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I have one project in progress where this would have an incredible impact: a stadium with 10.000+ seats. I already optimized this partly by grouping seats and running them through Blender to merge groups and then repeat the same for rows. Imagine the impact of defining a single seat and 10.000+ positions instead of 10.000+ seats! The project would shrink from 300+ MB to just a few MB's
Yes. SH3D should have to make this kind of furniture library storage and loading so it shouldn't be hard to do. But it would be great for the ecology of the creation. Including making a lamp with multiple light sources, I'd do it too. But the process is so cumbersome that it can be very painful and agonizing. If we can build the underlying infrastructure well, then we can have more and better furniture!
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...Including making a lamp with multiple light sources,...
YES! That is a wish I have mentioned before. A light source should be connected to a material and not to the object. I don't think an implementation would be too difficult but there is a huge problem: backward compatibility with the current light sources. And I don't know how photo renderers handle the light sources, there might a problem with light sources connected to a material and not the object.
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...Including making a lamp with multiple light sources,...
YES! That is a wish I have mentioned before. A light source should be connected to a material and not to the object. I don't think an implementation would be too difficult but there is a huge problem: backward compatibility with the current light sources. And I don't know how photo renderers handle the light sources, there might a problem with light sources connected to a material and not the object.
I'm not saying the light source should be attached to the material. Now such light sources are also wanted. It's just that adding light sources to furniture is a pain in the ass and too much of a hassle for furniture library creators. That's why not many people in the world are willing to do that. If one could treat the SH3D file as a piece of furniture, then this video would be quite a bit easier before anyone would want to go through with it
As for your comment about the material glowing. That one is a self-luminous material, that's a different issue. Of course, this issue is also very important. If sweethome3d can support material self-illumination, that's of course a good thing. But this involves the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the rendering engine, and it's not that easy to implement. It's also not that important if it's never supported. Because my position on sweethome3d is a 3D model placement tool. Not a rendering tool. As long as sweethome3d can do all the things related to model placement well enough (e.g. blended random placement, smart compositing as I mentioned before)
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I'm not saying the light source should be attached to the material. Now such light sources are also wanted. It's just that adding light sources to furniture is a pain in the ass and too much of a hassle for furniture library creators. That's why not many people in the world are willing to do that.
How is this difficult? In the Library editor you set a material name for the material that you want to act as a light. That's it. Nothing more to it.
About the power setting for each light source individually: This was discussed before here: https://sweethome3d.com/support/forum/viewthread_thread,12755#60154 (Some remarks in that thread are no longer valid. Back then you had to manually edit the properties file in the zip to set the light source. That is no longer needed.)
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I'm not saying the light source should be attached to the material. Now such light sources are also wanted. It's just that adding light sources to furniture is a pain in the ass and too much of a hassle for furniture library creators. That's why not many people in the world are willing to do that.
How is this difficult? In the Library editor you set a material name for the material that you want to act as a light. That's it. Nothing more to it.
About the power setting for each light source individually: This was discussed before here: https://sweethome3d.com/support/forum/viewthread_thread,12755#60154 (Some remarks in that thread are no longer valid. Back then you had to manually edit the properties file in the zip to set the light source. That is no longer needed.)
I just carefully looked at the web link you gave. And downloaded the actual test and figured out how it works. But this method is not really a glowing material. He is just a white lighted white board. Even according to this method can not do the effect of the TV screen. It's not even close to a real light-emitting material. Also, it is possible to define multiple light sources for a single piece of furniture in sweethome3d's own furniture library, it's just a pain in the ass to do so. That's why I said it would be much easier to support SH3D for a single furniture. However, even if multiple light sources are defined, they are switched on and off at the same time and cannot be controlled independently.
I agree with you when you say “add a switch for white light source or not under gloss in the material modification options”. It's better than nothing, and Puybaret is sometimes too obsessed with “simplicity”. Puybaret is sometimes too obsessed with “simplicity” and ignores a lot of more critical real user needs.
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There's also the transparency modification you mentioned in the link above. I mentioned it many years ago if I remember correctly. I don't know why sweethome3d hasn't added this important feature after all these years ~ it should be very simple to implement!
