Sometimes, it may userful to change on the fly UV address Mode to clamp textures. But when there are too many textures, it's time consumming. So, I've just added a little script on the wiki to demonstrate it.

Enjoy!

Some of you asked me if it was possible to use Excel in Nova scripting. Yes it is with the following prerequisite: Excel must be installed on the computer! Then, here a small piece of code:

Since we use COM Interop, it's very important to explicitly release COM Object with Marshal.ReleaseComObject method's call.

I've tested this code with Excel 2007. Enjoy!

There are many possibilities to store user data inside a Nova Scene. That's why I've just added a new sample on Nova Wiki.

If you are interested, just have a look here.

I continue my series of publication on Nova scripting by demonstrating the ability to load your materials' textures on the fly from external files.

That happens here.

Enjoy!

Do you know that some Visual Studio Shortcuts are available in the Nova Script Editor. Here is a partial list:

• ctrl-S => save the script
• ctrl-K + ctrl-C => comment all selected line
• ctrl-K + ctrl-U => un-comment all selected line
• ctrl-space => launch intellisense list
• ctrl-M + ctrl-O => collapse all code to definitions
• ...

Sometimes, it may be useful to trigger user events from the Action Builder in order to process them in Nova Script while continuing current execution tree.

Enjoy!

A corollary question to my last post was also whether it was possible to automate something about this. Namely, something that would automate the quality adjustment based on the machine behind the scene.

You have to know that Nova Engine already does a part of that kind of things when used rendering options are not available on the graphics card. But the question was more about an artificial intelligence that will adapt rendering quality. In fact, in such a way, Nova does not yet include an artificial intelligence.

So, I was thinking without such a tool how today I will implement easily and in a short time this requirement if I had to develop it. Once more, simple heuristics can always help us on these complex issues. The best heuristics I was thinking about, would be to simply use the current scene FPS to determine if the scene quality may be increased or decreased. Then, after a predetermined (ie: after each x frames rendering), the system could check if the overall quality should be increased or decreased. And this can easily be done using Nova Scripting and Action builder. This complete the proof!

However, if we wanted to go further in that kind of solution, we will have to study the current scene to determine which will be the best quality options and channels to enable to disable and in which order. Moreover, we will have also to study what will be the quality scale to hold.

In my previous sample, I have arbitrarily decided that the level would include three stages of quality, but why not more? It is still a topic that should be studied further.

Finally and in order to set this little heuristic, we should provide the scene designer a way to decline (or not) in quality such and such options. It is understandable that with the addition of such features a small artificial intelligence engine would be perfect.

Class Script

    Private slider As NovaSlider
    Private currentScene As NovaScene 
    
    Public Sub New(scene As NovaScene)
        currentScene = scene
        slider = Scene.CreateSlider()

        slider.Top = 10
        slider.Left = 10

        slider.Min = 0.0
        slider.Max = 3.0
        slider.Value = slider.Max
        slider.Width = 300
        slider.ID = "SliderQualitySensor"
        slider.Text = "Quality Sensor"
        slider.RelativeWidth = False
        slider.Visible = True
        
        AddHandler slider.ValueChanged, AddressOf manageValueChanged
    End Sub

    Private Sub manageValueChanged(ByVal o As Object, e As EventArgs)
        If  slider.Value >= 0.0 AndAlso slider.Value < 1.0 Then
            changeToLowQuality()                
        ElseIf  slider.Value >= 1.0 AndAlso slider.Value < 2.0 Then
            changeToMediumQuality()
        Else
            changeToHighQuality()
        End If
    End Sub
    
    Private Sub changeToLowQuality()
        currentScene.Engine.QualityLevel = 0
        NovaEngine.Shadows = False
                
        NovaEngine.BumpChannel = False
        NovaEngine.SpecularChannel = False
        NovaEngine.ReflectionChannel = False
        NovaEngine.RefractionChannel = False
        Novaengine.EmissiveChannel = False
        Novaengine.AmbientChannel = False 
        NovaEngine.ParticleSystems = False
        NovaEngine.MirrorMatrixActivated = False
    End Sub
    
    Private Sub changeToMediumQuality()
        currentScene.Engine.QualityLevel = 1
        NovaEngine.Shadows = False
                
        NovaEngine.BumpChannel = True
        NovaEngine.SpecularChannel = True
        NovaEngine.ReflectionChannel = True
        NovaEngine.RefractionChannel = False
        Novaengine.EmissiveChannel = False
        Novaengine.AmbientChannel = False 
        NovaEngine.ParticleSystems = True
        NovaEngine.MirrorMatrixActivated = False
    End Sub
    
    Private Sub changeToHighQuality()
        currentScene.Engine.QualityLevel = 3
        NovaEngine.Shadows = True

        NovaEngine.BumpChannel = True
        NovaEngine.SpecularChannel = True
        NovaEngine.ReflectionChannel = True
        NovaEngine.RefractionChannel = True
        Novaengine.EmissiveChannel = True
        Novaengine.AmbientChannel = True 
        NovaEngine.ParticleSystems = True
        NovaEngine.MirrorMatrixActivated = True
    End Sub
    
    Protected Overrides Sub Finalize()
        RemoveHandler slider.ValueChanged, AddressOf manageValueChanged
        currentScene.Widgets.Clear()
    End Sub
End Class

SliderManager.nsr (2.83 kb)

I've just published a new tip on Vertice wiki. It will allow you change the active novaCamera on the fly using a joystick.

Do you know also you can publish on our wiki? So don't hesitate to contact me if you need further informations and if you think it's too difficult, you should know that everyone has talent, it's my leitmotiv! 

If you are a little bit afraid about publishing, I will help you on your first article by an author-reader cycle, so join us in the Vertice community!

  Private myScene As NovaScene
    Private epsilon As Single = 0.0001
    Private cameraLastGlobalPosition As Vector3
    Private cameraLastRotationPosition As Vector3
    Private camera As NovaCamera
    
    Public Sub New(ByVal scene As NovaScene)
        myScene = scene
        
        camera = myScene.GetCamera("MainCamera")
        StoreCameraPostion()

        AddHandler myScene.AfterRender, AddressOf manageAfterRender
    End Sub

    Private Sub manageAfterRender
        If Math.Abs(CType((camera.GlobalPosition - cameraLastGlobalPosition).Length, Single)) 
> epsilon OrElse Math.Abs(CType((camera.Rotation - cameraLastRotationPosition).Length, Single)) 
> epsilon Then    
            StoreCameraPostion()
            
            PluginHelper.LogInfo("it moves!")
        End If
    End Sub

    Public Sub StoreCameraPostion()
        cameraLastGlobalPosition = camera.GlobalPosition
        cameraLastRotationPosition = camera.Rotation 
    End Sub

    Protected Overrides Sub Finalize()
        RemoveHandler myScene.AfterRender, AddressOf ManageAfterRender
    End Sub
End Class