Hi,

Can you please explain why we don't have a dedicated(general) TOP context(network)?
And what the rule to have predefined(dedicated) networks as CH,IMG,MAT …?

Thanks
Ostap

Hey Ostap,

Good question :> In fact I have an RFE for that already.. https://www.sidefx.com/bugs/#/bug/93667 [www.sidefx.com]

Why have any dedicated contexts?

Because we ran out of time before the release

Perhaps a better answer is that the top network has all kinds of options on it. We have to have sensible defaults and/or ways for you to control those. Having this context is convenient, but it doesn’t allow you to do something you can’t now do, which is also why it got dropped before the release.

It’s coming though

Cool, good to know! Thanks, Ken.

Perhaps a manager like /img containing /copnets called /task that contains topnets?

Regards
Jason

Would it be possible - without the danger of breaking something deep inside - to forget this entire predefined top level context structure and let users to create contexts without any restrictions? Coming from Clarisse, I miss this feature. There the contexts are like the folders in a filesystem, users can put arbitrary nodes inside them.

Example of a VFX project with multiple sequences:

/seqCity/FightScene/GlassShatterFX(DOP net)
/seqForest/Trees/ScatterTrees(SOP net)
/seqForest/Trees/Materials/LeafDark(Material Builder)
/commonMat/GroundFog(Material Builder)
/assets(linked from other hip file)/superhero/suit(HDA)
/accounts/tax/taxreturns/bokkeepingTOPs

+ an option to automatically mirror this structure to the filesystem, so ie:
$HIP(or $JOB)/seqCity/FightScene/GlassShatterFX/GlassShatterCache.$F4.bgeo.sc
$HIP(or $JOB)/seqForest/Trees/Materials/LeafDark/texture1, texture2 etc.

Thank you, Ken, for the explanation!

Is there an RFE for an “all contexts” context?
For many smaller tasks, like tool development, it would be much faster to have everything in one place.

/obj is basically an “all contexts” context as it can contain any of the other contexts.

-b

@bonsak I think you can do that sort of thing in (almost ?) any context via “Network” nodes. I was more interested in a flat hierarchy overview, so I can quickly jump from node to node.

DASD
Is there an RFE for an “all contexts” context?
For many smaller tasks, like tool development, it would be much faster to have everything in one place.

Yes, this has been discussed regularly for the past 20 years or so There are many reasons it would just bring a massive amount complexity to that context for little actual benefit.

The tab menu would be crazy long

jason_iversen
… bring a massive amount complexity to that context for little actual benefit.

Can we make quotes stickys?

Actually, I found that default PDF Shell script expects to find TOP in ‘'/obj“ context and only there (if one does not exist then the script will create new TOP).
PilotPDG - chose ’'/obj” context as the only one available for TOP.

Is that mean SideFX chose ‘'/obj" context as expected place for TOP?

So why I’m asking? Would be nice to know some dedicated place for our scripts and of course knowing place will be convenient for the artist to understand other scenes.

That choice was made under time pressure and while it is a sensible choice for v1.0 - I would not read too much into it at this point. Putting a TOP context at the root level probably makes sense, but beyond that we're open to suggestions.

Just one question. If TOP will exist as a context (not just /obj relative) How can we control the local output variables like for example @pdg_output when many different contexts can exist for example withing a single SOP network. Maybe I'm missing an already implemented feature that deals with this?

I just found this: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/expressions/pdgoutput.html [www.sidefx.com]

Please let me know!

Thanks,

Alejandro