A plea for slider labels that MAKE SENSE and convey useful information
Blind Owl
Posts: 501
OK, you see a slider labelled "Down/Up." It's reasonable to assume that left means down and right means up, yes? If it was the other way round, wouldn't the label say "Up/Down?" You would think so.
Well, it ain't necessarily so. This can be especially irritating when you're working on a large complex scene in iRay mode and it takes a while to realize that the slider works backwards from the way you have every reason to expect.
I don't know why, but this is pretty common and it seems totally unnecessary.
While I'm whingeing, I'd like to plead for more useful info on slider labels. No one can predict what "Adjust A" will do until he or she tries it...and even then the result isn't always obvious or even visible.
Since DAZ 3D vets every new mod before they take it on, the approving committee (or whatever it is) seems the obvious first & last line of defence against this kind of confusion. I wish they'd do something to rationalize slider functions and labels.
End of whinge. 
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Comments
+1. It's too bad you have to fiddle with a slider to find out what the extremes mean.
However, while we wait on DAZ to fix this, we can take matters into our own hands: as we discover (mis)labels, we can fix them ourselves, right in the app, by clicking on the little gear icon to get into parameter settings.
Holy crap, I didn't know they were that easy to change (not that we should have to)! I'll be going on an editing rampage, provided I can figure out what various mystery sliders actually do.
!
Glad I could help!
This silliness has frustrated me for a long time, too. It seems like something a PA should get right at creation and Daz QA should check for before release.
I've always taken pains to make sure sliders have logical names. In fact, in my last product, I stupidly made all the left-right morphs go right-left. Once I discovered my mistake, I re-made all the morphs to go the correct way (and there were a lot of them!).
The problem is that sometimes it can be difficult to know what to name sliders. I'm always aware that many users may not be native English speakers, so if some names seem banal, it's because I want to make sure everyone can understand them.
I've never had DAZ call me out on slider names, so I don't know if it's something they check in QA. But I imagine if names were too confusing, they would ask for changes.
You're not guilty, maclean. No one's accusing you!
Actually, I hadn't thought about non-English speakers, but I can see how that would present a challenge when it comes to labelling sliders.
Height dial where positive values makes figure shorter and negative is taller is the most inane and has been that way since Genesis Classic.
That one was (and is) so stupid I figured there had to be some obscure technical reason for it. Evidently not, huh?
Don't Up/Down on eyes do that? Nnngh
Look at this lovely slider from the new Public Pool set, which appears to be an example of sliders done right!
I hate it when the XYZ axis movements are renamed. I have a minisub where they're labeled "Roll", "Pitch" and "Yaw". I know what the words mean, but seeing them is still a hiccup in my workflow. There's no need for it, everyone who uses Studio understands "X Rotate".
Hi Petercat, I have to disagree with you on that one. I have found some objects where the axes appear to have been inverted, the X rotate is still a guess as to which way it will turn.
I think BlindOwl is right, the slider/dial labels should be labelled more informatively than just "Adjustment 1" or whatever. Since there is space to describe the slider in the options popup, this should be mandatory. Then we can change the actual silder name to something we understand. This would also help overcome the problem of different language users.
Got started on what looks like a huge editing job, and only because I stubbed my toe on these two. "Eyes Side-Side" (uninformative, to put it generously) is now "Eyes Left-Right," and "Eyes Up-Down" (a prime example of what I mean) is now "Eyes Down-Up," at least on my computer. 'Nnngh' is right, to quote timmins.william.
This is for G3F, a fairly recent generation, and I know I've barely scratched the surface. I mean really, what were they thinking??
[ Oh for crying out loud! I just finish patting myself on the head and find the %@#!&!! names have reverted to their former stupidity. Is there no way to make permanent changes? ]
Yeah.
What you do is make the name changes on the sliders, then go to:
File Menu ----> Save As ----> Support Asset ----> Save Modified Assets
It SHOULD give you a 'Save Modified Asset' box...
"The Following file(s) will be permanently modified:"
and will list them. Just hit 'Accept'.
(Caveat: Just be CAREFUL you didn't activate any morphs on your character, or it'll save THEM, too. I did that on Genesis I by accident and added Aiko 5 and Hitomi to the list...
I was VERY surprised the next time I opened my Genesis I Superman to suddenly find he had a sex change... )
When you load a New version of the character, the label SHOULD be changed on it...
Hope this helps! :)
Thanks, LaughingVulcan, and thanks for the warning re: morphs...though it could lead to some amusing and unexpected results.
But the more I see of these bassackward and uninformative labels, the more I wonder where some folks's heads are. I also wonder what DAZ 3D's approving process is good for if it allows so many obvious howlers to slip through the net.
Too busy coining money, I suppose. And yes, I am a little ticked off at what seems so obviously wrong & stupid, and so easily curable if anyone had the wit or the will to do so.
Why should users have to correct what should have been caught and corrected in (what we presume is) the QA process?
QA should not have to catch things like this; it really should be caught by testers before being submitted. However, if it's not caught before this point, it really shouldn't be passed through without at least being noted in the readme file, such as those may be.
Maybe they should, maybe they shouldn't. If not, the next-most-obvious thing to do would be to send out an APB to all PAs (how's that for acronym overkill?) to the effect that from now on, slider names and functions are expected to meet certain minimum levels of logic and comprehensibility.
[ edit/afterthought: As I said in the OP, "Since DAZ 3D vets every new mod before they take it on, the approving committee (or whatever it is) seems the obvious first & last line of defence against this kind of confusion." If the QA process doesn't include such rudimentarty oversight and correction, one has to wonder what it does include. ]
I can gripe along with you...LOL I really wish morph packages wouldn't have sliders labeled with things like "nose shape A." I might figure it out at the time. But, the next time I need the morph, I'll have to slide all the A,B,C,D,E nose shapes to figure out which one was which.