Which feature would you like to see in 5.0?

Which feature would you like to see in 5.0?

  • New material system (shader tree)

    Votes: 27 54.0%

  • Particle/Instancing system

    Votes: 8 16.0%

  • Booleans with N-Gon support

    Votes: 5 10.0%

  • Area renderer

    Votes: 4 8.0%

  • Bevel tool

    Votes: 5 10.0%

  • Movie textures

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • Total voters
    50
  • Poll closed .
fwiw, I've just got a degree in all this stuff (although more architecture/ engineering based rather than modelling), but I too am a novice! The best thing to do is ask questions- and I've never had any hostile replies to my questions.

I haven't voted because I think everything listed here is going to be brilliant for Cheetah either way, however as an engineer and as that C3D can export stl files, the chamfer tool is a definite positive in my books.

My main request is that C3D were to become more friendly towards architectural visualisation rather than just plain 3D modelling. It is so disgustingly easy to use 3DS Max, but it's PC only, making most users, ime, sadly opt for windows. I'd also love to see more ways of controlling individual animation features by outside input- for example usb/midi in, for more real-time interactivity (just think what could be achieved with Cheetah and Kinemac for eg?!)

Because Cheetah is Mac OS X only, I feel strongly drawn towards it. I really detest windows and I am depressed that the main 3D players seem to have abandoned our platform. We need more people like Martin in this windose dominated world afaic.
 
Thanks ttrw, I will definitely ask questions once in a while when I am really determined to do something that I can't. But I'm afraid I will get responses like "modelling is not for you then" since the questions whirling around in my head are as simple as "how can I snap a line to a point?"... I mean I've tried activating all the snapping things in the transform tool but I can't seem to get the same "snappability" as in SketchUp... I'm just no good at freehand, and as you said, although Cheetah is the nicest 3D app in my opinion, it's not as architecture-friendly as it could be (or as SketchUp is). And architecture, in my (unknowledgeable) opinion, is easier than character modelling (which is easier - making a tool-shed or the cute little Cheetah on the Cheetah3D site? ;) ) -- at least when you design simple things, like houses or even, say, a space fighter, as long as it's made up of many, uncurved, symmetrical, joined/snapped edges, points and planes...

Anyway, the reasons I like Cheetah are these:
  • Cheap (and while I'm still using the demo version it's free :D )
  • quite simple and efficient interface, only in need of a few, small refinements (I think I will make a post about my opinions on it later!)
  • pretty stable in my opinion (although don't use it heavily)
  • cool name
  • cute mascot
  • cool app icon
  • respsonsive developer
  • friendly & helpful community
  • and seeing that the developer is actually working on new versions all the time (seems like it) is a big plus too, because it gives something to look forward to in the app, a good feeling!
All these positive observations don't come without some critique though:
Great job on the tutorials here on the forum & on the wiki, but you've got to make the wiki more public and definitely redo the Starter's Guide that comes with the download!

But let's not get too off topic here (unless it's OK with Martin) ;)
 
Hi temhawk,
You make some valid points and a couple I'd have to disagree with (Architecture Vs. Character Modeling, ummm depends which side of the fence you're on as to how easy it is or isn't). As for the snapping behaviour in Cheetah, it takes some getting use to but it is useable. The wiki needs some higher visibility on the forum and leaving to develop organically, imho. As for the quick start manual, how would you improve it?

Andrew
 
What I mean with character modelling being more difficult or at least a bigger time consumption than architecting, is that pretty much no matter what kind of character you are going to make, you will already use much more polygons and curves and detail to make it look proportionate in quality to a little hut, with just four sides, a roof and plain old texture.

And the first thing I would do to better the Starter's Guide is make the included images a lot bigger. The size they are right now, I can't even read any of the text in them, and zooming in is an even uglier story. That said, there are a number of spelling/grammar mistakes (don't know exactly how many or if it's just grammar mistakes) in it and some of the explanations could be made better altogether; in other words I got confused during one or two parts of it on how to do something, that was clearly instructed in the manual. This is probably because it covers a much older version of Ceetah where the menus and toolbar icons aren't the same as they are now.
 
fused said:
As for the quick start manual, how would you improve it?
Click to expand...

