En:TrainDriver (Plugin)
Aus CINEMA 4D Wiki
| Infobox | |
|---|---|
| Übersicht | |
| Titel: | TrainDriver |
| Aktuelles Release: | 1.0 |
| Typ: | C++ Plugin |
| CINEMA 4D Version: |  to 
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| Betriebssystem: |    
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| Hersteller: | Jack's Secret Stash |
| Releasedatum: | 22.12.2008 |
| Preis: | -free- |
| Website: | www.c4d-jack.de |
| Beschreibung | |
|
Aligns a train of any number of elements to a spline, taking care for the wagons being mounted on two pivotable pairs of axis. | |
Inhaltsverzeichnis |
What is TrainDriver?
This plugin is the C++ version of the correspondent Coffee expression plugin TrainDriver.
The Plugin provides a tool to make trains (alternatively e.g. also the cars of a roller coaster) run on rails (splines). The special thing is that the elements (wagons) of the train are mounted on two pivotable pairs of axis (that's why the normal Align-to-Spline expression is not suitable for this).
All elements of the train have to be grouped in a Null Object. The TrainDriver expression will align them to a spline, respecting the length of each element, as well as the distance between the element's axis pairs. The amount of elements in a train is not limited.
Example movie (424 KBytes, QuickTime, H.264)
Compatibility
This Wiki article contains compiled builds of the plugin for Windows (32 Bit and 64 Bit) and MAC (32 Bit and 64 Bit).
TrainDriver 1.0 is based on the CINEMA 4D R10.1 SDK and runs in R10.1, R10.5 and R11. It may be possible to make it work in earlier releases of CINEMA 4D, this was not tested. Also, it should be possible to compile the plugin for CINEMA 4D R11.5, minor code adjustments may be necessary.
The code is commented very detailed, further documentation does not exist (and is probably not necessary).
Differences from the Coffee version
This C++ version offers not only a better performance and stability, compared with Coffee/Xpresso approaches, but also a much easier workflow and better usability (thanks to the two tags). It is still OpenSource and may be freely changed and improved. The NETrender problems of the Coffee version don't exist in this C++ version.
Known problems / Bugs
The problem of the imprecise wagon positioning (distance between wagons may slightly change when the train is moving) still persists. The reason seems to be an imprecision in CINEMA 4D's spline functions. The old workaround still does a good job: Just subdivide the spline (e.g. using the "round" function). Anyway, an automatic solution within the plugin would be nice.
Idea: One could internally create a clone of the spline, subdivide it and use it for aligning the wagons. That way, the original spline would stay unchanged, but the problem would be minimized.
Download
TrainDriver C++ Version 1.0:
- TrainDriver_10.zip (101 KBytes, compiled for Win32 und Win64, complete source code included)
- traindriver-mac.zip (137 KBytes, compiled for Mac PPC and Mac Intel, 32 and 64 Bit)
Thanks to Dagmar from Motion-Gimmick.com for the builds!)
Example scene for C++ TrainDriver 1.0
- TrainDriver_10_example.zip (16 KBytes, C4D R10.1)
