Rename Background Scene to Layer Scene For Better Clarity
Currently Background Scene doesn't do a very good job of explaining what the feature is capable of doing.
For that reason it should be renamed to something that can really clue in the user on how to use this feature to its full potential. Layering is a concept that the user is more likely to understand, so renaming the field to Layer Scene would help explain the capabilities better.
Nest Scene is also another option that is more accurate, so that can also be used instead. But I find the familiarity of using the word Layer to be more desirable.
6 Comments
You don't anticipate confusion between view layer and layer scene?
View Layer is confusing, especially because it is called Render Layer in other parts of blender. But in comparison with Layer Scene I don't really see why both having the word layer would cause confusion, one is for views (Renders) and the other is for scenes.
With that being said though maybe there is a better name than Layer Scene, one example I mention in the post is Nest Scene. And also I would love to hear any other suggestions that work better than either of those.
Really the point is just to rename Background Scene to something better.
Background Scene seems pretty self-explanatory to me. "Nest" quite significantly uncommon in Blender and I think "layer" would indeed added more confusion, people already struggle with the old render layers and new view layers and bone layers...
I can't think of a single program that uses "Background" for something that you can stack/layer. When a new user who is familiar with 2D software, Layers, etc, sees Background, what are they gonna think it does?
At first glance, they'll probably assume it means "background image".
However, they'll need to come to understand that in Blender, they can actually use an entire scene as a background.
However, changing "background scene" to a something that is similar to 2D - yet something that doesn't even occur in 2D - i think this is case where the user needs to learn the feature.
I will agree that 'View Layers' was not the best name for that feature, but here we are and that's unlikely to ever change. It would even more confusing for a Scene which has a View Layer to have a Layer Scene. It becomes a circular loop of confusion.
Anecdotal but the people I asked assumed it meant that it will let them use an environment prop as the background. Which is followed by them saying they can just do that with a collection.
"i think this is case where the user needs to learn the feature. "
This is my point. I see a lot of people are fine with the old name, and yet at the same time almost nobody knows about this feature, let alone uses it. If it is possible to nudge the user a little bit to learn this feature, as you say, with just a name change, wouldn't that be worthwhile?