We are planning to release the final version in the beginning of next year.
Please report any problems here.
Bug fixes and improvements for this release:
The buttons handling the View mode of the Animation manager (Tree or IK) can no longer be switched off. They now truly act like radio-buttons.
The BongoCheckForUpdates command as well as the Bongo menu item ‘Check for Updates…’ were dysfunctional. The software also didn’t check for updates on-startup. It does from now on.
When two (or more) keyframes were dragged simultaneously along the timeline to the left and a new positions coincide with a previous one(s) then the overlapping keyframes disappeared. The same happened when the timeline keyframe context-menu ‘Move…’ (with negative value) caused overlap. This is fixed.
In the Tweening section of the KeyframeEditor the ‘Match incoming’ checkbox wouldn’t switch when multiple objects were selected. It now does.
With Custom tweening set (in the KeyframeEditor) the Easing setting was still taken in account, although Easing was grayed-out. Now every Easing setting is inactive while Custom tweening is set.
The tweening-setting ‘AutoEase’ was triggered when the difference between the parameters for Simple Constraints LookAt and ToPath in 2 adjacent keyframes was less than 0.1000. In the CurveEditor the handlebars were set horizontal. This threshold is eliminated, meaning the parameters have to match fully for AutoEasing to take effect.
The CurveEditor window automatically zoomed when an attribute was being edited via the KeyframeEditor. This ‘autozoom’ resized the vertical aspect of the display by making the handlebars completely fit in the window. Now the zoom factor of the Curve Editor remains unchanged while editing keyframes.
An option “All types" is added (beside ‘Object View Light Layer Document Content’) to the BongoCopyKeyframe, BongoDeleteKeyframe, BongoDeleteKeyframe and BongoRemoveAllEntityAnimation commands.
The Z-coordinate of ViewConstraints (camera and target) wasn’t updated properly when previewing the animation. This is fixed.
For a newly initiated Simple Constraint the end-keyframe was set to end of the (visual part of) Timeline when this exceeded the Animation stop. Now it is set at the Animation stop position.
The Script version of BongoRenderAnimation command now accepts a non-existing path in the output option.
When the Bongo plugin wasn’t not loaded in Rhino the Bongo Video Texture wasn’t available in the New-Texture-dialog. Now it is. When selected Bongo loads automatically.
Looping didn’t take its effect on Morphing although the Looping-markers did show up. Now the Looping is effective.
Although Bongo’s Video Encoder accepted any FPS (frames per second) values for the MPEG codec (while only certain values are supported) the output video was always 29.97 fps. Now, when an invalid value is entered, a dialog gives a warning and an overview of useable values.
When it became inactive Bongo’s KeyframeEditor window vanished behind a Floating Rhino Viewport. It now always stays on top.
The Object pivot size is adjustable via Bongo’s Document Properties. The setting now not only affects the size of the pivot but also of the letters X, Y and Z accompanying the pivot.
When Objects’ Properties (attributes and material) and/or Layers are being animated it is somewhat puzzling (although logic) that changes made outside Animation Mode are immediately undone as soon as the timeline is operated. The situation is more or less similar to Views being animated. Because it is easily forgotten a Property is controlled by animation, a popup dialog similar to the one of Views is installed.
With the use of the BongoRotate command a new keyframe didn’t show up in the timeline until the object was deselected. Now the timeline updates in real time.
The BongoRotatePivot command now “remembers” the previously used angle.
Can Bongo be used on a computer without access to the internet? If so, does it still try to check for updates with a long timeout delay before starting?
Also, can this RC be tried out without already having a previous Bongo installed?
Yes, the RC is a full installer and does not need previous installed versions.
The computer does not need an internet connection. There should not be any timeout. Let me know if you experience a timeout. We will look into it and get it fixed before we release SR6.
Andrew,
Could you be so kind to make a top-three (or -ten?) of the specific aspects of the UI that exasperates you. Then the Bongo team at least knows where to start.
So far I took note of:
Your aversion of the use of aiding point-objects in IK.
Your long for (graphical) display of information on animated object and hierarchy relations in particular.
Luc,
Parents are linked to their children by dotted lines (hierarchy links) between their pivots. The dots are hard to see because they are small and far apart. The dotted lines should become bold as soon as I click the pivot linked to the hierarchy links. Arrows pointing toward children would be more informative than the dots.
Bongo displays icons/decoration in the viewports (shown in the following screenshot). Are these icons/decoration joints? I would like to click the icons/decoration to display all information about the joint.
The Animation Manager (shown in the following screenshot) displays only basic information about constraints and joints. For example, it displays icons representing joints, but it does not explain what kind of joints they are (hinge, telescopic, rubberband, or universal). I have to click the properties tab to display this information.
When I make a mistake, Bongo randomly scatters animated objects and its precalculation freezes Rhino for a minute. Good programs suggest best options. Bongo is not smart enough to do that and its help file documentation (especially about inverse kinematics) is incomplete.
