Firstly, I'm amazed at how many of the items on my private wish list have been added in as of FF2 beta 4. Awesome work so far.
I realize that some features are pretty hard to add in, so I'm only going to mention the ones I think are relatively simple to implement, yet very helpful as additions. Hope this helps out.
- - Summery:
1: Rename Filters from Main Window
2: Add a Tile Checkbox to FF2.0 Transform Components
3: Movable Dividers for UI
4: Paste Colors by typing "V" at the Context Menu
5: Copy and Paste Colors with Operating System Clipboard, (and paste with "V")
- - 1: Rename Filters from Main Window:
Feature:
In the Main Window, when you right click a filter in the filter list, you get a popup-context menu. It would be great to have a "Rename" option in that menu.
Example:
You could right click a filter, choose the "Rename" option (or type "R"), and a popup dialogue with a text field containing the current filter name would appear, which you would edit as needed. I only suggest using a popup rename dialogue, because I think it is likely the simplest way to implement the feature, (compared to editing the filter name in-place in the list for example).
Wiki-Wishlist:
To be clear, what I'm proposing is only intended for renaming filters. A similar feature has already been logged in the wiki, but it is under the "About Tab" in the "Filter Controls" section, and proposes editing the name and all the other filter info. I suspect that using the context menu and popup dialogue would be both simpler to implement, and ultimately more usable (at least for just renaming filters) than rebuilding the about tab to edit all the filter data.
Currently:
At the moment, the fastest way I know of to rename a filter is to select it, hold Ctrl and press E then I to open the editor and info dialogue, type a new name, then press Enter, then press Alt+F4 to close the editor, and then press Y (to answer "Yes" to the "save changes" dialogue). While it's not quite as bad as it sounds, when you need to rename several filters this can quickly become cumbersome.
- - 2: Add a Tile Checkbox to FF2.0 Transform Components:
This is another small change that I think could save a lot of time and node clutter.
Feature:
For each of the FF2.0 Transform components, it would be nice to have a "Tile" option (checkbox) in the properties. This would cause samples outside of the "0" to "1" UV space to simply wrap around back into the "0" to "1" UV space. Presently, all "non-seamless" components will not tile in this fashion even when "Seamless Tiling" is forced in the "Override" options.
Example:
With the "Tile" option enabled, a sample at 1.25 by -0.1 would be treated as if it were actually at 0.25, by 0.9.
Currently (in FF2.0 beta):
It's true that you can currently force this kind of tiling for an image by hand using two "Profile Gradients" and a "Lookup", before plugging into a Transform component, but there are a lot of filters (certainly plenty of mine) that would require forcing this kind of tiling before every single Transform component used. Don't get me wrong, the non-seamless mode they all presently have is a fantastic addition, all I'm suggesting is that a tiling option be included, given how ubiquitous tiled transformations already are in FF1 filters (those ones are hand-made of course).
- - 3: Movable Dividers for UI:
Feature:
* In the Filter Editor, it would be really nice to be able to move the dividing bar between the "Preview / Properties" area and the "Workspace" area.
* In the Main Window, it would also be nice to be able to move the dividing bar between the "Categories and Filters / Controls" area and the "Preview" area.
* Finally, in the Main Window, it would be handy to have the ability to move the dividing bar between the "Categories and Filters" area and the "Controls" area, so you could have more filter controls on screen at a time.
Example:
* In the Filter Editor, if you want to see more of the preview area, you simply drag the divider to the right.
* In the Main Window if you want to see all of a filter control's name, simply drag the divider to the right. Note that there has been a maximum length for control names since FF1, so you won't have to worry about names getting too long. The current problem is that, for some reason, you can give a control a name that is below the current max name length but still too long to be completely visible in the Filter Control area.
* In the Main Window if you want to see more filter controls on screen at a time, simply drag the horizontal divider up.
Currently:
You can't.
If the name of a filter is too wide for the Control area, you get the "...".
- - 4: Paste Colors by typing "V" at the Context Menu:
Feature:
Currently, when you right click a color property swatch, a context menu pops up, where you can type "C" for copy and "P" for paste. It would be nice if you could type either "V" or "P" for paste. The nice thing about "V" is that it's right next to "C", so you don’t have to reach way across the keyboard for "P", (and "V" its rather like Ctrl+V).
- - 5: Copy and Paste Colors with Operating System Clipboard, (and paste with "V"):
Feature:
When you right click a color property swatch, and choose "Copy Color" the color is copied to the operating system clipboard as plain text. When you choose "Paste Color" the color is read from the operating system clipboard and the color swatch is set to that color.
Ideally, Filter Forge should understand two kinds of colors.
* HDR: Its own HDR color format: Which could be copied and read from the clip board as text, such as "R=0.5499669491 , G=0.8062015504 , B=0.725442785 , A=1".
* HTML Hex: Standard HTML Hex colors (plus alpha when needed), where Red is #FF0000, (or #FF0000FF if you include alpha).
* Finally, it would be nice, if copying a color would save an HDR format color to the clipboard when the color was an HDR color, and would save an HTML format color to the clipboard if the color was a 32-bit color (which of course can be stored in the HTML Hex format). (This would be nice, though not essential.)
Note: To implement this feature as I described above, you wouldn't even need to add a text field or change anything about the layout of the color picker or color property swatch in any way.
Example:
* If you want to copy several colors and store them for later use, for each color you just copy it and paste it in a text editor.
* If you want to copy a color from a graphics program (such as Photoshop, or Flash, or Gimp, or pretty much any graphics editor there is), simply copy the 24 bit (RGB) or 32 bit (RGBA) color hex code, right click a Filter Forge color swatch and choose paste.
* If you want to paste a color in Filter Forge into a graphics program, just copy the color, and paste it into the HTML color code field in the graphics program.
Currently:
To move colors between pickers you have to copy and paste the red, green, and blue colors individually from a graphics tool and paste them into to the red, green, and blue color fields in a Filter Forge color picker dialogue.
- - Ending Notes:
Again, fantastic work so far, I've preordered FF2 and I'm looking forward to the final release. I know you have a lot of features pending, so best of luck with whichever additions you decide to make.
