[Visualpython-users] VPyton and py2exe

[Jason M. <j.a...@gm...>]

Hi,
 There is a bug in vpython where it fails with py2exe.

 The problem is that it fails to find the texture bitmap files and raises an exception.
I can see that it is because Visual loads a number of texture bitmaps in vis/material.py regardless of even if material are being used (for me they are not).
 Then to make matters worse they don't seem to be referred to in such a way as is compatible with py2exe.

 It seems the use of __file__ to find the location of the module in materials.py is not very portable as __file__ becomes the name of the .exe when compiled into a standalone program.

 I have found that you can modify materials.py, at about line 151, thus:

 ...
 import sys
 if hasattr(sys,'frozen') and (sys.frozen=="windows_exe" or sys.frozen=="console_exe"):
 texturePath="visual\\"
 else:
 texturePath = os.path.split( __file__ )[0] + "/"
 del sys
 ...

 and then add to your setup.py something like:

 ...
 import sys,glob
 ...
 visual_materials = ( r'visual', glob.glob(sys.exec_prefix+'\\Lib\site-packages\\vis\\*.tga' ))
 ...
 setup(
 data_files = [visual_materials], ...etc...
 ...

 This creates a \visual\ folder in your distribution and that contains the missing bitmaps.

 Please consider adding the above fix to the visual materials module.

 However I still don't think this is ideal.
 I think it should be possible to use img2py (from wxPython) to embed the images in a file if the code is frozen (i.e. has been .exe'd)

 A more impressive solution would be to make it such that they are only loaded if an instance of a material that uses them is created, but I am not confident with the inner workings of visual to make that so.

 Cheers,
 Jason