Anim8or Community

General Category => Anim8or v0.98 Discussion Forum => Topic started by: lawrence on April 09, 2008, 12:12:59 pm

Title: Quick Texture Reload Feature?
Post by: lawrence on April 09, 2008, 12:12:59 pm

Here's a problem I have; when working on a texture in photoshop, every time I save it and want to see the updated texture on my model in Anim8or, I have to trawl through the material editor - surface texture editor - texture selector - delete the existing texture - then load the updated one. Having to do with every couple of minutes or so really slows down work-flow.
So I was wondering if there could be feature which reloads textures either in real-time or periodically or failing that, at least a button on any of the main tool bars which reloaded textures. What do you think Steve?

Title: Re: Quick Texture Reload Feature?
Post by: Kubajzz on April 09, 2008, 12:22:05 pm

I agree with this... I have the same problem when texturing :-[

I don't know how about periodical reloading... At least having a new "reload" button next to the "load" and "delete" buttons would help...

Title: Re: Quick Texture Reload Feature?
Post by: hihosilver on April 09, 2008, 01:18:17 pm

I completely agree with this as well.  Just a simple update button perhaps?

Title: Re: Quick Texture Reload Feature?
Post by: thecolclough on April 09, 2008, 02:04:39 pm

<proclamation>i hereby declare my full agreement with you all!</proclamation>  i've just been dealing with this exact issue this afternoon.

:)

- colclough

Title: Re: Quick Texture Reload Feature?
Post by: lawrence on April 10, 2008, 02:47:37 pm

The reason I think periodic reloading would be better than a button is so that you could have a small anim8or window in the corner and see updates basically in real-time as you paint in photoshop, without having to stop and switch windows.

Title: Re: Quick Texture Reload Feature?
Post by: hihosilver on April 10, 2008, 05:17:00 pm

Well, yes, but I'm sure that would slow down anim8or a lot.  Especially with large, high quality textures that already take a while to load.

Title: Re: Quick Texture Reload Feature?
Post by: floyd86 on April 11, 2008, 05:06:37 am

Ye, I got this problem so often. It would be helpfull to have a sort of reload button.

Title: Re: Quick Texture Reload Feature?
Post by: CobraSpectre on April 11, 2008, 06:27:59 am

This would be a nice feature when you are trying to test out how a texture will look.

Textures do take a while to load, so a "smart" texture reloader would be needed. The image you are working on externally would have to be saved over the same file name that anim8or is referencing. A hash of the current images would be stored, and hashes would be rechecked to see if they have changed, and if so reloaded.

Title: Re: Quick Texture Reload Feature?
Post by: Steve on April 11, 2008, 08:02:38 pm

What about a reload button/command that only reaload testure files whit a changed date?  That wouldn't use any time unless the texture was updated.

Alternately I might be able to add an auto load setting that updates textures whenever they are changed using a Windows notification message.  I don't know how to do this but I can probably figure it out.

Title: Re: Quick Texture Reload Feature?
Post by: Tanzim on April 11, 2008, 08:50:23 pm

Great idea Lawrence, cheers Steve!