Everyone is welcome on the Google Meet linked below every other Thursday, at 17:00 CET.
The meeting covers the pipeline & I/O module in a broader sense, including some topics hosted in other modules (e.g. some I/O python add-ons, or overrides and .blend file I/O from the Core module).
Links
- Google Meet
- Next meeting
- Pipeline, Assets & I/O workboard
- Core workboard
- #pipeline-assets-io-module chat channel
- #core-module chat channel
Overrides
Update on the Overrides status by Bastien Montagne:
- Resync Performances has been addressed, improvements can be tested already in 3.2 alpha test builds.
- Usability Pass step has started last week, aimed at making library overrides easier to use, and less easy to break.
- Next official step will be dynamic overrides, later this year.
Michael Kowalski confirms that the USD team is interested to work on matching overrides from USD and Blender sides in the future.
There was no particular feedback on the blog post about the 2022 workshop report over Overrides.
USD
Update on the USD I/O status by Michael Kowalski:
- NVidia has an internal branch with many new features, so there will be a lot to review and merge in Blender master in the near future.
- Work on matching features in both import and export sides is ongoing.
- Blender bug tracker is being checked on a regular basis, NVidia also has their own internal tracker.
- Would be nice to have dynamic linking of USD libraries (they are currently statically linked in Blender builds).
Alembic
Update on the Alembic I/O status by Kévin Dietrich
- Work on arbitrary attribute Import (and potentially export).
- Work on the geometry set support, also waiting on new curve changes in Blender.
Paul Golter shares that while working on some Blender studio pipeline tool, some features like support for object visibility, or a better attributes handling, were really missing currently.
Other Topics
Aras Pranckevičius asks about the differences between C++ and Python IO addons. Sybren Stüvel explains that there are mainly two factors at play when deciding to implement I/O in C/C++ instead of Python:
- Availability of a supporting API/library in a given language (e.g. USD did not have a Python3 binding for a long time).
- Performance considerations, and in some cases also the fact that not everything is possible from the Blender Python API.
Paul Golter asks if having some kind of ‘project’ context/data-block in Blender (some kind of super-preset system) could be a good new feature idea. Sybren Stüvel says that it is being considered, also in relation with the Blender Studio pipeline (Flamenco…) topic.
In the same general idea, Paul Golter suggests that for a good project management, those features would also be very useful:
- Having some kind of environment variables control.
- Supporting several paths to look for addons and other resources.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be on Thursday 10th March, 17:00 CET/Amsterdam time.
The provisional meeting agenda will be linked in the #pipeline-assets-io-module channel before the meeting.