I created a short series of getting started videos for anyone just starting out developing C++ plugins for Cinema 4D. I hope you find them useful.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEPTxkpDVvX0r292yn8xL39Cm3Wi3E69i

Hi everyone,

I have released a plugin I use to create documentation for my plugins.

The plugin is free. Currently available for R20 for Windows. I will add an OSX version if people ask for it.

https://www.plugins4d.com/docs

If you use it for anything let me know. Also if you have any features requests then send them my way.

Cheers,
Kent

Try using the absolute path to where your sdk is: /Users/YourName/Documents/C4D/sdk

https://developers.maxon.net/docs/Cinema4DCPPSDK/html/page_maxonapi_projecttool.html

g_updateproject: Defines the folder the tool should work on. Currently the tool only accepts absolute paths. This is typically the location of the SDK including frameworks and plugins. See SDK Overview.

You can use SetPluginPriority to tell your plugins to load in a specific order. IE tell some plugins to load after others have been loaded. Useful in cases where one of your plugins may register a library that your other plugins need to access as they start up.

@zipit I also want to say that the amount of time you contribute here to help out developers is very generous of you. You are doing an amazing job. I would hope that Maxon would actually pay you some retainer fee for your time or at least provide you with a free subscription for all the help you have given everyone here.

Yesterday I helped someone out with a question. Now they have marked it as deleted. The only reason I would help out on this forum is to help everyone and add to the knowledge pool here in this forum.

So please... do NOT delete your post if you received the answer you were looking for.

I just found that in S22 they have inverted the behaviour of a flag for GetAllAssets.

In R21 there existed a flag ASSETDATA_FLAG::MISSING.

From S22 onwards the functionality of this flag has been inverted and it is now called ASSETDATA_FLAG::NOMISSING.

The problem is that it sets the exact same bit.

So if you have a plugin that is compiled against R21 and your users use it in S22 then your code will not be getting the missing assets anymore, since this bit is set (if you use the MISSING flag) and it will now mean DO NOT get missing assets.

Compiling against the S22 SDK and removing the MISSING flag will fix your bugs if you have any.

Just something to watch out for if anyone is hearing of problems from your users relating to gather up assets. Mainly applies to people writing renderers and dealing with textures and materials.

Cheers,
Kent

I keep seeing comments from the sdk team telling people to please add tags to their posts.

Instead I would recommend you split the "Cinema 4D Development" category back into two like it was, C++ and Python.

Then if someone posts into C++ just add the C++ tag automatically. Likewise for Python.

I myself used to like coming in here and quickly see if there is any C++ questions I can help out on. This new combined approach makes that more difficult so I am no longer doing this. Yes I know I can click on a tag to see all posts, but thats just one more required hunt and click.

I used to really enjoy browsing through plugin cafe, just as much as I did cgtalk or c4dcafe. But this new look and the way it is organized it doesn't feel as nice. Super large fonts and text, images etc... means hardly any information on a single screen. So its hard to quickly see and browse through. But it looks like lots of sites are going this way, which is a shame. I am looking at all these forums less and less now because of this. Maybe I am just old, but I like my concise compact views with loads of info, rather than having to go through pages and pages (or worse this horrible endless scrolling mechanism sites have adopted) of oversized text and clunky cells. On top of that, actually creating this post is painful with this split view and only taking up a tiny part of my screen. But thats another issue.

This site used to feel like a community. But now it feels more like what I guess it was originally designed for... that being an SDK support site. So its almost like this site is a forum based version of a ticketing system like zendesk or freshdesk.

Anyway, this is my vote to move back to two categories. That at least would help.

I am not exactly sure how it works in Python but I will give you a run down of how Global Variables work in C++.

If you set a global variable in C++, and you are using it in a Generator Object, then that variable will be exactly the same in every object in every document that you have open. So if you change the value of it on any object (again in any document you have opened) it will be changed across everything. That is the definition of a global variable. It is global, it is the same everywhere.

Now it may not work exactly like this in python depending on how it is setup in C4D. But in general it is a bad idea to use this for ay variable in something like a generator object.

So even though it might be working for now in a basic test scene, it will come back to bite you once you use it for anything more complex, such as two or more objects.

It all comes down to what it is that you are trying to achieve and what this data is that you are using in a global variable.

In C++ you could use a SceneHook to hold scene wide data. But I don't think that is in Python yet, so the best option to use scene wide data is to use a PluginID as your way to access that data in the preferences for your scene.

For storing a matrix value to compare why don't you just use a local variable in the generator object itself?

