Godot: Blender-like design for Editor

[Timofffee]

I don't know English very well, so I'll ask briefly.
Why don't you want to make a Blender-like design for the editor?
Plugin developers will be given more freedom, ordinary developers will be able to customize their workspaces.

I made 2 sketches in a graphics editor. They are not very good and have some shortcomings, but the General idea should be conveyed.

I am sure that it is quite easy to implement in reality.

_P.S.: Or at least make more subtle forms of the current design. It is painful to look at the window in which 10% of the area is empty._

[mhilbrunner]

I am sure that it is quite easy to implement in reality.

Submit a PR then.

I don't really get the point of this. Can you explain what "Blender-like" would mean to a non-Blender pro?

You can already customize the layout of the Godot editor somewhat.

[Timofffee]

I really don't like working with C++.
The implementation itself is simple but extremely extensive.
I will try to collect as much information as possible during this month and try to implement it all in GDScript... It would be a shame if my efforts are called useless functionality.

[Omicron666]

When I read Blender-like UI/UX, I immediately think about a cockpit !

[Web-eWorks]

The phrase 'blender-like interface' has little-to-no objective meaning without explanation (especially now, when Blender's interface is undergoing massive changes), and thus means a different thing to every different person.

Please explain, in detail, what exactly you are proposing. Your mockups look interesting, but without text to explain your proposed changes, they are little more than pretty pictures.

I will try to collect as much information as possible during this month and try to implement it all in GDScript... It would be a shame if my efforts are called useless functionality.

Explain your proposal, get feedback, talk with the community, _work with others_. If you do that, your efforts will ultimately not be for nought. If you charge full steam ahead, alone, _especially_ on such a controversial feature as the entire editor's UI/UX, you are likely to wind up with the 'useless functionality' you speak of.

[vnen]

Blender is not known for a friendly UI, it's probably the worst idea to copy from them. But first, take a look a this FAQ entry.

So, "doing like Blender" is not a productive description. You might like it because you use Blender a lot, but in my inexperience with it I always feel lost. Instead, you should point out:

1. The aspects of the current UI that hinders your workflow.
2. What changes do you need to improve specific tasks.

For instance, while the second screenshot show a lot of space filled, it does not look useful to me. There's too much unrelated information together. Also, Godot has a lot of contextual editors, and things show and hide automatically depending on what you selected. I don't know if putting all together and letting you manage manually is an improvement.

[toger5]

I definitly see your point and at first glance it also turned me down that i have little ui coustomization options. (I used blender very intensly back than)

But one thing that will not change is that the bottom panel adapts by itself to whatever is needed currently (at least that is what i eard rhe core devs say a couple of times and it id also what I'm convinced by). It saves a lot of time to not be forced to setup the ui to your needs but let rhe engine itself do this tidious and unecassary task. I actually almost never find myself dragging window boundaries in godot but still always have acces to what k want to work on.

In blender i spend A lot of time moving things around (i nerver really got used to their interface switching tool)

It us also not too easy to chnage the ui setup. It's fairly easy to make the dragging and opening new docks work. But it would break soo many things...
Editor pugins would need to be reinplemented the whole taking focus to ehat u need would need to gegt chnaged. And soo many parts if the engine expect the dock system ui... so you would need to change hundred little things . Probably easy if you knwo the whole engine, but if not a lot of tume would be put into learning the engines structure to than figure out what needs to be changed.

The last point ill make:
All ui elements are already designed to fit either horizontally or vertically.
It would make no sense to put the inspector horizontally or rhe animation editor vertically. So there are not that many setups which make sense than the ones possible already anyways.

Still really appreciate you sketches.
And maybe some additional coustomization could be nice. For example having output and debug open at rhe same time could be useful!

[reduz]

Why don't you want to make a Blender-like design for the editor?

Blender like UI is a pain in the ass. Godot works context based, so you don't really need to have many editors open. With the upcoming improvements in the inspector, context based works even better.

[swarnimarun]

I have used blender extensively and still I hate it. I used it for various things from motion design to asset creation.

So where are you coming from is a mystery to me.

Probably you want a more flexible UI that can be dragged and dropped. And the external windows to be a part of Godot as well if so I support that. But anything else will only undermine Godot's UI.

Currently Godot is the most user friendly FOSS tool on the planet. So please reconsider.

[Timofffee]

I'm only offering a way to group areas where I can stretch a single panel to full screen, add an unlimited number of duplicates to a single column... and so on.

I have some thoughts on this, but I should think more.

I don't encourage you to use hotkeys because they work via ass off in Godot.
I will spend more time adapting this interface to the features of Godot.

Thanks for the criticism and advice.

[naturbua]

Even if Blender's UI is currently quite messy, I would still love to see these functions (gif) in Godot since they really improve the workflow and help to keep overview.

[mhilbrunner]

@naturbua Thats a good example of specific suggestions. Thank you :)

[swarnimarun]

@naturbua Yeah that's not there in Godot but that's cause Godot is young and it is still improving.
Although the suggestion was good.
And remember doing more things doesn't always make you awesome.
Cause if that was the case there won't a a theme/interface overhaul of Blender in 2.8.

And if it's so show me this,

Please don't try to a point that was never there. People use Godot cause it has a nice UI and if you disagree then why are you using it there are other free game engines.

And the point that can always be proved is Blender is hated for is UI and UX. And that's the reason it's still not the market leader even though it has all the features that would make an awesome tool.

Let's not make Github a gif war-ground.

Edit: Create more specific suggestions not-vague ones like Blender.
Hear is a thread if you are interested, https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/19197

[naturbua]

I just wanted to ask for this specific feature. Sorry but you completely missed my point. I never defendet Blender`s overall UI and I am well aware of the changes comming to it in 2.8

[Calinou]

PS: Remember to open one proposal per feature requested. Don't lump unrelated things together :slightly_smiling_face:

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