Once again, I've recoded the constraints system. This time, the goals were:
* To make it more future-proof by 'modernising' the coding style. The long functions filled with switch statements, have given way to function-pointers with smaller functions for specific purposes.
* To make it support constraints which use multiple targets more readily that it did. In the past, it was assumed that constraints could only have at most one target.
As a result, a lot of code has been shuffled around, and modified. Also, the subversion number has been bumped up.
Known issues:
* PyConstraints, which were the main motivation for supporting multiple-targets, are currently broken. There are some bimport() error that keeps causing problems. I've also temporarily removed the doDriver support, although it may return in another form soon.
* Constraints BPy-API is currently has a few features which currently don't work yet
* Outliner currently only displays the names of the constraints instead of the fancy subtarget/target/constraint-name display it used to do. What gets displayed here needs further investigation, as the old way was certainly not that great (and is not compatible with the new system too)
Object constraints with a driven influence ipo were not being evaluated
properly. The code for adding the depsgraph relation and updating without
time changes was simply missing.
I've finally fixed the bug with the Constraint Space Conversion. It was a single matrix multiplication in the wrong order (for local->pose).
Also, there is more code added for the space conversion process when bones have 'hinge' on. (NOTE: this stuff for hinge bones may still not work really nice yet)
After just over a week of coding, I've finished doing a major refactor/cleanup of the constraints code. In the process, quite a few old kludges and ugly hacks have been removed. Also, some new features which will greatly benefit riggers have been implemented.
=== What's New ===
* The long-awaited ``ChildOf Constraint'':
This allows you to animate parent influences, and choose which transformation channels the parent affects the child on (i.e. no translation/rotation/scaling). It should be noted that disabling some combinations may not totally work as expected. Also, the 'Set Inverse' and 'Clear Inverse' buttons at the bottom of this constraint's panel set/clear the inverse correction for the parent's effects. Use these to make the owner not stick/be glued to the parent.
* Constraint/Target Evaluation Spaces:
In some constraints, there are now 1-2 combo boxes at the bottom of their panel, which allows you to pick which `co-ordinate space' they are evaluated in. This is much more flexible than the old 'local' options for bones only were.
* Action Constraint - Loc/Rot/Size Inputs
The Action Constraint can finally use the target's location/rotation/scaling transforms as input, to control the owner of the constraint. This should work much more reliably than it used to. The target evaluation should now also be more accurate due to the new space conversion stuff.
* Transform - No longer in Crazy Space (TM)
Transforming objects/bones with constraints applied should no longer occur in Crazy Space. They are now correctly inverse-corrected. This also applies to old-style object tracking.
=== General Code Changes ===
* solve_constraints is now in constraints.c. I've removed the old `blend consecutive constraints of same type' junk, which made the code more complex than it needed to be.
* evaluate_constraint is now only passed the constraint, and two matrices. A few unused variables have been removed from here.
* A tempolary struct, bConstraintOb, is now passed to solve_constraints instead of relying on an ugly, static workobject in some cases. This works much better.
* Made the formatting of constraint code consistent
* There's a version patch for older files so that constraint settings are correctly converted to the new system. This is currently done for MajorVersion <= 244, and SubVersion < 3. I've bumped up the subversion to 3 for this purpose. However, with the imminent 2.45 release, this may need to be adjusted accordingly.
* LocEulSizeToMat4 and LocQuatSizeToMat4 now work in the order Size, Rot, Location. I've also added a few other math functions.
* Mat4BlendMat4 is now in arithb. I've modified it's method slightly, to use other arithb functions, instead of its crazy blending scheme.
* Moved some of the RigidBodyJoint constraint's code out of blenkernel, and into src. It shouldn't be setting its target in its data initialisation function based + accessing scene stuff where it was doing so.
=== Future Work ===
* Geometry to act as targets for constraints. A space has been reserved for this already.
* Tidy up UI buttons of constraints
Main target was cleanup of editconstraint.c and removal of the ugly
ob->activecon (active constraint channel), which was set by the "Show"
button in the Constraint Panel.
Better is to introduce an 'Active Constraint' itself, which stores in
the Constraint itself. By using this setting, and by checking the active
Bone, the UI can update reliably now. This only shows now in IpoWindow
btw (for constraint ipos). The active Constraint is drawn in the Buttons
with a slightly brighter backdrop. Any action in that Panel selects a
constraint now (even click in backdrop).
So now we have pose channels & constraint channels nicely behaving. Now the
darn Action channels... :)
Further in this commit:
- interface.c: Button ROUNDBOX now does button callback too.
Button NUMSLI didn't do the callback on a click only
- Cleaned up include files in yafray, got annoyed it compiled over all the
time.
- removed unused variables from Constraint struct
- Added option to the IK buttons, to have it use the 'tip' as end of the
IK chain. I never really understood this old convention (IK didn't work
on the Bone itself).
Old files still will read OK though. But I made the "To Tip" a default
when adding new IK constraints.
- Hotkey CTRL+I: add IK, with option to have it adding an Empty target,
or use a selected Bone as target. With the new non-modal PoseMode, it
gives instant access to playing with the IK chain.
