Move filter and preset management out of FilterForge.

Quote
Warwick wrote: When I use PhotoShop, it doesn't try to put all my images into some hidden directory structure somewhere.

Filter Forge doesn't put your images away either. What it does put away are settings and other files that are not supposed to be used manually – just like Photoshop. Would you complain on Adobe forums that Photoshop hides your color settings and action palette?

However, you can always symlink the %appdata\Filter Forge 2\System\Library\ folder to any other location if you want to have it at hand.

GMM, your analogy is not sound: .ffxml files are the "project files" of filter forge, hence the parallel in Photoshop would .psd files, and not various settings files.

The problem about filter forges managed handling of custom filters is that it completely eliminates any manual handling. The plain old open/save menus are missing for ffxml files. If you open a e.g. a manually downloaded filter, FF will copy it to My Filters, which is both very annoying and wrong. The annoying part is that you can't use your own storage paths etc (it is logical to save special filter files for a given project in a dedicated project folder). The wrong part is that if I download someones filter from the forum, it is not mine, hence it should not reside in "My Filters".

Vlad here...

The answer is this...FF needs to allow a user-defined filter filing system within FF...it's just that simple...

http://www.filterforge.com/forum/read...9&TID=8729

Quote
Warwick wrote: Basically, FF is trying to be a file system. That is wrong.

The rationale behind this decision was simplicity. Our baseline / reference interface was that of a typical Photoshop plugin. Now, when the Filter Library has grown so large, the interface definitely needs a redesign.

Quote
Warwick wrote: When I write a game, all my image assets are in a directory for the project... but my FF filters and presets are off somewhere else, dissociated from the project.

Absolutely agree with this. However, I don't yet have a clear solution in mind.

Quote
Warwick wrote: Please fix this - it is essential for professional asset development pipelines!

This is not a fix, but a complete redesign of the Filter Library infrastructure, both on the server and the client side. This is one of the most requested features. We haven't yet decided on priorities for FF4.0, but I think this will get a top priority.

Quote
StevieJ wrote: Warwick, it should solve the problem that you have described...

Not necessarily. As I said above, I don't yet have a clear idea on how to implement that. Possible approaches include additional user-defined directories for My Filters, or an optional "document-oriented" way to launch Filter Forge, which probably will be more convenient for asset creators (or, more generally, those who keep their filters in a version control system like Git or CVS.)

Also, speaking of removing filter manager from Filter Forge. Users of the Basic edition just download filters from the Library and use them, they don't create anything. So it makes no sense to force them to use a filesystem instead of the built-in filter list.

For users of the Basic edition of Filter Forge, filters aren't documents they "open" and "edit" - they are just optional downloadable additions to the main program. The document, in their case, is a picture they're modifying.

Quote
Warwick wrote: When I use PhotoShop, it doesn't try to put all my images into some hidden directory structure somewhere.

But it does exactly that with Brushes and Patterns