[Shaderhacker]

All:

I've been mulling over this for sometime now. I'm trying to figure out what should be the best way to introduce programmers out there on some really powerful tools that can be made using python. C/C++ is the way of the old barbarians living back in 50B.C. I only use it when I absolutely HAVE to..

Anyway, I developed a Renderview application very similar to Maya's own RenderView a few months back because our fellow Mental Image friends wouldn't give out the source code to the tool named "imf_disp" (it's ok, I forgive you ). We wanted to basically have a RenderView that did 3 very important things that Maya's Renderview doesn't:

1) Gamma correction.

2) Mental Ray Satellite rendering.

3) Ability to change/customize the GUI whenever we felt like it.

I made this tool using nothing but wxPython but it branches out into several other scripts for a full rendering pipeline (i.e. mel scripts and other python scripts).

I'd like to release at least some of the source on how to get someone going making their own RenderView tool, but without *ALL* the source code, the demonstration and tutorial would be unusable out-the-box. Should I come up with a mock interface and just lead the programmer on the path to a pipeline or just scrap the idea since most people would either A) write their own proprietary GUI, or B) use what's already in Maya?

Thoughts?

-M

[marcobauriedel]

Hey that sounds fantastic,

I`d really like to get deeper into phyton and see the possibilities so it would be great to see the ideas and commands you use to approach such a task. Scraping the idea by showing the most important ways on how to solve major problems would be already very helpful.

cheers,
Marco

[Shaderhacker]

Originally Posted by marcobauriedel

Hey that sounds fantastic,

I`d really like to get deeper into phyton and see the possibilities so it would be great to see the ideas and commands you use to approach such a task. Scraping the idea by showing the most important ways on how to solve major problems would be already very helpful.

cheers,
Marco

Thanks Marco!

Yes, this will be something long term. I'm a thorough person and very specific, so I'm hoping to present some basic solutions to the problems I've come across at the various studios.

[Shaderhacker]

As I promised, here are some images of a render view application implemented in our studio using just python and MEL. I will be starting a tutorial on how to get started with implementing your own render view application soon, but for now, here are some images of the tool:

Screen 1: Overall tool layout


Screen 2: Taking snapshots from Maya


Screen 3: Render regions


Screen 4: Alpha Channels (and Luminance)


Screen 5: Rendering Options Interface


Screen 6: Gamma settings (not in Maya's renderview)


Screen 7: Framebuffer Images from a render


Screen 8: Viewing the Ambient Occlusion Pass


Screen 9: Viewing the Depth Pass


Stay tuned for more!!

-M

[cloudcatcher]

Nice one, why use wxPython and not just python ?
How long did it take you to develop ?

[Shaderhacker]

Originally Posted by cloudcatcher

Nice one, why use wxPython and not just python ?
How long did it take you to develop ?

wxPython is just a windowing API module for python. In python, there is no built-in function to create a window (and all of it's widgets) in it's native language, so you need modules that allow you to gain access to functions that creates the GUI.

It's similar to C/C++ in that you can't create a window with any one built-in function unless you have a win32API, or OpenGL API that you include.

Hope this helps,

-M

It took me a few months to make this interface. A lot of experimentation and trial and error.

[goofoo]

hello Marlin. Very interesting work. Now i began too use python in maya, but this is hard especially when i try make gui python. Maybe you can send me some source code from your work for study.
Big thanx Marlin and sorry for my bad english

[Shaderhacker]

Originally Posted by goofoo

hello Marlin. Very interesting work. Now i began too use python in maya, but this is hard especially when i try make gui python. Maybe you can send me some source code from your work for study.
Big thanx Marlin and sorry for my bad english

Will do soon..

[kattkieru]

First post!

I know this is an old thread, but I was wondering Shaderhacker -- have you put up any of the code / demonstration stuff for this render viewer?

I'm currently the TD at a place in Toronto, and we've inherited a lot of tools that were written in a combination of MEL, Maya Python, and Visual Basic. None of them work properly, and I'm looking at wxPython as a way to sidestep a lot of the hassle of getting some nicer tools up and running; the main thing right now is seeing how people do communication with Maya. It might end up that I have to write a custom UI for the pipeline tool we're looking at, as well as replacements for the tools mentioned above, but I'd like to do from within Maya if possible instead of using less-dependable commandPort trickery.

Anyway, if this project is still going for you, or if you have some good links on getting wxPython running in Maya 2008 on Mac or PC, that would be stellar.

[Shaderhacker]

Originally Posted by kattkieru

First post!

I know this is an old thread, but I was wondering Shaderhacker -- have you put up any of the code / demonstration stuff for this render viewer?

I'm currently the TD at a place in Toronto, and we've inherited a lot of tools that were written in a combination of MEL, Maya Python, and Visual Basic. None of them work properly, and I'm looking at wxPython as a way to sidestep a lot of the hassle of getting some nicer tools up and running; the main thing right now is seeing how people do communication with Maya. It might end up that I have to write a custom UI for the pipeline tool we're looking at, as well as replacements for the tools mentioned above, but I'd like to do from within Maya if possible instead of using less-dependable commandPort trickery.

Anyway, if this project is still going for you, or if you have some good links on getting wxPython running in Maya 2008 on Mac or PC, that would be stellar.

Hello!

I'm so sorry for not replying earlier. I haven't had much time for anything outside of work.

The RenderView is done. We've come a long way since I began this article and we are now looking at implementing some kind of IPR functionality to take advantage of MR's new progressive mode.

Anyway, in answer to your question - I haven't gone through and spliced out code that can be made to the masses. Our RenderView ties to Maya only on the global rendering settings front-end and not the application itself.

We basically create a shell in Maya (from a MEL script) and call our python script from there. It will launch a session. We've found a way to work with the CommandPort functionality so that you can have multiple Maya's open and multiple RenderViews open for each Maya session. It's still not as glamorous as having Maya call wxPython, but it works. One disadvantage to having the RenderView be dependent on Maya is if Maya crashes, so will the RenderView. If an artist has a lot of cached images in the queue, they are wiped out.

If you want to know a little more details on our implementation, just let me know.

-M