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

[Eric Back]

Thank you, thank you (Eric does his happy dance) :D

I kinda guessed defining list row buttons would be a big deal, till then 
its a simple task to work around (and easy to adjust later).
Thanks again,
Eric Back (WHiTeRaBBiT)

Brecht Van Lommel wrote:
> 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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>> Bf-committers at blender.org
>> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
>>
>>
>>     
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