We are looking to attempt to have our deadline plugin for 3ds Max submission set with a series of default options so that our students can basically just click though and not have to think about the copious amounts of choices there are. We don’t want to disable these options, if an industrious student wants to attempt to improve their render by playing with the various settings, more power to them. However we want the defaults to be as customized to us as possible.
My question is: how would be the best way to go about doing this? Would it be best to alter the preexisting scripts or should we be using an alternate plugin.ini file. We don’t really have a programmer on staff so this job is basically falling on me. Any help in getting started or at least pointed in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
If you mean the settings in the Submit Max To Deadline (SMTD) script that ships with Deadline, it already provides a highly sophisticated system for defaults and stickiness control.
In the \submission\3dsmax\ folder of the Repository, you will find INI files containing the names and values of all relevant settings of the Submitter.
The file “SubmitMaxToDeadline_Defaults.ini” contains the default values for the UI controls.
The file “SubmitMaxToDeadline_StickySettings.ini” contains true or false for the stickiness of these controls. So if you set a control to have a default but it is sticky, the last setting the user entered will be remembered on the local machine. But if you set the sticky value to FALSE, then the default value will be loaded instead each time the SMTD is opened.
The same files are also supported locally per machine, but normally they don’t exist unless copied over explicitly, so changing the Repository will affect all your submitting workstations.
If a control is NOT listed in these files, it assumed factory defaults hard-coded in the “SubmitMaxToDeadline_Functions.ms” file.
In other words, you have the option of Factory Defaults, Local Defaults and Global (Repository) Defaults, and the same is true for the Stickiness. When a control is sticky, the defaults will be ignored and a local INI file with the user’s last settings will be saved and loaded as needed.
Hope this helps. If you meant something else, please explain!
Thanks for the quick response. We did find the Defaults.ini and StickySettings.ini and those have been very helpful. I do have one issue though, and it is something that might not even be possible to change.
We want to have the output path be default to a network location with a default filename. In essence we want to overwrite the settings that users select within the render menu of 3ds Max so that no matter what they choose to name their file or where they choose to save it, it will get over written with. R:\users\username\Rendered-timestamp-0000.file extension. We are trying to limit the chance of students saving to the wrong location (specifically accidentally saving locally) or overwriting their files accidentally. We would hope the username and timestamp could be auto generated.
If I’m asking too much, I apologize, but when the decree from the boss comes down I have to try.
This is definitely possible.
Right now I am implementing some code for one of our customers to purify the output filenames (for example remove illegal characters like # that can end up in the path when using Vray Render Elements), as well as optionally force lower case for all paths.
In the context of these changes, I could also look into implementing an option to force the output filename to a given pattern. I understand that every facility has its own rules, but that’s also the beauty of a scripted UI.
I cannot give you exact time frame, but I hope to have something by Monday or so.
Sorry, with Siggraph fast approaching we are in preparation mode for the show (we have 7 products to demo and I am involved in 5 of them, Deadline NOT being one of them ) I wasn’t able to squeeze it in, and I don’t want to rush it - it has to be done right.
EDIT: I am looking into it right now to see if I can do anything in the short term, but no promises
) I wasn’t able to squeeze it in, and I don’t want to rush it - it has to be done right.