Hi community!

Older version called renderEngine had been move to versions folder, if you are still interested.

Renderer is a wrapper class for the maxon and c4d api of popular render engine for Cinema 4D.

Intended for more user-friendly manipulation of node materials with the new maxon.GraphNode model. And also with Octane Material.

Provide helper class for convenient access AOV , Material , Scene Object(Object/Tag/Light/...) in Cinema 4D popular renderer.

I try to keep it as same as possible, but each renderer has their own logic, so there are some compromises.

Happy Rendering and Scpriting!

Cheers~
DunHou

Renderer

This is a custom wrapper for most popular render engine like Octane\Redshift\Arnold\Corona\VRay in Cinema 4D, which is also contains in boghma library.

All the boghma plugins and boghma library is FREE.

Supported Renderer

• Octane
• Corona
• Node Materials with the new GraphNode model
• Redshift ( Only Node Material for Material Helper)
• Arnold ( Only Node Material for Material Helper)
• Vray ( Only Node Material for Material Helper)

Installation

1. (Recommend) Download Boghma Plugin Manager and install any plugin, the boghma lib will auto installed or updated.
2. Download the source code and import it to your Cinema 4D.

Quick Intro

import c4d
import maxon
from Renderer import Redshift, EasyTransaction, TextureHelper
from pprint import pprint

# Create a TextureHelper instance
# 创建一个 TextureHelper 实例
tex_helper: TextureHelper = TextureHelper()

# Get the url with given asset id
# 获取给定资产ID的URL
# "si-v1_fingerprints_02_15cm.png" with AssetId : file_fa9c42774dd05049
disp: maxon.Url = tex_helper.GetAssetUrl("file_fa9c42774dd05049")

def HowToUse():
    """
    How to reate a redshift material and modify the gragh with EasyTransaction.
    """

    # Create Redshift Node Material instance, if no material filled, we create a new STD material
    # 创建一个Redshift节点材质实例,如果没有材质传入，创建新的STD材质
    material: c4d.BaseMaterial = Redshift.Material("MyMaterial")

    # Use EasyTransaction to modify the graph
    # 使用EasyTransaction来修改材质
    with EasyTransaction(material) as tr:
    
        # the attribute #tr is the instance of Redshift.MaterialHelper, 
        # we got it with just apply to the #material to the EasyTransaction
        # it will inherit from NodeGraghHelper class
        # 属性tr是Redshift.MaterialHelper的实例，通过将材质赋予EasyTransaction获得，继承自NodeGraghHelper

        # Use Redshift.MaterialHelper methods : add a texture + displacement to the Output node
        # 使用Redshift.MaterialHelper中的方法: 添加图片+置换节点到Output节点
        tr.AddDisplacementTree(filepath = disp, shadername = "DISP")

        # Use NodeGraghHelper methods： get the Output(endNode)
        # 使用NodeGraghHelper中的方法: 获取输出节点
        output = tr.GetOutput()
        print(f"{output = }")

        # Insert the material to the document
        # 导入材质(来自Redshift MaterialHelper)
        tr.InsertMaterial()

    # Auto apply GraphTransaction.Commit() to the graph
    # 退出with后, 自动执行GraphTransaction.Commit()

Limit

• For some reasons, AddShader-like methods(maxon.GraphModelInterface.AddChild) will add the node in the center of the graph, if we call those methods on exsited material, it will return a mess graph, you can call Renderer.ArrangeAll() after.
• Material(except Octane) helper only support material with the new GraphNode model(Node Material after R26)
• Due to Octane use his Custom UserArea UI base on old layer system, and didn't support python, we can only modify Octane materials in material level, but can not interactive with selections in octane node editor.
• Also Octane materials didn't have a "port" or "wire" context, we can not use all those methods as same as NodeGraghHelper.
• Arnold mask tag SetPrameter has a refresh bug.

Examples

• Material Example
• AOV Example
• Scene Example

Class Presentation and Highlights

Renderer

• NodeGraghHelper
• TextureHelper
• EasyTransaction
• Redshift
  • AOV
  • Material
  • Scene
• Octane
  • AOV
  • Material
  • Scene
• Arnold
  • AOV
  • Material
  • Scene
• Vray
  • AOV
  • Material
• Corona
  • AOV
  • Material
• utils
  • NodeGraghHelper
  • TextureHelper
  • EasyTransaction
• constants

Version & Updates

• Change Log

Hi @m_adam ，

Thanks for your reply! After some research, I had expanded the code for this case to adapt to the requirements I mentioned earlier:

• we can drag c4d.BaseObject , c4d.BaseMaterial or Image into UA, create their icon.
• we can drag the UA item(Object) back to OM, and drag the UA item(Material) into Material Manager or OM(on the selected object), or drag the UA item(ImageRef) into a shader link.

