Contents

• Description
• Startup
• Custom Op-Boxes
• Custom Render Scripts
• Directory Structure
• Text Editors
• File Browser Dialog Boxes
• Environment Variables
• Credits

Name

ShadeTree - Interactive Shader Builder

Usage

ShadeTree [-f <foo.str>]

Options

-f foo.str - directly load an str file

Description

ShadeTree is a visual programming language.

The user creates programs by dropping 'boxes' on the screen from the menu bar above the 'desk', and connects them together.

A box has 'input buttons' along the left edge, and 'output buttons' along the right. Data flows through the box from left to right. The lines represent the flow of data from one box to the next. You connect the boxes by clicking on an output button, and then clicking on the input button of another box. A line then appears between the boxes, signifying the connection.

A line will show up 'dashed' if the 'casts' of the buttons don't match. Popup a menu off the buttons in question to try manually casting them to correctly match.

Hotkeys are shown in the main file menu. Additionally, the status bar (at the bottom of the screen) shows mouse actions and key combinations that are available.

When you 'select' a box, any of the box's unconnected input buttons show up as sliders in the 'slider area' on the left. By tweaking the sliders, one can change the default values for each button.

When you connect a line to a button, the slider disappears, because the value is now overridden.

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Startup

Before starting ShadeTree, the user needs to determine which renderer they plan to use. Mental Ray version 1.9 is the default NT renderer. If Mental Ray version 1.9 Service Pack 1 is used, the STREE_MRAYSP1 environment variable needs to be set. This can easily be done by using the ShadeTree Config Utility.

When ShadeTree boots, it first loads default settings from the master defaults file: $STREE_DIR\mray\stree.def This file should not be edited by anyone, but can be used for reference to understand the inner workings of ShadeTree.

ShadeTree then checks for and loads the following files in this order:

      
$HOMEDRIVE\$HOMEPATH\.stree.def  # in your home directory
      
.\stree.def                      # in the current directory
    

These files may contain any commands that can be found in the master defaults file, and can therefore effectively override the master default settings, or append to them.

There is an example $HOMEDRIVE\$HOMEPATH\.stree.def in the example ShadeTree login directory $STREE_DIR\login\mray\stree.def.

In these files are commands that control the Option menu's default flag settings, the default directories for all the File Browsers in ShadeTree, language specific commands, scripts, and so forth. For indepth information, refer to stree.def Technical Documentation.

ShadeTree also supports "Drag and Drop", where by dragging a .str file and dropping it on a shortcut to ShadeTree, that .str file will be opened.

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Custom Boxes

To make your own custom menus, please refer to the documentation that describes how to customize ShadeTree, the section heading entitled Making Your Own Operation Boxes.

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Custom Render Scripts

To use your own render scripts to render your own scenes within ShadeTree, refer to the documentation that describes how to customize ShadeTree, Customizing stree.def Setup Files.

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Directory Structure

For those that are interested in the internal directory format for hacking purposes:

$STREE_DIR                   - usually C:\ShadeTree
 |
 |---- \bin                  - executables for customer's path
 |---- \html                 - top level html documentation
 |---- \etc                  - administration files
 |      |--- \elm            - Elan license manager admin tools
 |
 |---- \login                - sample home directory files
 |
 |---- \mray                 - mental ray implementation files
 |      |--- \bin            - mray scripts, display programs...
 |      |--- \examples       - example shaders you can load in st
 |      |--- \html           - mray specific documentation
 |      |--- \icons          - icons for the opboxes
 |      |--- \include        - include files used during rendering
 |      |--- \lib            - precompiled files, etc
 |      |--- \menu           - the opboxes
 |      |--- stree.def       - startup file for mray
 |
 |---- \sfx                  - sound effects
    

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Text Editors

Most text editors will invoke correctly just by having your EDITOR variable appropriately set.

However, some editors (such as emacs) are a special case to bring up an editor in a separate window correctly. In these special cases, you may need to assign a full editor command in the environment variable STREE_EDITORCMD, using '%s' in place of where the filename would go.

