Material Nodes now have input sockets, to override the actual Material
settings. If socket has no input, you can also edit Material settings here.
(Color picker, number slider).
Of course a load of options will become available here, first bugfixing!
(Oh, and enable fix thread render)
the coordinate outputs now have correct dx/dy vectors for Image AA, and
texture delivers correct intensity, rgb, alpha and normal.
Note; we need a "Vector Mapping" node, to do 2d/3d mapping, like in the
Material "Map In" panel.
**** NEW: Group Nodes
Node trees usually become messy and confusing quickly, so we need
not only a way to collapse Nodes into single 'groups', but also a
way to re-use that data to create libraries of effects.
This has been done by making a new Library data type, the NodeTree.
Everything that has been grouped is stored here, and available for
re-use, appending or linking. These NodeTrees are fully generic,
i.e. can store shader trees, composit trees, and so on. The 'type'
value as stored in the NodeTree will keep track of internal type
definitions and execute/drawing callbacks. Needless to say, re-using
shader trees in a composit tree is a bit useless, and will be
prevented in the browsing code. :)
So; any NodeTree can become a "Goup Node" inside in a NodeTree. This
Group Node then works just like any Node.
To prevent the current code to become too complex, I've disabled
the possibility to insert Groups inside of Groups. That might be
enabled later, but is a real nasty piece of code to get OK.
Since Group Nodes are a dynamic Node type, a lot of work has been
done to ensure Node definitions can be dynamic too, but still allow
to be stored in files, and allow to be verified for type-definition
changes on reloading. This system needs a little bit maturing still,
so the Python gurus should better wait a little bit! (Also for me to
write the definite API docs for it).
What works now:
- Press CTRL+G to create a new Group. The grouping code checks for
impossible selections (like an unselected node between selected nodes).
Everthing that's selected then gets removed from the current tree, and
inserted in a new NodeTree library data block. A Group Node then is
added which links to this new NodeTree.
- Press ALT+G to ungroup. This will not delete the NodeTree library
data, but just duplicate the Group into the current tree.
- Press TAB, or click on the NodeTree icon to edit Groups. Note that
NodeTrees are instances, so editing one Group will also change the
other users.
This also means that when removing nodes in a Group (or hiding sockets
or changing internal links) this is immediately corrected for all users
of this Group, also in other Materials.
- While editing Groups, only the internal Nodes can be edited. A single
click outside of the Group boundary will close this 'edit mode'.
What needs to be done:
- SHIFT+A menu in toolbox style, also including a list of Groups
- Enable the single-user button in the Group Node
- Displaying all (visible) internal group UI elements in the Node Panel
- Enable Library linking and prevent editing of Groups then.
**** NEW: Socket Visibility control
Node types will be generated with a lot of possible inputs or outputs,
and drawing all sockets all the time isn't very useful then.
A new option in the Node header ('plus' icon) allows to either hide all
unused sockets (first keypress) or to reveil them (when there are hidden
sockets, the icon displays black, otherwise it's blended).
Hidden sockets in Nodes also are not exported to a Group, so this way
you can control what options (in/outputs) exactly are available.
To be done:
- a way to hide individual sockets, like with a RMB click on it.
**** NEW: Nodes now render!
This is still quite primitive, more on a level to replace the (now
obsolete and disabled) Material Layers.
What needs to be done:
- make the "Geometry" node work properly, also for AA textures
- make the Texture Node work (does very little at the moment)
- give Material Nodes all inputs as needed (like Map-to Panel)
- find a way to export more data from a Material Node, like the
shadow value, or light intensity only, etc
Very important also to separate from the Material Buttons the
"global" options, like "Ztransp" or "Wire" or "Halo". These can not
be set for each Material-Node individually.
Also note that the Preview Render (Buttons window) now renders a bit
differently. This was a horrid piece of antique code, using a totally
incompatible way of rendering. Target is to fully re-use internal
render code for previews.
OK... that's it mostly. Now test!
- theme colors now are different... the specific colors are only drawn in
the headers of nodes, making the backdrop color constant. Allows for much
more outstanding colors this way, without distracting from previews.
