A random material idea.

Post by **OnoSendai** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:42 am

Indigo currently has support for referencing external .igs files, through the include tag. This was added to allow usage of materials without manually inserting the xml into the main .igs file.
I could extend this functionality to allow usage of the http protocol - in this way, people could reference Indigo materials (igm files perhaps) on a website, e.g. the indigo material database site that will be created sometime hopefully

Then when the scene is first run, the material would be downloaded to a cache directory, and would be subsequently served from the cache.
Thoughts?

SimonLarsen · Post by **SimonLarsen** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:46 am

Sounds pretty cool to me.

okazaky · Post by **okazaky** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:51 am

Yes, I like the idea. Working with material references would be cool. But I think this would only make sense if there is a big library of materials available.
So I would prefer some other new features which help to simplify the usage of indigo

CTZn · Post by **CTZn** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:56 am

No thoughts, that's an excellent idea. The exporters should be able to update their list of materials by the same way, so the user will have all materials available at any time.

I think most users will download the full database and use http to update db only.

The link to arneoog's database is still invisible here... and [edit] users have to use and expand it.

oodmb · Post by **oodmb** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 3:59 am

by

A random material idea

i thaugh you were going to implement a way to add a random useless material to the scene. one can only dream.

CTZn · Post by **CTZn** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:12 am

"The bird dream of seeds". I thought that at the beginning also ^^

Once you have a db at your disposal, you can script at will to spread materials randomly through the scene !

suvakas · Post by **suvakas** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:16 am

What if there are bitmap textures involved?
Not really a feature i would actually use i think.
Don't like the idea, that my scene relies on my internet connection

oodmb · Post by **oodmb** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:17 am

Don't like the idea, that my scene relies on my internet connection

then dont use online materials

Post by **OnoSendai** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:25 am

suvakas wrote:What if there are bitmap textures involved?
Not really a feature i would actually use i think.
Don't like the idea, that my scene relies on my internet connection

Well, I was thinking that each material would be a zip file, containing all needed textures.
The whole zip file would be cached after first use, so a net connection wouldn't be needed subsequently.

suvakas · Post by **suvakas** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:32 am

A zip file..gotcha.
So Indigo would read the material directly from zip? ..or how would it work exactly?

Post by **OnoSendai** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:34 am

suvakas wrote:A zip file..gotcha.
So Indigo would read the material directly from zip? ..or how would it work exactly?

well, i guess it would unzip it to the cache dir first.

suvakas · Post by **suvakas** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:40 am

OnoSendai wrote: well, i guess it would unzip it to the cache dir first.

But that's happening "behind the scenes" right?
I mean there would be like only a link to zip package in main igs file?

Post by **OnoSendai** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:56 am

Yup.
something like, in the main .igs file:

Code: Select all

<scene>
   
  <material>
     <name>somemat</name>

    <url>http://www.matserver.com/mats/amat.igmz</url>
  </material>
</scene>

where .igmz = Indigo material zip

neepneep · Post by **neepneep** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:26 am

I like this idea, it makes things even more portable and my HD less cluttered

I'm just wondering what is still needed to finalize/port the Arneoog's mat DB to the current server? Is it just a matter of turning it into a Joomla module?

Post by **OnoSendai** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:32 am

neepneep wrote:I like this idea, it makes things even more portable and my HD less cluttered

I'm just wondering what is still needed to finalize/port the Arneoog's mat DB to the current server? Is it just a matter of turning it into a Joomla module?

Yeah, and ideally the login systems should be tied together.

A random material idea.

A random material idea.

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