Nystic

If you don’t know what FastF12 is please visit this page.

I got a few comments from people that thought the main page of the program was a bit too cluttered. Rather then redesign the thing, I just took the simple and easy way to do it, collapsible form. Surprisingly this is quite easy to do in C#.Net, as it only took me be about 10 minutes to throw together.

For those who are wondering how to do this I will give you a quick rundown. Take note of the height of you current form that you want to make collapsible. Add two buttons: one at the end of of the form, and another right before the text you want to collapse. If you want to start the form collapsed just find the Y value on the form a few pixels below the first button(expand). Set this to the form height like this:

[sourcecode language="csharp"]
private void Main_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
//Collapse Form
this.Height = 315;
}
[/sourcecode]

After that set the expand button to the normal height of the form, and the less button to the collapsed value. Don’t forget to make the make make the expand visible/invisible:

[sourcecode language="csharp"]
private void btnExpand_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Resize From
btnExpand.Visible = false;
this.Height = 525;
}

private void btnLess_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Resize From
btnExpand.Visible = true;
this.Height = 315;
}
[/sourcecode]

And that is it! That is all you have to do for a Collapsible .Net Form. See ya in a few days; don’t forget to subscribe.

If you don’t know what FastF12 is please visit this page.

Personally after a while I thought the interface for the first FastF12 was pretty crappy. All the buttons and textboxes where in once space, and it even sometimes confused me(And I’m the one that made the program!). After a bunch of thought the new FastF12 will be a bunch easier to use, and will incorporate a bunch of features the other FastF12 failed to. For example the first version of FastF12 did not save settings, meaning you would have to manually re-enter the settings.

I hope to keep working on it, and keep you guys updated on a daily basis(minus weekends), so don’t forget to subscribe. So far the project is going smoothly, and I am just working on the GUI. The next goal on the list is to finish the two windows(forms) for creating a render job project, where you input the .blend file to be rendered, output folder, ect.I hope to finish those forms over the weekend, and hopefully update you on Monday and/or Tuesday.

Once the basic local rendering features are implemented I will be probably be releasing a semi-functional alpha version of the program for stability testing. There I can troubleshoot any local engine problems, and fix them before I move on to the distributed rendering. After that it will take me some time to implement the account features, and distributed rendering. Once that is finished I will be releasing the program as a closed beta or a limited invite only beta, so I can find any issues, and add any last minute features. Please let me know in the comments if you would like to be part of these testing groups.

As for now, please give me comments and advice on the posted screenshot’s look and feel on this post(Click to expand the screenshot). I am trying to make the interface look as good as possible, and easy to use. You can also give simple features suggestions, and I will take them into consideration. Thanks to all the people that have downloaded the programs so far!