From my point of view, I think the very first thing I would have recommended as a novice starting out in Cheetah, would be to forget how you have learnt to draw so far in other packages such as SketchUp. C3D simply doesn't work like SU, nor does it work like 3DS Max for that matter, despite it sharing many similarities, such a UV mapping and the overall look of C3D's GUI.

As for software like Solidworks, because SW's is based on the Spatial kernel it bears more similarity with Shark FX (also Spatial-based), rather than C3D. For one, I made the really stupid mistake into thinking that I could import a dxf, extrude it up and create a solid. WRONG!! :lol:

It's better, ime, to start with a primitive and go from there- ie more 'clay' than 'precision engineering' :D
 
temhawk said:
Sorry for going way off topic with this, but: How do you do it?!:eek: I can't possibly imagine a single person can make this!!!! It's crazy!

You must be an expert math professor or have some kind of master degree in all sorts of things related to math as well as hell of programming experience/knowledge!

One thing I'd like to know, how old are you and when did you start programming?? What made you want to develop Cheetah and such an extremely complex thing at all??!!? :eek:
Click to expand...

Hi,
thanks for your nice words.

You neither have to be a math professor nor a superman to write a 3D app.:wink: The theory behind 3D graphics is actually quite easy. It just takes some time and patience to implement all the algorithms. So far I've invested almost 6 years in Cheetah3D (May 1st is the coding birthday).

But some craziness is required to fight against the windmills (the other big 3D apps). So some Don Quijote genes might help. :wink:

Bye,
Martin
 
ttrw said:
It's better, ime, to start with a primitive and go from there- ie more 'clay' than 'precision engineering' :D
Click to expand...

That's true. At the moment Cheetah3D is mainly a subdivision surface modeler. Subdevision modeling is also often called box modeling since you often start with just a box.
Nevertheless I also have interest in better "precision modelling" so there will come improvements in that area too. It might just take some more time. The new boolean tools should already help.

Bye,
Martin
 
Hi,
now a last word to the poll. It's closed now after 2 weeks and the result are quite close to my expectations. The poll options were actually ordered in the way I rated their priority by myself. :wink:

And the clear winner is obviously the material system which got over 50% of the votes.

Thank you very much to everybody who gave their vote. It was a nice confirmation for me that I'm on the right track with the upcoming features.:smile:

Bye,
Martin
 
Is it too-late to write-in a request...? :)

How difficult would it be to implement some sort of Batch Que for C3D...?

A place where you could send your render requests and have them render sequentially... not beginning the next render until the previous one has finished. This would be EXTREMELY helpful to me (some of us?) when we need to re-render an entire product line using different lighting or camera angle.

Again... I don't know if that's something (relatively) simple to do - or if it's a very complex addition.

Just throwing the idea out there to ya to see if it has any merit.

-sf
 
Some precision tools

Hi there,
I just bought Cheetah from MU. Thanks a lot for the offer and above all for the marvellous one man application. :eek:
One feature I would like to see in next releases (I know it is too late for v.5) are snaps.
I am an architect and a freelance graphic designer.
I LOVE precision snaps and aids ala Sketchup or Shark/SolidThinking/Etc.
But seems that a 3d modeler can't has them for a not well specified reason… :( Is it so difficult to implement them? Martin, do you think are you able to put them in you magic hat for next release?

Something is moving on in the 3d market, Modo, for example, even if not an "architectural" modeler added some wonderful features for snapping:

http://www.luxology.com/whatismodo/model.aspx

http://www.luxology.com/common/qt/L.../301/video/04-MoreOnSnapping.mp4&w=1280&h=736

http://www.luxology.com/common/qt/L...videoVault/PrecisionModeling.mp4&w=1280&h=736

But also some easy features like a grid (I am not asking for a neat multiple grid system like SolidThinking, just a simple grid) and a snap to the grid option would be great.
Or a smart "shift+drag" to set Move/rotate/scale act according to the grid units like in C4d.

