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UV Packer IPackThat

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  • Dan Powell
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    Dan Powell polycounter lvl 5
    [PB]Snoelk wrote: »
    • just looking into it and check if they might be a bug
    • - on those checkboxes mean dont change the current value. if you select cluster where the properties are different, those ones will be show - also in the checkboxes.




    regarding up and downscale to fit holes, the only problem with this comes with normals maps. due the different texel densities the normals will break apart on the edges. this might be a problem.

    If IPackThat can recognise which UV shells belong to which elements of a 3D mesh then it could scale entire elements, as opposed to individual shells - this would prevent normal map seams (I think I suggested having the software detect elements and having a feature that auto-groups UV shells per element too)

    Again thanks for all the work on this :)
  • WarrenM
    due the different texel densities the normals will break apart on the edges. this might be a problem.
    It wouldn't break them but if the difference gets too great, it could create visual weirdness yes.

    That's why you let the artist decide which islands can be safely used as filler. :)
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Uneven texel density in a normal map is basically invisible, the only time you'll see this issue under normal circumstances would be when the diffuse texture goes on or when you have a lot of noise in your normal map.

    +1 for selecting clusters and allowing them to scale up through tagging that is a valuable feature.
  • beefaroni
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    beefaroni sublime tool
    WarrenM wrote: »
    It wouldn't break them but if the difference gets too great, it could create visual weirdness yes.

    That's why you let the artist decide which islands can be safely used as filler. :)

    This would be great for weapons as well!

    Usually the parts facing the camera have the highest texel density, and then others like maybe an attachment under the barrel will be much lower. However, while packing, if there is room to expand all of the shells of the under-barrel attachment, it would be cool if those scaled up!
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    The fitting feature is on the Backlog.
    Don`t expect this feature in the next week ^^
    Its part of the epic larger features i will add later (UDIM,Additional packing metric and mark clusters for fitting)
    Those features need serious rework of some internal code structures.
    Right now i'm fixing all those bugs and rants that are coming in from the community. Additional i also add some smaller features (like zoom to selection via f key).

    A first Review by Warren Schultz(Freelance Writer & Editor) is online. Read to end for a nice surprice :)

    cheers
    :nerd:
  • joebount
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    joebount polycounter lvl 13
    Hey Snoelk, do you have any update on the steam free version of the software ?
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    the article is out since yesterday evening. so the contest is still running ^^
    will keep you informed when its over
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    Just got informed you mean the version without steam. Currently a commercial bulk license version without steam is finished. This one will be for studios.
    Contact license@ipackthat.com
    Currently try to add a commercial version of IPackThat on steam too.
    We will do something like substance painter with two price models. Freelancer, students etc pay the price as it is currently. Larger companies pay somewhat more.

    Gumroad is still on hold. Will check it next week again.
  • Karaoke_Warrior
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    Karaoke_Warrior polycounter lvl 13
    aniceto wrote: »
    Awesome, bought. Anyone else get linked to the Steam front page in the EULA window? I don't know what I agreed to

    Yeah, I got that too.
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    That's a bug n my side. Forgot it to fill in steam. First thing I will do tomorrow when I'm back in the office
  • Dan Powell
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    Dan Powell polycounter lvl 5
    hoSkx.png

    Not sure if IPackThat did this, but I've never seen this happen before to my UVs.

    Anyone know why my UV shells have got white borders and seemingly merged themselves together - what's happened? I've only just noticed it, and I'm going to have to re-bake my normals and AO because of it.
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    did you uses fbx or obj?
    will try to reproduce it. sometimes this can happen with export and import from your 3d app.
    see zbrush fbx integration (breaks all seams appart)
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    i integrated a new feature in ipackthat. when a mesh is found with out of bounds clusters, the import options dialog now has a new property "Contains Bakeoffsets"
    this options gets enabled when you do move out of bounds shells
    on export all uv islands, which are out of bounds, will be shifted to x+1
  • Dan Powell
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    Dan Powell polycounter lvl 5
    [PB]Snoelk wrote: »
    did you uses fbx or obj?
    will try to reproduce it. sometimes this can happen with export and import from your 3d app.
    see zbrush fbx integration (breaks all seams appart)

    OBJ files. :P
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    uploaded a beta branch on steam.
    • new bake offset options (islands will be moved to x +1 on save)
      • currently only implemented in fbx, no obj files
    • you can zoom to selection via f key
    • fixed import when certain uv polygons are not initialized
    • fixed several small bugs
  • Gheromo
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    Gheromo polycounter lvl 11
    [PB]Snoelk is there a particular reason why we can only change aspect ratio of the mesh? Aspect ratio changing option is enabled only for width at this moment.
    It seems like its not possible to achieve vertical tall maps but only horizontal ones. Such as 1024 horizontal and 512 vertical, but not opposite.
  • riklopes
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    riklopes polycounter lvl 13
    yoyo congrats on such app, been using it and its amazing.. saves so much time..
    I have couple of questions tho:

    is it possible to give scale priority to specific uv shells?

    is it also possible to lock the scale of certain shells so they dont get resized?