The UserArea Accept:

• c4d.BaseObject
• c4d.BaseMaterial
• Image file outside Cinema 4D.

Here is the code in case anyone is interested in this topic in the future.Hope it can be helpful.

Cheers~
DunHou

import c4d
from c4d import Vector
from c4d.gui import GeUserArea, GeDialog

GADGET_ID_GEUSERAREA = 10000

class DropArea(GeUserArea):

    def __init__(self):
        # data host
        self.receivedObject: list[c4d.BaseList2D, str] = []
        # bg color of the pen
        self.color: Vector = self._get_color()

    def _get_color(self, colorId: int = c4d.COLOR_BG) -> Vector:
        """
        Get a rgb color from c4d color id
        """
        color = self.GetColorRGB(colorId)
        r = color['r']/255
        g = color['g']/255
        b = color['b']/255
        return c4d.Vector(r,g,b)

    def DrawMsg(self, x1, y1, x2, y2, msg):
        """This Method is called automatically when Cinema 4D Draw the Gadget.

        Args:
            x1 (int): The upper left x coordinate.
            y1 (int): The upper left y coordinate.
            x2 (int): The lower right x coordinate.
            y2 (int): The lower right y coordinate.
            msg (c4d.BaseContainer): The original message container.
        """

        # Initializes draw region
        self.OffScreenOn()
        self.SetClippingRegion(x1, y1, x2, y2)

        # Defines the color used in draw operation, use c4d backgroud color here.
        self.DrawSetPen(self.color)

        # Draws a rectangle filling the whole UI
        self.DrawRectangle(x1, y1, x2, y2)

        # Draw a Icon with the drop object, only consider c4d.BaseList2D and ImageRef here
        if msg.GetInt32(c4d.BFM_DRAG_FINISHED) == 1:
                        
            # If drag info recive a image, draw a icon of image
            if isinstance(self.receivedObject, str):
                icon = c4d.bitmaps.InitResourceBitmap(1050500)
                self.DrawBitmap(icon, x1, y1, x2, y2, 0, 0, icon.GetBw(), icon.GetBh(), mode= c4d.BMP_ALLOWALPHA)

            # If drag info recive a list of BaseList2D, draw a icon of first one.
            else:
                if self.receivedObject:
                    # Draw the first drop object's Icon, 
                    # for BaseMaterial, we can get the preview image.
                    # for BaseObject, we can get the icon.
                    if isinstance(self.receivedObject[0], c4d.BaseList2D):
                        icon = self.receivedObject[0].GetIcon()
                        self.DrawBitmap(icon['bmp'], x1, y1, x2, y2, icon['x'], icon['y'], icon['w'], icon['h'],mode= c4d.BMP_ALLOWALPHA)

    def GetMinSize(self):
        # do a calculation here, min size.
        return 200, 200

    def Message(self, msg, result) :
        if msg.GetId()==c4d.BFM_DRAGRECEIVE:
            # Discard if lost drag or if it has been escaped
            if msg.GetInt32(c4d.BFM_DRAG_LOST) or msg.GetInt32(c4d.BFM_DRAG_ESC):
                return self.SetDragDestination(c4d.MOUSE_FORBIDDEN)
            
            if not self.CheckDropArea(msg, True, True):
                return self.SetDragDestination(c4d.MOUSE_FORBIDDEN)
                                    
            # Check if drag is finished (=drop)
            if msg.GetInt32(c4d.BFM_DRAG_FINISHED) == 1:
                # Get drag object type and data
                dragInfo = self.GetDragObject(msg)

                # Redraw the GeUserArea (will call DrawMsg)
                self.Redraw()

                #print(type(dragInfo['object']))
                self.receivedObject = dragInfo['object']
                print(f"Dropped: {self.receivedObject}")
                return True
            
            # Return current mouse cursor for valid drag operation
            return self.SetDragDestination(c4d.MOUSE_MOVE)
        
        # Call GeUserAre.Message() implementation so that it can handle all the other messages
        return c4d.gui.GeUserArea.Message(self, msg, result)

    def InputEvent(self, msg):
        """Called by Cinema 4D when a click occurs"""
        
