[Bf-committers] Freestyle integration in Blender 2.5 branch

[Maxime Curioni]

Hello everybody,

Ton has contacted Tamito and me regarding the state of the Freestyle
integration into Blender. A first draft of the status report is available on
the wiki and we have just started documenting the internals:

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Mx/Freestyle_status_report_Summer_2009
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Mx/Freestyle_Internals_Overview

We are preparing a merge with the 2.5 branch in the upcoming days. Before
going ahead, we would like to hear your opinion on some issues.

- Freestyle is currently stored in three locations:

style modules: release/scripts/freestyle/
Freestyle DNA: source/blender/makesdna/{DNA_freestyle_types.h,
DNA_scene_types.h}
core engine: source/blender/freestyle/

I remember some core developers finding some of these locations
inappropriate. FYI, Freestyle should be considered as part of the internal
renderer. We aim to replace the toon-edge functionality as a whole, if
possible and if you all agree. We are aware that it would increase the
computation time for silhouettes, as the view map computation time is
proportional to the number of scene triangles (if I am not mistaken, the
current toon-edge implementation in contrast directly calculates edges from
the depth buffer at the "proper" image resolution). We are open to both
systems existing in parallel if a general consensus is made that the
toon-edge functionality does not overlap with Freestyle's.

- As is mentioned in the status report, the integration with the 2.5 branch
is an opportunity to rename Freestyle properly in the interface (for a
first-comer, 'Freestyle' doesn't say much). If you have an idea of great
name, let us know !

We are open to other comments / questions about the branch or the
integration process. Thank you for your help.

Maxime