The developers of Gaea (previously known as the TOR platform) have announced that the tool will soon get a redesigned interface.
Beyond being just “pretty”, I consider our UI and UX to be a manifestation of our respect for both the software itself and our users. Sophisticated results should not require a complicated approach.
This has been our core principle since the inception of Gaea. We have done our best to implement that principle in the behavior and operation of the application (more on that later), and we’re pleased to have implemented it in the interface.
Some things are intentionally not included in these shots as they’re still in flux (design review). But we’ve put in a lot of effort to make the interface context sensitive – meaning, it will adapt itself as you work on different tasks. ALL the interface colors are completely editable (seriously), and will ship with multiple options for light, dark, and other options to cater to every situation, need, and preference.
A new viewport system called “Focus Mode” allows you to open unlimited viewports, apart from the main one, and pin specific nodes to each viewport so you don’t need to switch between nodes to see how changes are affecting different parts of your graph.
The entire interface is made using vectors, with unlimited scaling in either direction. No matter if you’re on 1600×960 and 96dpi, or 8K with 300% scaling, you will get a uniform, legible experience. If you use multiple monitors, you will find a slew of convenience tools to help you get the most out of your setup.
Not shown here is the fully redesigned preview system with progressive updates, even more powerful PBR rendering, full HDR skybox system, customizable effects (SSAO, bloom, grain, DOF, moblur, etc.), and lots more.
As I said, we will discuss functionality upgrades in a separate post later, but you can already see some of it in these images like the Universal Noise node, GeoData, and more.
A new website is currently in the works and the team will launch a public version in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more details.