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Re: [Virtools] More on Scripting (Was Competition)

Hello Francois, King of the Scripters!  :-O

I'm glad to see that this particular point is now 'official' and can be
discussed!

A little question for you:  How do *you* recommend tracking your elements
and their corresponding scripts?  Particularly in the absence of the
Behavioral Server?  Do you use arrays or some other construct?

Enquiring minds want to know...

David Callele

----- Original Message -----
From: "Francois Dujardin" <dujardin@virtools.com>
To: "Virtools List" <virtools-user-group@lists.theswapmeet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 2:51 AM
Subject: ARE: [Virtools] More on Scripting (Was Competition)


> A little contribution from a long-time Virtools addict (and actually a
> Virtools employee):
>
> about object-oriented scripting, re-drag and dropping, link
edition-->these
> were real weaknesses of 1.0.1, and I can remember the time-wasting and
> frustration of it. We attempted to fix this in Dev2. David has already
> mentioned the pathfinding for links and other things, so I'd just like to
> briefly expose my way of handling large projects, with media replacement
and
> script updatingmesh replacement: in Dev 2 you can dynamically assemble the
> content on the fly. That means, you can load 'NMO' files at runtime,
delete
> them, copy them, etc. you can also load a behavior graph at run time,
attach
> it to an existing entity, and run it. With these features, once you get
used
> to it, you can think your projects as empty shells that load everything at
> runtime. Think of it as a build of a code project: it's all split in tiny
> files, separating the media from the scripts, and it's all combinedat
> runtime. The benefits is double: you get an up-to-date everytime you clic
> 'play' (for instance an NMO containing the environment might have been
> updated by another team member), and you get an nice way to implement
> teamwork. And, nice side-effect, you'll get a 'fragmented' projects that
can
> be smartly streamed over the web (but I'm disclosing the 'behavioral
server'
> here, so I'll stop).
>
> Anyway, think about it. I've spent the last two years researching better
> ways to use the software, especially on 'real life' productions, and as of
> today, I have to say that this is the best solution I've come up with.
>
> Francois
>
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : owner-virtools-user-group@lists.theswapmeet.com
> [mailto:owner-virtools-user-group@lists.theswapmeet.com]De la part de
> David Callele
> Envoyé : mardi 12 juin 2001 05:01
> À : cyberart; Virtools List
> Objet : Re: [Virtools] More on Scripting (Was Competition)
>
>
> I've added a few comments below.  I'm not certain what has been released
yet
> by Virtools so some of my comments may be a little more vague than you
might
> desire...
>
> David Callele
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "cyberart" <cyberart@frontiernet.net>
> To: "Virtools List" <virtools-user-group@lists.theswapmeet.com>
> Sent: Monday, June 11, 2001 7:20 PM
> Subject: Re: [Virtools] More on Scripting (Was Competition)
>
>
> > > "Callele, David" wrote:
> > > I'm having fun with this discussion - is anybody else?
> >
> > Well, you're one of the "knowledgeable users",
> > so I'm always interested in what you have to say about Virtools.
>
> Cool, I have finally graduated to "knowledgeable user" :-)  Thank you for
> the compliment.
>
> > Still, a scripting language would be helpful.
> > The code which generates the network is a sufficient description of the
> network.
> > Otherwise, it seems you have to print screen dumps, and add comments to
> them.
>
> I agree that the code is a sufficient description of the network but how
the
> network is parsed is very interesting.  From my perspective, the Behavior
> Engine tries to be as close to a perfect Object Oriented model as
possible -
> therefore, in the absence of other directives (such as direct control over
> priority), all objects operate asynchronously and independently.  Think of
> objects sending messages to each other on different computers and that is
> somewhat akin to the way scripts are processed.  Therefore, a scripting
> engine would have to include not only the traditional mechanisms but
> Priority settings as well.  It can be done (I've been toying with the idea
> of an XML DTD for the scripting engine) but it would not be trivial in my
> opinion.  But then, languages were never my strongest suit!
>
> > Maya has a Script Window; when you perform some action thru the GUI,
> > you can look at the Script Window to see the corresponding code.
> > While this doesn't actually write the code for you,
> > it goes a long way in getting you there.
> >
> > You can test bits of code in an Input Window,
> > and type code directly on a command line.
> >
> > > I was part of the Beta Test group and I did help write and edit the
new
> User Guide so my opinion is probably biased.
> >
> > I'd be interested in seeing how the new User Guide looks.
> > With N*M* 1.01, it seemed that the way you were expected to learn the
> program
> > was to reverse engineer the demos.
> > While there is something to be said for that,
> > I would have been happier to have seen more techniques explained and
> developed.
>
> Well, the new User Guide (UG) is a significant step forward.  We
> concentrated on context information (such as a large Glossary and "how
> things work") more than on specific techniques.  There are also quite a
> number of tutorials CMOs and accompanying AVIs to illustrate the
techniques.
>
> That said, with a product like Dev, Virtools could continue making
tutorials
> for many, many years ;-)
>
> > Its been a while since I have been working with N*M*.
> > Our principal modeling/animation program here is Maya,
> > and I couldn't find a method of getting Maya character animations into
> N*M*.
> > I have heard that this is supposed have been improved;
> > any "beta" knowledge on that?
> > ---
> > Robert
>
> Well, I have worked with Maya then exported to Virtools.  I can't go into
> detail but the process works quite well once you understand what Virtools
> (or other realtime 3D engines) need: A polygon (usually triangles) mesh
with
> UV coordinates attached to every vertex.  For every part of the object
that
> you want to have a different texture on you must have a different
material.
> Procedural materials/textures can not be directly supported BUT they can
be
> used to generate a texture for application on the material.
>
> So, Virtools has one or more meshes per 3D Entity, each mesh can have one
or
> more materials, and each material can have a single texture.
>
> If you remember these requirements, then your modelling and exporting
should
> go smoothly.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> David Callele
>
> > ...............................................................
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