- Hotkey ALT+I: clears IK, on all selected Bones
- Hotkey ALT+C: clears Constraints on all selected Bones (incl IK)
Aim was to get a total refresh of the animation system. This
is needed because;
- we need to upgrade it with 21st century features
- current code is spaghetti/hack combo, and hides good design
- it should become lag-free with using dependency graphs
A full log, with complete code API/structure/design explanation
will follow, that's a load of work... so here below the list with
hot changes;
- The entire object update system (matrices, geometry) is now
centralized. Calls to where_is_object and makeDispList are
forbidden, instead we tag objects 'changed' and let the
depgraph code sort it out
- Removed all old "Ika" code
- Depgraph is aware of all relationships, including meta balls,
constraints, bevelcurve, and so on.
- Made depgraph aware of relation types and layers, to do smart
flushing of 'changed' events. Nothing gets calculated too often!
- Transform uses depgraph to detect changes
- On frame-advance, depgraph flushes animated changes
Armatures;
Almost all armature related code has been fully built from scratch.
It now reveils the original design much better, with a very clean
implementation, lag free without even calculating each Bone more than
once. Result is quite a speedup yes!
Important to note is;
1) Armature is data containing the 'rest position'
2) Pose is the changes of rest position, and always on object level.
That way more Objects can use same Pose. Also constraints are in Pose
3) Actions only contain the Ipos to change values in Poses.
- Bones draw unrotated now
- Drawing bones speedup enormously (10-20 times)
- Bone selecting in EditMode, selection state is saved for PoseMode,
and vice-versa
- Undo in editmode
- Bone renaming does vertexgroups, constraints, posechannels, actions,
for all users of Armature in entire file
- Added Bone renaming in NKey panel
- Nkey PoseMode shows eulers now
- EditMode and PoseMode now have 'active' bone too (last clicked)
- Parenting in EditMode' CTRL+P, ALT+P, with nice options!
- Pose is added in Outliner now, with showing that constraints are in
the Pose, not Armature
- Disconnected IK solving from constraints. It's a separate phase now,
on top of the full Pose calculations
- Pose itself has a dependency graph too, so evaluation order is lag free.
TODO NOW;
- Rotating in Posemode has incorrect inverse transform (Martin will fix)
- Python Bone/Armature/Pose API disabled... needs full recode too
(wait for my doc!)
- Game engine will need upgrade too
- Depgraph code needs revision, cleanup, can be much faster!
(But, compliments for Jean-Luc, it works like a charm!)
- IK changed, it now doesnt use previous position to advance to next
position anymore. That system looks nice (no flips) but is not well
suited for NLA and background render.
TODO LATER;
We now can do loadsa new nifty features as well; like:
- Kill PoseMode (can be option for armatures itself)
- Make B-Bones (Bezier, Bspline, like for spines)
- Move all silly button level edit to 3d window (like CTRL+I = add
IK)
- Much better & informative drawing
- Fix action/nla editors
- Put all ipos in Actions (object, mesh key, lamp color)
- Add hooks
- Null bones
- Much more advanced constraints...
Bugfixes;
- OGL render (view3d header) had wrong first frame on anim render
- Ipo 'recording' mode had wrong playback speed
- Vertex-key mode now sticks to show 'active key', until frame change
-Ton-
Moved get_con_target from editconstraint to constraint kernel file and renamed to get_constraint_target
Make scene.c use constraint functions from kernel instead of doing the switch itself (regrouping specific constraint code in one file).
Add LockTrack as an option in the Make Track menu (Ctrl-T)
Adding fun for vortex forces in 3D window, the representation now match the orientation and direction of the force (this is code will need optimisation). I'll probably be slapped for mixing two things in one commit but some function calls needed to be fixed for the new spelling and since this is really isolated code I didn't feel like wasting time getting a fresh copy, doing the changes and then readded this after commiting.
Fixed some warning regarding implicit casts and constants (this last one is a MSVCism where you need to explicitely tell the compiler to use floats with an f. AFAIK, it doesn't affect/bother other compilers).
Removed a useless commented piece of code in readfile (there was an uncommented copy a couple of lines before)
* Armatures that had constraint targets inside other armatures
weren't transform()-ing correctly
* Issues with lattice deformed objects that are parents of bones
when rendering an animation. Seems to be mostly OK now with the
exception of the first rendered frame -- weird bugs like this have
plagued blender for ages, which leads me to believe that
RE_rotateBlenderScene() is a piece of garbage that nobody understands
(especially me).
* made a few helper functions to clean up some repeated code related
to clearing constraint status and rebuilding displists.
Axis options for TrackTo
LockTrack
FollowPath
Auto creation of TrackTo constraint from Ctrl-T (old track still an option)
Auto creation of FollowPath when parenting to path (Normal parent still an option)
Backward compatibility stuff to convert the per object axis settings to per constraint when a Track constraint is present.
Function to convert old track to constraint (commented out)
Revamped the constraints interface with Matt's work from tuhopuu and the stuff we were discussing earlier.
--------------------
For coders:
unique_constraint_name and *new_constraint_data moved to the kernel (constraint.c)
new Projf function in arithb gives the projection of a vector on another vector
add_new_constraint now takes a constraint type (int) parameter
add_constraint_to_object(bConstraint *con, Object *ob) to link a constraint to an object
add_constraint_to_client(bConstraint *con) to link constraint to current client (object or bone)
add_influence_key_to_constraint (bConstraint *con) to (eventually) add a keyframe to the influence IPO of a constraint
(adding)
#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
#include <config.h>
#endif
also the Makefile.in's were from previous patch adding
the system depend stuff to configure.ac
Kent
--
mein@cs.umn.edu
Brecht Van Lommel
Joshua Leung
Ton Roosendaal
Martin Poirier
Chris Want
Kent Mein
Hans Lambermont