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Feature Roadmap

Overview

This addon is a work in progress, and we're discovering what can be done as we go. Both in terms of better shading, and in terms of the limits of Geometry Nodes. Due to the amount of interest, we released it as soon as the minimum viable features were working, but there's a lot more that can be done. We hope to grow this into a comprehensive toolset that both solves technical problems, and gives artistic options.

About This Roadmap

This is more of a wish list than a definitive roadmap, but we want to give an idea of all the things that could be possible.

Weighted Normals + Laplacian Smooth Modifier

In Progress

  • Weighted Normals Boundary Handling
    Boundaries are not just the edges off the mesh. They will also occur anywhere that Sharp/Edge Split is used. This is important for better results on Low Poly and Hardsurface meshes.

Planned Features

  • Better Handling of High Angle Edges
    Better handling of high angle edges that are not split. Also important for hardsurface.

  • Automatic Detection of Hardsurface Areas
    Automatic detection of hardsurface areas of the mesh.

  • Laplacian Sharpening
    Implementation of sharpening to accentuate details and corners instead of smoothing them (particularly useful for hardsurface models).

  • User Controls for smooth/organic/hardsurface
    Better options for controlling what areas are treated as smooth, organic, or hardsurface.

  • Coplanar Face Preservation

  • Influence Limiting
    Options to limit the reach and strength of certain vertices on the Smoothing. Important to let some areas influence their neighbors, but not their neighbor's neighbors.

  • Non-Normalized Laplacian Smoothing
    Would reduce the number of iterations needed to smooth out corners, but may not be possible in Geometry Nodes without mesh stability issues and/or a major performance decrease.

Proxy Meshes

Nearly Complete

  • Anime Face Proxy Mesh
    Basic adjustable proxy mesh specifically designed for Anime character faces. Proxy mesh Normals allow for convenient clean shading, but they can be a hassle to get good results from. Our setup is an optimized, rigged proxy mesh that is easy to fit to your character, with Geometry Nodes automatically handling everything else. This provides better results than merely using Radial/Sphere Normals on the character's face, which can remove details and major contours like the jaw line.

Planned Features

  • Face Detail Proxy Meshes
    The face proxy mesh will wipe out details like the nose shadow, lips, etc. These can be added back in a variety of ways such as:
  • Transfer from their own proxy
  • Mesh decals
  • Shading stencil meshes
  • Normal Maps

  • Shading grade textures

  • Normal Map and SDF Shading Map Baking
    Tools to bake face Normals to Normal Maps and SDF Shading Maps.

  • Body and Clothing Proxy Templates
    Adjustable proxy mesh templates for bodies and common clothing pieces.

  • Procedural Proxy Generation
    Quick procedural proxy mesh generation for simple objects.

  • Mikktspace UV Tangent Calculation
    Implementation in Geometry Nodes to allow for high quality Normal mapping on transferred proxy Normals.

Shader Enhancements

Planned Features

  • Procedural/Generated Normals
    Various methods to handle situations that Vertex Normals cannot address.

  • Procedural Bump Mapping
    Implementation of procedural bump mapping techniques.

Addon Options and Workflow Tools

Planned Features

  • Normals Preview
    Preview functionality in Edit mode and on full render.

  • Batch Management
    Tools for managing features across many objects simultaneously.

  • Batch Normal Map Baking
    Streamlined process for baking Normal Maps in batches.

  • Export Preparation
    Automated preparation for exporting Game Models.

Feedback and Contributions

We welcome feedback and suggestions! If you have ideas for additional features or improvements, please let us know through on our discord server.