Browser: add your own folders of brushes, alphas, materials and textures

Cerrado
  • ¿Algo no está bien?
#170 0 comentarios 0 reacciones 0 asignados Ver en GitHub

Los mantenedores suelen responder en 1 día

Ya se ha fusionado un pull request relacionado.

  • #173 de @combwizard — fusionado

Evaluación

Dificultad
4/5
Tiempo estimado
3-5 días
Aptitud para principiantes
35/100
Tipo de issue
Nueva funcionalidad
Claridad
Bien especificado
Estado de actividad
Activo
Stack tecnológico
python
Área
desktop

Línea de trabajo

Start by reading the existing path settings and browser indexing code referenced in the issue: studio.json, radial.json, brushes.keep_index, find_or_rescan, and get_library; then trace how Studio path fields and browser source labels are handled. Add per-kind folders for ZBrush 2026 and newer, searched after ZBrush’s own folders, and preserve old index entries when an added folder is unavailable. Done means picks and browser listings work from added folders, with the listed docs and changed Studio screenshots updated.

Escrito por el modelo de indexación a partir del texto del issue.

Descripción

browser enhancement studio

ZOrbit only looks for brushes, alphas, materials and textures in ZBrush's own folders (brushes.brush_sources, assets.sources). There is no way to add a folder of your own, so a library has to sit inside a ZBrush folder to show up in the browser or load from a slot.

That is a big gap for anyone with a large kit:

  • ZStartup is the obvious place for a brush pack, but as far as we know ZBrush loads everything in there at startup. A big kit is exactly what you would want to load on demand, which ZOrbit already does.
  • A library kept outside ZBrush would not need moving when you change ZBrush version.
  • The only workaround is a junction inside a ZBrush folder such as Lightbox\Brushes. The walker follows junctions, but nobody would guess that, and it has to be redone for each ZBrush.

A pick already turns a name into a full path and hands that to ZBrush, so loading from another folder should work as it is. That has not been tried yet.

Scope

ZBrush 2026 and newer. ZBrush 2022 to 2025 keep searching only their own installation for now. A pick there of an item that only an added folder has gives the existing "could not be found in ZBrush" message, as an item that only a newer ZBrush has does today. Extending it to them is a separate step: it needs a test of how an older ZBrush reacts to a .zbp it cannot read, and a check that asset picks refuse a path the plugin cannot be given (not plain ASCII with no short name, or too long), as Tool and Project items do.

Design

  • One list per kind. A single root folder cannot work, because alphas and textures share .psd, .png and other extensions.
  • Searched after ZBrush's folders. The first folder with a name wins, so adding a folder cannot change what an existing slot loads.
  • Stored per PC, beside studio.json and not in radial.json. The paths belong to the PC and often hold a Windows user name, and radial.json goes out with a profile export. The app and the browser are separate processes and both need to read it.
  • Set in Studio, with Browse... buttons, as for the other path fields.
  • In the browser, each added folder shows under its own name, with two folders of the same name told apart. get_library already passes unknown source labels through.

What has to change with it

  1. Unplugged drives (the main one). Any folder that cannot be read makes brushes.keep_index keep the whole old index, and the browser keeps its old list. With a library on a USB drive that is unplugged, a brush just saved in My Brushes would not be found, and every rescan would report an error. Only the missing folder should keep its old entries.
  2. Slow drives. The walk holds _index_lock, and picks look files up behind the same lock, so a slow folder would delay picks. A pick for a missing name also starts a rescan (find_or_rescan, at most once every 5 seconds).
  3. Thumbnail cache. A rescan trims it to 8000 entries (cache_prune(8000) in get_library). One large texture library could go over that and keep regenerating thumbnails.

Left out

  • Lists per profile or per ZBrush
  • Reordering folders, or letting one override ZBrush's own
  • Exclude patterns (a _ at the start of a folder's name already skips it)
  • Network paths, refused as they are for Capture, Tool and Project items. A NAS is a natural home for a library, so this is the limit people are most likely to notice. Fixing the lock in point 2 would make it possible to allow them later.

Docs

menus.md (the search order in Brush and the asset sections), browser.md, studio.md, files.md (the new file), troubleshooting.md (a folder that cannot be read), and the Studio pictures of any screen that changes.

Lenguaje dominante
Python
Estrellas
2
Forks
1
Merge medio
2 h 51 min
PR fusionados (30 d)
78

Preparar el entorno

Primeros pasos

  1. Lee el issue completo y luego la guía de contribución del proyecto.
  2. Comenta en el issue que vas a ocuparte — evita que dos personas hagan lo mismo.
  3. Haz un fork del repositorio y trabaja en una rama.
  4. Abre un pull request que haga referencia al número del issue.

Más de combwizard/ZOrbit

Todos los issues de combwizard/ZOrbit

Issues similares

Más issues de Python

Recibe los nuevos issues en tu correo

Un resumen breve de issues de GitHub para principiantes.