> Every time I
> have to make a change to my shader, I have to unregister my
> shader, close
> XSI, edit the SPDL, run the SPDL through 'spdlcheck' (which
> does a poor job
> BTW), re-register the shader, re-launch XSI, then re-open my
> scene to test
> the change. Complete pain in the ass as it's very slow and
> cumbersome. If
> I had access to a standalone mental ray license, the process would be
> significantly quicker and easier: recompile shader then
> re-render .mi2 file
> from command line - that's it. No more than 3 seconds tops.
> XSI's method
> takes several minutes per iteration.
The reason for this is mental ray's inability to re-define shader declarations and keep its head (think: existing shader connections and phenomena), otherwise I'd be all over it. It's a complete horse but you would have the same problem even if you were using those oh-so-dreamy-looking .mi files in Maya or Max.
Also, if you have a spdl where spdlcheck does a poor job of validating, we'd love to have it so we can harden it. It's hard to cover all the cases without having input to test against.
> components. The biggest issues I run into with shader development is
> registry corruption from bad SPDLs - SPDLs which are deemed
As of 5.11 there is no registry storage for shaders. Have you tried it?
It also solves the registration problem. Ie. shaders are automatically updated on startup and their preset is even regenreated. Most spiffy.
> [Matt]
> Which is exactly why I don't like it. It's very limiting.
> The system needs
> to be more dynamic to allow changes as the scene gets pushed
> to mental ray.
> If I want to change a shader parameter from type miScalar to
> miVector, then
> I should be able to drive that from within XSI, not go through the
> uninstall/re-install hoops I have to go through now.
See above.
> operators. Prior to XSI v5.0, (I haven't checked v5.x yet)
> all shader
> parameters were registered individually in the windows
> registry. If two
> different shaders contained the same parameter GUID, XSI
> would complain and
> not allow the 2nd shader to be installed/registered due to
> GUID collision.
That is true, compound objects (colours, vectors, matrices and structs) were registered as COM objects, as were shaders. As of 5.11, as before, that is no longer the case. These COM hacks were deplorable and we've been doing our bestest to take them out. Given their pervasive nature throughout the code base (it was implemented during ye olde Twister) it has taken up until now to do the work required.
You might want to check out later versions of XSI, we *do* make the occasional progress.
- ½
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