T4, sharing projects with Windows + macOS, not possible? Due to path issues?

[pixelsmack]

I have T4 running in macOS nicely. Also, in Windows, which is my primary platform. I have Deadline 10.1 setup and it's able to find everything and que up jobs. Deadline has a PATHS setting so that Linux, Mac, can know how to interpret a Windows file path. i.e.  "P:\"  becomes "/Volumes/Production/"

That works and Deadline is able to find the share and load the Terragen file. The issue I am having is Terragen's render output path. It's hard coded to the Windows share location. "P:\xxxxx..." So of course macOS Terragen has no idea what that is.

Is there a solution for this? Do I need to save my frame outputs in Terragen a different way to be Windows and macOS friendly? I create all my Terragen jobs on my Windows PC. This macOS is just an experiment to see if it was viable.

My guess this is a failure of Deadline intercepting and converting the requested path to a macOS friendly path. As it did successfully for the loading of the Terragen file.  Other render controllers allow for work-arounds when explicit paths are written in to program outputs. They do this, generally, by forcing you to use UNC paths when creating content. Then you configure their PATHS swapper to make it all work. Deadline seems to lack that.

[WAS]

This was literally just answered in Discussion: https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,29912.0.html

You use the "Gather Project" function. Create and select a new folder, and gather the project. All the assets are moved to a subfolder with relative paths, which will work on any Windows/NIX system.

If you don't have that feature, you can try my Defaultness Editor and edit the paths yourself to be relative paths to a folder you have created, moving all assets into a subfolder within it.

https://nwdagroup.com/terragen-tools/defaultness/

Folder Architecture (Bold is a Folder):

• MyAwesomeProject/
  
  • MyAwesomeProject.tgd
  • Assets/
    
    • MyAwesomeObject.obj
    • MyAwesomeObject.mtl
    • MyAwesomeTexture.jpg

In Terragen, all your paths should look: Assets/MyAwesomeObject.obj

So just "Assets/" followed by filename.

[digitalguru]

Folder Architecture (Bold is a Folder):

• MyAwesomeProject/
  
  • MyAwesomeProject.tgd
  • Assets/
    
    • MyAwesomeObject.obj
    • MyAwesomeObject.mtl
    • MyAwesomeTexture.jpg

When I start a project I have a folder template setup pretty much like this, from then on all paths are relative and I can pick up the whole thing without gathering.
The only thing to remember is when first creating a project is to save it, quit TG and reload to recognise the relative paths.

[WAS]

That is correct. If your assets are already in the subfolder (relative to your project file), when you add all the objects, and then save the project, TG will parse all the paths to relative. But to see that result, as you said, you need to either Open Recent -> Saved Project or quit and re-launch. Sometimes Open Recent doesn't work at all if you are in TG awhile though. Not sure what that's about.

[sboerner]

I use a standard folder structure for all project assets and try to avoid using Gather Project for any complex jobs because it just dumps everything in one folder and alters the names of many of the files. But as I work I routinely open the TG file in Notepad and do a search/replace to convert all of the links to standard relative paths with forward slashes. (If you try this BE SURE to save a backup copy of the file first.)

This way I can work on files that originate on my PC on my (very old) Mac if necessary. And project folders can be moved anywhere on my HD and all the links are preserved.

I understand this is personal preference but it works for me. Jordan, if your online editor does this interactively that's very cool. I'll give it a try. 

It would be nice if Gather Project worked like Maya's Archive function, which stores the folder structure along with the files. (Maya also has a built-in file path editor that allows you to repath assets on the fly. This would seem to be a simple function that could be added to TG.)

[WAS]

I use a standard folder structure for all project assets and try to avoid using Gather Project for any complex jobs because it just dumps everything in one folder and alters the names of many of the files. But as I work I routinely open the TG file in Notepad and do a search/replace to convert all of the links to standard relative paths with forward slashes. (If you try this BE SURE to save a backup copy of the file first.)

This way I can work on files that originate on my PC on my (very old) Mac if necessary. And project folders can be moved anywhere on my HD and all the links are preserved.

I understand this is personal preference but it works for me. Jordan, if your online editor does this interactively that's very cool. I'll give it a try.

It would be nice if Gather Project worked like Maya's Archive function, which stores the folder structure along with the files. (Maya also has a built-in file path editor that allows you to repath assets on the fly. This would seem to be a simple function that could be added to TG.)

It opens all relevant shaders into text fields for editing raw settings. It's mainly meant for default shaders but I included image map shaders. You do give me a good idea for a search replace editor though, but this can be done in almost any text editor.