[Bf-committers] Proposed change for (not) rendering with missing links

[Matt Ebb]

I have had to deal with similar issues in other applications. At the very
least if it can't find some kind of external resource (like a texture), it
should print a  'WARNING: Missing file blah' in the console, so that render
farm software can be configured to trigger an error when it happens.


On 1 March 2014 13:39, Alberto Torres <kungfoobar at gmail.com> wrote:

> How about this?
>
> Make Blender aware of repositories (e.g. checking .git exists in any of the
> parents) so it can have repo-relative paths (defaulting to something like
> //../repo-name/ for older blender versions) , and to make lists of
> dependencies. When you open a .blend you can check which dependencies are
> met, instead of dealing with individual missing files.
>
> Also it can have an ignore list, e.g. for reference images not needed
> outside the author's machine.
>
>
> 2014-03-01 14:33 GMT+01:00 Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org>:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > If you work all alone, you can do what you want.
> >
> > If you want to give the project to someone else (or render farm, or
> commit
> > it to a version system) it should include such libraries. A project
> > 'domain' can be as flexible as we want it, and be as limited too.
> >
> > -Ton-
> >
> > --------------------------------------------------------
> > Ton Roosendaal  -  ton at blender.org   -   www.blender.org
> > Chairman Blender Foundation - Producer Blender Institute
> > Entrepotdok 57A  -  1018AD Amsterdam  -  The Netherlands
> >
> >
> >
> > On 1 Mar, 2014, at 13:29, Juan Pablo Bouza wrote:
> >
> > > Ton Wrote:
> > >
> > > "Solution: make the fact user works on a project with relative paths
> much
> > > more visible and in control. The project path (from where relativeness
> > > works) has to be explicit somehow. And especially - if user decides to
> > > use a file outside the project domain - it can just refuse that, throw
> > > big warnings, move it inside the domain, or pack it even."
> > >
> > > -1 to any proposal that would force assets to be inside of the project
> > domain. For instance, you may want to have a texture library that is in
> > some place of yo computer, and forcing things to be copied to the folder
> of
> > the project is just a waste of disk space.
> > > I prefer big warnings and a more explicit relative path control :)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >> From: ton at blender.org
> > >> Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2014 12:44:21 +0100
> > >> To: bf-committers at blender.org
> > >> Subject: Re: [Bf-committers] Proposed change for (not) rendering with
> >      missing links
> > >>
> > >> Hi,
> > >>
> > >> Let's be clear; options, warnings, and especially YES-NO requesters
> are
> > all signs of lazy and weak design.
> > >>
> > >> The best way to solve this is to prevent this from happening. I know
> > Daniel's cause, and it's just because a path was absolute, and not
> > relative. Either a bug or a user error.
> > >>
> > >> Solution: make the fact user works on a project with relative paths
> > much more visible and in control. The project path (from where
> relativeness
> > works) has to be explicit somehow. And especially - if user decides to
> use
> > a file outside the project domain - it can just refuse that, throw big
> > warnings, move it inside the domain, or pack it even.
> > >>
> > >> Secondary: make a tool (operator) that checks for paths to be proper
> > relative. That tool can be used at will (user), or a scripter can use it
> > configure Blender to make it automatic. That then can be sort-of doing
> > what's being proposed below, but it's only a debugging tool.
> > >>
> > >> The work we plan for Gooseberry's asset/project system is all about
> > this. Sanitize how data is being referenced, re-used, shared, linked,
> > stored, versioned, copied, and so on. There's the real job.
> > >>
> > >> -Ton-
> > >>
> > >> --------------------------------------------------------
> > >> Ton Roosendaal  -  ton at blender.org   -   www.blender.org
> > >> Chairman Blender Foundation - Producer Blender Institute
> > >> Entrepotdok 57A  -  1018AD Amsterdam  -  The Netherlands
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On 1 Mar, 2014, at 2:52, patrick boelens wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> The only problem I see with this solution is when you actually know
> > you're missing resources (i.e.: third-party textures), but want to render
> > regardless.
> > >>>
> > >>> I think for headless mode this would probably be less of an issue,
> > especially considering who uses that and in which situations.
> > >>>
> > >>> Perhaps for GUI-Blender we could show a confirmation screen,
> > operator-style?
> > >>>
> > >>> "You are about to render with missing resources (see
> > render_errors.txt). Would you like to continue?" -> [Yes | No].
> > >>>
> > >>> The second thing I'd like to address is: How do we make it clear to
> > the user which resources are missing? Could a linked in .blend not be
> > found, or is it a texture's image? Again, for headless mode it could
> > probably just be printed to the console, so no issues there. But for
> > regular use, perhaps a textblock could be created? This would give room
> to
> > provide all the needed info. For instance:
> > >>>
> > >>> Missing Mesh Data "Circle.042" from "./Costumes.blend"
> > >>> Objects affected: Cloak
> > >>>
> > >>> Missing ../../textures/eyes.png in texture "Eyes.002"
> > >>> Materials affected: Face1, Face2
> > >>> Objects affected: Elf_F, Elf_M, Elf_M.001
> > >>>
> > >>> Missing ../../textures/mouth.png in texture "Face"
> > >>> Materials affected: Face1, Face2
> > >>> Objects affected: Elf_F, Elf_M, Elf_M.001
> > >>>
> > >>> Just thinking out loud here. =)
> > >>>
> > >>> Cheers,
> > >>> Patrick
> > >>>
> > >>>> Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 21:29:48 -0300
> > >>>> From: venomgfx at gmail.com
> > >>>> To: bf-committers at blender.org
> > >>>> Subject: Re: [Bf-committers] Proposed change for (not) rendering
> with
> >      missing links
> > >>>>
> > >>>> +1
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Rendering with missing textures is never desired. An option (by
> > default) to
> > >>>> have it stop the render immediately would save plenty of render
> time.
> > This
> > >>>> option could be turned off in the user pref if desired.
> > >>>> On Feb 28, 2014 8:57 PM, "Daniel Salazar - patazstudio.com" <
> > >>>> zanqdo at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> Hi there, recently we lost about 24 hours of rendering time
> because a
> > >>>>> texture was missing in some computer. And we can't rely on the
> famous
> > >>>>> purple color to notice this errors, in this case it was a subtle
> hair
> > >>>>> length texture or it could be another type of data like linking
> from
> > >>>>> other blends.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> I want to propose we change the renderer behavior to refuse
> rendering
> > >>>>> if there's a missing link. At the very least this should be
> > >>>>> implemented by default in background mode, with an optional
> parameter
> > >>>>> to ignore missing textures.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> kind regards,
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Daniel Salazar
> > >>>>> patazstudio.com
> > >>>>> _______________________________________________
> > >>>>> Bf-committers mailing list
> > >>>>> Bf-committers at blender.org
> > >>>>> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
> > >>>>>
> > >>>> _______________________________________________
> > >>>> Bf-committers mailing list
> > >>>> Bf-committers at blender.org
> > >>>> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
> > >>>
> > >>> _______________________________________________
> > >>> Bf-committers mailing list
> > >>> Bf-committers at blender.org
> > >>> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> Bf-committers mailing list
> > >> Bf-committers at blender.org
> > >> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Bf-committers mailing list
> > > Bf-committers at blender.org
> > > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Bf-committers mailing list
> > Bf-committers at blender.org
> > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Bf-committers mailing list
> Bf-committers at blender.org
> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
>