Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond Wiki functionality I’m afraid.
With the Wiki you can only have:
Hard categories and simple searches.
With the Wiki we can’t organise by date (though there are the RSS feeds), or organise by what’s popular…
The Maxwell materials page can only do this (as I see no categories at all!)… How strange…
I’ll set up a Wiki tonight and if you’re happy with it, we’ll move forward. I’m currently trying to get a hold of Brad to talk about eventually getting this built into the site proper…
Also, cheers chaps I’ll be sure to enjoy my trips!
Ian
Thanks Ian, I completely understand about the limitations.
If we can approach the “hard” layout from electro303 with some thumbnails for browsing, that would be excellent.
The Maxwell categories are “keywords” so materials can belong to multiple categories.
Categories appear in the pulldown menu over the main material list for filtering, and also in the material detail.
The Maxwell material library is not “categorized” on a top level at all. It is set up entirely as a dynamic database.
Not good for visually browsing mind you, but it seems to be very robust, and well organised.
I do think this is a good reference for what is possible. Perhaps some other people can make some suggestions for other sites which have really slick material layouts. I think that the star ratings, most downloaded, and newest added, etc., are all features that would be great to add when and if this is done outside of the Wiki format.
Ian,
It’s exciting to see it happen, and thanks for making it do that. I like the way it’s shaping up.
I’m wondering if we can add a banner on the first page that indicates your in the material library in a visual way?
Also can the image icons on the second page be links as well?
And finally is it possible that the third page (with the larger version of the material preview) could have two medium images? One for the material preview, and one optional one with the material rendered into a user selected scene. That way people have the option of showing off their material rendered in their own style.
Absolutely everything you just said is possible with the exception of images also being links (having said that, it might be possible, I just can’t find the code for it).
So, who wants to design a banner for the main page?
Also, there is of course room for action shots of materials on the material page, they should probably go below the ‘standard’ information though.
I guess there will also need to be a ‘submit your materials’ page that explains how it all works as well…
Let’s keep things moving
Ian
I have a sense that the banner should contain different versions of the preview model rendered with different materials. So it would good if we decided what that model(s) will be. I imagine we should open this up to the community for a vote. A seven page deep discussion maybe to much for folks to wade through. We should start a new thread with the last three options and a synopsis of what we are doing. I’m not sure if the forum has a vote counter, or if it will have to be compiled, but that’s what I’d suggest. I can work on that tonight.
Hey Yon,
Why don’t you cross-post over at CG Talk…
Lots of traffic over there.
Just a new thread over there to drive people over here to this poll.
Just a thought.
I have create two shapes for general material: plane and abstract.
Plane for windowglass, fence, ecc.
Abstract for generic material or metals, granite, marble, ecc.