In its current state, it's incredibly difficult to find exactly what source you want, especially as the configuration becomes more complex.
This is the procedure that I have to follow when adding a source:
- Determine the source type,
- Search through and pick it from the list of source types,
- Click "Add Existing" in the dialog that pops up as "Create new" is the default.
- Search through the list of sources and pick it, then click OK.
This process takes a minimum of 5 point-and-click operations to add a source, from the first "+" button to the final "OK", which involves heavy use of the mouse and very few / very inefficient keyboard navigation alternatives. Adding a source could be as simple as two/three clicks, or zero/one with a keyboard shortcut/button for "add source", typing a subset of the name into an automatically-highlighted search box, and having the top result chosen when I press "Enter" or click the "OK" key.
There is also some required thinking and searching that really shouldn't be relevant to adding a source. Once I create the source, I do not care about where its media comes from, I just want to find it and bring it into the scene. I shouldn't have to remember that my 4:3 webcam crop is actually a group and not a video capture source.
I think in general, both of these problems are symptoms of a bigger one - that adding and creating a source are conflated into the same set of menus / dialogs in a completely backwards order. The ideal workflow for adding a source to a scene would be to click an "add source" button, search for the source I want, and then if none matched, select a type and create it (or skip to "Create" with a dedicated button in the main UI if I know it is going to be new).
I'd be open to feedback, especially on the source searching/selection part, but I think this is still a much better solution than the one currently in place. Another improvement would be to add user-defined categorization and collapsing of scene/source lists to make longer ones easier to navigate.
This is the procedure that I have to follow when adding a source:
- Determine the source type,
- Search through and pick it from the list of source types,
- Click "Add Existing" in the dialog that pops up as "Create new" is the default.
- Search through the list of sources and pick it, then click OK.
This process takes a minimum of 5 point-and-click operations to add a source, from the first "+" button to the final "OK", which involves heavy use of the mouse and very few / very inefficient keyboard navigation alternatives. Adding a source could be as simple as two/three clicks, or zero/one with a keyboard shortcut/button for "add source", typing a subset of the name into an automatically-highlighted search box, and having the top result chosen when I press "Enter" or click the "OK" key.
There is also some required thinking and searching that really shouldn't be relevant to adding a source. Once I create the source, I do not care about where its media comes from, I just want to find it and bring it into the scene. I shouldn't have to remember that my 4:3 webcam crop is actually a group and not a video capture source.
I think in general, both of these problems are symptoms of a bigger one - that adding and creating a source are conflated into the same set of menus / dialogs in a completely backwards order. The ideal workflow for adding a source to a scene would be to click an "add source" button, search for the source I want, and then if none matched, select a type and create it (or skip to "Create" with a dedicated button in the main UI if I know it is going to be new).
I'd be open to feedback, especially on the source searching/selection part, but I think this is still a much better solution than the one currently in place. Another improvement would be to add user-defined categorization and collapsing of scene/source lists to make longer ones easier to navigate.