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[SoC 2006] RmOgreInstaller

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 8:43 am
by buddy
I've composed a preliminary installer for RenderMonkey stuff that was developed this summer (python plugin rewritement + some kind of previewer). You are expected to run windows and RenderMonkey 1.6 is expected to be installed somewhere before launching installer. Root credentials for user that runs installer is also expected.
There is no mention of license in the installer right now, but it is MIT.

URL: http://sukhoy.public.iastate.edu/soc200 ... ller20.exe

Note that the whole plugin logic is now implemented in python. Besides, it means that you do not need visual studio to tweak things - just text editor.

The missing part is of course docs on rmsdk wrapper and on minimal ogre wrapper I had to write - oh yes, with boost::python (it is no trouble, although PyOGRE folks for some reason think so :)). There was some reason why PyOgre was not an option - primarily because of material serializer lack, but after that I had to develop "fake material framework" just to use that serializer properly, so probably doing mini wrapper was the best thing I could do for now. The previewer itself is extremely simplistic, just slightly redesigned example framework which maps given material over ogrehead. I used to have had some code which deals with RenderMonkey geometry, but because of flaw in my backup strategy it is gone - I plan to resurrect it once stop mourning :(.

As for functionality - the functionality is pretty much the same except that now builtin OGRE serializer is used (through "fake" material framework), so the result is expected to be much more robust against possible changes in material framework. I think I will add zip file support and GL branch pretty soon.

And I expect this version to be much more tweaking-friendly, as I mentioned above.

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 11:04 pm
by sinbad
Well done. Definitely on my 'to play with' list :)

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 7:14 am
by Wretched_Wyx
Awesome. I was just thinking about this the other day, as I started to get a little understanding of creating shaders in RenderMonkey. Thanks for creating and maintaining such a darn useful tool.

Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 12:22 pm
by yoursort
Hi,
can´t wait to play with the new exprter but do I need some additional libraries or something?
I´ve installed RenderMonkey 1.6 and RmOgre but now when I run RenderMonkey I get a "Visual C++ Runtime Error".
I´ve also installed the Visual C++ Redistributable (from Visual Studio 2005).

Hope you can help.

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 6:18 am
by buddy
yoursort wrote: I´ve installed RenderMonkey 1.6 and RmOgre but now when I run RenderMonkey I get a "Visual C++ Runtime Error".
It is likely that I forgot to include some dependency in the installer. Could you C&P the error message (you can copy error message by hitting Ctrl-C while the error message is active)?

Obviously I should've tested it on more machines/configurations.

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 11:18 am
by jacmoe
The application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
This could mean any number of things, but usually it is caused by missing DLLs and/or a mixup of release/debug configurations..

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 9:05 pm
by yoursort
Here it is:

Code: Select all

---------------------------
Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
---------------------------
Runtime Error!

Program: C:\Programme\RenderMonkey 1.6\RenderMonkey.exe



This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information.


---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------
But I think this won´t help you.

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 4:45 am
by buddy
yoursort wrote:Here it is:
But I think this won´t help you.
Indeed. Thanks anyway.
You may try to run depends.exe tool or filemon on RenderMonkey - maybe the missing dependency will show up.
Meanwhile I'll be testing it around to see if I have similar problem. I tried a couple of friend's machines, and everything went fine, but those folks are developers, so they may have smth installed that fixes the problem.

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 4:48 am
by buddy
jacmoe wrote: mixup of release/debug configurations..
unlikely, since this usually shows up immediately after running release.
However in DLL hell situation everything is possible (and there is some DLL hell with devil.dll e.g. which is supplied by rendermonkey, but I haven't noticed any problems yet..)

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 12:36 pm
by Kojack
Crashing for me too.
Depends says it's missing python24.dll and boost_python-vc80-mt-1_33_1.dll.

Edit: Forget that, I'm half asleep. Those files are installed into the rendermonkey directory, and I ran depends on the plugin in the plugins directory, so of course it couldn't see them. Wish I realised that before compiling boost. :)

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:59 pm
by Kojack
Ok, fixed it. Pywin32 is required. I installed that, and rendermonkey now loads and exports shaders.

(The exporter was trying to find win32ui.*, which is part of pywin32. Yay for good old filemon)

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 3:04 pm
by jacmoe
It's still crashing for me.
Maybe we are missing msvcrt.dll ?

