 | | | addon questions | addon questions 2005-05-11 - By Aloys Baillet
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Hi Haarm-Pieter,
I might not have a lot of answers to your questions, but you can try to open
the .xsiaddon file with a text editor: its actually a XML file containing
all the .spdl, the .preset and the.dll files in zipped format.
I usually check that all the needed files that are actually contained in it
before ditributing the addons...
Unfortunately I don't play too much with shader addons, only with operator
addons...
Good luck anyway!
Aloys
On 5/12/05, Haarm-Pieter Duiker <hpd@(protected)> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I've put together a couple of addons. Doing so has brought up a couple of
> questions. The questions come mostly from the fact that there is much waving
> of the hands and praying to the gods when it comes to getting a .addon file
> created, installed, and useable. There are a number of issues that are too
> unclear for me to be comfortable with.
>
> A reference to documentation or a general explanation of how addons work
> internally would be much appreciated. The XSI SDK documentation doesn't
> really go into the depth I'm looking for.
>
> The questions the process has brought up are :
> 1. Is it possible to make a self contained .addon?
> So far, I've had to install my shaders in my user area, create the .addon
> to package up a group of shaders. It has seemed necessary to install the
> addon into the workgroup area before removing individual shaders installed
> in my user area. I'm pretty sure the .dll isn't part of the .addon.
>
> 2. Relating to #1, What information is contained in the .addon?
> They seem to be bigger than combined size of the .spdls that they should
> reference, but not bigger than the .spdls and the .dll, or the .spdls and
> the .Preset files.
>
> 3. When I install an addon that contains many different .spdls that all
> reference the same .dll, the shader_plugins.mi file is updated to reference
> the new .spdl declarations, but only the first of those declartations
> contains a link statement for the .dll. The rest have a spdl statement but
> no link statement. Is this a known bug?
>
> 4. Is there a process for updating .addon package installations without
> forcing everyone to quit out of XSI?
> The .spdl and .Preset files seem to be read and released at startup time.
> The .dll files on the other hand are opened continuously while XSI is
> running. This seems to be true only after the first render, but assuming
> that your shader is being used a fair bit within a facility, the chances of
> your .dll not being in use are slim.
> .dlls being used to render with standalone ray can be renamed without
> breaking a render. This allows developers to install a .dll in the place of
> the old without breaking currently running renders. The way XSI locks file
> access to the .dlls precludes this little trick. Are there known ways to
> update a .addon package workgroup installation in place?
> The .addon packages that we're using right now are being referenced by up
> to 60 machines at a time so it's not very convenient to have to force
> everyone to either quit XSI or stop rendering before we want to install a
> new version of the addon.
>
> Thanks in advance for reading this far and even more so for responding,
> Haarm-Pieter Duiker
>
> ---
> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo@(protected) with the following text in body:
> unsubscribe xsi
>
--
Aloys Baillet - Character TD @ Animal Logic
Hi Haarm-Pieter,<br>
<br>
I might not have a lot of answers to your questions, but you can try to
open the .xsiaddon file with a text editor: its actually a XML file
containing all the .spdl, the .preset and the.dll files in zipped
format.<br>
I usually check that all the needed files that are actually contained in it
before ditributing the addons...<br>
Unfortunately I don't play too much with shader addons, only with operator
addons...<br>
Good luck anyway!<br>
<br>
Aloys<br>
<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 5/12/05, <b class="gmail_sendername"
>Haarm-Pieter Duiker</b> <<a href="mailto:hpd@(protected)">hpd@(protected)
.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left:
1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hello,<br><br>I've
put together a couple of addons. Doing so has brought up a couple of
questions. The questions come mostly from the fact that there is much
waving of the hands and praying to the gods when it comes to getting a
.addon file created, installed, and useable. There are a number of
issues that are too unclear for me to be comfortable with.<br><br>A
reference to documentation or a general explanation of how addons work
internally would be much appreciated. The XSI SDK documentation doesn't
really go into the depth I'm looking for.<br><br>The questions the process has
brought up are :<br>1. Is it possible to make a self contained .addon?<br> 
; So
far, I've had to install my shaders in my user area, create the .addon
to package up a group of shaders. It has seemed necessary to install
the addon into the workgroup area before removing individual shaders
installed in my user area. I'm pretty sure the .dll isn't part of the
.addon.<br><br>2. Relating to #1, What information is contained in the .addon?
<br> They
seem to be bigger than combined size of the .spdls that they should
reference, but not bigger than the .spdls and the .dll, or the .spdls
and the .Preset files.<br><br>3. When I install an addon that contains
many different .spdls that all reference the same .dll, the
shader_plugins.mi file is updated to reference the new .spdl
declarations, but only the first of those declartations contains a link
statement for the .dll. The rest have a spdl statement but no link
statement. Is this a known bug?<br><br>4. Is there a process for updating
.addon package installations without forcing everyone to quit out of XSI?<br>
The
.spdl and .Preset files seem to be read and released at startup time.
The .dll files on the other hand are opened continuously while XSI is
running. This seems to be true only after the first render, but
assuming that your shader is being used a fair bit within a facility,
the chances of your .dll not being in use are slim.<br>
.dlls
being used to render with standalone ray can be renamed without
breaking a render. This allows developers to install a .dll in the
place of the old without breaking currently running renders. The way
XSI locks file access to the .dlls precludes this little trick. Are
there known ways to update a .addon package workgroup installation in
place?<br> The .addon
packages that we're using right now are being referenced by up to 60
machines at a time so it's not very convenient to have to force
everyone to either quit XSI or stop rendering before we want to install
a new version of the addon.<br><br>Thanks in advance for reading this far and
even more so for responding,<br>Haarm-Pieter Duiker<br><br>---<br>Unsubscribe?
Mail <a href="mailto:Majordomo@(protected)">Majordomo@(protected)
</a> with the following text in body:<br>unsubscribe xsi<br></blockquote></div>
<br><br><br>-- <br>Aloys Baillet - Character TD @ Animal Logic
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