Window Ordering

[Deepwell]

Hi all!

It seems the window tier chosen for the Octane render window (at least under macOS) is too high.

Not only does it cover other application's windows when Modo is in the background, it also covers all the Octane parameter windows (kernel, camera, ...), so whenever I click on e.g. the "Kernel" button I see nothing. Even moving the render window does not help (activating the render windows closes the kernel parameter window) - I have to each time resize the render window to make the parameter window visible.

Any macOS users out there that can confirm this?

Cheers!
Johannes

--
Modo 16.1v1 (670124)
Octane X Prime 2022.1 (12000020) – OctaneX_for_Modo_2022_1_0_189_macOS_PRIME
macOS 13.2 (22D49)

[face_off]

This sounds like a Modo issue, but I will investigate further next time I am working on the macOS version of the plugin. In the meantime - you should be able to use the OctaneRender layout to get around this.

Thanks

Paul

[face_off]

Further to the above - the command that pops the Octane window open is

Code: Select all

layout.createOrClose octaneRenderViewportFrameCookie octaneViewportLayout title:"OctaneRender Viewport" width:600 height:400 persistent:true style:standard

You could try changing "persistent:true" to "persistent:false". If that resolves the issue, then it is potentially an issue with Modo on macOS (as the "persistent" argument works differently on Windows and Linux.

Thanks

Paul

[Deepwell]

Hey Paul,
thx for getting back to me about this!

It seems that macOS uses weird window tiers for "standard" style windows in Modo. Changing the persistancy did not change the window tier. But changing the style from "standard" to "palette" did the trick. If I do that, the Octane window then
1. Does not cover other application's windows
2. Is behind the parameter popups (e.g. kernel, camera, ...)

I also tried this on Windows and it did not seem to have any negative effect using the "palette" style there...

So for now I will just open the Octane viewport with

Code: Select all

layout.createOrClose octaneRenderViewportFrameCookie octaneViewportLayout style:palette title:"OctaneRender Viewport" width:600 height:400 persistent:true

Cheers!
Johannes

[face_off]

Thanks Johannes

I will see if I can make this change to the next release of the macOS version of the plugin.

Paul

[face_off]

Hi

I am doing the macOS release, and was unable to reproduce your issue. Please see the following screenshot, which shows all is OK? Are you able to give me more details on how you are getting the error to occur please?

Thanks

Paul

[Deepwell]

Hey Paul,
thanks for looking into this again!

TL;DR:
It seems this was a transient error in Modo 16.1v1 - in 16.1v2 (that I just now installed on the Mac) I no longer see this issue.


Long story:

To be sure I ran some test.

In Modo 16.1v1 (the one I reported the error initially for) I still can reproduce it reliably: Simply open up Modo, open the Octane viewport and click on the "Kernel" button.

The kernel options pane will be displayed behind the viewport window and will be closed automatically as soon as you activate the viewport window again (thus making it impossible to just move the viewport window out of the way - one instead needs to resize it to get to the kernel options pane). The same is true for all other option panes (camera, environment, ...)

Also, the viewport window has such a high window tier that it will stay on top of all other windows of other applications one switches to, often making it necessary to close it if one wants to just take a quick look at some content in another app (as it usually takes up a large part of the screen).


Now, I also tried to reproduce it in Modo 16.0v4 - with lesser success. In Modo 16.0v4 this only happens for the log window - that one is opened below the viewport window, but all other panes (kernel, camera, ...) are opened above it. And the viewport window also does not have that high a window tier - when I switch to other apps, it falls below their windows.


So I downloaded and installed also 16.1v2 to check: And it behaves exactly like 16.0v4 !!!
So no issue there and the window tier in 16.1v2 clearly is lower than in 16.1v1 - I can switch to other apps and the Octane viewport falls below the other app's windows. Only the log window opens behind the viewport window (as in 16.0v4).


So it seems that in Modo 16.1v1 as a transient error the window tier of windows created with "style:standard" was simply too high.

Thx again!
J.

[face_off]

Glad it's sorted - thanks.

Paul