New version moved to T94031: Asset Browser: 3.1 (and some 3.2) Targets
Objective
Use 3.1 to further polish the basic Asset Browser experience, before moving to the next big goals.
In a way this is a feature-fix release (like C++14 was to C++11 ;) )
In short:
Order roughly reflects importance, so that towards the bottom, items become more nice-to-have targets - that is, in terms of asset project strategy.
For each target there is a rationale explaining why this is something that should be addressed for the next release.
Bcon1: 27 October 2021
Bcon2: 29 December 2021
Bcon3: 26 January 2022
Why: The lack of collection support is a major limitation of the current Asset Browser. Collection support is very important, especially in more professional environments.
Status: Needs design discussions (e.g. how to handle instancing?) and implementation.
Who: Julian?
Why: It should be possible to import assets without causing dependencies on the asset library. So dependent external files should be copied over to where the .blend file is.
Status: Needs design discussion (T92315: API Design for IDType::foreach_external_file
). Patches exist, but may need to be reworked.
Who: Jeroen
T93755: Support Multiple Catalog Definition Files
Why: Single CDFs ask for editing conflicts when asset libraries are shared across multiple users; Simple drop-in of asset .blend files together with CDFs isn't possible.
Status: Basic design & code architecture support it, but details need to be figured out and actual support be implemented.
Who: Sybren
Note that there is no big issue with delaying this to 3.2 if needed. It's of stratigical importance that this gets dealt with before too long, but it's not really urgent.
T91406: AssetBrowser: Indexing Asset Library
Why: Asset library loading doesn't scale well currently. With a bunch of asset .blend files, loading time can be quite annoying; in production repositories it can take minutes.
Status: Almost done. Basic indexing is merged but disabled, pending IDProperty support which is in late review stages.
Who: Jeroen
T90199: Placement Tool for Objects and/or Collections
Why: Current drag & drop with snapping is great, but limited. Give users quick access to important transforms and settings for object/collection placement.
Status: Needs discussion and UI design proposal/discussion.
Who:
Why: Current options for generating or loading previews are rather limited, and inconsistent between asset types. E.g. armature assets use the scene camera, while object and material assets have their own preview scene.
Status: Needs design. Multiple improvements possible, it's a bit open ended.
Who: ?
T93010: Design discussion: Add object instancing to support transforming linked objects?
Why: Many users seem confused or annoyed when dragging in objects with linking enabled, because they can't transform the object, and the surface snapping doesn't work.
Status: Needs design discussion. Feasibility depends a lot on that.
Who: ?
D13193: GPencil: Asset Manager support
Why: The Grease Pencil workflow could benefit a lot from the Asset Browser. Antonio is eager in working on that and already has a bunch of work done. But it needs design review.
Status Patch uploaded, needs design and code review.
Who: Grease Pencil module
T92811: Support node groups in asset browser
Why: Node workflows could benefit quite a bit from the Asset Browser. Not much work should be needed to get it ready and the nodes module can take do the remaining bits (low overhead for the asset team).
Status: Should be mostly there, but needs careful confirmation/testing and some nice-to-have features would be nice to have ;)
Who: Nodes module / Geometry Nodes team