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View Full Version : Live Connection in Maya..?

rebeldreams
10-31-2011, 12:40 PM
Hey all, long time no post! :)

I'm working on a little project and while my programming skills are okay(ish) I find myself a little lost in the Maya API. Basically I want to create a live link to an external app (a realtime renderer) in the spirit of CryTek's live link system, so that I can see the results of my animations directly in the external renderer. What's the best way to go about this?

If need be, I can forgo the live link, but it'd be nice to have. Think of it as the cherry on top. :D

For a little more background, the renderer can handle pretty much any standard data format, but the preferred one is FBX (which, I understand, is hard to make "live stream") although I can pretty much adapt any other format for use.

Cheers in advance!
zoharl
11-02-2011, 01:39 AM
So what's the problem? Write a plugin for the event you want to respond to, open a socket to your outside renderer, and stream your data.
rebeldreams
11-02-2011, 12:27 PM
Oh, as simple as that? Good! :)

I was worried, given the lack of direct-connect plugins of this sort, that thanks to some byzantine API architecture a live link was difficult to achieve.Plus, I remember the old days when it actually was hard...

Anyway, thanks a lot for the info. I must say the API docs are still pretty poorly structured to my mind, but it's probably just me :D

I recc'd your reply, BTW.
zoharl
11-03-2011, 04:56 AM
(recc'd?)

Funny. My friend, you preach to the converted. Look at my previous posts, I don't think there's anyone who complains more than me about maya's api nor autodesk unprofessional-ism in general. From the last discussion on the main forum (subject ~"leave maya") I got the impression that if it's possible for you do to it in another app, then you should, and there are better ones.

Concerning maya, I didn't say it would be simple, and probably you'll have to go through walls, but it does seem straight forward. You didn't specify exactly what you want, and I'm not familiar with CryTek's live link system, and I don't know where do you plan to channel the data to. But I gave you a technical estimation that maya should enable you to respond to the events you want, and access the data you need, and the socket or other form of communication beyond that is os dependent. So I guess you'll have to be more specific if you want me to be more specific ;)
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11-03-2011, 04:56 AM
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