- soft shadow now is drawn pixel-sized, so doesn't scale up or down.
- Texture Node: now displays 'intensity values' in node too, and has input,
and shows in buttons when activated in Node editor. (no browsing buttons
yet...)
- New: "Normal Node". This uses a new UI button, which allows to quickly
input a normal vector, based on spherical coordinates.
The Normal Node has optional vector input, and delivers a dot product
then. This can be used as a blending factor between nodes, or for fake
extra light in a certain direction.
- New: "Geometry Node". This actually replaces the Input node. It offers
all coordinates (vectors) as being the starting point for shading and
for textures. Note: for preview render this doesn't give much different
results yet... this is the start for real render support!
- http://www.blender.org/bf/rt5.jpg
The two new nodes in action
- Bugfix: the "Block" button (which delivers popups) did not return a
correct event when nothing happened (mouse moved out), which could
cause mouse clicks to be passed on to the queue.
First note; this is a WIP project, some commits might change things that
make formerly saved situations not to work identically... like now!
------ New Material integration ------
Until now, the Node system worked on top of the 'current' Material, just
like how the Material Layers worked. That's quite confusing in practice,
especially to see what Material is a Node, or what is the "base material"
Best solution is to completely separate the two. This has been implemented
as follows now;
- The confusing "Input" node has been removed.
- When choosing a Material in Blender, you can define this Material to be
either 'normal' (default) or be the root of a Node tree.
- If a Material is a Node tree, you have to add Nodes in the tree to see
something happen. An empty Node tree doesn't do anything (black).
- If a Material is a Node Tree, the 'data browse' menus show it with an
'N' mark before the name. The 'data block' buttons display it with the
suffix 'NT' (instead of 'MA').
- In a Node Tree, any Material can be inserted, including itself. Only in
that case the Material is being used itself for shading.
UI changes:
Added a new Panel "Links", which shows:
- where the Material is linked to (Object, Mesh, etc)
- if the Material is a NodeTree or not
- the actual active Material in the Tree
The "Node" Panel itself now only shows buttons from the other nodes, when
they are active.
Further the Material Nodes themselves allow browsing and renaming or adding
new Materials now too.
Second half of today's work was cleaning up selection when the Nodes
overlap... it was possible to drag links from invisible sockets, or click
headers for invisible nodes, etc. This because the mouse input code was
not checking for visibility yet.
Works now even for buttons. :)
********* Node editor work:
- To enable Nodes for Materials, you have to set the "Use Nodes"
button, in the new Material buttons "Nodes" Panel or in header
of the Node editor. Doing this will disable Material-Layers.
- Nodes now execute materials ("shaders"), but still only using the
previewrender code.
- Nodes have (optional) previews for rendered images.
- Node headers allow to hide buttons and/or preview image
- Nodes can be dragged larger/smaller (right-bottom corner)
- Nodes can be hidden (minimized) with hotkey H
- CTRL+click on an Input Socket gives a popup with default values.
- Changing Material/Texture or Mix node will adjust Node title.
- Click-drag outside of a Node changes cursor to "Knife' and allows to
draw a rect where to cut Links.
- Added new node types RGBtoBW, Texture, In/Output, ColorRamp
- Material Nodes have options to ouput diffuse or specular, or to use
a negative normal. The input socket 'Normal' will force the material
to use that normal, otherwise it uses the normal from the Material
that has the node tree.
- When drawing a link between two not-matching sockets, Blender inserts
a converting node (now only for value/rgb combos)
- When drawing a link to an input socket that's already in use, the
old link will either disappear or flip to another unused socket.
- A click on a Material Node will activate it, and show all its settings
in the Material Buttons. Active Material Nodes draw the material icon
in red.
- A click on any node will show its options in the Node Panel in the
Material buttons.
- Multiple Output Nodes can be used, to sample contents of a tree, but
only one Output is the real one, which is indicated in a different
color and red material icon.
- Added ThemeColors for node types
- ALT+C will convert existing Material-Layers to Node... this currently
only adds the material/mix nodes and connects them. Dunno if this is
worth a lot of coding work to make perfect?