        # If the #self.receivedObject host the file path of the image, we generate the file path.
        # this means we can drag it into a image link like a shader link.
        if isinstance(self.receivedObject, str):
            self.HandleMouseDrag(msg, c4d.DRAGTYPE_FILENAME_IMAGE, self.receivedObject, 0)

        else:
            # Create a list of C4DAtom and pass that to the HandleMouseDrag function that will generate all the drag information
            self.HandleMouseDrag(msg, c4d.DRAGTYPE_ATOMARRAY, self.receivedObject, 0)        

        return True
    
class ExampleDialog(GeDialog):
    # The GeUserArea need to be stored somewhere, we will need this instance to be attached to the current Layout
    geUserArea = DropArea()

    def CreateLayout(self):
        """This Method is called automatically when Cinema 4D Create the Layout (display) of the Dialog."""
        
        self.SetTitle("Drag Area")

        if self.GroupBegin(0,  c4d.BFH_SCALEFIT | c4d.BFV_SCALEFIT, cols=1, rows=0, title="", groupflags=0, initw=100, inith=100):
            
            self.GroupBorderSpace(8,8,8,8)
            self.GroupSpace(2, 2)
            
            # Adds a Gadget that will host a GeUserArea
            self.AddUserArea(GADGET_ID_GEUSERAREA, c4d.BFH_SCALEFIT | c4d.BFV_SCALEFIT, 200, 200)
    
            # Attaches the stored GeUserArea to the Gadget previously created
            self.AttachUserArea(self.geUserArea, GADGET_ID_GEUSERAREA)
            
        self.GroupEnd()
        
        return True


if __name__ == "__main__":
    global dlg
    dlg = ExampleDialog()
    dlg.Open(dlgtype=c4d.DLG_TYPE_ASYNC, defaultw=200, defaulth=200)

A free plugin for manage octane lights in the active document.

Here is the dialog looks like, hope it can help you

Octane verison : oc-light-manager v1.0.2.zip
Redshift verison : rs-light-manager v1.0.1.zip

Cinema 4D Octane Light Manager

：Cinema 4D R2023.2.0 above

Online Help

Standalone Download

• Boghma Community(Chinese Language)

• Gitee(Chinese Language)

• Github( .pypv)

Plugin Manager Download

• Boghma Plugin Manager (Beta)

Function Highlights

• track document Octane lights and get/set some key parameter
• Drag to set Light ID
• Quickly set Texture or Distribution slot with RGB or Texture
• Solo / Enable / As Camera for Octane Light
• And so on, please check document

Cheers~
DunHou

Hi community!

Here is a new plugin to manage all my(boghma) plugins and some open source librarys like ualib and renderEngine for Cinema 4D.

All the boghma plugin is 100% Free

About boghma: boghma is the pronounce of python in Uighur, It is a free community for Cinema 4D and operated by me and my two friends.If you want to share your plugins for free and put it into the manager, please contact me

Hope it can help you.

Cheers~
DunHou

Boghma-Plugin-HUB

This plugin manage all the boghma plugin, and install/update/uninstall them.

Install

1. Download boghma hub and unzip it.

2. Put boghma hub folder to your ssd disk，Like：D:/boghma hub

3. Start Cinema 4D，Preference - Plugins - Add Folder，Add the boghma hub folder and keep active，like：D:/boghma hub

4. Restart Cinema，find boghma menu and enjoy
   

Do not change the folder structure of boghma hub

How to use

• Install
• Update
• Unstall

Hi community!

Since my last post, I had some updates and fix to this library.

And the following picture shows the new node functions added to my Render Flow plugin based on the use of this library within few lines( just the node context ).

Have fun with it.

Cheers~
DunHou

Hi community!

It is a great honor to introduce new Boghma and core products : Boghma Plugins Manager

We try to provide free plugins market for users and developers :

As User:

• Just install the manager, you already get tons of plugins and growing plugin numbers!
• You can download any plugin you want and get the newest update all in manager.
• All the plugins are free, even needn't have to login.

As Developer:

• Deliver your plugins and updates directly to users with no fees.
• Emphasize the developers themselves, uploading your plugins here will not weaken your personal brand. On the contrary, we encourage self promotion.
• Intuitively obtaining your plugin popularity, investing more energy into user favorite plugins, and achieving a great sense of accomplishment

So far, we have above 30 plugins and keeping going on, over a month of internal testing inside China, there have been over 9000 downloads, hoping to attract more developers to release their free plugins here.