    Thanks and keep up the awesome work!
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    Aspect ratios are on my backlog. Only added 1:2 so far. Will try to do that within the early access time.

    The scale feature is part of the mark shells as fittings epic feature. Those ones I will try to add after early access.
    The scale lock I can add to backlog. But this means those elements will keep their size. If other elements don't have it they will be scaled together. Sooner or later this will get out of hands.
  • Gheromo
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    Gheromo polycounter lvl 11
    Thanks for confirming it for me. This program is amazing, results im getting are great!
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Is the rotation bug fixed yet?
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    Not yet, next on my list
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    Uploaded a new Version in Beta Branch.
    I did not uploaded it to the release version due to some problems with the new mouse raw handling.
    Sometimes it will loose the events. still investigating.
    Some nice feature got in like focus via f key and move and rotate via mouse. see change log for entire updates.
    the activation problem also got fixed now. it will activate only this time again and after this only if the hardware changes drasticly.

    malcolm
    i still try to find out whats happening with your rotation problem. i did heavy debugging but could not find any rotations. what ever i do the rotation code segement wont be hit when i uncheck global rotate or cluster rotate. does not matter if its in a group or not. as soon as this canditate can go public i will upload a patched demo. maybe there was a problem thats already fixed due to some other bugs i found and fixed.

    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]fixed a bug where the key shortcuts not resetting the UV channel name tab correctly (asterix handling for showing solution history)[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]fixed a bug where stop or cancel packing has not reseted the current solution correctly[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]fixed a bug where not initialized UV polygons produces no UV data error on import [/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]added focus and zoom to selection (Key F)[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]handle bake-offsets[/FONT]
      • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]new import dialog option (“contains bake offsets)[/FONT]
      • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]option only available if move out of bound shells is checked[/FONT]
      • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]on export those UV polygons will be moved back to x+1[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]added missing EULAs[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]added missing third party EULAs[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]added visualization for selection center (blue dot) if selection is larger than 1[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]manual transformation for rotate and scale now uses selection center if selection is larger than 1[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]fixed serial file misbehavior[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]added manual transformations via mouse[/FONT]
      • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]press shift to activate[/FONT]
      • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]left mouse button → move[/FONT]
      • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]right mouse button → rotate[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]started to optimize render-panel performance[/FONT]
      • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]still problems with zoomed view ( see backlog )[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]fixed missing translation tags inside import-dialog (where using default english instead of the translated strings[/FONT]
    • [FONT=Segoe UI Light, sans-serif]using raw mouse inputs instead default mouse inputs (no message losses)[/FONT]
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Okay let me know, would like to try it again, but without lock rotate I can't get any usable packs accept if you are going to procedurally texture the object.
  • WarrenM
    Mario ...

    shift middle button -> Scale ?? :)

    That would be nice for making certain islands more/less important before packing. In case you forgot before exporting your FBX from your modeling app.
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    yeah i know. this was missing. it was past midnight and i run in those terrible perfomance issues *g*
    currently trying to exchange my renderpanel with a sharpdx one.
    then i can handle many operations without to redraw every single poin t and polygon.
  • joebount
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    joebount polycounter lvl 13
    hum, rather annoying: I got a cluster and I want it to be only rotated by 90 degrees and IPackThat don't cooperate (rotate by something like 80 or 110) Really annoying...
  • WarrenM
    Just turn on the "Is Rectangle" box for that cluster. That limits the rotations to 90 degrees. It's not an intuitive name, I know. :)
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    it seems also to do a find smallest bound before.
    turn that off if you want the cluster to be used as it is for initial rotation.
    this methods will rotate the cluster until its boundig box is smallest
  • joebount
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    joebount polycounter lvl 13
    Ah thanks, that worked alright. It's a bit counter intuitive though but I get it.
  • Erik Rönnblom
    This seems like a really nice tool, I've just started trying it out. One initial suggestion: it would be great if, when you add shells to existing groups through right-clicking, the group color would be visible behind/next to the group names in the selection menu. Smashing job btw!!!
  • Mad_Minstrel
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    Mad_Minstrel polycounter lvl 6
    Just bought the program. Works great for the most part!

