[Bf-committers] A few requests for the new API

[Brecht Van Lommel]

Hi Eric,

I've added:
* a .move(from, to) method to python defined collections
* support for LAYER subtype with BoolVectorProperty
* COMPAT_ENGINES to lamp panels

Letting python define what is in list rows is on my todo list. Adding
COMPAT_ENGINES to textures is possible but I'm not sure how to do this
best yet, textures are used also for other things in Blender.

Brecht.

On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 5:36 AM, whiterabbit at dreamscapearts.com
<whiterabbit at dreamscapearts.com> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm not clear as to where I should report problems and request features
> for the new API so I'm going out on a limb and asking here. If there's
> somewhere I should do this officially someone Please point me in that
> direction ;-) I'm Eric Back aka whiterabbit the developer of the
> RIBMOSAIC RenderMan script
> <http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ribmosaic/index.php?title=Main_Page>.
> I've been rewriting ribmosaic for Blender 2.5 and have run into several
> issues.
>
>
> The gist of what I'm trying to do is create a panel for RenderMan passes
> very similar to Blender's render layer panel. I have something basically
> working however I've run into several difficulties that I feel should be
> improved and one serious showstopper!
>
> The first task is to add a list widget to navigate passes with the
> ability to enable or disable them in the list (like layers do). The
> problem is "template_list" only recognizes the "name " property in
> "PropertyGroup". Features such as the "enabled" toggles for layers only
> activate with hard coded property types such as "SceneRenderLayer" (as
> far as I can tell from Blender's source). It would be nice to either
> have the template recognize certain property "attr" names and add
> buttons accordingly (such as if "attr" is "enabled" add a toggle) or to
> be able to specify them as template parameters. I've worked around the
> issue by adding the "enabled" toggle for passes just below the list
> however I'm sure users will ask why RIBMOSAIC doesn't work like
> Blender's with toggles in the list.
>
> The next task is to add "visible layers" and "used layers" widgets for
> each pass (just like the layers panel has). The "visible_layers"
> property works as expected for this task, however even though I can
> create a 20 element boolean array using "BoolVectorProperty" I cannot
> assign it as a 'LAYER' subtype (so it will not show as a layers widget).
> As a work around I decided to use "template_layers" instead. This works
> however the widgets are too small since I think they are only meant for
> headers? I can make this work but it would be nice if either 'LAYER' was
> added as a subtype for "BoolVectorProperty" or parameters were added to
> "template_layers" to control its visual style (such as a small header
> style and larger panel style).
>
> This last task is the "show stopper" for me currently. I can add and
> remove passes to the list easily using "PropertyGroup.add()" and
> "PropertyGroup.remove()" but I also need to reorder the passes in the
> list. This is critical as changing the order of the passes for export is
> very important. I noticed in Blender's source that certain property
> types have this behavior by using hard coded operators. Is it possible
> to add the "slot_move" operator for the "PropertyGroup" class as well,
> or is there some other way to do this in Python?
>
> I also have a feature request. RenderMan handles texture export and
> lighting very differently then Blender. It would be nice to add the
> "COMPAT_ENGINES" feature to the Texture and Lamp panels so we can remove
> those Blender specific features from the render pipeline. This way all
> elements of Blender's render pipeline can be removed from the GUI.
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Eric Back (WHiTeRaBBiT)
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