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.

It has been absolutely amazing having you here for the past 5 years. I can't believe it has been that long already. Thank you for all your help and the best of luck for your future!

Cheers,
Kent

Pagination settings! So good. Welcome back my little numbered friends.

@SolarPH No.

Hi Manuel,

Sorry no I haven't yet. Been a busy couple of weeks. Hopefully I will have time next week to look into this again. Although due to the issues I had, and that there is still no information about how to work with gradients, I am still leaning towards ditching lib4d files and making my own custom format instead.

Will let you know next week when I have had another look into it. Thanks for following up with me.

Cheers,
Kent

Thanks Manuel. It looks like you are creating the preset and then using it directly all in the one go. I am loading an registering an existing library from disk and trying to access the presets within that. I will do some more investigation into it next week and let you know how I get on. Thanks again, Kent.

Hi Manuel,

Thanks for looking into it. But this code does not work, and I think the reason is because I am registering the library myself.

SDKBrowser::RegisterPresetLibrary(...)

IE it is not in the ContentBrowser user interface at all. So the call to ColorSwatchData::ValidPreset(presetUrl) seems to fail when this is the case.

Would it be possible to get the code that extracts the data from the preset itself?

Int32 plugin_id;
BaseContainer bc;
void *data = nullptr;
Int length = 0;

//Where _db_index is the index returned from my registered preset library, and _browserURL is the SDKBrowserURL to the actual preset within the library itself.
if (SDKBrowser::LoadPreset(_db_index, _browserURL, plugin_id, &bc, &data, &length))
{
  // I now have the data. I would like to extract the information from it.
}

Again this would be for both ColorSwatch and Gradient presets.

Thanks,
Kent

Have you thought about just having one shader? And inside that one shader you then select the OSL Shader that you want it to use? And when they select it you then build the descriptions for it?

You could also create a plugin that registered a C4DLibrary. Then your other plugins would make sure they are initialized after your plugin is by using the plugin startup priorities. Then those other plugins can safely call the library and register themselves with your main plugin via the library. Unfortunately I don't think there is much documentation on this though. This is how I handle my plugin manager, all of my other plugins register themselves with my plugin so that it can deal with licensing etc.. and only allow certain plugins to actually load at startup.

Thanks for looking Manuel.

The question now is really just how can I get to the data in the presets?

If that’s not possible then I will just write my own file format for color swatches and gradients and have to avoid using lib4d files for these.

Hope there is a way to use the presets though, will save me some time. Thanks.

It looks like color swatches and gradients both take an RGBA Array like so. (Although I am not sure about where the knot value for the gradients comes from yet, perhaps it takes it from the Alpha?).

ColorAlphaArray arr;
arr.Append(maxon::ColorA(1, 0, 0, 1)) iferr_ignore(""_s);
arr.Append(maxon::ColorA(0, 1, 0, 1)) iferr_ignore(""_s);
HandleMouseDrag(msg, DRAGTYPE_RGBA_ARRAY, &arr, 0);

But how to do I extract these from a preset?

I should also point out that I am loading my lib4d by calling SDKBrowser::RegisterPresetLibrary(...)

I am then iterating over all the presets and checking the preset type to see if they are ID_GRADIENTGUI_BROWSERPRESET or ColorSwatchData::browserPresetType.

If the preset type is ColorSwatchData::browserPresetType then I would expect the following to work, but it does not.

ColorSwatchData *swatch = ColorSwatchData::Alloc(GetActiveDocument());
if (swatch)
{
	if (swatch->LoadPreset(_browserURL, false))
	{
		if (swatch->GetGroupCount() > 0)
		{
			ColorSwatchGroup *group = swatch->GetGroupAtIndex(0);
			if (group)
			{
				ColorAlphaArray arr;
				group->GetColors(arr);
				HandleMouseDrag(msg, DRAGTYPE_RGBA_ARRAY, &arr, 0);
			}
		}
	}
	ColorSwatchData::Free(swatch);
}

So instead I tried to see if I could simple cast the preset data myself, but calling it like this does not work either.

Int32 plugin_id;
BaseContainer bc;
void *data = nullptr;
Int length = 0;

//Where _db_index is the index returned from my registered preset library, and _browserURL is the SDKBrowserURL to the actual preset within the library itself.
if (SDKBrowser::LoadPreset(_db_index, _browserURL, plugin_id, &bc, &data, &length))
{
	if (plugin_id == ColorSwatchData::browserPresetType)
	{
		//Note: The data does not appear to be ColorSwatchData, I can not simply cast it as shown below
		ColorSwatchData* swatch = (ColorSwatchData*)data;
		ColorSwatchGroup *group = swatch->GetGroupAtIndex(0);
		if (group)
		{
			ColorAlphaArray arr;
			group->GetColors(arr);
			HandleMouseDrag(msg, DRAGTYPE_RGBA_ARRAY, &arr, 0);
		}
	}
}

Trying to load it as a document doesn't work either. The error message when trying to load the document from the in memory file says that the document doesn't seem to exist.

Filename readFileName("temp.doc");
readFileName.SetMemoryReadMode(data, length, true);

maxon::String err;
BaseDocument *pLoadedDoc = LoadDocument(readFileName, SCENEFILTER::NONE, nullptr, &err);
if (pLoadedDoc)
{
	ColorSwatchData *swatchDoc = ColorSwatchData::Alloc(pLoadedDoc);
	if (swatchDoc)
	{
		ColorSwatchGroup *group = swatch->GetGroupAtIndex(0);
		if (group)
		{
			ColorAlphaArray arr;
			group->GetColors(arr);
			HandleMouseDrag(msg, DRAGTYPE_RGBA_ARRAY, &arr, 0);
		}
		ColorSwatchData::Free(swatchDoc);
	}
	BaseDocument::Free(pLoadedDoc);
}

So far I have not found a solution for gradients either.

Hi Manuel,

From my GeUserArea to anywhere in C4D. I am loading the presets from the lib4d myself. The content browser in C4D is not involved at all.

So the user will be dragging a color swatch preset from my GeUserArea to something such as such the color swatches on the color channel of a material.

What is the DRAGTYPE and data for Gradient presets and color swatch presets?

Thanks,
Kent