[REQ] Indigo API

scaron · Post by **scaron** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:31 pm

i had mentioned before on another thread the idea of building scenes in memory. i just wanted to put it in here so it would be associated with a request and not just a post in the general forum.

i hope nick could provide an API for indigo so i can build scenes straight to memory and skip the archive process. This will allow our plugins to be more interactive and make the basic usage of indigo easier for new people.

i imagine classes to initialize indigo, set the options, and build the scene, subclasses to build objects, lights, and describe materials, grab the output as a framebuffer (so we can display the result inside the DCC app) or as a file.

thanks
steven

Deus · Post by **Deus** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 5:47 am

I want that aswell...

But the overhead to create the xml and parse it is small compared to rendering time. There is a gazillion features i want before an API.

Why dont you produce a few useful things that use XML but could benefit from an API before you request

scaron · Post by **scaron** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 6:14 pm

thanks Dues for you response

i am trying not to sound like an asshole. but i had developed an XSI exporter for indigo as early as february last year. it never made public consumption because of indigo's constantly changing scene description lang and the fact that i need to work

i could easily post it but it would be totally useless for the current version 0.7 test 4.

while i was developing my exporter using both jscript using the xmldom and python using SAX, minidom, and elementtree, i couldn't get the speed to where it was satisfactory. mostly because i ultimately wanted to use was embedded meshes. now that there is obj support i could try again. but rigante has done a great job with his XSI exporter and i support his work on it.

i want the api so i can implement it tightly with xsi features and the speed at which the render starts as my main concern. XSI has a rendering API that allows you to use their render region, pass rendering, rendertree, and shaderball preview features. of course this is only implemented in their C API and not through scripting interface. this is what interests me. it would be fun to implement indigo into XSI and take advantage of these features but until there is an API where i can create scenes, objects, materials in memory and access the framebuffer i cant and probably wont develop anything useful for anyone else

this is simply a request, i know nick is doing this for his own enjoyment and his development isn't purely driven by the user base. so if its a pipe dream so be it. i hope i wasn't to much of an asshole...

Deus · Post by **Deus** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 9:09 pm

Ofcourse his development is driven by the userbase. If it wasnt he wouldnt have a website.

Also. You think an API makes "changes" in the format spec a no problem? An API changes faster than the xml format. Much faster. It wont help. Besides using indigo for "previewing" is a mess so no real point to have "tight integration" with anything. Trust me I use wordpad as my modeling tool I if anyone might know.

And you dont sound like an asshole. Its all healty.

/ D

m1j · Post by **m1j** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:11 am

I would like to see the API concept as well. I like the xml system but I like being able to use functions and loops to build my scene. I am thinking that a direct connection would make that easier than populating a stringstream with the indigo xml format.

Deus · Post by **Deus** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:41 pm

m1j start with "doing loops and stuff" with XML first. THEN request the API.

m1j · Post by **m1j** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 5:03 am

[quote="Deus"]m1j start with "doing loops and stuff" with XML first. THEN request the API.[/quote]

Perhaps an example would be good to help "educate" us.

Deus · Post by **Deus** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:42 am

Huh? What do you want as an example?

In indigoworld 99% of all my content is generated by a script. I still dont need an Indigo API.

CTZn · Post by **CTZn** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:02 am

In indigoworld 99% of all my content is generated by a script. I still dont need an Indigo API.

That was not an example

m1j · Post by **m1j** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:37 am

As an example I would expect a script you use. Such as what I have been working on where I take bezier curves to build triangle surfaces for objects in indigo. Or perhaps a script to use a position and a target point and convert those to indigo's position and direction. Or another would be to load a obj and subdivide it and maybe even displace it before passing it on to indigo. Do you have the scripts for these activities?

Show us how the scripts can be written to do these. That is the type of examples I am asking for. If XML can do these things I would be quite interested in knowing how.

scaron · Post by **scaron** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 4:26 am

i dont have a time for an example, but pick a language that has dom support, learn how to write to file, using the dom and your basic statements like if, for,while, etc build the dom, then write to disk...

again i want an API so i can SKIP the effin .xml file! I want fast scene generation using C and xsi. i want to see the rendering result in xsi, NOT the floating image window that comes with indigo nor do i want to see the console, i want to channel the verbosity into xsi.

i want cool features like, "render selected only" where i start rendering just the object the user has selected. then in the middle of rendering they select something else and BAM it starts rendering the next selection. i want to represent materials in xsi, and chain them together in the render tree. and most of all i want to have the use of xsi's render region using indigo!

i can't do any of this until indigo has a C API, because for obvious speed reasons softimage only exposed the renderer API in C. so i need a library to link with...

those are my reasons... AGAIN

Deus · Post by **Deus** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:28 am

You use the word "BAM" for raytracing latency? You should get into graphics card stuff and leave the MLT stuff for us patient guys

Even if there is an API the code to build your scene will be identical if you have an API compared to the current XML file approach. The overhead of going to XML is very small compared to the rendering times. Actually. its easier to have an XML format because you can hand edit XML and test stuff out easier than to recompile your program. Also when you have a bug you can post your bug here but you cant do that with a bunch of API calls.

Again I am not saying any of this is a bad idea its just that id rather have a million features before this

CTZn · Post by **CTZn** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:56 am

The overhead of going to XML is very small compared to the rendering times.

That's not true anymore when you are testing a scene again and again, seeking for the right settings. In this case it's the contrary wich is true.

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[REQ] Indigo API

[REQ] Indigo API

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