C4D SDK plugin help ..

#9

No, that’s it. It’s compiled and the tool is a part of the plugin. You will need to look for the tool under the Cinema4DSDK folder in your plugins menu, there you will find the Liquid Tool, which is the tool for painting metaballs. If the plugin hasn’t loaded then it will mostly explain why in Cinema’s Console (Windows->Console) displaying the list of errors.

Remember to leave the cinema4dSDK.dylib file in the cinema4dsdk folder as it will reference the res folder in there for it’s resources (dialogs, icons etc).

#10

not there…must have doen something wrong…I don’t have any errors in the console either…The only thing in the cinema4d drop down in flashEX V2 and ASCII animation import
OH well…it was interesting…If anyone on a Mac has this and is willing to share I certainly would be thankful

scott

#11

That’s very odd, what computer are you running? (CoreDuo/Core2Duo/g5/g4)

It’s possible that your machine is loading up the non UB version of 9.6 if you have a G4/G5, in which case it would look for Codewarrior built non UB libraries (Cinema4dSDK.XDL) rather than XCodes UB DYLIBs. You can try compiling and running the R10 SDK instead as it will force the issue, when you load R10 that is, apart from that the only solution would be to compile using codewarrior which would be difficult as it’s no longer available.

You can test to see if the file is being loaded in by modifying the “main.cpp” file and adding in

GePrint("it got this far!");

in the “Bool PluginStart(void)” routine after the various if(!Register… lines then it will print out “it got this far!” in the console provided the plugin actually loads, and you can use that to work out roughly which line it’s failing on, or even if the plugin is loading at all.

#12

I am on a Quad G5. Since I didn’t get any errors I would assume that all went OK but…Where exactly after…

  Bool PluginStart(void)
  
  should I paste that line ?
  
  like this
  
  Bool PluginStart(void)
  {
  GePrint("it got this far!");
  
  I will keep trying..can I just use BBedit for this
  thanks again

SUCCESS!..well kind of…I tried V10 and all went OK…plugins are all there…same steps as I did in V9.6 but again that version doesn’t work so…I prefer to still work in V9 because of speed issues( it is still faster than 10 on my system and there are obvious plugin incompatibilities etc
The SDK of both 9 and 10 look the same but obviously something is different…visially can one check or look at something with BBedit to tell?

  Fun little tool but does anyone know how to control the placement..it seems to place it outside a specific area..at least I have it working just have to figure out how to control where the globs are placed:)
  scott
#13

The placement is controlled by the mouse, in the MouseInput routine check the mouse polling loop and you will see the line:

cl->SetPos(bd->SW(Vector(mx,my,500.0)));

This sets the position of the object cl (a clone of an earlier allocated sphere) to the world coordinate (bd->SW is the basedraw or viewport call to convert a vector from screen space to world space) for the mouses current position and 500 units in front of the camera Vector(mx, my, 500.0). You can modify this however you want, however I would recommend at the very least reading through some of the SDK documentation on this stuff first, you would want to look up about BaseDraw, Vector and BaseObject classes.

#14

well I tried to understand this but can’t say that anything really made any sense. I changed the 500 value to both 800 and 10 and didn’t notice anything different. The globs still place them selves perfectly outside a circle based on the position of the orange and green triangles…any hints. I actually enjoy trying to figure this out…just don’t see my gooey brain getting anywhere:)

scott

#15

I’m afraid I really don’t understand what you mean. There are no orange or green handles, just a red triangle in the middle of the viewport, and you just click and drag and it draws a metaball surface where you click and drag in teh viewport (but 500 units in front of the camera). Do you have a screenshot to show what it is you mean?

#16

I never mentioned handles…but triangles…but here is a couple screen shots. As you stated they seem to place the metaballs 500 units from the placement point or the center( world) Changing the values in the code you offered doesn’t seem to change anything. I can work around this but it certainly would be helpful if I could control this better or for that matter have it so that the metaball could be placed on or snapped to polygon points( sorry I wish too much:)

#17

The placement is 500 units from the camera not from the center of the world. Move the camera back and the next time you paint it will be further back with it. I’m not sure why changing the value there is having no change on the position of the metaballs for you, are you sure you’re recompiling (building) the code after making a change?

If you want them to snap to surfaces then you must implement the code to get the distance of the surface point from the camera and put that in the z of the vector (where 500 currently is), for that you can use either the ViewportSelect class or the SelectionListCreate function (and the C4DObjectList), which both use opengl to speed up object picking, failing that you can use the GeRayCollider class which manually casts rays into the scene.

#18

you are correct…I wasn’t compiling it( fixed) I have it at 900 …seems to give me the look( placement) I need …and yes again moving the camera back changes the placement point but again moving the camera around in a static still scene that is already setup isn’t a good thing:) so…
the other info about ( ViewportSelect class or the SelectionListCreate function (and the C4DObjectList),) etc…sorry beyound my ability but this sounds like it would be different for each scene correct?.since each scene would have a differnt value or distance from the camera each time. I think the optimum would be something similar to the extrude along spline(ESA)plugin…where when a point is selected and the plugin( liquid) selected the metaball would grow from that point in either an XYZ direction…again way beyond my ability to code but wishful thinking

I am still trying to figure out why V9.6+( compile) isn’t working though

#19

Your 9.6 is working, but your version of Cinema that is loading up is not the UB/XCode version, this means that dylibs will not load as plugins with it on your machine, you would have to compile with Codewarrior to create an .xdl library which would be able to load as a plugin, which unfortunately I believe is no longer available.

