[sldev] Re: New Sculpty Features

[Karl Stiefvater]

> I do think that Y and Z would be good to have -- even if the effect
> can be achieved through other, less approachable methods. The majority
> of sculpty users are _artists and designers_, not mathematicians or
> comp sci geeks. They don't know (and aren't interested in learning)
> the mathematical voodoo behind all this, they just want to get the
> effect they're looking for. So, adding Y and Z would be a big win in
> usability and user-friendliness. :-)

yeah, i get that.  (trust me, i'm a big fan of artists and designers.)

but:

1) this isn't really the right "level" to support that sort of  
feature.  it's more of a UI sort of thing, not a low-level sort of  
thing.  similar to how you wouldn't want your filesystem to need to  
worry about text formatting (bold/italic/etc.)

2) in the grand scheme of things, LL gives MUCH higher priority to  
stability over features.  as i said, the new options improve sculpt- 
map efficiency - so they win.

3) most practically - by simply rotating the model first before you  
generate the sculpt map, you can effectively mirror along ANY plane  
(not just the X, Y, and Z planes.)  this is the preferred method since  
it gives you more freedom.  (and as such, you can see how a single  
mirror option is more "fundamental" than the other ones.)

it really has nothing to do with the extra two characters "_X".  :)



K.