adding a new illumination model

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On 24/09/2007 at 12:50, xxxxxxxx wrote:

User Information:
Cinema 4D Version:   R10 
Platform:   Windows  ;   
Language(s) :     C++  ;

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Hi!
I want to add a new illumination model to the standard material of cinema 4d. If you create a new material and you select "Illumination" in the material editor, you can select a model like phong or blinn.
I just want to add a new model and if this model is selected, there should be an additional button to load a file.
Is this possible or do I have to create a complete new class of materials?
Thank you very much for your reply.

Nice greetings from Germany,
Manuel

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On 25/09/2007 at 07:48, xxxxxxxx wrote:

You have to create your own material class.

cheers,
Matthias

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On 27/09/2007 at 06:22, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Another, perhaps easier, alternative is to create a channelshader that can be plugged into the luminance channel of the standard cinema4d material. Like the "lumas" shader.

THE POST BELOW IS MORE THAN 5 YEARS OLD. RELATED SUPPORT INFORMATION MIGHT BE OUTDATED OR DEPRECATED

On 27/09/2007 at 07:24, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Thank you for your answers.

I am not really sure how difficult it is, to create my own material with all the default settings from a standard material.

The other idea sounds great. I just write my own shader for the luminance channel and then I have do deactivate my color channel because I don't want phong shading, right?

Many thanks,
Manuel

THE POST BELOW IS MORE THAN 5 YEARS OLD. RELATED SUPPORT INFORMATION MIGHT BE OUTDATED OR DEPRECATED

On 27/09/2007 at 20:30, xxxxxxxx wrote:

I agree with FilipM. A plugin material does not include the stock material channels (as one cannot extend existing C4D types, gaddangit). You'll have to experiment with what provides the best illumination model, but the luminance channel is probably the best bet. You really should not have to disable the color channel - but try both and see the results.

To go abit off-topic, I really wish that Maxon would allow extension of stock types. Okay, it is a bit perilous since they might change at any time - but aren't we already required to change plugins for new SDKs as the interface changes? This would allow for much, much, much simpler plugins as one could have the existing power of the stock type and accentuate it. Currently, we have to recreate any of this existing power ourselves - and with the mantric "we cannot divulge the underlying algorithms" just to make it a billion times more difficult. The things that I could do with such ability would cut my development time by years (YEARS!!!!). TYVM...