problem to use 10GB. Also users could set critical options, option which can cause a crash or freeze, for example by using to much memory.


    OK, we can edit option files, but it's not comfortable and new installations reset this files.


    From Octane I know that there are a lot of users how like to use a render engine like a pilot in the cockpit - dozen of little options allow to get the max fine adjusted power.


    Also this section could be used for testing new features without to change the UI.


    I hope the team will go this step and present this way for the power users.

    i really think this would be great!
    I fully understand the wish to keep Enscape simple... and it could stay that way for most users! But as a power user I would love to be able to adjust certain settings to best fit the need of a given project. In some cases I can easily live with longer render times if I can get the quality needed for final renders... other times I might prefer to keep the real time rendering as smooth as possible.

    +1. I totally agree.


    Having an "advanced options" tab or something like that would be terrific to push Enscape further.


    The more I can do in the render engine the less I have to do in post production. All of these little settings in other plugins (like Vray and Octane) can make a huge difference in the final output.


    As strange as it may sound, sometimes simplicity will equal "lack of control" and will turn off some Pro users. My settings are completely different for still shots than they are for animations for the same project in Octane for example . . .

    I agree with you that such a menu makes sense at some point. So far, we tried to avoid it to reduce QA effort and malfunctioning through a bad choice of parameters - the classic Enscape user is an architect, engineer or designer but not necessarily a rendering expert.

    Micha you mentioned manually adjustable near and far clipping planes. For the upcoming version we found a way to allow very close and extremely far away geometry automatically, so theres no need for a slider anymore. Thats typically the way we are looking for. But on other areas - like the SU material editor- we continuously add options. We will think about how to incorporate your ideas. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

    Thomas Willberger I understand and like the idea to keep Enscape simple as possible. But the simplicity should make me to the slave and avoid best quality output. Software can not decide what I need, speed or quality.


    At my first and only commercial Enscape project I delivered a long fly through video where a few lights turned on/off since I was above the internal set light count limit. Later I found that I can set an ini file option to avoid it. Now I need to keep this option in mind and I'm not sure it will be reset by an update. I think, this is no good way to work. And Engineers like to have control ... . ;)

    Micha Thanks for being so helpful with the suggestions. I understand your concern about having to remember settings in the ini file, but if we are going to ask for an "Expert Option" in the UI, we should be able to work with whatever tools we are provided ;) I usually keep notes, screenshots, etc, about my successes so that I can reproduce them later, even with the current UI.


    I would disagree about using text files as being a problem for setting expert options. The current settings XML system is quite nice and could be expanded to allow for options not available via the sliders (higher quality MP4 compression, sharpness, etc) This text based approach allows for a very easy method of organizing multiple setting options/versions without having to open each and change them via sliders. I typically have a separate settings file for each scene of my project, and currently I can edit those same files via the UI, or via a text editor. This allows for us to backup the entire settings folder, try new stuff via UI, even search and replace within the XML files, and then revert any scene settings if needed. If we really screw something up, we could even pull an old settings file from a cloud backup such as carbonite. Try that with vray settings that you forgot to save to a file.


    On the subject of settings via text options... I personally love the material tag names as a baseline for materials settings. It is a very quick way of implementing preset materials. If we could have the ability to define custom material tags, it would be an ideal system in my opinion.

    Text files are fine for me too, if it are files like I know for example from MoI3D. At the ini file you find a list of potential parameters and you need to set it only. For example:


    [Main Window]

    Position=300,300,2604,1552

    PositionScreenResolution=3840,2160

    Maximized=y

    PositionScreenOrigin=0,0


    [Undo]

    MaxMemorySizeMB=20

    MinNumberOfUndos=10


    [UI]

    Language=English

    MaximizeFullScreen=n

    DecimalPlacesToDisplay=2

    MaxNumRecentFiles=15


    So, I know what is possible and where I can change something. Also this file shouldn't be reset by an update. Best, the text file can be easy opened per button, for example at the Enscape advanced options. Save this file per project at the project directory would be great too.