survey on visual programming

[FabricPaul]

(cross-posted on the SI and Fabric mailing lists).

Hi everyone – there has been some interesting discussion on the Softimage list regarding what they do/don’t like about ICE, and what they are looking for in other systems. I’m keen to hear comments from people as we are gathering information on this subject at the moment. Fabric 2.0 will lend itself well to visual programming, and this is an area the team has a lot of experience in – we have our own views on what we want to achieve with FE over the next year or so, and now is a very good time for us to get your views.

I have setup a survey to enable us to collect responses, and I will share the results in the next few weeks – the questions are quite generic, there is nothing specific to Fabric.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7GGKHML

Thanks,

Paul

[Bullit]

I answered, i am not maybe the representative person since i don't code, just do some limited ICE.
just to recap, context issues and having an ambiguous language too extensive are the biggest issues.

Integrating nodes with capability to code in the node might be the joining of best of two worlds instead of having two separated worlds, the visual and the coding one.
Option to have a "text" node able to get math , KL, python etc, i think this will help those that can code and help those that can't get nearer that world.

As for interface functionality i would add to this Fabrictree the option to search by input and ouput type. I click in a yellow output option and only appear nodes with yellow output -vector in ICE.
Then tooltips for nodes in search zone can be very helpful.

Well just wondering a bit with objective to make Fabric get the most broad appeal.

[owei]

Thanks Paul for inviting us. I have big hopes on FE' as many people here. Fingers crossed! Keep on going!!

[Yanik]

Really awesome of you that you're asking us for feedback. I have high hopes of you guys. I wish I could do something to help you guys on taking over the planet.

My feedback:

- UI's for nodes which can be customized via QT. Also viewport interaction via manipulators. In ICE you can't customize the UI's to make Nodes more clearer. An example would be a hair solution where you can see instructions in the QT window to make it more easier to see what you're doing. Or a fire simulator which can render a preview result in it's window. But also I'd like to see viewport interaction with the nodes input data. E.g. a Bend node where you can just bend the data in the viewport instead of doing it via sliders. Implement a MVC pattern for the data input so users have full control over each part.

- Compilable nodes(KL). This so that you can write plugins which would be to inefficient to do visually. Also I'd like to see a wizard which will generate a empty plugin frameworks for you with input and output port data you specify.

- Open topology SDK which can access and modify geometries

- "Find usages" to see where a node data is being used.

- Debugging not only visually like in ICE, but also like in the browser where you can set breakpoints and view the data structures or like a spreadsheet. Debugging of data which you can't see in nodes without having to do get/set data. Debugging of errors.

- Speed (Multithreading like ICE) where applicable

- Connections with Softimage, Maya, 3DS Max and Houdini. Like splice.

I think question #10 was the most obvious. "What must be avoided". It starts with an "A" and ends with "utodesk".