The classes I mentioned allow you to find a Z distance for any point in screen space regardless of the scene, however you can calculate a z based on the last point by getting the currently active object from the document, converting it’s global position coordinate to screen space using the basedraw functions (Vector BaseDraw::WS(const Vector &position); ) and then using the z from that vector as your new z. It wont be very accurate because it will be based on the objects axis rather than any points in the object, but it will be close enough.

#20

all your help is greatly appreciated…I am attempting to find a V of codewarrior so that I can compile the 9.6 V. I will attempt to figure the rest but most likley this will be as far as my brain will let me go:)

cheers

scott

#21

Anything illegal about just passing this poor guy the pre-built SDK libs? I’m amazed that they don’t come pre-built for those who just want the plugins but can’t do the builds themselves. Let’s face it, VC6, VS2005, and CodeWarrior are not free (and not inexpensive investments) just to build something like this…

:wink:

#22

Nothing at all illegal about giving him the builds (though given he’s posting here about making the build himself then he may have his reasons). I personally can’t give anyone any pre XCode Mac SDK builds currently, however feel free to if you have the resources to do so.

Just a note that VC2005 Express is free from MSDN as is XCode from ADC and those are the current development tools of choice for the C4D SDK for plugin developers. The reasoning for not providing it fully compiled is probably that SDK mostly only contains examples of interest to developers, often replications of existing functionality, or tools that are only of value to coders (such as the memtest), adding them as a precompiled element would result in much more technical support, and probably some confusion amongst users (as a number of the examples are quite functionless except fro instance to show how to control dialogs, or even are only partially functioning, such as the liquid tool, which while cool is by no means a complete tool), as well as more documentation, they are effectively provided “as is” currently, while if they were part of the package as a build they would have to be given full support, so it’s much easier to leave things as they are.

#23

It is true that VC2005 Express is free - but no good for 64-bit. :slight_smile:

I could indeed provide CW builds of the SDK plugin for any version from 8.2 onwards.

The purpose of the sdk examples is understood, but obviously these little ‘treats’ are useful to those not interested in development (consider the import/export examples as one area). Even if not included in the default install, the built plugin could easily be included on the CD for copying and use (?) if a user desired any of the functionality therein - with the obvious caveats aforementioned.

XCode is truly gratis, but it is a considerable download if the latest version isn’t available on the disc - even I paused at such an endeavor. Most people are truly clueless about the entire process - it seems that climber is at least sufficient enough to get through it without too much consternation. But one must remember that we have been down these roads for very long times and often - the uninitiated can be downright boggled by this - even though the process to create the sdk example plugin is not very complex in itself.

Well, I’ll keep my eyes on this thread and offer any assistance as needed - as I’m certain Per will! :slight_smile:

#24

I don’t see any reason that you can’t compile 64bit with VC++2005 Express, you do have to make sure you have the latest platform SDK, but you need that anyway in order to compile Cinema plugins.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9yb4317s(VS.80).aspx

The tools are free, and as I recall you can ask Microsoft or Apple to send you a free CD with the full installers on them for both. The SDK is meant for software developers, people who are interested in experimenting or maybe making their own plugins and tools, it’s really an optional extra. It might be a good idea to have the compiled version on plugincafe though.

#25

Although I have found this a very interesting project and I am at the wall of sorts regarding proper compliers for the 9.6 Version SDK…so I am more than happy to accept a compiled SDK for C4D 9.6. I have had offers for others on other forums as well but they are on a PC which has VC2005 Express for free…myself I am on a Mac which complicates things a little so Kuroyume0161 if you can offer a complied Mac SDK for C4D V9.6 I would be very greatful…and yes Xcode was a big one to DL:)

scott

#26

That’s interesting. Last time I looked, it explicitly said that 64-bit was not possible with the Express edition - possibly a change of mind?

#27

Scott,

Here is the download link for the PPC (CodeWarrior) and UB (Xcode) 9.6 SDK example libs. Simply extract these from the zip archive into the Cinema4DSDK folder in the Cinema 4D R9.6 plugins folder.

http://www.kuroyumes-developmentzone.com/c4d/Cinema4Dsdk_R96.zip

Robert

#28

Hi Robert

thank you very much for this…I appreciate it greatly. I now must be a ( beggers can’t be choosers) person and ask a favour. I customized a few values in V10 that I would like in V9.6 if possible…here they are

radius from 5 to 1

BaseObject *cl=NULL,*null=NULL,*op=NULL;
Vector p=bd->SW(Vector(mx,my,500.0));
Real dx,dy,rad=1.0;
Bool newmeta=FALSE;

subdivide from 10 to 3

null = BaseObject::Alloc(Ometaball);
{
null->GetDataInstance()->SetReal(METABALLOBJECT_SUBEDITOR,3.0);
null->MakeTag(Tphong);

and

position from 500 to 900

cl->SetPos(bd->SW(Vector(mx,my,900.0)));
cl->InsertUnder(null);
DrawViews(DA_ONLY_ACTIVE_VIEW|DA_NO_THREAD|DA_NO_ANIMATION);

I hope I am not over asking…

scott