In Bongo 2 IK - not user friendly and intuitive I deployed a few ideas regarding the display of IK structures, based upon the graphics I use in my tutorials.
Currently I elaborate a concept towards the developers team, implying the icons to figure as a widget.
The ‘freezing’ depends on the complexity of the model and the speed of the CPU. It can take Bongo a while (to long) to find out that a IK-structure is crooked – I guess this is inevitable. Hopefully the IK developer can find a way of improvement.
I can only agree that the Help file needs improvement. I’ll try to contribute personally.
These are all major issues, not quickly fixed in a SR. As you may have read a Bongo 3.0 is in the pipeline. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until then.
PS The IK symbols in the Animation manager currently do show their nature (albeit discreetly).
Little bug - if an animation rendering is stopped and restarted, than the new estimated time to completion is wrong calculated. It’s like the previous done image count is taken in account.
For example an animation of 600 frames and each needs 10s. If the animation is stoped/restarted at frame 300, than bongo doesn’t calculate 3000 s completion time, it calculate a very short time because the first 300 frames seems to be done during 10s.
When a property (such as color, visibility, material attribute) is controlled by keyframes, changes made outside animation mode are overruled as soon as the animation is Previewed or the Timelineslider is moved. The idea is to warn the user via a popup dialog, similar to the one for animated Views.
Unfortunately a bug in RC1 (Bongo_20_Release_x64_English_20161215_2_6_8091.msi) made this dialog popup superfluously. It was fixed and Lars published a RC2
The message pops up for me in the current version Bongo_20_Release_x64_English_20170104_2_6_8415. Would be good if it was possible to disable the message with a checkbox.
SETTING MULTIPLE PROPERTIES
BTW, I just made an animation of ball bearings and as you can guess, both the Pivot and the rotation for each ball was a… pain to enter for each of the balls. I think it would a great thing to be able to set the Pivot direction for several (selected) objects at once, as well as Expression formulas etc. Any chance that something such could make it into Bongo R3?
The message should appear only when modifying a property that is under control of the animation by 1 or more keyframes. E.g. when You want to Hide an object (outside Animation Mode) that is set visible in a keyframe.
It does to on my system. Any different with you?
BongoRotatePivot as well as BongoMovePivot is functioning when multiple objects are selected!
You can also setup Expressions for a multiple-object-selection.
What specifically needs to be different?
I’ll pass on your wish for a disable (“during this session” or “never show again” ?) checkbox.
Hm, I tried it several times (selecting multiple objects in the Bongo Keyframe Editor) and then entered an expression, but no go (the expression made it into only one of the objects).
Same thing with the BongoRotatePivot, no success. This change is, by the way, is difficult to change even one at the time if doing it while perspective viewport is active. Not a showstopper, but sluggish and resistant to change. When you have many objects (balls) to set it becomes a bit time consuming.
Some perhaps would prefer to say that the Pivot direction is “stable”, due to its resistance to change.
Example: I’m adjusting my scene and like to hide objects during the work. Using animation visibility is not a good workflow. I would like to use a checkbox or a general Bongo option to disable the message.
He Rolf, not knowing better, one would say we both use different Bongos
Orienting the pivot indeed isn’t easy. A skew orientation mostly implies a double action. Moreover a Perspective View often gives the (false) impression one controls all 3 dimensions. You must however consider that the monitor’s screen as well as your mouse pad are 2 dimensional. That’s why maneuvers (like rotations) are functioning in the view’s Construction Plane (CP).
Pending ideas are a BongoOrientPivot and a BongoRotatePivot3D command similar to Rhino’s Orient and Rotate3D command (Having trouble matching up objects. Is this a job for IK). A pivot WIDGET, manageable like any genuine Rhino object with basic Rhino commands, might make the above even superfluous.
Yes Micha, I also often hide objects to get them out of the way while editing a complex model.
Also swapping between the “visible/invisible world” (HideSwap) is probably common practice. When some objects are equipped with visibility/invisibility animation data this can really be a pain in the … because they keep disappearing and popping up. That’s why (temporarily) disabling animation for the concerned object is a good idea, hence the dialog.
A technique I use now and then is to shift the animation 1 tick and install a keyframe at 0 in which all objects are set to ‘visible’. Then you can always go there when you want to get a hold on some disappeared object.
But yes, when the dialog gets annoying a (few) ways to get rid of it surely would be comfortable.
Intuitively I first expected that, when multi selecting objects, I could achieve some kind of “OrientPivot towards a common point” specified as a Point coordinate, for example by typing in “0,0,0” on the command line.
I do understand that picking a point with the mouse is quite a different matter, the ambiguity if trying to specify a 3D point on a 2D CPlane.
A command-line option for entering a point, or snapping to a Point object, perhaps would be simple to implement? Such a “redneck solution” would be very helpful when having many object pivots to align towards the same point (currently in my case, typically the center of a sphere).
