Digital Art Zone

Ok… partial success! The top image uses colorid, the bottom one uses normals.

Now the problem I have is that the camera doesn’t refresh the outline image before compositing. Ever. Including between runs of DS. So once I’ve set the outline image, it stays set to the same copy of that image, even if the image itself on the hard drive changes. :( The only two ways I have to get around this are 1) change the image to a name I haven’t used yet or 2) run the outline image through Layered Image Editor (which effectively does the same thing).

Also, now I’ve lost the background, of course, but that’s not a huge surprise. I might even be able to figure out how to get it back.

An example of the problem… maybe if I use a script to clear the cache?

You need to call refresh() on the DzTexture on the properties your are setting.

ketthrove - 07 November 2012 08:14 PM

You need to call refresh() on the DzTexture on the properties your are setting.

I’m setting the image property in the Parameters tab of a Shader Mixer camera. I’m not sure how to get to that from within the render time script. I tried this, but it didn’t seem to quite do the trick… I’m back to getting the “color id” render again. :(

BTW, if I can get this working in time, I’d like the toon cam with outline to be my freebie for Christmas this year….

I can’t figure out where to put this refresh (assuming I’m doing it correctly). The line I’m trying to add is:

Within the Beauty Pass, if I put it between Renderer.riWorldBegin() and the //Render each node comment, I get a solid black render. If I put it after rendering the nodes but before Renderer.riEndWorld() it renders, but composites the old (cached) outline image. If I put it after Renderer.riEndWorld() DS crashes on render.

If I put it between Renderer.riBegin and Renderer.riWorldBegin(), I get a colorid render, rather than the camera render (see previous examples).

All of the above (except the crashes) drop the render window behind the DS window, for some reason.

After the Outline Pass, between Renderer.riEndWorld and Renderer.riBegin for the Beauty Pass, it crashes on render.

Within the Outline Pass, between Renderer.riWorldBegin and Renderer.riEndWorld, a colorid render is generated, the outline files are correctly generated, and for whatever reason, the render window does not drop behind the main DS window.

Where is this refresh supposed to go? Or have I got the syntax wrong? I would really prefer not to have to code the camera itself—I want this to be a script that works with multiple cameras, so people who use Shader Mixer can use it.

This is frustrating.

Here’s where I am now. Through much trial and error (and abuse of the MessageBox class) I have determined that the property I need to aim the refresh at is this one:

(I can’t for the life of me figure out how to access this by the name instead of the number, but whatever.)

And, sure enough, in the log I see “Loaded image Outline_Frm0_Normal.jpg” between the first pass and second pass renders.

Yay!

Except… the image that is being composited is still the old image. Boo. The improvement is that every time I render, the outline image from the previous render gets used, which is better than before, when the outline image NEVER got updated… but still not good enough.

I’ve tried putting the refresh call as early as possible. If I put it before riBegin, it renders black and throws an error. Right now I have it right before riWorldBegin. I also tried forcing tdlmake by adding this line right after the refresh:

Now in the log I get:

It doesn’t matter if I put the refresh call before or after the prepareImage call.

Argh.

I’m going to go have some chocolate and maybe I’ll look at this again tomorrow. :(

It looks like the prepare of images (tdlmake, that which takes an image and prepares it for 3Delight consumption) is only called at the beginning of the render, before the individual frames are rendered.

You’ll need to manually call the image prep:

This should be done after the first call to riEnd, but before the second call to riEndWorld.

To find a property by name you use findProperty(), or findPropertyByLabel(). Warning, however, shader mixer will rename properties as you connect/disconnect bricks to each other.  So before you finish your camera set the name on the property to you’re desired name before saving the preset for the camera.  Make sure you check the return of findProperty is the one you though you were getting.  You can all so use the methods on DzShaderBrick to find properties by their parameter name, parameter names do not change on the brick.

Thanks for the warning about property names changing as the shader is edited in Shader Mixer.

Unfortunately, adding “App.getImageMgr().prepareAllImages(Renderer);” has not made any difference, though I’ve tried adding it in several places. However, I noticed that I have no instances of riEnd in either rendering pass—they weren’t in the original scripts I was working from.

In the original OutlineRenderScript.dsa, I see Renderer.riBegin right after the sRIB section, then a bunch of setup stuff where parameters are set, then Renderer.riWorldBegin, rendering the nodes, then Renderer.riEndWorld.

In StandardExampleRenderScript.dsa, again Renderer.riBegin comes right after the RIB Path calculation, the parameters are all set up, Renderer.riWorldBegin is called, the shadows are layered and nodes are rendered, and then Renderer.riEndWorld.

Where should riEnd go? I don’t see it listed in the docs at all.

I meant “riEndWorld” sorry.  You also still need to call that refresh on the property map you were doing before.

Ok, after the first riEndWorld(), before the second riEndWorld(). Got it. But I already tried that….

Should “App.getImageMgr().prepareAllImages(Renderer);” go before or after “Camera.getProperty(35).getMapValue().refresh();”? Do I need to remove “Renderer.prepareImage(Camera.getProperty(35).getMapValue(), Camera.getProperty(35).getMapValue().getFilename());”?

I did it this way, right before the Beauty Pass riWorldBegin():

I still don’t get the right outline image, but I’m no longer getting errors about a missing prepared image….

(Is there anything I can do about the Min and Max errors? I’m not using those variables in my very simple camera shader….)

Using your code it should probably be the following:

The texture needs to not be set until its made the first time.  Just as a warning index is just as likely to change as name for the property.

Yay! Thank you!!!

Now I just need to put together some loader scripts to set up the camera and set the rendering script. (And incorporate a real background, but I think I have some hints about that.)

Does anyone know how to get rid of these errors? They show during the render, and I’d like to avoid confusing users.

I think I need another hint to figure out how to pick up the background when using a brick camera. There is a note in the sample script that says “TODO: Check for DzShaderCamera & DzBrickCamera with Imager”—Camera.className() tells me “DzBrickCamera”, but then what? I just want to use whatever the user has set as the backdrop color or image in the scene, but “Renderer.renderBackDrop( BackDrop, sizeRender.width, sizeRender.height );” before the Renderer.cameraProject line doesn’t seem to do anything.