- Press C to call another "Solve order", which will show all possible
cyclic conflicts (if there are).
- Technical: nodes now use "Type" structs which define the
structure of nodes and in/output sockets. The Type structs store all
fixed info, callbacks, and allow to reconstruct saved Nodes to match
what is required by Blender.
- Defining (new) nodes now is as simple as filling in a fixed
Type struct, plus code some callbacks. A doc will be made!
- Node preview images are by default float
********* Icon drawing:
- Cleanup of how old icons were implemented in new system, making
them 16x16 too, correctly centered *and* scaled.
- Made drawing Icons use float coordinates
- Moved BIF_calcpreview_image() into interface_icons.c, renamed it
icon_from_image(). Removed a lot of unneeded Imbuf magic here! :)
- Skipped scaling and imbuf copying when icons are OK size
********* Preview render:
- Huge cleanup of code....
- renaming BIF_xxx calls that only were used internally
- BIF_previewrender() now accepts an argument for rendering method,
so it supports icons, buttonwindow previewrender and node editor
- Only a single BIF_preview_changed() call now exists, supporting all
signals as needed for buttos and node editor
********* More stuff:
- glutil.c, glaDrawPixelsSafe() and glaDrawPixelsTex() now accept format
argument for GL_FLOAT rects
- Made the ColorBand become a built-in button for interface.c
Was a load of cleanup work in buttons_shading.c...
- removed a load of unneeded glBlendFunc() calls
- Fixed bug in calculating text length for buttons (ancient!)
- follow path constraint + stride path didn't update correct on file load
- selection of 'stick' bones didn't work in object mode, solid view
- change bone layer sends redraw to NLA too
- Adding execution code for Node trees. Was a bit a puzzle, since I want
it to be multithreading by design. This now is solved by defining a
stack per tree for all data that's being written into. This stack, which
resides now in the NodeTree itself, then can be allocated per thread.
- For testing pleasure, I've added a 'mix node' and a 'show node', so
you can already see it do something. :)
- reshuffled structure, to put things nice together, and have easier node
adding. Current state is still WIP though, structure might change.
For the record; new file node_shaders.c will contain all shader node
definitions, apart from the drawing callbacks.
Next: I'm going to check on Andrea's work on icons now, since this is very
much needed for true shader/composit work.
Now back to release work...
- delete/duplicate with connection links
- type awareness for sockets
- make connections checks for max amount of possible connections
- added dependency sorting of node list
- cyclic connections are drawn red now, press Ckey to see the other bad
cycles.
- added UI toolkit support in nodes (try shift+a)
So, almost ready for execution code. :)
- Sunday merger with bf-blender
- Foundations for new Node editor in Blender, generic framework that can
be used for Material/Texture, Compositing, Logic or maybe even Sequencer.
Note: this doesn't do anything yet, nor save! Is just to get this nice
in CVS now. :)
Enabled Striding in NLA to also use FollowPath Constraint. Until now it
only worked when Object was parented to a Curve.
Interesting feature now is that it checks for all FollowPath Constraints,
and it chooses to stride over the first Path found with influence > 0.5.
Note: to make swithing to other paths work, map the time curve for these
paths to match the switch. This is not very NLA friendly... but let the
dudes in studio test it first. :)
Todo for later once; ensure proper blending...
the current frame was outside of strips. This gives potential errors with
playback that skips frames, or for a renderfarm. And, while editing the
poses got 'stuck' if you changed to different frames.
Now if no strips are found on 'current frame', always the first strip to
right is used, or the last strip to the left.
For some ancient reason, the stride option only worked on a single strip,
and extended always. This made it nearly impossible to integrate it well
with other actions in NLA.
This commit changes it as follows;
- As any strip, the striding-strip also stops at the end of a strip
- This allows to put multiple different actions on a single path, and if
all of these have the striding option set, the actions will each do their
own individual stride.
- To match the different actions, a new "Action Offset" button was added
in the NLA Panel, which allows to internally cycle the action.
- Of course, blend-in and blend-out works nicely too.