    There's one thing I'm missing though - the ability to mark topologically identical or mirrored shells, so that ipackthat packs them as one, sharing uv space. Preferably automagically. You can overlay the shells in your modeller of choice of course, but that takes time I'd rather spend doing something useful. :)

    Also, while IPackThat works quite nicely for mechanical stuff with rectangular-ish, small shells, it gets pretty slow with organic shapes (larger, irregular, grid-like shells) beyond 5k polys or so. The thing is, most of those polys don't affect the shape of the shell very much and could be safely removed. So as an experiment I took the model and decimated it, and lo and behold, IPackThat was fast again. Of course, it wasn't very useful, since the uv layout was for a decimated mesh and couldn't be easily transferred to the original, but if IPackThat could do the decimation internally and use that as a proxy to position the original shells, that could maybe speed up the packing quite a bit? (at the cost of a little precision, maybe violating the margins a little bit here and there)

    I'm very happy with my purchase, keep up the good work!
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    This seems like a really nice tool, I've just started trying it out. One initial suggestion: it would be great if, when you add shells to existing groups through right-clicking, the group color would be visible behind/next to the group names in the selection menu. Smashing job btw!!!
    • should be easy to implement. will add it to backlog and maybe it fill find their way to the next update ^^

    There's one thing I'm missing though - the ability to mark topologically identical or mirrored shells, so that ipackthat packs them as one, sharing uv space. Preferably automagically. You can overlay the shells in your modeller of choice of

    course, but that takes time I'd rather spend doing something useful. :)
    • well the tool was not deisgned to create and manage your uv layout in the first place. just a packer for existing uv layout. i will think about it. this can be a bit tricky to find mirrored or same shells. have to read some stuff about it first (shape recognition)

    Also, while IPackThat works quite nicely for mechanical stuff with rectangular-ish, small shells, it gets pretty slow with organic shapes (larger, irregular, grid-like shells) beyond 5k polys or so. The thing is, most of those polys don't affect the shape of the shell very much and could be safely removed. So as an experiment I took the model and decimated it, and lo and behold, IPackThat was fast again. Of course, it wasn't very useful, since the uv layout was for a decimated mesh and couldn't be easily transferred to the original, but if IPackThat could do the decimation internally and use that as a proxy to position the original shells, that could maybe speed up the packing quite a bit? (at the cost of a little precision, maybe violating the margins a little bit here and there)
    • thats already happening. i only check and test the outlines of the clusters. the internal polygons will only be touched if the shape is actually moved. will check if i could boost the movement of the shapes or maybe decimate and cleanup the cluster contour. this can result in loss if precice margins of course


    Short update about early access. the early acces will run 1 or 2 weeks longer. The last updates and feature requests got the viewport to its limits. what ever i do one feature or another gets stalled of the current implementation (gdi+)
    Started with implementing a new viewport renderer with SharpDX (Direct2D).
    Already amanaged to render the shells again and its A LOT faster.
    Additional the zooming is not limited in any way. The zoom and pan also will not degrade (happens currently)
    Linedrawing is also not so fuzzy and shap and precises. Most of my code for rendering is also obsolete with the new render pipeline (in gdi+ i have to redraw everytime everything if you zoom or transform a cluster, in direct2d i only need to redraw geometry if it changed and then only the changed ones)


    when i got a first working version i will upload it on the beta branch in steam.
    im not sure but can demos also contain beta nranches in steam?



    back to direct2d now.
    cheers

    :nerd:
  • Mad_Minstrel
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    Mad_Minstrel polycounter lvl 6
    Automation would be nice of course, but just being able to select manually and have IPackThat stack the shells would be fine as well.

    Can't wait for the next version :)
  • S@murai
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    S@murai polycounter lvl 6
    Hello!

    First of all I have to say I love this software based on demo version. I have question about it's price. Will it go up after early access period? Are you planing a non steam version?

    Keep up the good work!
  • S@murai
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    S@murai polycounter lvl 6
    I can't edit my previous post but I wanted to say that I bought IPackThat this night, and It already saved me few hours of puzzle time!
    Love it!
  • mzprox
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    mzprox polycounter lvl 5
    Question: is it possible to pin some uv islands and arrange only the rest?
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    S@murai wrote: »
    I have question about it's price. Will it go up after early access period? Are you planing a non steam version?
    • price won't change for this version. (thats supposed to be the indi, freelancer, non commercial version)
    • currently adding and changing some store stuff about the tool (will add a commercial version for big studios like substance painter did)
    mzprox wrote: »
    Question: is it possible to pin some uv islands and arrange only the rest?
    • currently not possible. but thats part of by backlog for future releases


