I think smooth transitions from 3D scene to 3D scene are one of the great features in Proteopedia, and we should encourage their use. They allow viewers to learn about different parts of a structure without losing their bearing.
Proposal: smooth transition as default
I propose to change the SAT such that transitions between two scenes using the same coordinates are always smooth. If an author does not want this behavior, there is a way to opt out by forcing a reload of coordinates. If coordinates are reloaded, show the new scene as fast as possible.
There are two advantages: First, it avoids a transition where it does not make sense (from an unrelated old scene to an arbitrary initial orientation of the new scene to the desired orientation). Secondly, this allows for some transition to be faster. Right now there is at least a 2 second delay built into loading a scene. This slows down browsing the figures.
The two demos below shows the proposed new behaviors.
Demo 1: new coordinates (or forced reload)
This demonstrates loading new coordinates and showing the scene without transitions.
Click on "DNA view" first, then on "fast load" for the proposed behavior (new coordinates are loaded with minimal delay). For the original delayed transitions, click on "DNA view" first, then on the "slow load" option instead.
Start here: or here: .
Then load as fast as possible:
Original delays:
The two lines that make this slower:
delay 1.0;
moveto 1.0 { -506 -641 577 176.65} 707.57 0.0 0.0 ...
Demo 2: smooth transitions if coordinates are the same
This demonstrates a smooth transition when a scene uses the same coordinates as the previous one. Click on "DNA view" first, then on "fast move" (no loading of coordinates, smooth transition). For the original delayed transitions, click on "DNA view" first, then on "slow move" option instead.
Start here:
Then transition with zoom out and zoom in:
Original delays:
Optionally, we could also have a transition that does not zoom out, but moves directly (for this example, where the two views are very different from each other, and we are switching representations, it is quite jarring; for other more subtle transitions, it might be the better option):