Here's a quick AVI test with 2 actions. There's some slipping of the feet
between actions still, because of the stridebone blending. I might look
at that later, for now you can correct it with a simple Ipo on Armature too
http://www.blender.org/bf/0007_0151.avi
This is the case:
- Empty has Group duplicator
- Empty has NLA strips to animate the group
On linking the Empty to another group (with button in ObjectButtons), it
checks for the current strips in NLA, and tries to find the proper objects
in the new Group, based on name matches.
If not found, it sets the strip-objects to zero.
Apparently python allows to create Key blocks without proper *from pointer
back to the owner of the Key. The Key unfortunately wasn't mean to be a
dynamic block linkable to any Mesh...
This patch sets the from pointer on any call to do_mesh_key, which is safe
to do anyway. I made a note to get rid of that convention once, but at
least now we got non-crashing blenders. :)
(In bugreport noted that we need to check Python code for it too!)
Strips with a repeat fraction (like 3.51) should also "hold" on the
fraction of .51 when indicated so.
Patch provided by Roland Hess, but cleaned up (exisiting) mess a bit too.
30, the databrowse option didnt work.
Made popup menu to go to 60 now, in 3 collums max. Databrowse works too
now.
Next commit; check all other databrowsers for it.
particle generator can be duplicated.
Note that the particles are only generated once, on the original, and just
get duplicated.
For static particles it worked already OK.
Added note for previous grouping commit; group-duplicators should support
fully all animation systems, including modifiers and particles.
-> Any Group Duplicate now can get local timing and local NLA override. This
enables to control the entire animation system of the Group.
Two methods for this have been implemented.
1) The quick way: just give the duplicator a "Startframe" offset.
2) Advanced: in the NLA Editor you can add ActionStrips to the duplicator
to override NLA/action of any Grouped Object.
For "Group NLA" to work, an ActionStrip needs to know which Object in a
group it controls. On adding a strip, the code checks if an Action was
already used by an Object in the Group, and assigns it automatic to that
Object.
You can also set this in the Nkey "Properties" panel for the strip.
Change in NLA: the SHIFT+A "Add strip" command now always adds strips to
the active Object. (It used to check where mouse was). This allows to add
NLA strips to Objects that didn't have actions/nla yet.
Important note: In Blender, duplicates are fully procedural and generated
on the fly for each redraw. This means that redraw speed equals to stepping
through frames, when using animated Duplicated Groups.
-> Recoded entire duplicator system
The old method was antique and clumsy, using globals and full temporal
copies of Object. The new system is nicer in control, faster, and since it
doesn't use temporal object copies anymore, it works better with Derived
Mesh and DisplayList and rendering.
By centralizing the code for duplicating, more options can be easier added.
Features to note:
- Duplicates now draw selected/unselected based on its Duplicator setting.
- Same goes for the drawtype (wire, solid, selection outline, etc)
- Duplicated Groups can be normally selected too
Bonus goodie: SHIFT+A (Toolbox) now has entry "Add group" too, with a
listing of all groups, allowing to add Group instances immediate.
-> Library System
- SHIFT+F4 data browse now shows the entire path for linked data
- Outliner draws Library Icons to denote linked data
- Outliner operation added: "Make Local" for library data.
- Outliner now also draws Groups in regular view, allowing to unlink too.
-> Fixes
- depsgraph missed signal update for bone-parented Objects
- on reading file, the entire database was tagged to "recalc" fully,
causing unnecessary slowdown on reading.
Might have missed stuff... :)
(As usual movies disappears after while)
Face example showing stress values on a blend. White is stretch, black
is squeeze
http://www.blender.org/bf/0001_0014.avi
Quick test with softbody stretch
http://www.blender.org/bf/0001_0100.avi
Based on the difference of the "Orco" (original undeformed coordinate)
and the actual render coordinate, a stress value is computed to make
textures react to stretching or wrinking skin.
The texture coordinate is neutral (0) on relaxed state. -1 is squeezed
to zero, +1 is stretched to infinity.
Note that scaling (object itself or parent) also will result in
stress values.
The reason for the huge commit is a cleanup in allocating memory for
the vertices. These were growing too large with new options, so now it
allocates the optional coordinates dynamically.
