standard views

[geomagnet]

Hi,

Is it possible to have a default set of views (or have extra cameras)  Front, Back, Top, Bottom, Left, Right?  Maybe they can have a toggle for default distance vs. current camera distance.  The problem is I can't tell where I'm placing my lights without wrecking my current view. I thought it would be nice if a set of default views which don't affect the keyframes could be activated.  This would make it possible to see the camera, light(s), flight path, and geometery.   

If so, perhaps later you can allow manipulation of the path via Bezier handle bars, camera orientation, and light transformation from these external views.

Can't wait for OpenGL or CUDA features.  I was spoiled by the OpenCL feature.  Hope to start making some more fantastic animations soon.

Is this new version going to be open source?   I'm taking a class in programming, maybe I can poke it with a stick.

Cheers,
JS

[zebastian]

Hi geomagnet,

Is it possible to have a default set of views (or have extra cameras)  Front, Back, Top, Bottom, Left, Right?  Maybe they can have a toggle for default distance vs. current camera distance.  The problem is I can't tell where I'm placing my lights without wrecking my current view. I thought it would be nice if a set of default views which don't affect the keyframes could be activated.  This would make it possible to see the camera, light(s), flight path, and geometery. 

This is a good idea. I always find it annoying, if i want to "hide" some lights behind the fractal to shine through.
Right now the requested feature list is quite big, and this change will require a lot of coding.
But we will come back to this...

If so, perhaps later you can allow manipulation of the path via Bezier handle bars, camera orientation, and light transformation from these external views.

Handle bars in keyframe animation with display of curves is on todo list as well.
we would like to make all parameters adjustable by bezier like curves (like in node editor in blender).

Can't wait for OpenGL or CUDA features.  I was spoiled by the OpenCL feature.  Hope to start making some more fantastic animations soon.

Is this new version going to be open source?   I'm taking a class in programming, maybe I can poke it with a stick.

Yes, the code is open source and under gpl license.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html

Cheers!

[joe]

If you want set viewpoints you could copy paste coordinates from one settings file to another. I use notepad++ to solve a lot of problems like this.
Not sure if it works ok with v2 but I used to keep two programs running and have two views of a shape. A second render window was my original wish.