Regression: material select button now only works for active object. #82049

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Ian S · 2020-10-25T10:49:29+01:00

Ian S commented

2020-10-25 10:49:29 +01:00

System Information
Operating system: Manjaro Linux
Graphics card: AMD Radeon RX 570 8GB

Blender Version
Broken: 2.92.0 Alpha - October 24, 23:23:18 - 05129bc821
Worked: 2.90.1 (current stable version on Steam)
Caused by 1a650fdcb2
Also 12bc34b0b8

Short description of error
Until recently you could take any number of objects into edit mode, go to the material tab, select a material, hit the select button and it would select all the faces through all the objects that have that material assigned to them. But as of some recent change, the button will only work on the active object, ignoring all the other objects, even if they share the same material.

This is very important behavior for a tile based game porting project I'm working on that is getting multiple small texture atlases combined into larger per stage atlases, as I often need to select all tiles and select all faces with a given material so that I can resize and reposition their UVs for the new larger atlas all in one go. What used to take 15-20 minutes for a whole stage, would now take hours if I have to do that for every material on every object one by one (usually 100+ tiles with 1-8 materials each). For now I can keep an older build on hand, but I'd obviously really like to see this behavior eventually restored.

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error
Start with the default scene, give the cube a material, duplicate the cube, put them both in edit mode, deselect all, then try the select button on the material panel. In current stable, it will select all the faces in both cubes that are using that material. In the latest alpha (and I think most for the past few weeks at least) it will only select the faces in the active object.

**System Information** Operating system: Manjaro Linux Graphics card: AMD Radeon RX 570 8GB **Blender Version** Broken: 2.92.0 Alpha - October 24, 23:23:18 - 05129bc821fd Worked: 2.90.1 (current stable version on Steam) Caused by 1a650fdcb2 Also 12bc34b0b8 **Short description of error** Until recently you could take any number of objects into edit mode, go to the material tab, select a material, hit the select button and it would select all the faces through all the objects that have that material assigned to them. But as of some recent change, the button will only work on the active object, ignoring all the other objects, even if they share the same material. This is very important behavior for a tile based game porting project I'm working on that is getting multiple small texture atlases combined into larger per stage atlases, as I often need to select all tiles and select all faces with a given material so that I can resize and reposition their UVs for the new larger atlas all in one go. What used to take 15-20 minutes for a whole stage, would now take hours if I have to do that for every material on every object one by one (usually 100+ tiles with 1-8 materials each). For now I can keep an older build on hand, but I'd obviously really like to see this behavior eventually restored. **Exact steps for others to reproduce the error** Start with the default scene, give the cube a material, duplicate the cube, put them both in edit mode, deselect all, then try the select button on the material panel. In current stable, it will select all the faces in both cubes that are using that material. In the latest alpha (and I think most for the past few weeks at least) it will only select the faces in the active object.

Ian S commented

2020-10-25 10:49:29 +01:00

Added subscriber: @Uradamus

Philipp Oeser commented

2020-10-25 13:51:51 +01:00

Changed status from 'Needs Triage' to: 'Confirmed'

Philipp Oeser self-assigned this 2020-10-25 13:51:51 +01:00

Philipp Oeser removed their assignment 2020-10-25 15:19:32 +01:00

Campbell Barton was assigned by Philipp Oeser

2020-10-25 15:19:32 +01:00

Philipp Oeser commented

2020-10-25 15:19:32 +01:00

Added subscribers: @ideasman42, @lichtwerk

Philipp Oeser commented

2020-10-25 15:19:32 +01:00

Caused by 1a650fdcb2
Also 12bc34b0b8

@ideasman42 : I am not sure I am following above completely (there is just some stuff in the Properties Editor that works on multiple objects):

first of all, commit message of 1a650fdcb2 does not mention at all that this affects Select/Assign as well
Select/Assign supported this for multiple objects in editmode
Select/Assign are OPTYPE_INTERNAL, these cannot be run from the 3DView (and even if, there no better place for this than the Properties Editor... which menu would you want to put this in? It wouldnt have the slot near anyways)
(we could have it in the menus like Mesh > Materials > Assign / Select / Deselect > ...list of slots... -- but as long as we dont have it, I would suggest to make it work like it was before)

If we dont bring this back, then the least we should do is remove OPTYPE_INTERNAL, so you could at least call these from the 3DView via F3 search and have it work on all objects involved...

Caused by 1a650fdcb2 Also 12bc34b0b8 @ideasman42 : I am not sure I am following above completely (there is just some stuff in the Properties Editor that works on multiple objects): - first of all, commit message of 1a650fdcb2 does not mention at all that this affects `Select`/`Assign` as well - `Select`/`Assign` supported this for multiple objects in editmode - `Select`/`Assign` are `OPTYPE_INTERNAL`, these cannot be run from the 3DView (and even if, there no better place for this than the Properties Editor... which menu would you want to put this in? It wouldnt have the slot near anyways) - (we could have it in the menus like Mesh > Materials > Assign / Select / Deselect > ...list of slots... -- but as long as we dont have it, I would suggest to make it work like it was before) If we dont bring this back, then the least we should do is remove `OPTYPE_INTERNAL`, so you could at least call these from the 3DView via F3 search and have it work on all objects involved...

ronan ducluzeau commented

2020-10-27 10:30:18 +01:00

Added subscriber: @zeauro

ronan ducluzeau commented

2020-10-27 10:30:18 +01:00

(we could have it in the menus like Mesh > Materials > Assign / Select / Deselect > ...list of slots... -- but as long as we dont have it, I would suggest to make it work like it was before)

Assign button was not working and it should not.
This is not a selection based on slot but really on material. It does not matter by which slot, material is used on this mesh or that mesh, that are the faces using same material that are selected.
Ideal solution would not be list of slots of active object but list of materials of objects in edit mode.
I don't think that a menu is needed.

In absence of an asset browser, it was perfect as it was in 2.90.
When asset browser will be there, user will instinctively use it to do that, if he does not know that buttons in properties are acting like that.
But without a menu in 3DView, user is currently searching for material management in Properties tab or Shader Editor.

The mode column in outliner is helping a lot with multi-object editing. That is really easy to switch between one selection of object in edit mode to another one.
So, the fact that buttons will concern all objects in edit mode, by default, is not a problem.

There is a discussion on blenderartists about poor multi materials management.
https://blenderartists.org/t/poor-material-management/1260770
It is expected to wait asset browser to solve assignment issues.

Just fixing selection for 2.91 will be OK.

>(we could have it in the menus like Mesh > Materials > Assign / Select / Deselect > ...list of slots... -- but as long as we dont have it, I would suggest to make it work like it was before) Assign button was not working and it should not. This is not a selection based on slot but really on material. It does not matter by which slot, material is used on this mesh or that mesh, that are the faces using same material that are selected. Ideal solution would not be list of slots of active object but list of materials of objects in edit mode. I don't think that a menu is needed. In absence of an asset browser, it was perfect as it was in 2.90. When asset browser will be there, user will instinctively use it to do that, if he does not know that buttons in properties are acting like that. But without a menu in 3DView, user is currently searching for material management in Properties tab or Shader Editor. The mode column in outliner is helping a lot with multi-object editing. That is really easy to switch between one selection of object in edit mode to another one. So, the fact that buttons will concern all objects in edit mode, by default, is not a problem. There is a discussion on blenderartists about poor multi materials management. https://blenderartists.org/t/poor-material-management/1260770 It is expected to wait asset browser to solve assignment issues. Just fixing selection for 2.91 will be OK.

Philipp Oeser commented

2020-10-27 11:05:06 +01:00