Saves about 20 MB memory per 1M vertices already. But best of all is that
I now can add much more fun... so tangents, here we come!
In Armature Pose-bone panel, the 'hide' button got replaced with a button
where you can type (TAB complete works) a name for a Mesh Object. It then
draws that Object instead of the indicated bone drawing type.
Fixes for bone layers:
- Akey in Editmode didnt work proper (now deselects all non visible bones
too. selection for editmode works on the vertices, not bones...
- Snap in Editmode now respects layers
Works like for Object layers, but local within Armature itself. Each Bone
can be in (16 now) any layer, and the Armature layer defines what is
visible or not. Also note that hiding will still work too.
Since the Blender code is *stuffed* with Bone options now, this commit
requires a good test if all tools we got now comply to layers...
(I counted 130 cases for checking for selected Bones in code!)
In PoseMode; hotkey M will show 'movetolayer' menu. Not in editmode...
then its the mirror menu.
Todo: make action/nla drawing comply to Armature layer settings.
Series of fixes in Library linking of groups;
- On library-linking (SHIFT-F1) a Group, the Objects now don't get a "Base"
anymore, meaning they won't show up as Objects in the Scene.
This ensures you can use the linked Group as duplicator without having
your file polluted with new (and linked) objects.
(I realize it should be possible to have it with Base too, will check)
- On append or file-read, the linked Group Objects get drawn properly,
but the animation system doesn't run yet.
- Group buttons (F7) now shows if a Group is from Library
- Outliner draws Library linked data with blue-ish text
Other fixes;
- Using group-duplicator, with originals in hidden layer, now shows and
updates animated Objects correctly.
- All of Object button panels did not have a proper protection against
editing Library data.
Previous experiment (in 2000) didn't satisfy, it had even some primitive
NLA option in groups... so, cleaned up the old code (removed most) and
integrated it back in a more useful way.
Usage:
- CTRL+G gives menu to add group, add to existing group, or remove from
groups.
- In Object buttons, a new (should become first) Panel was added, showing
not only Object "ID button" and Parent, but also the Groups the Object
Belongs to. These buttons also allow rename, assigning or removing.
- To indicate Objects are grouped, they're drawn in a (not theme yet, so
temporal?) green wire color.
- Use ALT+SHIFT mouse-select to (de)select an entire group
But, the real power of groups is in the following features:
-> Particle Force field and Guide control
In the "Particle Motion" Panel, you can indicate a Group name, this then
limits force fields or guides to members of that Group. (Note that layers
still work on top of that... not sure about that).
-> Light Groups
In the Material "Shaders" Panel, you can indicate a Group name to limit
lighting for the Material to lamps in this group. The Lights in a Group do
need to be 'visible' for the Scene to be rendered (as usual).
-> Group Duplicator
In the Object "Anim" Panel, you can set any Object (use Empty!) to
duplicate an entire Group. It will make copies of all Objects in that Group.
Also works for animated Objects, but it will copy the current positions or
deforms. Control over 'local timing' (so we can do Massive anims!) will be
added later.
(Note; this commit won't render Group duplicators yet, a fix in bf-blender
will enable that, next commit will sync)
-> Library Appending
In the SHIFT-F1 or SHIFT+F4 browsers, you can also find the Groups listed.
By appending or linking the Group itself, and use the Group Duplicator, you
now can animate and position linked Objects. The nice thing is that the
local saved file itself will only store the Group name that was linked, so
on a next file read, the Group Objects will be re-read as stored (changed)
in the Library file.
(Note; current implementation also "gives a base" to linked Group Objects,
to show them as Objects in the current Scene. Need that now for testing
purposes, but probably will be removed later).
-> Outliner
Outliner now shows Groups as optio too, nice to organize your data a bit too!
In General, Groups have a very good potential... for example, it could
become default for MetaBall Objects too (jiri, I can help you later on how
this works). All current 'layer relationships' in Blender should be dropped
in time, I guess...
Once an Object Ipo position was inserted, the object couldn't be moved when
a particle system was tied to it. Needed code to copy object settings,
before the particle animation was done.
