Then educate the users of your exporter and slap hands when they don't follow the rules. Otherwise you have to ban the use of certain tools, or create your own version of the specific tools for use in production that supply the identifications you need to export reliably.
That's basically what we do here. for vertex colors and texture projections, we only allow certain names to be used if users expect their tools to work. Amazing how much better artists behave when they realize they can't hit their deadlines without following the rules. Matt From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nicolas Burtnyk Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 6:59 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Any way to distinguish between tangents and colors? I'm worried that someone wants to use a vertex color cluster to actually store colors and they want the higher precision of float4 so they set the type to float4. My exporter compresses tangents as packed normals (32 bits) so assuming clusters with data type float4 will pretty much destory that data. On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 6:49 PM, Matt Lind <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: I should also add that my tools insist on putting our vertex colors in a named sample cluster. While Softimage will dump user normal, vertex colors, and texture projections into that sample cluster if it's the most recent used, for whatever reason Softimage will not put tangent vertex color properties in that cluster. Matt From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Matt Lind Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 6:47 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: RE: Any way to distinguish between tangents and colors? I wouldn't worry about that. We've been using tangents and vertex colors for years and never had that kind of problem. The only (semi) reliable way we've been able to manage is from naming convention as Softimage insists on controlling everything else even if you try to change things. For example, if you try to make your own clusters to put the cluster properties, Softimage will reuse or repurpose your clusters for other uses whether you like it or not. I've complained quite a bit about this, but fell on deaf ears. Matt From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nicolas Burtnyk Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 6:11 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: Any way to distinguish between tangents and colors? Thanks Steven - Yeah, I'd like something a little more robust than relying on the default DataType since this is easily changeable. I thought of looking for the "Tangent" property or the TangentOp2 operator, but these can be deleted/frozen away while still leaving behind valid tangents. On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 6:03 PM, Steven Caron <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: this assumes no one goes out of there way to change the default datatype for tangents and vertex colors. ;( On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 6:01 PM, Steven Caron <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: i believe they are both still 'vertexcolor', hence nicolas' question... i would say, by name or 'DataType' parameter on the property? from siutils import si si = si() # win32com.client.Dispatch('XSI.Application') from siutils import log # LogMessage from siutils import disp # win32com.client.Dispatch from siutils import C # win32com.client.constants for item in si.Selection: sampleClusters = item.ActivePrimitive.Geometry.Clusters.Filter(C.siSampledPointCluster) if sampleClusters.Count: for cluster in sampleClusters: for prop in cluster.LocalProperties: if prop.Parameters("datatype"): log("%s > %s > %s" % (prop.Name,prop.Type, prop.Parameters("datatype").Value)) # INFO : Vertex_Color > vertexcolor > 0 # INFO : Tangents > vertexcolor > 1 On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 5:54 PM, Matt Lind <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Check the cluster property type. Matt From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Nicolas Burtnyk Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 5:53 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Any way to distinguish between tangents and colors? Hello list, Does anyone know a way to tell whether a cluster contains tangents as opposed to vertex colors? Thanks! -Nicolas