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I just carefully looked at the web link you gave. And downloaded the actual test and figured out how it works. But this method is not really a glowing material. He is just a white lighted white board. Even according to this method can not do the effect of the TV screen. It's not even close to a real light-emitting material.
At the time I didn't know or forgot to mention it but for a glow effect you have to set illum to 0 in the MTL file.
I agree with you when you say “add a switch for white light source or not under gloss in the material modification options”. It's better than nothing, and Puybaret is sometimes too obsessed with “simplicity”. Puybaret is sometimes too obsessed with “simplicity” and ignores a lot of more critical real user needs.
There's also the transparency modification you mentioned in the link above. I mentioned it many years ago if I remember correctly. I don't know why sweethome3d hasn't added this important feature after all these years ~ it should be very simple to implement!
There's a reason for this: target audience and marketing. I agree that I would like to see all these settings in one or more dialogs but it would increase the difficulty of using the program for newbies. Imagine you have to start using Photoshop without having used any photo software before. As a beginner you would search for simpler software to start with. The same goes for Sweet Home 3D. I have grown into Sweet Home 3D over 15+ years and during that time many, many features have been added to evolve it from a simple home design program to what it is today. Would I like to see all these features added? For me definitely but it would make the software a lot more difficult for starters that might go looking for something more simple. For not adding a transparency setting: the reason was that Emmanuel was afraid that users would randomly use the setting to set it for many materials and transparency greatly increases 3D and photo rendering times. Personally I would have added the feature with a display tip that warns for increasing processing time. I would also add a dialog to the Edit materials dialog to set the properties for light settings to a material. But do this at 10-20 more places and Sweet Home 3D becomes as complex as for example Photoshop. So it is not really "obsessed with 'simplicity'" but keeping the program in line for the intended audience. I would add all the features but place them in sub-dialogs that a beginner can ignore. It is now up to Space Mushrooms to decide what the future of Sweet Home 3D is.
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Already 10-15 years ago, I suggested to Puybaret to split the Preferences section into two: Standard and Advanced. These days, I still think that's a good idea, and maybe even more so than all those years ago.
Combined with that split, the program could/should offer basic functions/features as Standard, but more complex functions/features as Advanced. That way you can offer the ease of use that lies at the core of SH3D to Beginners, and the full works for more Advanced users.
I agree that some plugins should be integrated into the program (provided he original developers agree). I can't live without AdvancedEDit and a few others.
Export-Import of a selection should offer the option Convert to Obj, to save many users the detour one has to take now.
I have an immense admiration for what Puybaret has achieved these past 15 years, and I hope SpaceMushrooms continues on that path.
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Already 10-15 years ago, I suggested to Puybaret to split the Preferences section into two: Standard and Advanced. These days, I still think that's a good idea, and maybe even more so than all those years ago.
I agree with that. After all the added features in the past years a split in Standard and Advanced seems like a very good idea.
I agree that some plugins should be integrated into the program (provided he original developers agree). I can't live without AdvancedEDit and a few others.
Yes, especially the AdvancedEdit plugin because that is all functionality that should be part of the base program.
I have an immense admiration for what Puybaret has achieved these past 15 years, and I hope SpaceMushrooms continues on that path.
Indeed, he created a piece of software that has grown from a study case for his book on Swing to great software with millions of users. Certainly an immense achievement and I too hope that Space Mushrooms continues on the set path.
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I don't think this understanding is necessarily correct. Because A: Really newbies a lot go to the free online platforms, which are much simpler to detail. You don't even have to draw a floor plan, just type in your address and the floor plan comes out. You can change it directly. Instead, a lot of people who use sweethome3d are people who have certain requirements for functionality. People who need more freedom than convenience. If sweethome3d is missing features, they will be disappointed! B: 95% of newbies won't even go to the texture settings screen until they uninstall the software, so the idea that newbies will find the software complicated doesn't exist. At least for the vast majority of people. The software settings menu? Don't even go there. Less than 10% of people go there.
Ease of use is not about cutting out features that should be there, it's about making a better guide so that newbies can actually understand what's going on. the F1-style static page help is definitely outdated!
