itch.io

Took me a second to connect the dots. I think there was a misunderstanding. I don't think it's impossible in general, but the way SDF Modeler's splines are evaluated wouldn't really be suitable for real-time use.

You could, for example, simplify the problem by breaking the cubic curves into two quadratics.

Cheers,
Sascha

SDF Modeler uses cardinal splines and B-splines. Every spline segment is converted into a cubic Bézier curve, and that’s what the SDF evaluation operates on. Catmull-Rom is just a special case of a cardinal spline.

That said, I don’t think my current approach is really feasible for real-time rendering. In general, computing accurate SDFs for Bézier curves fast enough is quite challenging, since you need to solve a quintic equation efficiently and with sufficient numerical accuracy.

Cheers,
Sascha

Thanks!

Adjustable pivots are definitely something I’d like to support. Unfortunately, using them for repetition isn’t straightforward because of how SDF repetition works internally, but I’ll see what I can do.

Cheers,
Sascha

Thanks for taking the time to write such detailed feedback! I'm glad you're enjoying the software.

A few notes:

• Shortcuts are displayed and customizable in the Settings tab when you scroll down.
• For symmetric scaling, you can hold Alt while scaling on the X or Z axis to scale in the XZ plane, or scale uniformly by dragging the Y axis.
• You can hold Ctrl while rotating to snap in 45° increments.
• Renaming is Enter on macOS and F2 on Windows/Linux.
• You can Ctrl + Click almost any UI value to edit it directly.

Thanks again for all the suggestions. If you'd like to discuss ideas or share more feedback, feel free to join our Discord: https://discord.gg/U7yxeqJBfW

Cheers,
Sascha

Cool. Glad you solved the issue. Have fun with the software :)

Cheers,
Sascha

Thanks, I’m really glad you’re enjoying it!

I’ll look into and see what I can do for future updates.

Cheers,
Sascha

Hi,

Have you tried updating your GPU drivers to the latest version?

I don’t think this is related to your operating system.

Cheers,
Sascha

Thanks, glad you’re finding it useful!

Best of luck with your engine and game. I’d love to see what you end up building.

Cheers,
Sascha

Thanks, glad you're enjoying it!

Lots of interesting ideas there. I'll see what I can do. :)

Also, our Discord is a great place to share feedback and show off your creations: https://discord.gg/U7yxeqJBfW

Cheers,
Sascha

Glad you got it running.

I’ll keep looking into the issue and see if there’s a better long-term solution than relying on antivirus exclusions.

Cheers, Sascha

Hi,

So far, the only similar reports I’ve received were caused by Avast incorrectly flagging meshoptimizer.dll as a threat. The DLL is built directly from the official meshoptimizer sources on GitHub, so unfortunately I’m not sure why some antivirus products are detecting it.

A few users were able to work around the issue by adding the DLL (or the SDF Modeler folder) as an exception in their antivirus software. If you’re using Avast or another security product, it might be worth checking whether the file has been quarantined or blocked.

At the moment there’s not much I can do on my end beyond investigating alternatives for future releases.

Cheers,
Sascha

Hi,

sounds like a technical issue when the file is empty.
It would help if you could join our Discord server for troubleshooting.
https://discord.gg/U7yxeqJBfW

Cheers,
Sascha

Thank you, really appreciate it!

Cheers, Sascha

Hi,

SDF Modeler is a standalone modeling tool, so you can create models completely from scratch.

Cheers,
Sascha

Thank you :) I had to translate it though :D

Hi,

There’s currently no mirror option for groups. As a workaround, you can duplicate the group and flip it along the desired axis, then use a negative coordinate to mirror it.

Alternatively, if you don’t need blending, you can duplicate the entire layer and flip the instance instead. That way, both versions will stay in sync when you make changes.

