I'm not sure if it's in the MoI interface philosophy, but it would be much more clear if the curve are showed in yellow during the construction or points edition .
It's sometimes hard to clearly see the curve you build, more over if there is some geomtry on the screen ... (geometry than might be usefull as reference)

Here's some visual exemple, more easy to understand that my english :o)

How MoI show a curve when you build it:


More clear view:




How MoI show a curve when you build it:


More clear view:

Hi PaQ - the general goal for that was kind of a "What you see is what you get", by which I mean the curve is trying to look generally the same as when you are drawing it as it will when you are finished drawing it.

Also, I've tried to be careful not to use different colors for too many different purposes - the way you show it there is what is currently used only to show that a curve is selected.

It would seem kind of strange to me to make a curve look like you are showing there, then suddenly have it shift to look differently right when you finished drawing it.

However, I guess one method that would not seem as strange would be to have the curve really be selected when it was finished being drawn, then it would make sense to show it that way during the drawing process as well. I don't think that I would do that by default, but maybe I could put in an option for that in v2.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

A color for line under construction would be good (if possible).

- steve

Hi Michael, I completely get your point, yellow mean active and it's a bad idea ...


but I still thing there is something to do because like I show in the second exemple, you just see nothing of the curve you're drawing when there is some geometry in the viewport, and it's quite disturbing. Maybe it's possible to force the z-buffer to draw the curve in the front of everything during the building, even if the curve is inside an object you can still see it. It's how it works in rhino too. (sorry to compare always with rhino ^^ it's the only other nurbs modeler I have installed here)

Hi PaQ,

> you just see nothing of the curve you're drawing
> when there is some geometry in the viewport

It shouldn't normally be the case that you see nothing of the curve - you should be able to see the curve displayed in the dashed hidden line style, you can see this in your own screenshot above.


> Maybe it's possible to force the z-buffer to draw the curve in the front
> of everything during the building, even if the curve is inside an object
> you can still see it.

This is certainly possible - it would definitely be a more natural fit than showing it as selected.

It would mean that you wouldn't get the full depth perception of the curve and how it related to other objects in the scene until you finished drawing it... But yes I think that getting a clearer view of the curve you are drawing is more important

I think I can set it up this way for v2.

- Michael

Well it's really hard to see the curve between the first two bottom points here, probably the gamma is different on my pc.
But yes I see some dashed lines, I just need somethink a little bit more clear.

>It would mean that you wouldn't get the full depth perception of the curve and how it related to other objects in the scene until you finished drawing it...
>But yes I think that getting a clearer view of the curve you are drawing is more important
>I think I can set it up this way for v2.

Great :)

Hi PaQ,

> Well it's really hard to see the curve between the first two
> bottom points here, probably the gamma is different on my pc.

Yeah, that part can get washed out on certain displays. It is possible to adjust that to make it darker if that would help for now.

To do that, make sure MoI is closed and then open up the moi.ini file in notepad which you can find here:
C:\Documents and Settings\ [your login name] \Application Data\Moi\moi.ini

Find the [Hidden lines] section, and there is a setting:

[Hidden lines]
HiddenLineOpacity=34

That can range from 0 (no opacity = fully transparent) to 255 (fully opaque).

Maybe something like 75 or so would improve the hidden-line display on your system.

That may be useful for you before this is ready for v2.

- Michael

thanks for the tip !