Feature Request:- "Bundle Project"

[mr-miley]

Hi all

A feature request, if you please  I would like to be able to click a button / select a menu item "Bundle Project". This would ask for a directory name (and let you create a new one) and would then save / copy all files involved in the current TG scene into that directory, maybe using a set directory structure (eg. terrain - objects - scene - image maps - etc) On envoking this command, TG would look through the scene, make a list of all external files (objects, image maps etc), create the new bundled directory and then go through the .tgd and reset all the paths to the new bundled directory. You could also add a new "Open" menu item like "Open from bundled project". This would force TG to use paths reletive to the bundled project directory.
This would be really useful for those of us who "Create" at home and "Render" at work etc cause you would only have to shift a complete directory to take the job with you, and upon opening it, all the separate parts of the project would be there, saving an hour of having to go through and "re-path" all external files. EG. at home TG files are in my user documents and same in work, but at home its "mileys user docs" and in work its "milesdavis user docs" therefore breaking all path references. If you really want to get fancy, you could supply TG with the path to either winzip or winrar etc and have TG zip / rar the files and directories for you into a single file.

Just a thought, cause I know that Mat and Jo haven't really got anything better to do 

Miles

[Tangled-Universe]

Good suggestion! I think this would be a very nice and useful feature too.

Martin

[jo]

Hi,

This is a good idea, and one we've actually discussed in the past. We may implement it at some point, although I don't think it will be before the final release.

One thing we have already addressed is the situation where you talk about moving a project and its files between machines. TG2 should already load files which have a project relative path. I think this might be broken in the last public release, but it will be working for the next release. If you change the paths in your nodes to be project relative then you can move the project and files anywhere and they should still load as long as they're in the same position relative to the project. Sad to say right now I can't remember how you specify a project relative path, it's been a long day :-).

If you don't want to change the paths, you can add a User Content path in the Library and Content preferences. You would go to the prefs panel and add the folder containing your objects etc. to the User Content section. Again this possibly isn't completely hooked up in the last public release ( it works for a couple of nodes but not all of them ) but will be in the next one. It allows you to add a path which is searched recursively for the files nodes are trying to load. If the nodes can't find them in at the place specified they will search the User Content paths to find them.

While we don't have a complete solution for what you're talking about, in the next public release we should be able to get you most of the way there :-). Making it easier to move projects and associated files between machines and platforms was one of the goals of the Library and Content system.

Regards,

Jo