Hello @ferdinand thank you for your response.

You have also tagged your posting as maxon API although the types you are mentioning, HyperFile and FileName, are both classic API. What are the maxon API types you are using?

Yes, it should have been classic api and not maxon api.

Your question is a bit hard to answer in this form. I assume you are in some kind of NodeData plugin and must serialize and deserialize some data manually with NodeData::Read and NodeData::Write. In this context you are encountering the described behavior of Windows 'changing' the path delimiters written on MacOS.

I guess that answers my question.

But just in case, here is a simplified version of the code that hopefully illustrates better what is done:

class MyData: public iCustomDataType<MyData>
{
	Filename _assetPath;
public:
    Bool Read(HyperFile* hf, Int32 level) {
      hf->ReadFilename(&_assetPath);
     // inpsecting _assetPath and _assetPath.GetFile()

      return TRUE; 
    }

    Bool Write(HyperFile* hf, Int32 level) {
      // inpsecting _assetPath
      hf->WriteFilename(_assetPath);
      return TRUE; 
    }
};

class MyDataDataType : public CustomDataTypeClass
{
  INSTANCEOF(MyDataDataType , CustomDataTypeClass)

public:
  virtual Bool WriteData(const CustomDataType* d, HyperFile* hf) {
    return static_cast<const MyData*>(d)->Write(hf);
  }
	
  virtual Bool ReadData(CustomDataType* d, HyperFile* hf, Int32 level) {
    return static_cast<MyData*>(d)->Read(hf, level);
  }  
};

So yes WriteFilename and ReadFilename are called for the serialization/deserialize process.

For completeness a slightly rephrased description of the observation from the initial question:

Project created on windows:

• WriteData is called and _assetPath - that contains C:\Program Files\MyAssets\somefile.dat (when inspecting it in Write) - is written.
• opening that same project on windows then _assetPath is again C:\Program Files\MyAssets\somefile.dat when inspected in Read and _assetPath.GetFile() returns somefile.dat.
• copying that project to macOS and opening it there _assetPath is also C:\Program Files\MyAssets\somefile.dat and _assetPath.GetFile() returns C:\Program Files\MyAssets\somefile.dat.

Project created on macOS:

• WriteData is called and _assetPath - that contains /Library/Application Support/MyAssets/somefile.dat when inspecting it in Write- is written.
• opening that same project on macOS then _assetPath is again /Library/Application Support/MyAssets/somefile.dat when inspected in Read and _assetPath.GetFile() returns somefile.dat.
• copying that project to windows and opening it there_assetPath it now \Library\Application Support\MyAssets\somefile.dat and _assetPath.GetFile() returns somefile.dat.

But based on your answer I think this behavior is expected.

Kind regards,
Till

@m_magalhaes Thank you for your response.

So on the client-side, I always have to assume that I might get absolute paths that refer to the files on the server (MSG_MULTI_CLEARSUGGESTEDFOLDER is not called and MSG_RENAMETEXTURES is only called in case of name conflicts)?

If I'm confident that a file that is found on the client-side at such an absolute path matches the one on the server I could use it, but if I want to avoid mismatches of the assets between client and server I should check if net rendering is active for the document and if so only use the file part ( Filename::GetFile) of the file to check if the Asset is in the project directory and if not request it using only that file part through NetRenderGetFileFromServer?

So a possible implementation of the Asset lookup in the plugin code would look like this?

Filename filename = /* retrieved e.g. from HyperFile */

// Check if net rendering is active for document
NetRenderDocumentContent * const context = doc->GetNetRenderDocumentContext();
if (context != nullptr) {
   // net rendering: check if file is missing in project directory
   if (!GeFExists( doc->GetDocumentPath() + filename.GetFile() ) {
       Filename fnNet;

       // request file from the server
       if (NetRenderGetFileFromServer(context->_service,  filename.GetFile(), fnNet) {
            // use path returned by NetRenderGetFileFromServer
           filename = fnNet;
       } else {
           // handle error case
       }
   } else {
       // use the file in the project directory
       filename =  doc->GetDocumentPath() + filename.GetFile();
   }
} else {
   // no net rendering: regular check if asset exists at path + error handling
}

Hello,

I have some questions about the messages sent for TeamRendering. I already found these topics, but those don't fully answer my question:

• Changing Asset References to Absolute
• Set preference parameters
• Weird filenames when using make project
• MSG_GETALLASSETS calls?
• TeamRender&MSG_MULTI_CLEARSUGGESTEDFOLDER
• questions about network rendering.

When TeamRendering is used (Add to Render Queue... and TeamRender to Picture Viewer...) MSG_GETALLASSETS is emmited and the Resources are transferred to the render client(s). But MSG_MULTI_CLEARSUGGESTEDFOLDER does not seem to be emitted (For Save Project with Assets... it is). Due to that, the paths on the render client are absolute referring to the file on the PC initiating TeamRendering.

Should one expect that this message is not sent? And if so is that due to the possibility to request assets on-demand from the server for which the absolute path would be required? Is there a case for which MSG_MULTI_CLEARSUGGESTEDFOLDER would be sent whenTeamRendering is used?

Kind regards,
Till

Hello,

We use HyperFile to store some absolute paths related to our plugin. We, therefore, write the Filename using WriteFilename and upon loading read it back using ReadFilename.

When exchanging the saved c4d files between windows and macOS I noticed that the path delimiters behave differently.

If the Filename that is written to the HyperFile under Windows is C:\Program Files\MyAssets\somefile.dat and the c4d file is then loaded on macOS the Filename read is C:\Program Files\MyAssets\somefile.dat (path delimiter did not change).

If the Filename that is written to the HyperFile under macOS is /Library/Application Support/MyAssets/somefile.dat and the c4d file is then loaded on windows the Filename read is \Library\Application Support\MyAssets\somefile.dat (path delimiter changed from /, \)

Why is the delimiter only changing when loading a file saved on macOS on windows and not the other way round? Is that an expected behavior? And can this be made consistent (that the delimiter is changed on both or on none)?

Kind regards,
Till