Feature/Plug in idea: CP-based decal memory

[Meowx]

I've always dreaded going back and editing the geometry of "finished" models because it typically involves breaking decals. Is it possible to work around this by storing decal stamp data on a CP by CP basis, rather than a patch by patch basis?

 

Now, bear with me for a second here. My programming knowledge is pretty limited, so I have no idea how feasible something like this is; if it would work, if it would create ridiculously bloated files, what have you. But I DO know that this is a feature I've wanted for a long, long time and it just kind of occurred to me how one might go about doing it.

 

Here's what I'm thinking. Here's a simple little model made up of four patches and eight points, A-H.

 

Now, say you delete points E and F like so:

A:M would remember where on the the stamp points C - G and D - H are and attempt to fill it back in.

 

Say you draw a new spline down the middle:

A:M would remember where on the the stamp points A - B, C - D, etc etc are and attempt to fill it back in.

 

Say you completely remove the spline and CPs where E and F where:

A:M would still remember where on the stamp C, D, G, and H are so that if you draw it back in:

A:M would again attempt to fill the decal back in.

 

Is this something that could work? At all? I know I would be eternally grateful for a feature like this.

[robcat2075]

I'd say this is something very easy for the human eye to discern the needed action, very difficult for the computer, that only knows the model as a cloud of splines in space, to identify the correct result.

[robcat2075]

One of our forum members, Mike Sanderson, took me on a tour of DNA when they were working on "Ant Bully" around 2005 or so.

 

Everything the animators worked on was gray, no textures at all, not even flat colors like we might assign to a "group". The texturing was just about the last step in the pipeline before rendering. Probably for the same reasons we have.

 

 

Procedural textures ("Materials") will survive resplining. All you have to do is add the new splines to the group the material is applied to.

 

Blue Sky's "Robots" was ostensibly made with only procedural materials. It can be done.

[Fuchur]

Are you aware of the option "Recall View / Position" of a stamp?

That one could help you very much with your problem, if you ask me, especially if you use Actions to texture your model in and keep them till you really don't need to retexture anything. (or never delete them).

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[Meowx]

Indeed, I do use that feature whenever I can. Unfortunately, most of my models are comprised of multiple flattening actions, and not all of them get saved independently of project files. So there's a lot of backtracking through previous versions of project files to try and find the right action, and even then the "recall view" option doesn't always work properly. Was more just wondering about the feasibility of a feature like this!

[Rodney]

This might be where utilities and plugins such as BitmapPlus come in.

They attempt to project images in a similar fashion as materials.

In this way regardless of how you modify the object the image occupies the same space.

 

So, perhaps your plugin already exists to some degree.

Have you experimented with BitmapPlus yet?

[Meowx]

I have not! Downloading it now, I'll take a look!

[pixelplucker]

I would think it would be possible if AM doesn't rename the initial cp's when patches are subdivided.

In many programs that do subdivision surfaces, the uv sets are based on the control shape and not the sub divided surface.

 

Anyone make an LSCM plug yet? huh?