I was working on a scene with lots of populations and was trying to get an idea how many of each was being created, but the count is so quick its was even difficult to determine the number of digits.
Anyway, how about the option of generating a scene info text (or xml) file? The project settings is a starting place, but more hardware information and all the enabled parameters might really be handy when discussing problems or showing a particular scene setup.
I'll second that.
It may also help with debugging. The processor, memory size, graphics card, etc; could all be in the file.
If you want to do things like that you run it in command line mode (by running tgdcli.exe instead of the normal tgd.exe)
This will spit out basically everything terragen does as it does it. From preview render workings, to objects being populated, number, shaders added, everything. If anything it might be nice to turn off preview rendering pass information (as it spams you starting pass 1, 2, a TON lol)
Also, if you want to be able to copy/paste those logs onto the forums, you could run from command line
(path to terragen)/tgdcli.exe >> mylog.txt
It will print everything into the file instead of to the console, which will allow you to upload it here nice and easy. Might be useful to catch where something might cause a crash.
Neuspadrin's got the current method/workaround, but I agree a general "scene info" tool or window would be very handy.
- Oshyan
Quote from: neuspadrin on June 08, 2009, 09:38:28 PM
If you want to do things like that you run it in command line mode (by running tgdcli.exe instead of the normal tgd.exe)
This will spit out basically everything terragen does as it does it. From preview render workings, to objects being populated, number, shaders added, everything. If anything it might be nice to turn off preview rendering pass information (as it spams you starting pass 1, 2, a TON lol)
Also, if you want to be able to copy/paste those logs onto the forums, you could run from command line
(path to terragen)/tgdcli.exe >> mylog.txt
It will print everything into the file instead of to the console, which will allow you to upload it here nice and easy. Might be useful to catch where something might cause a crash.
Thanks for the reply. I had asked the question about the number of population instances over at terragen.org and was told "there's currently no way to get that info." I never used or even realized there was a command line version.
Since the information is already available because the render depends on it, I think it would be a nice option. Sort of a "I can't give you the actual scene or the models, but here are the parameters I used...."
[edit] The last sentence was confusing. What I meant is when you can't upload a scene to explain a point, you could simply paste the specific setting information into your post. Also, I would use these logs to with a file compare program (I use Ultra Compare) to find out what I changed between scene increments.
A checkbox on the render panel like "
- Render Log" that causes a log file named to the current scene .txt would be nice.
Quote from: jaf on June 09, 2009, 01:09:41 AM
If you want to do things like that you run it in command line mode (by running tgdcli.exe instead of the normal tgd.exe)
[edit] The last sentence was confusing. What I meant is when you can't upload a scene to explain a point, you could simply paste the specific setting information into your post. Also, I would use these logs to with a file compare program (I use Ultra Compare) to find out what I changed between scene increments.
If you're just talking about scene settings, then you can simply click on a node in the node network view, copy it, and paste it as text in a forum post. The text is just the text contents of a clip file (.tgc).
I agree it would be useful to output the other logging information to a file on demand, without jumping through hoops as you have to now.
Matt
Yes, I was thinking a author/hardware header followed by each enabled parameter and object data -- max/min scales, rotations, instances (totals), etc., at the point a render is started if the logging option was enabled. And then at render completion some render data like total time and other render statistics.
I suspect a lot of this could be done as the entries are made before the render (though it would have a slight impact on preview) and the undo system probably is already tracking many of the values.
I believe all the information is readily available and (guessing) it shouldn't take much time to log. I would store the log file with my scene and image files for future reference. Yes, I could simply load the scene and click through all the settings, but I think a readable log file would work better in many cases.
Of course this may be a good candidate for a script or a plugin. :D
Quote from: jaf on June 10, 2009, 12:17:43 AMYes, I could simply load the scene and click through all the settings, but I think a readable log file would work better in many cases.
That means I have to decide which settings to include in the log and which to leave out. That's a big job, and my choices would only be 'correct' for some people. If I include all settings, then that's just the .tgd file, which you can read as text ;) (Except for render time and number of population instances etc. etc.)
Matt
To me this is not really that important. Knowing the population count could be helpful. There are enough feature requests in the wish list to keep you busy for months. Plus debugging, enhancing currently available features, etc; I'd let this go to some future date.
Since each suggestion or request I make seems to be seen as insignificant, I think I'll stop wasting my and everyone else's time on this.
Hi Jaf,
Sorry if I sounded a bit negative in my last post. The suggestions for simple logging of number of instances populated, render times, resolution, detail settings, and other common important settings etc. would definitely be useful. I'd like to make it easier to output those data in future without needing to run tgdcli and redirect to a text file, which is pretty cumbersome and only works if you know in advance to do that.
Matt
I did not want to shut you down. I am sorry. I tend to think everyone is as smart or skilled with computers as I am. It could be very useful. To me, it's simple to run the command line option.
Anyway, there are not any bad posts. Everyone here wants to be supportive, so please keep posting with your questions and ideas!