    Short update on Direct2D.
    Its going fast than i thought. I try to upload a new beta branch on steam today with the first version with the new directx viewport. they might be some small rendering bugs but thats wont affect the packer itself.
    Due to the new native hardware visualisation of the shapes, its now possible to view shapes outside of 0 to 1 and you can zoom in and out like you want.
    Also added manual scale modifier to the middle mouse button.
    • Shift + LMB + Move Mouse manual move the selected shapes
    • Shift + RMB + Move Mouse Left & Right manual rotate the selected shapes
    • Shift + MMB + Move Mouse Up & Down manual scale the selected shapes
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    uploaded the first preview of IPackThat with Direct2D. Check direct2d under beta branches.
  • myclay
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    myclay greentooth
    count me in in the crowd which would like a Indi non steam version. :)
    preferably the payment via Vorkasse or Paypal

    imo Steam is for games okay but not for important software.
    My main gripe with Steam is, that when there is one of the bigger sales going on,
    you way to often are basically helpless and can´t use during that time the things you bought there.
  • pasha_sevez
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    pasha_sevez polycounter lvl 13
    Mario, are you planning to add a pack wrap a-la UVLayout?
    http://www.uvlayout.com/doc/Example:_Pack_Wrap

    Personaly I found this feature helpful in certain cases.

    P.S. I've also bought your program and very happy with the results )) Wishing it worked faster (maybe OpenCL or Cuda?) but even current version gives very-very solid results. Thank you very much for your hard work ))
  • Karaoke_Warrior
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    Karaoke_Warrior polycounter lvl 13
    Dan Powell wrote: »
    Frequently noticing that IPackThat seems to be warping cylindrical UVs - I've made sure they're unwrapped properly but when they come back from IPackThat they seem warped slightly (as if they've been rotated but also slightly distorted)

    This is the type of break in UVs I seem to be getting a lot.

    hl0lG.png

    I didn't notice this until after I baked, but I'm also getting warping and distortion on cylindrical and near-cylindrical shells. Any chance this bug will get squashed in time for the next Steam version release?
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    Mario, are you planning to add a pack wrap a-la UVLayout?
    http://www.uvlayout.com/doc/Example:_Pack_Wrap

    Personaly I found this feature helpful in certain cases.
    • interesting feature. will add that to my backlog. need to think about it. nothing easy to add *g*

    can someone send me a mesh regarding those cylindrical welds?
    trying to reproduce it with some cylinders and shell modifiers but i cant get it welding, to see where this is happening. the thickness of my cylinder is ver very thin to force this bug. but all went well so far.

    mail to mario@ipackthat.com :)
  • Mad_Minstrel
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    Mad_Minstrel polycounter lvl 6
    [PB]Snoelk wrote: »
    • price won't change for this version. (thats supposed to be the indi, freelancer, non commercial version)
    • currently adding and changing some store stuff about the tool (will add a commercial version for big studios like substance painter did)

    Wait, what? This wasn't mentioned anywhere on the store page when I was buying. The EULA simply says that two types of license are issued, which is fine with me, but it doesn't say anywhere that the one you're buying on steam is a noncommercial indie license. If I knew the license was somehow limited, I would never have bought it. Clarification please?
  • WarrenM
    Uh, yeah, being able to use the Steam version at work is kind of important to me...
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    some infos about the different licenses.

    the current version may be used, if you are
    • a natural person
    • a freelancer
    • a student
    • an independent entity
      • To qualify as independent, the entity in question in any case has to satisfy the "SMEs" criteria of the European Union.
    a commercial license is necessary for any other entity.
    The European definition of SME follows: "The category of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is made up of enterprises which employ fewer than 250 persons and which have an annual turnover not exceeding 50 million euro, and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding 43 million euro."

    Additionally i will give the commercial license for anyone who bought the tool during early access.
  • Pedro Amorim
  • Mad_Minstrel
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    Mad_Minstrel polycounter lvl 6
    So, even with the indie license it's fine for use in commercial projects as long as we don't have revenue in millions or hire hundreds of people? And then we get the commercial license anyway? Alrighty then! Thanks! :D
  • Sammy101
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    Sammy101 polycounter lvl 6
    Hey Snoelk, I'm going to be purchasing this app tonight, and I was wondering if this program sorts UV space priority for certain uv islands. Do I have to manually size my important uv islands larger or can I do this through the program? Is it just manual sizing and then automatic packing or is there settings you can use to prioritize UVs and make them bigger than others? Will be purchasing this either way on Steam, but I thought I'd ask cause this would be amazing. :)
  • [PB]Snoelk
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    [PB]Snoelk polycounter lvl 7
    This feature is in the backlog for later. It's an larger thing that won't happen during early access.

    Right now I'm testing around with direct2d for better viewport performance. It's better than gdi+ CPU drawing but still crappy. So I started to write my own directx 11 3d engine for display in 2d. The basics are done and now I'm implementing shape drawing abilities ( pixel shader voodoo )
    Also added a new true raw mouse input. The current want produces bad performance. The new one is a native one which works with wpf ( if someone is interested I can upload some code samples )
    The new 3d render will open me the way to add 3d view of the current loaded mesh as well. It will be also possible then to show pixel densities via shaders.
    When I got more I will upload a new beta branch so you can test the new renderer
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Is the rotate bug fixed yet?
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