That would make Cheetah really really great.

Clearly, the new material nodes system will be a great implementation, and will make Cheetah even better the stunning application it already is.

Thanks Martin. ;)

Giuseppe Caruso
 
Hi Giuseppe,
I know that the snapping tools are a little bit tricky at the moment. But better ones are on my todo list. But they won't make it in 5.0 since the feature list for 5.0 is already closed.

The movie links you attached contained some really nice ideas. I'm sure some of these tools will make it into Cheetah3D.

Bye,
Martin
 
Martin,
I collaborated with several Mac applications and I have a good experience in design and design applications too. I would love to help you if I may.
I have a lot of great ideas on that and other features.
Please, fell free to contact me at any time, if you want.

Giuseppe Caruso
 
Martin said:
Hi Giuseppe,
I know that the snapping tools are a little bit tricky at the moment. But better ones are on my todo list. But they won't make it in 5.0 since the feature list for 5.0 is already closed.
Click to expand...
Well, then C3D 5.0 is gonna suck. :(
No, seriously.
 
I really agree with Giuseppe, SketchUp and (seemingly) modo (although I've never tried it, it looks very capable with a weird UI) kinda of have better snapping than Cheetah3D. At least it's easier and more straightforward in SketchUp.

But Martin, how long do you think it would take you to give Cheetah3D some improved snapping abilities? I have no clue, but I'd guess it wouldn't be too difficult or time-consuming. Isn't there a modeling-apps programing language equivalent to AppleScript? You could use "snap {toolname} every 1.000" and done! :rolleyes:

But I don't want to have Martin rushed into making 5.0 perfect. It's very understandable that the new-features list is closed now. I can't wait either way, and quality over quantity is real quality! So make those new features in 5.0 really worthy of its version number, Martin! :)

I have a small feature request however.
"Cheetah3D: For Beginners" DVD ("produced in version 5.0" of course!!!!) :D
 
temhawk said:
Isn't there a modeling-apps programing language equivalent to AppleScript? You could use "snap {toolname} every 1.000" and done! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That would be a quantize tool which some tools already have. And quantize tools are indeed quite easy to implement. Sapping tools are way more tricky since they require some sort of collision detection.

temhawk said:
I have a small feature request however.
"Cheetah3D: For Beginners" DVD ("produced in version 5.0" of course!!!!) :D
Click to expand...

That wish has a quite high fulfillment probability.:wink:

Bye,
Martin
 
um... simple mechanism kinematics?

I realize this may not be of much interest to all the 3D character animators out there and is a bit off C3D's primary focus, but there is an unbelievable dearth (i.e. zero in the sub-$500 range) of Mac kinematic programs available. C3D has so many of the ingredients, and a nice simple interface I'm comfortable with. I thought maybe bones & joints would help but they don't. I just want to connect some cranks and bars and linkages & such and model bits of machinery before making working prototypes. I don't need and can't afford the heavy-weight CAD programs out there. I'm not completely alone; there's at least one thread on the board looking for this. I think there may be a significant market opportunity here. Thanks.
 
Martin said:
That comment doesn't really motivate me to give snapping tools a higher priority. Seriously!!!
Click to expand...
Maybe I should have explained my point of view. Sorry for that.:(

Anyway, if Cheetah3D has no (and by "no" I mean "none at all") snapping tools, then it is basically incapable of providing an environment for building any accurate models.

If I'm not able to create an accurate model, then nifty features like Subsurface Scattering don't help me either. :mad:

Its like you want to build some beautiful building. And you already have some great materials for the outer facade. But as you don't have any foot rule at hand your bulding is very likely to be highly inaccurate in a techical manner. Most of the buildings assembly pieces just don't fit together and thus it will eventually just collapse back upon itself.

Hope this makes my point little clearer. :(
 
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