Plug Time To Deformer

[isam]

i wrote a deformer that deforms according to time, so i needed the node to update on playback, first thing i tried was plugging time1.ouTime into an attribute, but that doesnt update the node during playback, but only when u stop the playback, so whats the way to plug this right?

thanks

[joojaa]

Did you set attribute affects or were you actually capturing change yourself (which inst as easy as it sounds).

[isam]

i did set attributeaffects over the attribute that receives the time, if thats what u mean, and what is it exactly that u mean by capturing it myself??

thnx again for bearing with me

[joojaa]

Yes but the attribute affects must affect the output plug. If it does not then the output wont be marked dirty on time refresh if its not marked dirty maya thinks its clean. Therefore wont clean it up; cleaning executes the deformation code.

So what plug does it affect?

[isam]

node.attributeAffects( geoCacheNode.angle, outputGeom )

isnt this the right code? (in python )

[isam]

ok im back after having tried everythin i know,

situation now: i connected the outTime with the time attribute of the deformer, and what happens by default is that it updates either when time is set on the slider manually, or having set it from the setter near the time slider,

i tried batch rendering to see if its just a gui update, didnt work,

i tried hooking it up with the translateY of another object, and moving the object didnt update the node unless i moved the time slider manually,

the only time it actually worked was when i animated the object that has the deformer plugged into it, then, it updated both the deformer and the object's translations,

what can i do to actually force the update over playback???

thanks again

[isam]

anyone????

[joojaa]

show us your attribute cosntruction

[isam]

got hooked up at worrk with other stuff, and here it is :

CODE
    # time attribute
    nAttr = OpenMaya.MFnNumericAttribute()
    geoCacheNode.time = nAttr.create( "time", "fa", OpenMaya.MFnNumericData.kDouble, 0.0 )
    nAttr.setKeyable(True)
    # add attribute
    try:
        geoCacheNode.addAttribute( geoCacheNode.time )
        outputGeom = OpenMayaMPx.cvar.MPxDeformerNode_outputGeom
        geoCacheNode.attributeAffects( geoCacheNode.time, outputGeom )
    except:
        sys.stderr.write( "Failed to create attributes of %s node\n", kPluginNodeTypeName )

[isam]

finally back from the holidays! and here to lay everythin down,

hereby is where i got with the deformer (save it in a py text file to get it):

CODE
import math, sys

import maya.OpenMaya as OpenMaya
import maya.OpenMayaAnim as OpenMayaAnim
import maya.OpenMayaMPx as OpenMayaMPx
import os
import string

kPluginNodeTypeName = "geoCacheNode"

geoCacheNodeId = OpenMaya.MTypeId(0x8701)

# Node definition
class geoCacheNode(OpenMayaMPx.MPxDeformerNode):
    # class variables
    time = OpenMaya.MObject()
    # constructor
    def __init__(self):
        OpenMayaMPx.MPxDeformerNode.__init__(self)
    # deform
    def deform(self,dataBlock,geomIter,matrix,multiIndex):
        #
        # get the envelope
        envelope = OpenMayaMPx.cvar.MPxDeformerNode_envelope
        envelopeHandle = dataBlock.inputValue( envelope )
        envelopeValue = envelopeHandle.asFloat()

        envelope = OpenMayaMPx.cvar.MPxDeformerNode_envelope
        envelopeHandle = dataBlock.inputValue( envelope )
        envelopeValue = envelopeHandle.asFloat()
        #
        # iterate over the object and change the time

        jjj= 0;

        while geomIter.isDone() == False:

            point = OpenMaya.MPoint()

            coordinates = string.split(lines[jjj])
            point = OpenMaya.MPoint(float(coordinates[1]),float(coordinates[2]),float(coordinates[3]),1)
            geomIter.setPosition(point,OpenMaya.MSpace.kObject)
            geomIter.next()
            jjj = jjj+1

# creator
def nodeCreator():
    return OpenMayaMPx.asMPxPtr( geoCacheNode() )

# initializer
def nodeInitializer():
    # time
    nAttr = OpenMaya.MFnNumericAttribute()
    geoCacheNode.time = nAttr.create( "time", "fa", OpenMaya.MFnNumericData.kDouble, 0.0 )
    #nAttr.setDefault(0.0)
    nAttr.setKeyable(True)
    # add attribute
    try:
        geoCacheNode.addAttribute( geoCacheNode.time )
        outputGeom = OpenMayaMPx.cvar.MPxDeformerNode_outputGeom
        geoCacheNode.attributeAffects( geoCacheNode.time, outputGeom )
    except:
        sys.stderr.write( "Failed to create attributes of %s node\n", kPluginNodeTypeName )

    timeControl = OpenMayaAnim.MAnimControl()
    currentTime = timeControl.currentTime()

    inputFile = "D:\maya work\API projects (c++)\geoCacheCmd\geoCacheCmd\Debug\geo"+str(int(currentTime.value()))+".cache"

    def getText(inputFile):

        if os.path.exists(inputFile) == True:
            textRead = file(inputFile,'r')
            textResult = textRead.read()
            textRead.close()
            return textResult
        else:
            textResult = 'Not Available'
            return textResult

    fileContents = getText(inputFile)

    lines = string.split(fileContents,'\n')

# initialize the script plug-in
def initializePlugin(mobject):
    mplugin = OpenMayaMPx.MFnPlugin(mobject)
    try:
        mplugin.registerNode( kPluginNodeTypeName, geoCacheNodeId, nodeCreator, nodeInitializer,   OpenMayaMPx.MPxNode.kDeformerNode )
    except:
        sys.stderr.write( "Failed to register node: %s\n" % kPluginNodeTypeName )

# uninitialize the script plug-in
def uninitializePlugin(mobject):
    mplugin = OpenMayaMPx.MFnPlugin(mobject)
    try:
        mplugin.deregisterNode( geoCacheNodeId)
    except:
        sys.stderr.write( "Failed to unregister node: %s\n" % kPluginNodeTypeName )

and hereby is the data needed to run the plugin (the cache files):

http://www.4shared.com/file/32211981/30f1fa70/cache.html

thanks a lot in advance to whoever might help

(ps: i dunno if i someone could move this thread for me to the python section or something???)

[pascal_l]

Hello,

I had a similar problem (not with a deformer node) and the solution is to query the time in your "compute" proc.
If you don't, it's like if the node doesn't know that the time has changed.

I believe it's the same for any attribute. If you don't check for it's value, it is like if it doesn't change...

Hope I'm clear
Pascal.

[joojaa]

QUOTE(pascal_L @ 02/19/08, 06:00 AM) [snapback]281341[/snapback]
I believe it's the same for any attribute. If you don't check for it's value, it is like if it doesn't change...

Yes, because maya is a push and pull network. So yo can get a notification something is going on but untill you actually querry the value the pull isnt going to happen