Linking via Expressions?

Floating.Point · April 04, 2011, 05:56:35 AM

Dear Planetside...

Can we please have some support for expressions within Terragen?

This is something Ive thought a lot about and now Im working on updating my workflow tutorial for rendering a skybox and thought this could be a perfect example for where expressions would make life a lot easier!

In this setup I have 6 camera's North East South West Up Down (6 cube faces)
The user must now manually input the same position for each of these cameras.
Wouldn't it be a lot easier if these position values could be linked via expressions!?

Once values have been linked via expressions, there could be a visible link shown in the node graph (like what nuke does)

Supporting expressions opens up a whole heap of possibilities, particularly with animation...
Setting up complex camera rigs- custom easing expressions... etc etc

What would be nice (which nuke / AE does not provide) is a node based architecture for building expressions... so at the moment we have "blue nodes" which are functions... perhaps "green nodes" (for example) could be expressions... within this architecture, global variables could be set up which would be a huge time saver... okay im starting to rant without properly thinking, so Ill leave this up for discussion now

Matt · April 05, 2011, 02:40:31 AM

I would love this too. This will probably fall under the umbrella of the general scripting interface, for which we plan to use Python. We'd only need a rudimentary system to do what you're asking for, but I don't want to go far along defining and parsing a particular syntax until it develops naturally out of the broader scripting interface. Parameter linking and expressions will fall naturally out of that, I think. We haven't yet made a decision on when we'll fully work on the Python interface, but I'm sure it will happen.

Henry Blewer · April 05, 2011, 07:50:37 AM

Cool. Python would be welcome to me.

Hetzen · April 05, 2011, 04:33:19 PM

Just a thought on your skybox, could you not set up an animation over six frames to do the same thing? Obviously turning off motion blur.

You'd only need to key frame the rotations, once you've set your position.

Edit: Here you go.

Dune · April 06, 2011, 02:38:52 AM

Hey Jon, howcome your tgc saves as a htm? Thanks, by the way, might be handy some day. I saved as tgc, because that's what it is, isn't it?

Hetzen · April 06, 2011, 07:46:39 AM

Not sure Ulco. I've just downloaded it, and it saved for me as a TGC. $:-\$

Btw, I've not used this in anger, so some of the rotations may need to be manipulated in something like photoshop to get the right orientations for your skybox cross. But it should make life somewhat easier for doing this.

Kadri · April 06, 2011, 08:03:40 AM

No problem with downloading the TGC here .
Tried in Firefox 4 ,Chrome10 and Explorer 9 in Windows 7 64 bit ultimate.
Thanks for the file Hetzen!

Hetzen · April 06, 2011, 09:31:23 AM

Thanks Kadri. Hope it helps.

Dune · April 07, 2011, 02:24:25 AM

Must be Opera...

Floating.Point · April 10, 2011, 11:43:33 AM

yes Hetzen, I did include an animated version in the tute,
however not everyone has animation so I wanted to make the tutorial available for all!

This was just an example of one of the many times an expression engine would be of help to us all!
You can see my Skybox tutorial here:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=11608.0