Are you not entertained!? (FX Composer 2)
Look, I'm not great fan of FXC1.8. It was not very user friendly at first, and there were lots of quirks where you wonder how they consider this 1.8 (and not a 1.1), like the window settings. But it allowed me to open it up, and jump right into coding. That's what HLSL is, right? Coding?
Apparently not. How much of FXC2 is about coding? Well, just look at the Quick Start... the last page has 5 lines about how to open up code in the editor.
This isn't about nostalgia... I love new programs, I love learning them, love pipeline. But this is nuts. FXComposer is not ShaderFX, its not UE3's shader authoring, holy crap, they even include a node-based shader authoring software FOR FREE! Why the HELL are you not just dumbing down FXC, but making it almost unusable for people who want to get into the real code?
Are you not entertained, artists? Not only do you have a completely free shader authoring tool, but you've taken what was a meat-and-potatoes program and covered it in sugary sauce.
I was hoping for a badly needed update to FXC1.8, that would allow better viewport navigation, support for other languages, etc. Instead, we got a completely reinvented program that is less like Visual Studio and more like RealmCrafter.
Tools should be more open and accessible to artists, but I think this is counterproductive. An artist doesn't usually know enough shader language to do anything really important in FXC2 (much better and easier to do it in a node-based software), and the program is so completely obtrusive that it complicates programming (don't think I didn't notice how fucking tiny the default Editing window size is). Now, whereas a programmer may have taken a dirty, filthy shader exported from a node-based tool and cleaned it up nice in ShaderFX, its a bitch to do so.
I'll be using 1.8 for all my HLSL needs for the near future. Its a damn shame and quite a disappointment, I was looking forward to FXC2 for a while.
Am I alone in these views?
Apparently not. How much of FXC2 is about coding? Well, just look at the Quick Start... the last page has 5 lines about how to open up code in the editor.
This isn't about nostalgia... I love new programs, I love learning them, love pipeline. But this is nuts. FXComposer is not ShaderFX, its not UE3's shader authoring, holy crap, they even include a node-based shader authoring software FOR FREE! Why the HELL are you not just dumbing down FXC, but making it almost unusable for people who want to get into the real code?
Are you not entertained, artists? Not only do you have a completely free shader authoring tool, but you've taken what was a meat-and-potatoes program and covered it in sugary sauce.
I was hoping for a badly needed update to FXC1.8, that would allow better viewport navigation, support for other languages, etc. Instead, we got a completely reinvented program that is less like Visual Studio and more like RealmCrafter.
Tools should be more open and accessible to artists, but I think this is counterproductive. An artist doesn't usually know enough shader language to do anything really important in FXC2 (much better and easier to do it in a node-based software), and the program is so completely obtrusive that it complicates programming (don't think I didn't notice how fucking tiny the default Editing window size is). Now, whereas a programmer may have taken a dirty, filthy shader exported from a node-based tool and cleaned it up nice in ShaderFX, its a bitch to do so.
I'll be using 1.8 for all my HLSL needs for the near future. Its a damn shame and quite a disappointment, I was looking forward to FXC2 for a while.
Am I alone in these views?
Replies
I'm finding it to be a great improvement all round. totally configurable ui (my code window has it's own monitor..yay!) a decent sdk, code folding, better support for differing formats...my happy list goes on.
nvidia didn't include a node based editor, that was solely the province of Mental Images. as far as i know, it has absoloutly nothing to do with FX Composer/nvidia so you'd have to apportion blame accordingly.
I've spent most of this week cleaning node based shader graphs and, honestly, i can't remember it being easier.
Most of all, it's still in beta and the fxcomp team seem eager and willing to answer emails/bug reports.