pipmak-users

saveequirect not working

[armylegend <chi...@ho...>]

Hey there, I'm somewhat new to Pipmak.  I can't seem to save the
equirect.bmp.  I've gone through quite a few posts on hotspots and such, I
can make them.  I was wondering if pipmak.saveequirect() was taken out, I
can't find it anywhere in the defaults.lua file.  Is it even supposed to be
there, read that it was likely to be removed but I don't see why. 
       I've spent like 5 hours at my computer trying to find a good way to
map out hotspots for panoramic views, it's just so sloppy not knowing
exactly where to put them.  I'm using Gimp pulling out all the stops using
all my tricks trying to accurately place them to no avail.  There is nothing
streamlined about this method at all which makes node creation INCREDIBLY
tedious.  Handles seem even more frustrating, I haven't even tackled them
yet.  
       That being said, I'm EXTREMELY excited about pipmak and I'm very glad
there is an adventure game engine available like this.  I was sad to see
SCream fold :-((.  Unfortunately, if this ends up being too time consuming
with little return, I'll likely just start spending my energy in another
project.  I'm a pretty hardcore adventure gamer so I don't want to, but hey,
whaddya do?

thanks,
Phil
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Re: saveequirect not working

[Christian W. <cwa...@gm...>]

Hello Phil

Welcome and I'm sorry you had such a frustrating experience! We'll try 
to help as well as we can.

> I can't seem to save the
> equirect.bmp.  I've gone through quite a few posts on hotspots and such, I
> can make them.  I was wondering if pipmak.saveequirect() was taken out,

No, it's still there. Don't worry, it won't be removed before there is a 
better replacement (direct painting within Pipmak).

> I can't find it anywhere in the defaults.lua file.

Yes, it's in pipmakLuaLib.c, not in defaults.lua.

> read that it was likely to be removed but I don't see why. 

Because it is a quick and dirty hack. For example, it tries to save the 
image under a fixed name in a fixed place where it may not even have 
write permission.

How did you come to the conclusion that it is not there? Do you get an 
error when you try to call it? If not, then it is there, and we just 
have to figure out why you don't see its effect. If you don't get a 
message saying "Could not save BMP file" on the Pipmak terminal, then 
saving should have worked. It saves in the current directory, which is 
supposed to be next to the executable (because Pipmak sets it that way 
on launch). On Mac OS X, that is inside the application bundle under 
Pipmak.app/Contents/MacOS. (I see that this is not explained properly in 
the documentation. I wonder if that's a mistake or if it was different 
and the documentation was right in an earlier version...) What version 
of Pipmak on what platform are you using? Perhaps something is wrong 
there and it actually saved somewhere else. Have you searched your 
computer for a file named "equirect.bmp"?

>        I've spent like 5 hours at my computer trying to find a good way to
> map out hotspots for panoramic views, it's just so sloppy not knowing
> exactly where to put them.  I'm using Gimp pulling out all the stops using
> all my tricks trying to accurately place them to no avail.  There is nothing
> streamlined about this method at all which makes node creation INCREDIBLY
> tedious.

Agreed. All I can say is that you are working with a work in progress 
here. Things will get better over time. The more people help, the faster.

That said, I didn't find it that frustrating - I was able to get my 
hotspots right with a few iterations of painting and checking them in 
Pipmak. You are aware that you can reload the node while it's running in 
Pipmak and immediately see the edited hotspots, right?

> Handles seem even more frustrating, I haven't even tackled them yet.

Why would they be more frustrating? You can even move them within Pipmak 
using the Lua command line, so I would consider them slightly less 
frustrating at this point. Obviously the non-frustrating solution would 
be the ability to move and resize them by mouse, but that is not 
implemented yet.

  -Christian

Re: saveequirect not working

[armylegend <chi...@ho...>]

I sure appreciate your quick reply, went to sleep and woke up with a message
(I'm coming off of a year tour in Iraq in a couple weeks so it's 8 am here). 
Everything is as you said, I checked every folder I thought it could be in
except the one it was.  Apparently spotlight doesn't search for files inside
the pipmak packages either.  I've got a (what I think is funny) screen shot
of spotlight not finding a file right in front of me :confused:.  
    I'm not going to have much time on the computer for about a month but as
soon as I get back I'd like to help with this project in any way I can.  If
that just means making all the frustrating mistakes and putting them in the
wiki so others don't, that's something.  Thanks for helping me out here,
once I get rolling maybe I can actually get to some of the stuff on the "to
do" list.  

thanks, 
Phil

P.S. Maybe I've read it wrong, but handles have to be rectangular correct? 
If so, the process of making them isn't the frustrating part, it's making
them work the way I want that seems like it'd be frustrating.  I'm probably
wrong of course.  

>You are aware that you can reload the node while it's running in
Pipmak and immediately see the edited hotspots, right?

Absolutely, Pipmak's ability to edit while running is a huge plus in my
book, I was attempting to find a way around repainting and reloading as
getting hotspots on anything above 50ish degrees elevation seems the least
forgiving. 

Mac didn't want me to find it.  Should have used the spotlight inside the
package contents, oy.
http://old.nabble.com/file/p26861233/Picture%2B4.jpeg   
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Re: saveequirect not working

[Christian W. <cwa...@gm...>]

armylegend wrote:
> I sure appreciate your quick reply, went to sleep and woke up with a message
> (I'm coming off of a year tour in Iraq in a couple weeks so it's 8 am here). 

Two hours difference to me in Switzerland.

> Everything is as you said, I checked every folder I thought it could be in
> except the one it was.  Apparently spotlight doesn't search for files inside
> the pipmak packages either.  I've got a (what I think is funny) screen shot
> of spotlight not finding a file right in front of me :confused:.  

I think Spotlight is not meant to search inside packages, since users 
aren't supposed to put their files there (and well-behaved applications 
shouldn't either - one more point that makes this a dirty hack).

>     I'm not going to have much time on the computer for about a month but as
> soon as I get back I'd like to help with this project in any way I can.  If
> that just means making all the frustrating mistakes and putting them in the
> wiki so others don't, that's something.  Thanks for helping me out here,
> once I get rolling maybe I can actually get to some of the stuff on the "to
> do" list.  

That would be great. For my part, with my previous project just finished 
(<http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18880>), I intend to 
spend some time on Pipmak too over the holidays and hopefully get a new 
release out.

> P.S. Maybe I've read it wrong, but handles have to be rectangular correct? 

Yes (in spherical coordinates).

> If so, the process of making them isn't the frustrating part, it's making
> them work the way I want that seems like it'd be frustrating.

If you have a use case for which the rectangularity (or anything else) 
is a major obstacle, we can always discuss it and maybe find a better 
solution.

  -Christian