Re: [Maya2osg-users] Discussion of next changes

[Javier T. <jav...@gm...>]

On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 7:42 PM, Jean-Sébastien Guay
<jea...@cm...> wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
>> I notice two camps of interest, but you can proof me wrong. Javier, you
>> don't like cluttering the notes field, J-S wants to use as much of maya
>> as is available, includeing the notes field, and me, I'd prefere the
>> notes field as well.
>
> I think notes is OK, because the things that would be added are clearly
> marked. So the exporter won't touch anything that's not between (as you
> suggest, but could be something else) <osgDescription> ...
> </osgDescription> tags.
>
> In fact, all this started with the fact that Javier doesn't want to
> populate the node descriptions with material properties in the plugin's
> C++ code, so wherever we put it, it will be user-visible. If we could do
> this in the C++ code, it would be transparent to the Maya user (we
> wouldn't clutter the notes, and we wouldn't need attributes, but we
> could also export them if we want to).

  The problem I see in doing it in the C++ code is that the number of
attributes that you can add is virtually unlimited. What attributes do
you need? Are you sure? And tomorrow? And what attributes will need
other users? This could be a huge big amount of code that will be
dragged by the plug-in.

  My opinion is that this overhead (and with overhead here I am not
talking only about performance) should be on the user side (not the
plug-in) so users can add all the attributes they need and only that.
Each user customize its own installation without affecting others.

  You say that need the material properties, but what properties are
you talking about? Some of the properties you want are not in the
material node, but in other nodes such as bump2D, and just as this
one, there can be a lot of nodes composing a huge and really complex
shading network. What subset of attributes do you need? or what
specific cases of shading networks are you going to support? And other
users?

  I don't know if we are understanding each other. My point is that
you cannot add support for every attribute and attribute combination
possible, and each user will have its own needs structured in its own
way, maybe incompatible among them and doesn't seem to be a good place
to implement that kind of thing the plug-in C++ code. Implementing it
in the Maya user side (through MEL scripts, customizations, or
whatever) and passing it to OSG descriptions with a generic mechanism
or using it in some other way will cover every user need without
bothering the others and without increasing complexity and size of the
plug-in code.

  Maybe we are talking about different things. Can you post an example
of exactly what you are proposing?

> I see these things as totally orthogonal. The Maya scene already has all
> the information to put the material properties in the node descriptions,

  Are you sure? Please, post a real example of the information you
want to retrieve from the Maya scene and where do you read it and
where do you want to write it.

> so why require that they be put in the notes or an attribute at all? On

  The reason to put it in the notes is to have a transparent way of
specifying whatever you can send and to what OSG node exactly.


-- 
Javier Taibo