<edit> I see! Going to grab that pyWin thingie .. </edit>

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 3:08 pm
by Kojack
You need pywin32-209.win32-py2.4.exe, the newer one won't install if you have python24 (like the plugin uses).

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 3:16 pm
by jacmoe
Yeah, I figured it would be a good idea to match versions.
I've used Python for Win32 before, and used to use an installer with everything in it, so if buddy used that, I can see how easy it is to overlook the fact that those extensions are not installed by the official Python install.

Woohoo! :)
I just exported the anisotropic sample to Ogre, and got that cool preview window! This is so great, buddy! :D

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:21 pm
by yoursort
Cool, now it runs!

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:49 pm
by syedhs
Cool, I am downloading the tool and all its prerequisites. Shader programming is definitely on my todo list - this tool will certainly boost my confidence.

A bit OT: Previously I thought RM runs only on ATI, and FX Composer runs only on NVIDIA - that that is of course incorrect. What are the differences anyway?

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:09 pm
by syedhs
I have to admit - after fidling for more than an hour, the RM crashed on me whenever I clicked on one of the 'effect' nodes and this only occurs after I tried to view Edit -> Preference (RM doesn't show any preference window either). Definitely something lack or wrong - but I have no idea.

Have installed (listed in order):-
1) RM 1.6
1) Python-2.4.3.msi
2) pywin32-209.win32-py2.4.exe
3) RmOgreInstaller20.exe

All are installed in default directory, any extra manual copying?

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:06 pm
by buddy
syedhs wrote: All are installed in default directory, any extra manual copying?
I'll check that out. There should be no copying once you got pywin32 right..

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:09 pm
by buddy
syedhs wrote: A bit OT: Previously I thought RM runs only on ATI, and FX Composer runs only on NVIDIA - that that is of course incorrect. What are the differences anyway?
ATI is an ATI tool and FX Composer is an NVidia tool :)
FX Composer is DX-only, RM supports glslang shaders.
Actually both should run just fine, although some people tend to think that RM is a bit more plugin-friendly (although you can do pretty much the same with FXC too).

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:13 pm
by buddy
jacmoe wrote: I just exported the anisotropic sample to Ogre, and got that cool preview window! This is so great, buddy! :D
Actually this preview is a bit less that I wanted to do.. It happened so that sinbad proposed to build what is now fxogretool as a part of SoC, and I did some poor job evaluating timeframes after that, and the previewer for RM got a little crude in the end.
Nevertheless you can see 'em in OGRE :)

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:15 pm
by buddy
jacmoe wrote:Yeah, I figured it would be a good idea to match versions.
I've used Python for Win32 before, and used to use an installer with everything in it, so if buddy used that, I can see how easy it is to overlook the fact that those extensions are not installed by the official Python install.
Ok. Too bad all my friends and me too use ActivePython..
The CVS of installer script will get fixed, of course.

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 11:27 pm
by jacmoe
buddy wrote:Ok. Too bad all my friends and me too use ActivePython..
I used to use that one. But I switched to using the official Python win32 installation package directly from python.org.
I think I used ActivePython because there wasn't any official win installers around back then.
But that's changed. :wink:

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:29 am
by buddy
jacmoe wrote:But that's changed. :wink:
Still there is no pywin32 in the official installer. That's kind of.. Anyway.
[OT]As for win installers - it seems that "official" one's are around for as much as 2-3 years. I do remember installing Py 1.6 with something like official installer back in stone age, although that can be a myth :). [/OT]

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 12:21 am
by Evak
Hmm. I installed python and pywin finaly getting rendermonkey to load up.

Unfortunately I can't find any sign of the ogre export feature from within rendermonkey.

When I select a shader effect to export and right click I only see FX
and from the file menu only FX and Pachage exporter.

I'm an artist not a coder so I have limited knowledge of technical stuff, but I did managed to get the old ogre exporter to work about 9 months ago.

Any pointers in regards to why nothing shows up?

This is the current 1.62 version of rendermonkey as there doesn't seem to be anything older avaliable on their site.

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 5:41 pm
by Al Capique
This happened with me too, then I installed the exporter with render Monkey 1.6 and the option shows up with a right click in efect name.