Cheers,
Sascha

I’ve re-uploaded the latest release. There were some issues when parsing the system’s font directories that could prevent the application from opening. If you ran into this, please give it another try. Otherwise, feel free to reach out on Discord https://discord.gg/U7yxeqJBfW

Many people have asked if there's a way to support the project. If SDF Modeler has brought you some joy or helped you in your personal or professional work, you can now choose to pay whatever you want, as often as you like. Of course, it is and will remain completely free to download and use.

Thank you all for the support and kind words over the years!

Just to mention it here as well for reference. You can snap onto any surface by dragging the center of the transform gizmo while snapping mode is enabled.

Cheers,
Sascha

Hi,

you can adjust the resolution per layer. There’s also a whole section about layers in the manual that goes into more detail and has some helpful tips :)

Cheers,
Sascha

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it! :) I’ll try to look into that.

Cheers,
Sascha

Hi,

OBJ export isn’t a great fit for the current state of the mesh export. The format doesn’t support vertex colors (unlike PLY), which means important data would be lost. Additionally, the generated meshes are still quite dense and not clean enough for most 3D applications without some form of post-processing.

STL also doesn’t support vertex colors, but in that case I assume most people are using it for 3D printing and applying color after printing.

So before adding more export formats, I’d prefer to further improve the mesh quality and overall usability of the export.

Cheers,
Sascha

Thank you, I really appreciate it :)

Glad to hear it feels intuitive and useful for you, that's exactly what I’m aiming for. And it's great to know it's become part of your regular workflow.

Cheers,
Sascha

Hi,

SDF Modeler is free to use for personal and commercial projects. Redistribution or modification is not permitted.

Cheers,
Sascha

Very nice! Glad you're enjoying the software.

Cheers,
Sascha

Thanks so much for the kind words. I’m really glad you’re enjoying it! Hopefully simpler and smoother workflows will emerge over time as things evolve :)

Cheers,
Sascha

Hi,

This might happen due to your GPU specs. SDF Modeler needs at least 2 GB of VRAM (preferably more). It would probably be easier to troubleshoot this on the SDF Modeler Discord: https://discord.gg/U7yxeqJBfW

Cheers,
Sascha

Transparency is much cheaper for reference images since they’re rendered using a traditional raster pass. Making the shapes themselves transparent would be significantly more expensive with SDF Modeler’s custom renderer, which is why I’m currently trying to avoid that.

Cheers,
Sascha

Thanks!

There is an option in the path tracer to render an object as transparent, but that’s probably not what you’re referring to. At the moment, there’s no way to make the viewport material itself transparent.

However, if your goal is to overlay reference images with semi-transparent shapes, you can place the reference image in front and adjust the image’s transparency instead.

Cheers,
Sascha

Hi,

At the moment, the best option is the "Right Mouse" navigation mode. It doesn't rely on the middle mouse button, so it should work reasonably well with a touchpad.

I do want to look into better touchpad support in the future, but it's a bit difficult to prioritize right now.

Cheers,
Sascha

You're welcome! I'm doing my best :)

Cheers,
Sascha

Hi,

Select a point and press the + button to insert a new point after it or use the Duplicate button to copy the currently selected point (also available via Ctrl + D / Cmd + D).

Cheers,
Sascha

Thanks mate — really appreciate it! :)

That's incredibly kind — thank you so much! :)

Thanks a lot, really glad you like it! I'll probably look into support options for SDF Modeler in the future, but for now you're very welcome to join the Discord — https://discord.gg/U7yxeqJBfW

Always happy to have more people around for testing and feedback :)

Cheers,
Sascha

Thanks for the kind words — glad you like the new update :)

Really glad to hear that! Cheers Sascha :)

Hi,

you can simply drag and drop one shape onto another in the hierarchy to combine or group them.

Cheers,
Sascha

Hi,

That’s already possible :) You can simply drag one shape onto another in the hierarchy to create a subgroup or nested boolean group.

Cheers,
Sascha

Hi Dan,

Thanks a lot for the feedback! Rotation snapping is definitely planned, with angle increments to make clean ortho orientations quicker and easier. It will complement the reset rotation feature nicely.

Have a great day.

Cheers,
Sascha