Hi Ced,

> Doubt I'll upgrade if I have to go through the whole process once more, may as well stay
> with Rhino, 3dCoat & KeyShot, at least it has the easy-on-the-eyes interface, and no need
> to find the needles in the haystack.

Sorry that MoI doesn't do what you wanted to as of yet. I agree with you that you would probably be better off with this plan and avoid using MoI for the time being.

Maybe at some point in the future you might want to check back in since I do expect to eventually do some work for switching UI themes and installing plug-ins to be easier but it is not a priority at this moment.

- Michael

Hi Max,

re:
> Few days ago I found a good forum engine: https://discuss.flarum.org/
> In my opinion it could be a best engine for a next generation MoI community forum.
> If Michael will implement a tag system to this forum, it will be great.

Some previous discussion on that here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=7573.1

It looks pretty promising!

A few difficulties though - it specifically says it's in beta release and not to use it in production ( http://flarum.org/docs/installation/ "Don’t use it in production." ) and it does not currently support IIS so I'd need to spend a lot of time fiddling around with setting up a new web server.

Then there would be a big issue about data migration, this current forum has 8294 threads in it containing a lot of information, it would not be good to lose all this information and so I'd probably have to do more work yet to port over everything.

So that's a lot of work involved and I tend to like things that take a lot of work to also provide a lot of benefit. The problem is that the benefit would be relatively small because the current forum is already very effective and easy to use.

There are probably things that would not be known until it's up and running like are spammers attracted by it?

I think it's more likely that I'd try to tune up the current forum some more before considering such a switch.

If MoI was just being released for the first time right now that would probably make things different.

- Michael

Hi Mauro, I guess now that I read your message again it's not about finding the "extra stuff" like I thought at first, it's more about filtering out the discussions of the "extra stuff" so that the "regular user who is just trying to model stuff" isn't inundated with a bunch of technical details that have no use for them, is that correct?

It certainly is true that MoI has an overall goal of trying to make complex technical CAD to be easier to use for simple things so I can understand where you're coming from.

It's kind of difficult though to apply it very well to this particular field of forum discussions, they can be rather "organic" in nature...

Probably at some point it's going to make sense to have a separate "developer" section but I don't think we're quite there yet.

There is already one type of filtering which helps with this already which is just having threads/topics - if a user has a specific question often times they'll post it as a new thread and then they can go back to just that thread later on to see stuff related just to their question, they don't have to chew through every single post in the whole forum.

Now if you're someone who likes to consume as much information as possible and so reads every single thread then that's a bit different thing and it's more fundamentally difficult to impose order on that.

- Michael

It appears to be that you have two DISTINCT major areas of interest:

1. The first time buyer.
2. The experienced CAD designer & code writer/node/script/ developer.

After purchasing Moi3d, I needed to focus on 'beginner courses' to familiarize myself with Moi3d. Take it for a test drive:

A) On this FORUM have a BEGINNER SECTION.

After I was able to drive Moi3d as well as my work required - I found there were holes in the fabric:

B) Began to search for LIGHTING OPTIONS, Additional tools (scripts) - hot keys - nodes - & other improvements in order to beef-up the bare bones 'standard' version.

After that I realized my interface was UGLY - cluttered - wrong-sized icons, too much text - whereas the wimpy pastel color theme was repugnant to me:

C) Began searching for LOCATIONS where I could add (either forum or my own) CSS & HTML to RESIZE & PLACE all the ADD-ONS & remove the excessive text below labels - and generally re-proportion Moi.

Then I realized I could change the whole text/color interface so that the space between the windows was black - by changing a PNG, and I made my own black-gray icons & headers & folders & TOOL TIP code.

D) Began searching for design layout CSS & HTML code and PNG's and finalizing the Moi remodel - and now it is complete & beautiful and has myriad tools for experimentation & design work, modded-out nicely.

Therefore I strongly suggest you divide the FORUM into A - B - C - D SECTIONS.

A: Beginner Area
Tutorials & Video Clips.
B: Add-ons & plug-ins,
Hot-keys & Nodes.
C: GUI Related Beautify
Icons & Png's
D: Code Room
Snippets & SidePane

That way you have different ROOMS in which live the different compartments related to that room. You have the torpedo room with the torpedoes, the command center with the periscope etc., and it's easy to go step by step and Moi becomes individualized to the point that we aren't all forced to submit to become victims of one individual's rigormortis. Suddenly you have a very interesting path to customize your software and personalize it - which I think is a huge benefit / blessing to the consumer, because we're all individuals and have different taste and arrange our own desk per whim.

This way each cubicle isn't identical, nor dictated by a stiff unbending narrow philosophy - these options add doors & windows to a solitary confinement (in my opinion) however, my opinion has been quite unpopular among the inmates in this lunatic asylum - be that as it may.

I certainly will think long and hard before I go through the process of soaking up all the drivel on this forum seeking to download and figuring out which is the latest and greatest add-on and then pouring over the wasteland of notes around the code wondering where to - how to - add it - and then resize - beautify it - and hope it works!

One thing for sure - it's a great software - however - I think the forum is confusing and the icons & color theme are repugnant - and I love the lighting options, hot-keys, nodes & other options, not to mention the comfortable easy-on-your-eyes & elegant black & gray & white interface I have now - with all that miserable text labels replaced with pop-up tool-tips - right now I'm thrilled with Moi - the software.
Ced

Hi Ced, thanks for the ideas. One reason why I won't be doing that is as I've mentioned many times already I plan to eventually have a plug-in browser contained inside of Moi itself directly. Having them posted here on the forum is just a temporary thing, I do not want to structure the forum in a way that I already know will become obsolete at some point.

Also as I mentioned again previously there are already links in the wiki (http://moi3d.com/resources) to Petr's and Max's script pages which contain listings of the most frequently used scripts. That's where someone can go to right now to discover them. The resources page is one of the direct links on the main web site and it's also linked to in the help file table of contents.

Your situation is kind of unusual since most MoI users don't install any scripts and all, so it's just not something that is currently focused on as a high priority.

Since MoI is not currently focused on things that you yourself have as a high priority, it probably just isn't the right tool for you currently. I would recommend sticking with your plan you wrote about above about using other software that does meet your needs better right now.

- Michael

Yeah but Moi is like a Speedo, it's fast & fun & with all the mod stuff is best for experimenting in design possibilities -

Man muss noch Chaos in sich haben, um einen tanzenden Stern gebären zu können.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Have a nice day
Karsten

p.s.: I think it is more exciting to discover and get part of it than just download it:-)

Hi Michael.

How are you ? I hope fine.

How long till we get the first official beta of Moi's V4 ?

Thanks ;)

Hi Marco, sorry still not sure yet. I just finished off several bugs though and am now getting back to the viewport display.

- Michael

Hi Michael.

Thanks for your rely.

@You : "...I just finished off several bugs..."

I agree with you.
It's better to have the best possible first beta version than new untested features.

I stay tuned.

Another thing I worked on recently was testing the node editor with it and making sure that it would work with v4 as well.

But now back to viewports, I'm nearly ready to test using the bgfx library to see if it might be helpful.

- Michael

Good news everyone!!

There will be two different graphic engines for Win and Mac ?

Marc

Hi Marc,

> There will be two different graphic engines for Win and Mac ?

Sort of, since Windows will use Direct3D11 and Mac will use OpenGL. But hopefully it will be more like one engine that has 2 different output targets with a lot of common code rather than being totally different.

That's the part that I'm working on figuring out next.

- Michael

Hi Michael.

@You : "...But now back to viewports,..."

Very well!!

So...the longed-for day is at hand :)

Have a nice day.