Note that, when invoking the editor to view temporary files, stree will automatically remove the file immediately after the command returns.

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File Browser Dialog Boxes

All the file browsers (Open, Save As, Merge) have configurable default directories via the stree.def file ($HOMEDRIVE\$HOMEPATH\.stree.def, .\stree.def).

You can override the system defaults which are defined in $STREE_DIR\mray\stree.def:

streebrowser_dir           examples
shaderbrowser_dir          .                  # not supported
compiledshaderbrowser_dir  .                  # not supported
stringbrowser_dir          examples/textures
imagebrowser_dir           c:/images

streebrowser_dir
  Sets the default directory for stree file Save/Load/Merge browsers.

shaderbrowser_dir
  Sets the default directory for the Save Shader browser.

compiledshaderbrowser_dir
  Sets the default directory for the Save Compiled Shader browser.

stringbrowser_dir
  Sets the default directory for all the string sliders' file browsers.
  For instance, when you drop and select the Mental Ray 'texture' box,
  the MAP button is a string. When you invoke the FILE browser, the
  default directory is what you set in the above.

imagebrowser_dir
  Sets the default directory for the Load Background Image browser,
  which can be found in the Options menu.
    

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Environment Variables

These are environment variables that MUST be set for the software to work at all. They should be set during the installation process or can manually be changed through the system applet:

'Start->Settings->Control Panel->System'.

Environment Variable	Description
STREE_DIR	Location of ShadeTree set by the install program
$STREE_DIR\bin	Appended to path.

These are the "recommended" settings, though they can be different:

Environment Variable	Value
STREE_DIR	c:\ShadeTree (installation directory)
PATH	$PATH;$STREE_DIR\bin

These are optional variables that CAN be set by the user. These shouldn't need to be set unless the need arises:

Environment Variable	Description
STREE_TMPDIR	Directory where shadetree creates scratch files
STREE_QUIET	Set to '1' to disable sound effects
STREE_LIB	Set which version loads by default (mray)
EDITOR	Stree uses this to determine which editor to invoke for functions such as 'View Shader'
STREE_EDITORCMD	Sets full command to invoke an editor in a window (overrides the 'EDITOR' variable)

Mental Ray specific flags:

Environment Variable	Description
STREE_MRAY_COMPILEFLAGS	Flags for the compiler (cl.exe)
STREE_MRAY_LINKFLAGS	Flags for the linker (ld)
STREE_MRAY_RENDERFLAGS	Flags for Mental Ray renderer (ray.exe)

These are internal variables the software uses for its own nefarious purposes:

Environment Variable	Description
STREE_LIB	Path to distribution ($STREE_DIR\mray)
STREE_RENOPTS	Path to current Render Options file
STREE_DEBUG	General debugging output (=0 off, =1 on)
STREE_WORKDIR	Main prog tmp ($STREE_TMPDIR\stree.)
STREE_RENDERDIR	Render tmp dir ($STREE_WORKDIR\test.)

Examples:

Variable	Setting
STREE_TMPDIR	c:\temp
STREE_QUIET	"1"
STREE_EDITORCMD	"c:\\winnt\\notepad -f %s"
STREE_MRAY_COMPILEFLAGS	"-fullwarn -Ic:\\include"
STREE_MRAY_LINKFLAGS	"-Lc:\\lib -lmylib"
STREE_MRAY_RENDERFLAGS	"-verbose -threads 4"

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Credits

Reid Baker - CEO, Concept/Design
Gregory Ercolano - SGI/Perl Lead Programmer
Luigi Warren - NT Lead Programmer
Liza Keith - RenderMan/Mental Ray, Programmer
Dan Candela - NT Programmer

For a toplevel reference to all the ShadeTree documentation, please refer to the main index.

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Copyright (c) 1996-1998 Cinema Graphics Inc. All Rights reserved.