[Bf-committers] User data for external renderers, et. al.

[Robert Wenzlaff]

One of the problems with using external renderers with blender, it that the 
current material system's parameters don't neccessarily corespond  to the 
external renderer's (I will use for example here, Index of Refraction).   

I propose implimenting a new data type, UserData.  It will be a linked list 
struct consisting of two char*'s.  the fist is the "key", the second is the 
data. The user can put arbitrary strings in here and Blender will ignore 
them, except that they will be available to the conversion routines that 
export to external renderers (either python, or built in such as the RIB 
interface.)   Each type of Blender object would then be extended to have a 
pointer to a UserData object. 

So to make a leaded glass material for Yafray, I would add a userdata value of  
("IOR", "2.30") to the Blender material.    It would be up to the Yafray 
script to convert that to what Yafray needs.   It could also be used for 
simulation data, (each mesh passed to the Topix lib could have different 
properties,  for example.)

The UI could be handled like vertex groups.  A pulldown button allows you to 
select the currently displayed member, and a Shift-LMB allows you to type a 
value.

Thought?  Or should I just code it up for Tuhopuu?
-- 
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Three rings for the Elven Kings....
     after that, their answering machine picks up.
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Robert Wenzlaff        rwenzlaff@soylent-green.con