PROBLEM
In Sculpt mode, it seems like the intent of both Brush->Options->Radius Unit and Stroke->Spacing Distance (new feature) is to allow a sculptor to get the exact same behavior when interacting with a mesh, independent of the zoom level. Both of these properties allow for two options, Scene and View. It doesn’t seem to make sense to me that an artist would ever want these to be set to different values (unless there is a performance consideration).
SOLUTION
Unify these two properties. Or perhaps provide a 3rd option for Stroke->Spacing distance to follow Brush->Options->Radius Unit.
I think you got something wrong here on what these features do.
The Brush-Options-Radius Unit modes will typically be changed quite often, its another behaviour of the brush size while sculpting and both options have their benefits in sculpting. If you want to sculpt things with a distinct size on your model going to Scene Mode keeps your brush at a constant size relative to the model. You can change the view direction or the zoom and keep the brush constant relative to the object and last stroke. Having the brush in viewspace is the default mode. Brush size relates to the screenspace. Zooming out make the brush bigger relative to the model. This reduces eg brush size changings when roughing out the shape and can feel more dynamic and quicker.
But Stroke Spacing Distance is a very different topic. It allows to setup the method chosen to calculate the spacing of the dots. Calculating distance in screenspace may eventually have bring some slight performance benefits, but in terms of modeling quality it’s simply inferior. It has no modeling benefits to calculate the next dot position from a projection to 2D.
If these were unified then sculpting with a constant brush size would give you a perspective independent correct spacing and whenever you sculpt with a screendependent brush size you’d have a simplified model to calculate the distance of the dots placed.
I think you agree that these options should not be combined.
Interesting. I’ve found I keep the Brush-Options-Radius Unit always set to Scene. I don’t want zooming in and out to change the size of my brush relative to the mesh. I explicitly resize my brush relative to the mesh when I need to.
Perhaps I don’t fully understand the stroke spacing distance implications yet since I haven’t been able to use it yet (setting it to Scene always causes Blender to exit for me - bug reported). What I want is that when I drag a brush across my mesh, I want the same result no matter how much I decide to zoom in or out. So if I’m zoomed in and drag a quick stroke across a quad and I get 5 stroke samples I would like to get the same result as when I’m zoomed out and drag across the same quad. This would seem consistent with the way I use the radius unit.
That’s a matter of personal liking. If you like it more, go with it.
There’s something more to it than your example implies. I made a quick screenshot for you that should make it clearer.
A brush is setting “dots” at a certain distance. If you model on a plane facing the camera directly you will not notice any difference with these two modes. But if the object has differences in depth like my example. Then it makes a difference if the next dot is placed at a even distance relating to your monitor plane or to a distance on the model you are sculpting. The last one repects the depth. Dots deeper in space seem narrower if they are in fact placed at the same distance.
In my example there are two strokes. The upper one uses screenspace or viewspace. Take a ruler and check the distane of the dots. The second stroke below uses scene spacing. Got it?
Ah, thanks. Ok that makes sense. I had misunderstood the feature. I haven’t been able to try it yet since it crashes on MacOS. The feature was briefly described on Pablo Vasquez’ Blender Today video this week but he didn’t actually demo it.
