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I just made this little flowchart to wrap my head around the framework concept and how it would provide the smoothest user experience.

Basically, all we do is "outsourcing" the user interface.

A wrapper script should start the sIBL GUI by firing a commandline call and putting the host app into a listening mode. That's the first handshake. If necessary, you might put the 3d app into wait mode, or at least suppress any subsequent calls to the wrapper script.

The second handshake is when sIBL GUI is done. Then your wrapper grabs and executes the setup script. Done.

http://www.sloft.net/2006/11/26/how-to-make-xsi-and-max-friends/

i don't know what happens there, but i think it can't be too complicated - at least in windows

Dschaga wrote on Sep 12^th, 2008 at 9:37am:


Hello Dschaga o/

Yeah :]

After I have a stable enough and working thing, I'll look toward creating Templates for others softwares, even simple ones or even make available different templates for different renderers, like some for Maxwell, Fry Render, or 3Delight in XSI or Maya for example.

Dschaga wrote on Sep 12^th, 2008 at 9:37am:


Currently It's basically a matter of 3 clicks on XSI: one to Launch sIBL_GUI (that the same you would do to launch an internal interface), another one to outpout the loader script ( this is the one that is added :] ), and a last one to import the loader script :]

In next releases, I'll add a direct connection to packages that accept socket connections, like Maya and XSI, so you will just have to click "Send To Software"  in sIBL_GUI (this remind me that I need to add a widget for the port in the interface) and you should be ok :]

I hope i have time next week to look into a 3dsmax template.
It should always be time to create a proof of concept
...attached a template for the scanline renderer (even if it makes no sense without GI) [/quote]

I didn't tried the template but it should work like a charm with the current version of sIBL_Framework (It will not with the next release because I added another attribute to the Templates, should take 30 secs to fix :] )

Dschaga wrote on Sep 12^th, 2008 at 9:57am:


It should be doable yeah, Currently I'm not doing any maths in the Maya and XSI templates : I'm using some Surface/PointOnSurfaceInfos Constraints to stick the sun at the correct U and V position on the Feedback Sphere, so it's exactly where it was positionned in sIBLedit, dunno if this kind of stuff exist in Lightwave and max. I wanted to make the framework blind to any kind of scene processing stuff, but if you think that the sun maths can/should be calculated in it, it can be :]

I found a thread on cgtalk about python and 3dsmax:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=98&t=509631

To be honest:
The small snipplets doesn't work on my system (ImportError: No module named win32com.client ..dunno why) , but this could work on all apps which offers OLE automation and seems to be pretty easy to implement.

It could work that way:
1. We start our script in the 3d app, which then loads the function which waits for the call from the python GUI.
2. The script starts the python GUI
3. The user can choose the sibl inside the python GUI
4. The python GUI generates the script from the template
5. then it broadcast the call over the OLE communication
6. the script inside our 3d app will execute the called function to run the generated scripts
7. ..the python gui still can be open and sends another calls if the user loads a different sibl ..
8. when the pythonGUI closes, it sends a call to the script inside the 3d application to quit this script too.

..well ..could work, but this is only working in windows - are ther any alternatives?
What are socket connections?

And... Just spotted the first bug on the Log Window that keep refreshing all the time after an output ! Update is coming :]

Hey o/

I think you can't open the app anymore because the file settings are written now with the collection path you entered, so it's crashing sIBL_GUI everytime you launch it now. You can delete sIBL_GUI_Settings.rc if you want to restart it. The error seem to be coming from an invalid .ibl file, sound like there is one with a missing "ICOfile Attribute". Would it be possible to try relaunching the application after deleting the .rc file, cancel the new collection wizard, putting the verbose level to Debug and try adding back your collection ? This should show the file that is currently making the app crashing.

Dschaga wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 2:43pm:


Ahhh sweet I don't really check the .ibl/.sIBLT file consistency (It's a pain to do, I just prey for them to be ok :] ). I released an update to correct the Log Window behavior. It was currently keepeing refreshing.

Dschaga wrote on Sep 14^th, 2008 at 2:43pm:


I'll check my templates folder parser to only read .sIBLT files.

For the Renderer thing : you mean you would prefer have an attribute of the template shown in the template dropbox (like the renderer) instead of the template name ? It should be easy to do and sounds really good! I just realised that we will have a problem if we have two XSI scripts for Mental ray for example, using an attribute in the template file like Renderer = Mental Ray, we are not sure of the uniqueness of this attribute along the templates.

By the way, I just checked my templates folder parsing code, pretty crappy at some point, it was a copy paste of my Collection Class and I did forget to check it was adapted for the Templates, I'll update it

If you wanna contact me on MSN directly, you have my adress everywhere (Templates, sIBL_GUI), On skype my contact is ksolaar, but I don't have a mic currently.