Hi,
Just posting a few grievances I have with some of the basic interactions with the material editor.
1. Unlock Finish. When we want to set the Finish on a material that has no Specular set, we cannot do that. But the Finish value is needed to control the Reflect regardless of the faked specular is being used or not.
2. Unlock Reflect. If Specular is set to 0, Reflect is locked. But we actually need Reflections when not using faked specular from point lights.
3. Unlock Fresnel. We cannot modify Fresnel if Reflect is set to zero, BUT if fresnel is set to a value, that value is being used even if Reflect is set to zero! Giving the false impression that it isn't used!
4. Unlock Blur Reflections. Just like Fresnel, Blur Reflections is infact being used even if Reflect is set to zero!
5. When I want to add a map to a material, I don't need to see the filebrowser before I decide on using a bitmap.
I am just going to keep adding to this post whenever I find something odd. Feel free to join in!
Thanks for your time.
6. Displacement can be linked to Displacement - How is that even possible? If Displacement is linked to Normal the icon indicating a map has been set is not working when revisiting the material.
7. Normal can be linked to normal.
WARNING! Do Not Link Displacement to Normal and Normal to displacement...
*yes, this is earth calling microStation.. please respond*
System: Win7 64bit 16GB Ram - microStation V8i SS3 08.11.09.578. + PoinTools CONNECT. - Intel i7-4800MQ CPU@2.70GHz, 4 core / 8 Logic proc.
8. In Displacement mapping. If the Blend of the first (bottom) map is NOT set Normal, the entire map turns out completely black. And it is not possible to change the Blend of the first map (Should override to Normal I presume? Yet it doesn't)
Not to mention that currently the use of procedural maps in normal mapping is useless. Normal mapping needs red/blue mapping - not black/white mapping that the procedural maps push out.
Thanks Robert :) Gonna count that as grievance #9 even if it's just slightly bending the scope of this thread which was actually more GUI grievances.
Don't get me started on the whole material/shader model. IMHO It's pretty much beyond all logic. There is no implicit logic to the order that all the shader-bits are being applied to the materials at all. And no control of said order whatsoever.. sadly.
Anyways..
10. Setting the Opaque map and NOT changing the Opacity value to anything below 100 causes the absorption Distance calculation to be ignored. Shouldn't the mapping override/multiply the Opacity value?
11. When using a Gradient pattern that relies on Displacement Height, the Left side is actually where the displacement is highest, and the right side where the displacement is lowest. Shouldn't such a gradient be so that left to right = low to high?
My fault entirely. Forgot to check the surface normal..
12. Very often a gradient slider control gets falsely drawn in another map window.