Roadmaps¶

This page roughly lists all the planned features for ucupaint. Items listed here may evolve as the development progresses.

Ucupaint 3.0¶

Ucupaint 3.0 will have a lot of internal refactors and some UI redesigns to make it easier to navigate.

Feature	Status	Comments
Base layer	WIP (90%)	For less confusion, Ucupaint node inputs will be accessible as a base layer rather than channel settings. (#392)
New `Previous Layers` type for in-between layers adjustment	WIP (80%)	This type of layer will use the previous layer stacks as the input. It’s useful for adjusting the channel value in the middle of the layer stack. (#393)
Unified bake target system	WIP (40%)	This will integrate the current bake channels system into the bake target system. (#323)
Ability to use color attributes as custom bake target	No	Will likely implemented alongside new bake target system (#97)
Dealing with collapsed main channel panel by default	No	The main channel list will be collapsed by default since most of the settings are moved somewhere else. Make sure useful features like preview mode are still accessible with the panel collapsed. (#395)
Normal and height separation	WIP (70%)	Currently normal, bump, and vector displacement are implemented in a single channel. Separating them requires a lot of refactoring, but it is worth it to avoid unnecessary complexity in the future. (#356)
Better dropdown in layer list	Considered	Trying to improve mask and custom data dropdown on layer list.
Rename `Vector` input to `Coordinate`	No	In Ucupaint, `Vector` makes more sense if renamed to `Coordinate`. (#394)

Ucupaint 3.1 will focus on baking any layer/layer group as image(s).

Feature	Status	Comments
Bake layer as images for any layer types	No	Currently the system only works for layer types that have a source node with only one socket output. (#65)
Map any image channel into ucupaint layer channel	No	Useful to use ORM image as layer. (#128)

Ucupaint 3.x versions will focus on custom node support

Feature	Status	Comments
Custom node group as layer/mask	No	#90
Image size presets	WIP (60%)	While early testing shows that it is possible, there’s a roadblock that makes the implementation trickier. If the workaround doesn’t work, this feature probably will be pushed to later releases. (#350)

These are planned features that will be implemented in future releases. Could be in ucupaint 3.x or even 4.0.

Feature	Status	Comments
Any attributes data support	No	Currently ucupaint can only use color attributes. (#358)
Multiple decals in a single layer/mask	No	#396
Mirrored decal option	No	#270
Vector/Coordinate warp	Testing	Manipulating vector mapping using images/attributes/generated textures. (#96)
Multi-material batch baking	No	Probably will be implemented alongside #77
Baking multiple maps at the same time (AO, Pointiness, etc)	No	#399
Multi-user node group support	No	#398
Lock layers	No	#199
Passthrough Group	No	#134
Copy paste modifier	No	#89
Duplicate mask	No	#153
Option to apply baked layer/mask as standard image	No	#313
Reimplement parallax	No	#397
Principled BSDF layering support	No	#353
Normal map-aware edge detect	Not sure if possible
Use blender layer backend	Not possible yet	Since Blender already planned to create a native layer system. If that’s implemented, it will be better to use that as the backend of Ucupaint.

Feature	Status	Comments
Automated video clips recording	No	Since ucupaint UI still subject to changes, it's better to create a script to automate ucupaint demo clip recordings. So when the UI changes again, just tweak some parameters and run the script again to rerecord all the clips.
Multi-version documentation	No	It's better to be able to switch ucupaint version documentation