One of the features I like most about UE3/4 are the node-based editors. They basically make everything a sandbox of fun. Complex shader networks involving mathematical equations that were once text? BOOM. It’s now a playground jungle gym on crack… with pictures! It’s fun, and it’s powerful. UDK was my first foray into node-based editing. While I was hopelessly waiting for UE4 to make its way to public domain, I took a break from UDK to mess around in Houdini. That opened my eyes to a more efficient use of node interaction. Most of the frustrations I had with UE’s node UI seemed addressed in Houdini. Felt like a breath of fresh air.
Note: These are vaguely nitpicky feature requests. We have obviously been able to live with the UI in its current state, but who says things can’t be better?
Primarily, dragging out a pin connection in a large graph in UE makes me want to hulk smash things while searching for the appropriate connection. You drag a pin to the edge of the screen and… ZOOOM! Wha…whahey! Where’d my graph go?! zoom out Oh there it is. How the hell? Sigh… Let’s try this again. zoom in, drags pin… Ok. Yep, slow and steady this time… yes, yes, yesss… NO! It’s like a mini-game at times. I feel the node editors need achievements for pin-drag accuracy.
Houdini solves this nicely by, first and foremost, not requiring a mouse button to be held down in order to drag out from a pin. Secondly, while the pending connection follows your cursor, you can easily middle-mouse drag around your graph with ease to find the receiving end. Sweet victory.
Another topic that I saw was brought up while I was doing a forum search on the topic was that of node splicing, as described here. This seems small, but wow does it make a hell of a difference.
I know you guys have other things on the list that, quite honestly, do deserve more attention than this, so I don’t expect this to change any time soon. But I would love you to death if these made it in within a year. 