Damn you Frenchy! I'm losing a whole day watching videos on Decal Machine, Hard Ops and Boxcutter for Blender. And I suspect I'm this far from jumping with both feet into Blender, UGH!
Every now and then a demo comes along that is a game changer, and I'm thinking the Hard Ops demo + Decal Machine is just that. It shows the power of parametrics as applied to low poly models. Amazing. I read a bit over on the modo forum wondering what they thought of it and I don't think they get it. They think is a weaker version of mesh fusion, which it's clearly not. It's actually much more, plus they have a full kitbashing workflow built into it plus some of the best kitbash models included.
Decal machine needs to work with Unity and Unreal, which they say is a version away.
I guess the big question is, can I successfully work in Blender without going nuts over the non standard GUI? Don't know until you try...
FWIW, I'm also considering switching from KeyShot to Unity for final renders, as Octane is releasing a free version for Unity this quarter. Things are moving fast!
I need to learn more about Blender.
Michael, you should take a peek at how they implement parametrics. Couple of points:
1. They don't appear to create a history and only apply them in the order that makes most sense. In particular, they have a concept called *sharpening* (I think), which applies a small user resizable bevel/fillet to all edges on an object. It can only go as large as programmatically possible. I assume it's a post process which happens after large solid/ surface changes are made. My guess it works best in MoI case with solids.
2. It would be interesting to better understand what your users are now using Moi for. More and more, I'm seeing high detail box designs and sci fi concepts being built in MoI. Mostly people talking about that on other forums, but it is interesting to note -- and a flexible workflow like the Hard Ops one would certainly make sense for those users.
3. Hard Ops is a *mode*-- and I know you're not fond of modes. Still, this type of limited auto-parametrics could be a major differentiator for you in the future. I know, first get 4.0 out!
https://youtu.be/4Rlu8HS5EOM