Re: slight OT: they want what we got!

Date : Tue, 1 May 2007 15:35:27 -0700
To : XSI(at)Softimage.COM
From : "Graham D Clark" <mailgrahamdclark(at)gmail.com>
Subject : Re: slight OT: they want what we got!
Hey Guillaume, yeah thats similar to the technique I setup on Barnyard
for subassets, using dummy geo as a standin and presets to switch to
various subassets so we didn't have to have tons of extra models of
characters with only a few parameter differences.
Unfortunately things change in a story and we have to rebuild assets
and then automate the cluster overrides and presets, and for some damn
reason it didn't always work (not suprising being a kludge) requiring
manual eval by a TD each time.
And you've touched on our tracking issue requiring attaching a node to
the model.

Regarding passes SDK no its not impossible, we did it too, it just
wasnt as pleasant as the rest of XSIs areas via SDK (except for
fxtree), The partitions part still needs work.
--
Graham D Clark
Paramount Pictures, Marx Brothers Building, Room 111, 5555 Melrose
Ave, Hollywood, CA 90038
http://www.grahamdclark.com | http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark |
http://www.xsibase.com/articles.php?detail=117



On 5/1/07, Guillaume Laforge <guillaume(at)alamaison.fr> wrote:

Hi Graham and Steven,

> Steven :
> -overriding cluster based materials
>
> Me :
> It is already possible. Just create an empty geometry in the partition
> and apply your "cluster material" on it.

> Graham
> thats one of  the kludges, but its difficult to support, ie move
> around, track, rebuild, and manage, in a large pipeline

> Steven
>i am not sure i follow.

Create a cube in the same partition than your object with cluster and apply the same material on this cube. This way you can override the cube material. As it is the same material, the cluster material should be overriden too. So each clusters materials must be used by an X3DObject.
Then you can delete those X3DObjects or keep them and remove all polygons (empty geometry...)

Rebuild is not so hard as you can save a preset of this override and it will work in an other scene. This way, no need to create an empty geometry each time.
Track/Manage is an other problem. Clusters are not the easy way to track material quickly (but we can't avoide them sometimes).

> SDK documentation is OK
> "SDK access" is not,
> proper oops access not strings

I agree SDK could be better for passes/partitions but it is not a major problem I think. I wrote an export/import passes system for Antefilms Studio in France and the SDK was okay. I remember it was not straight forward to find objects or lights partitions for example but not impossible with the DataRepository object.

I don't say passes and their SDK are perfect, just that they work correctly, so it is not the emergency for me :).


Cheers

--
Guillaume Laforge | La Maison


On Tue, 1 May 2007 12:51:11 -0700, "Graham D Clark" <mailgrahamdclark(at)gmail.com> wrote: > Hey Guillaume, > > On 5/1/07, Guillaume Laforge <guillaume(at)alamaison.fr> wrote: >> >> > -overriding cluster based materials >> >> It is already possible. Just create an empty geometry in the partition > and apply your "cluster material" on it. > > thats one of the kludges, but its difficult to support, ie move > around, track, rebuild, and manage, in a large pipeline > >> >> > -improved SDK access >> >> I find the SDK well documented for pass/partitions etc... What do you > think is missing ? > > SDK documentation is OK > "SDK access" is not, > proper oops access not strings > >> >> > -work flow enhancements. >> >> Something I always miss with the pass system is that you can't export > passes with a model. >> I understand it is not possible as models are under the scene_root model > and passes aren't. A system to export/import passes used by a model is very > useful. The merge scene system is a workaround, but not very handy. > > Yeah! we really need that for pipes > -- > Graham D Clark > Paramount Pictures, Marx Brothers Building, Room 111, 5555 Melrose > Ave, Hollywood, CA 90038 > http://www.grahamdclark.com | http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark | > http://www.xsibase.com/articles.php?detail=117 > -


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