Also I would avoid using the word "Save" when you discuss this data, since "saving" and "persistent" mean writing data to disk. And that is not what you are doing. But if you did want to save the value then just make the matrix a description in the resource files for your object generator and access it using the BaseContainer. Then it will be saved automatically.

Cheers,
Kent

Just came across a bug that took me about 2 hours to figure out.

1. Create a AutoAlloc<GeListHead> and add some child nodes. Store this in a GeDialog.
2. In your GeDialog create a TreeView. Set the TreeViewCustomGui->SetRoot( mygelisthead->GetFirst(), &treeviewfuncs, this));
3. In your TreeViewFunctions::GetFirst() { return root;}
4. When setting your treeview layouts, add a checkbox. layout.SetInt32(TREE_COLUMNS_CHECK, LV_CHECKBOX);
5. Implement the functions for IsChecked and SetCheck
6. Run your code and when you click on the checkbox it will enter an endless loop somewhere in the c4dplugins code.

The reason for this is (2). Instead of calling SetRoot(mygelisthead->GetFirst()...). I should have just passed in the GeListHead.

Then for (3) I should have returned the First element: GeListHead op = (GeListHead)root; return op->GetFirst();

With these changes it works, but that took a while to figure out.

To detect the value changing you can override the SetDParameter(...) method. Not sure about an animated value though.

https://developers.maxon.net/docs/Cinema4DCPPSDK/html/class_node_data.html#a01cc573d65703c02dcbe65fc98dee065

Does this post help?

https://plugincafe.maxon.net/topic/10043/13512_aes-what-specification?_=1642384126994

The AES library in our SDK uses ECB, which does not seem to need an init vector, and we don't provide one.

To help people answer this could you also let us know what version of Visual Studio or XCode you are using? Are you using the required one stated here: https://developers.maxon.net/?page_id=1108

IE: Visual Studio 2019 Apple Xcode 11 (Intel) / Apple Xcode 12 (Intel and M1)

I have a GeDialog that has multiple tabs in it. Is there way to have the tabs scroll around and be multi-line?

The Asset Browser has the following. How are these done? Are they Tabs or Radio buttons? Can this functionality be achieved with Tabs (ie TabGroupBegin) from R20 onwards?

Thanks,
Kent

FYI: I deleted my reply above to avoid confusion. Since if you can get access to them then yes it is best to compile against the initial release. But be wary of some of the initial releases since they do contain bugs that impact the SDK.

Best of luck on your project!

You will have problems maintaining compatibility with R19. When R20 came out they did a large refactoring of the codebase. I would advise only supporting R20 upwards.

I assume you would want to test these plugins before you release? If so then you must already have all these different versions of Cinema 4D already? They all ship with the SDK in the main C4D installation folder. It is called sdk.zip (for R20 onwards that is).

I am writing a VideoPost for a renderer. How can I remove all the unused settings from the RenderSettings when my renderer is chosen from the dropdown?

In this list I want to display Output, Save and FunRay Renderer.

From your C++ plugin call Python code to install your new plugin. Python doesn’t care if the file is in use so you can do what you want to it. I personally rename the existing ones then install the new one and when C4D is shut down I delete any renamed files.

Hi,

To make something like this you would need to create a Tool and a Tag. The Tool would be used to let you access the keyboard and mouse movements and then you would store the recorded information in the Tag. It is too complicated for me to describe how this would be done in one email.

But you should look at creating a tool, there are examples on github.

https://github.com/PluginCafe/cinema4d_cpp_sdk_extended/tree/master/plugins/cinema4dsdk/source/tool

Then create a tag

https://github.com/PluginCafe/cinema4d_cpp_sdk_extended/tree/master/plugins/cinema4dsdk/source/tag

And when your tool is "recording" you would store this data in the Tag so that it can be saved and used to drive a camera, for example.

Virtual Walkthrough is what I would have recommended as well, but it has now been removed from C4D. And you probably wouldn't get any better responsiveness if you were to write your own.

Best Regards,
Kent

@m_magalhaes said in Undo SetSceneCamera:

there are two buffers for the undo, you can add an undo in the viewport stack using InitUndo but i guess you are talking about adding an undo step in the "regular" stack?

I have been working with C4D for 12 years and I only just learned that "Undo View" actually existed.

But sadly the bd->InitUndo is not what I am after. Since I am wanting to call SetSceneCamera as part of a command operation. So I would like it if the user pressed the regular Ctrl-Z and it undid the changes to the view as well as undoing the SetSceneCamera call.

It doesn't seem like this is possible.