[Verse-dev] Re: Concerning plugins

[Eskil Steenberg]

Hi

I got this from camilla, and i got her premission to answer it here:

> So I'm getting ready to do some actual work on the Maya integration,
> but there are some issues I'd like to discuss before I start coding.
>
> First up is saving.
>
> What should one do with the nodes imported from verse when saving? As I
> see it, there are two (realistic) options:
>
>    1. Save the information required to reconnect to the verse nodes upon
> loading, but don't save the nodes' current data. This creates a a lot
> of preconditions for the subsequent loading to work, and runs the risk
> of the user finding she's saved nothing at all, but it does enable
> indefinite suspension of verse data editing sessions.
>
>    2. Save the nodes' current data, but don't save any information for
> reconnecting the nodes to verse. This ensures that the data being saved
> is the same as the data being loaded the next time, but it also severs
> the connection to the verse data set.
>
> For completeness, the remaining two options are:
>
>    3. Saving both information necessary to reconnect the nodes and the
> nodes' current data. This leaves you with two data sets, one of which
> (the verse one) is by definition never complete. Thus, after loading,
> the user would still need to choose option 1 or 2.
>
>    4. Saving nothing at all.

I would go for option 2, I dont think any of the others are very
interesting. If you save verse data you save it in what ever format you
want. (I dont think there should be a "official" verse format althoug
native verse formats are wellcome). If you save in maya you want to save
all mayas construction history, setting tools and so on. and you cant
trust that the server is still there, perhaps it can be good to be able to
bookmark averse server, but that is hardly a save.

If you want to re-connect to verse you simply connect to the server and
let your plugin download the data. If you have verse syncronization in
maya, and you you load in any data in to maya that would be uploaded in to
verse.

There is however one thing that would be usefull, and that is if you are
connected to a server and you have an object called "car" and then load in
a file containing an object called "car" the plugin should recognice that
the two are the same and update the verse "car" to be the same as the
"car" in the file. This would enable some one to reconnect and then get
the cnstruction history and settings form the file.

The same would work if you also first load in the "car" file and then
connect maya to the server. Only this time maya would modefy its data to
be in sync with the verse data (in verse that last change rules).

An even funkier thing to suport, is to be able to store maya files in the
text nodes,  then one can have bothe the verse data and the maya specific
stuff in verse.

E