DZ legacy curves

Pendraia

I thought I'd start a thread on the new experimental curves contained in the SDK. It would be good to have a centralised spot for information on this new function.

First, a big thank you to Rob for providing us with this brick.

I've discovered through looking through the SDK that in Samples there is a folder called ShaderBrick/DzCurveBrick. Looking through it I couldn't find a .dcb file like Zigraphix's used for her rotator brick. Can anyone tell me what the file ending for the actual brick should be and where it needs to be placed to play with it?

Thanks

Pen

ReDave

Ooooh, I hadn't noticed that the SDK was released. Downloading now but I have to go out for a while. If the files end in .h and .cpp they need to be compiled (and in older versions new brick do have to be compiled before you can use them).
Edit: after checking, it indeed needs to be compiled. :-S

Pendraia

ReDave said:

Ooooh, I hadn't noticed that the SDK was released. Downloading now but I have to go out for a while. If the files end in .h and .cpp they need to be compiled (and in older versions new brick do have to be compiled before you can use them).
Edit: after checking, it indeed needs to be compiled. :-S

They are .h and .cpp. So how do I compile them...I've not done that before.

DanaTA

Pen, do you have C++? The .h and .cpp extensions indicate header and code files, which are used by a C++ compiler. I haven't used C++ in many years, but remembering...you'd have to put the desired files into a project and run the compiler, the SDK library will most likely need to be included. Further than that, I can't help.

Dana

Pendraia

DanaTA said:

Pen, do you have C++? The .h and .cpp extensions indicate header and code files, which are used by a C++ compiler. I haven't used C++ in many years, but remembering...you'd have to put the desired files into a project and run the compiler, the SDK library will most likely need to be included. Further than that, I can't help.

Dana

No..I don't. This is my first time doing anything like this. Thanks for the info...I will look into it further and see if I can get hold of C++...

Thanks for the help

Pen

Richard Haseltine

I think you can still get a version of Visual C++ Express free from Microsoft, which should work with the SDK.

Pendraia

Richard, you're an absolute legend! Thanks for the info...I was wondering where I could get it from.

Hugs

Pen

rbtwhiz

I'll pass your thanks on to the rest of the team... its a team effort.

The SDK is intended to provide software developers an ability to extend the capabilities of the application through plugins. The samples provided with the SDK serve as examples of how to do exactly that - they are not [necessarily] intended for use by the average user. Plugins must be compiled. Plugins built with the DAZ Studio 4.5.x SDK Release Candidate (4.5.0.26) must be compiled against a binary compatible build of the application (4.5.0.26) in order to load. Once we finish the Release Candidate phase, the SDK will be frozen and we will avoid making any changes to the API that would cause binary incompatibility. Until that time, we will avoid major changes (there have already been several private drops to existing developers to harden the API by the time the general public gets a chance to see it), but we do not ensure binary compatibility at this point - hence the restriction on accepting plugins built using it, into the store.

A Visual Studio 2010 Solution (.sln) is included in the samples folder of the SDK. Opening this solution with Visual Studio will allow you to compile the brick plugin and subsequently launch the corresponding RC build to use it. Using it involves creating the appropriate curves for 3Delight to render using a shader that incorporates it. There are, of course, a number of details that I'm glossing over here, but the topic is much larger than this thread alone (with several tangents) can do justice.

-Rob

Pendraia

rbtwhiz said:

I'll pass your thanks on to the rest of the team... its a team effort.

The SDK is intended to provide software developers an ability to extend the capabilities of the application through plugins. The samples provided with the SDK serve as examples of how to do exactly that - they are not [necessarily] intended for use by the average user. Plugins must be compiled. Plugins built with the DAZ Studio 4.5.x SDK Release Candidate (4.5.0.26) must be compiled against a binary compatible build of the application (4.5.0.26) in order to load. Once we finish the Release Candidate phase, the SDK will be frozen and we will avoid making any changes to the API that would cause binary incompatibility. Until that time, we will avoid major changes (there have already been several private drops to existing developers to harden the API by the time the general public gets a chance to see it), but we do not ensure binary compatibility at this point - hence the restriction on accepting plugins built using it, into the store.

A Visual Studio 2010 Solution (.sln) is included in the samples folder of the SDK. Opening this solution with Visual Studio will allow you to compile the brick plugin and subsequently launch the corresponding RC build to use it. Using it involves creating the appropriate curves for 3Delight to render using a shader that incorporates it. There are, of course, a number of details that I'm glossing over here, but the topic is much larger than this thread alone (with several tangents) can do justice.

-Rob

Thanks for the explanation. I will download Visual studio and have a play to see what I can workout. If you don't hear anymore from me my brain has probably melted...lol

Please pass on my thanks to everyone who worked on this project. It's fantastic to see this incorporated into the SDK and I can't wait to see what people do with it.

Pen

Pendraia

Just a brief note to say I'm still working on fathoming out how to use Visual Studio. It will probably take me some time to understand the basics so I can use the items in the sdk but I'm still hanging in and trying to work it out.

cheers

Pen