And as always, if you have any good ideas, please let me know, or you can join our discord channel in the website and get real-time updates and feedback .

Cheers~
DunHou

@bentraje

I think name atttribute is not easy as old c4d SDK to use . It cann't print in console .

I use this to get Name , and Set Name .
some codes in python sdk didn't work and return None .Maxon SDK has a example to get info form node retrieve_information_r26.py

    # 获取名称 ： 
    def GetNodeName(self, node, display=False):
        """
        Retrieve the displayed name of a node.
        
        Parameters
        ----------        
        Args:
            node: (maxon.GraphNode): The node to retrieve the name from.
            display: print info when display is True
        Returns:
            Optional[str]: The node name, or None if the Node name can't be retrieved.
        """
        if node is None:
            return None

        nodeName = node.GetValue(maxon.NODE.BASE.NAME)

        if nodeName is None:
            nodeName = node.GetValue(maxon.EffectiveName)

        if nodeName is None:
            nodeName = str(node)
        if display ==True :
            print(nodeName)
        return nodeName   

Hi community!

the renderEngine helper is beta now, I set version number to 1.0.0, it contains three renderer now:

• Octane
• Arnold ( MaterialHelper only support NodeGragh )
• Redshift ( MaterialHelper only support NodeGragh )

I personally not use Vray and Corona quite often, if anyone is a pro user of these , very welcome to add them to renderEngine

You can modify the aovs/materials with renderEngine quickly and easliy . See the examples above this topic.

Hope you can have fun with it, and any improvement and fix is very appreciated.

Cheers~
DunHou

@BineeMan here is my unwrap script, but I didn't find how to change to cubic or angle mode, there seems not a symbol in the .h file.

import c4d

MCOMMAND_AUTOMATICUV = 1053624

def unwrap(node: c4d.BaseObject):
    doc = node.GetDocument()
    if isinstance(node, c4d.PolygonObject) and node.GetTag(c4d.Tuvw) is not None:
        pass
    elif isinstance(node, c4d.PolygonObject) and node.GetTag(c4d.Tuvw) is None:
        doc.AddUndo(c4d.UNDOTYPE_CHANGE, node)
        settings = c4d.BaseContainer()
        settings[c4d.MDATA_AUTOMATICUV_TAGINDEX] = 0
        settings[c4d.MDATA_AUTOMATICUV_FORCESEAMS] = False
        settings[c4d.MDATA_AUTOMATICUV_OVERLAPMIRRORED] = False
        settings[c4d.MDATA_AUTOMATICUV_OVERLAPIDENTICAL] = False
        settings[c4d.MDATA_AUTOMATICUV_SPACING] = 0.01
        settings[c4d.MDATA_AUTOMATICUV_USENORMALS] = True
        settings[c4d.MDATA_AUTOMATICUV_SPACINGASPECT] = 1.0
        c4d.utils.SendModelingCommand(command = MCOMMAND_AUTOMATICUV,
                                    list=[node],
                                    mode=c4d.MODELINGCOMMANDMODE_POLYGONSELECTION,
                                    bc=settings,
                                    doc=doc)

def do_it():
    doc = c4d.documents.GetActiveDocument()
    for node in doc.GetActiveObjects(0):
        unwrap(node)
    c4d.EventAdd()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    do_it()

Hi community!

Th renderEngine library has been updated to the 1.0.4 version, there are some re-write functions and may not incompatible with older versions，see the main changes as follows：

• rename all node & material functions to Capitalize style.
• remove transaction in node_helper, use it in the final scripts.
• organize the functions in node_helper with comments ( node\port\wire\util )
• add some functions to check node or port info, like if it is connected , see the README.
• add a InserShader function to create a shader into a wire.
• re-write RemoveConnection in node_helper and support one argument(port) to remove connection.
• see the Version & Updates

Cheers~
DunHou

Hi @Daguna ,

Sorry to bad answer, I misread your target, see a new one here:

from typing import Optional
import c4d

doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument  # The active document
op: Optional[c4d.BaseObject]  # The active object, None if unselected

def main():

    # Retrieves BaseTime of frame 5, 20
    start = 0
    end = 1

    # Loops through the frames
    for frame in range(start, end + 1):

        # Changes the time of the document
        doc.SetTime(c4d.BaseTime(frame, doc.GetFps()))

        # Updates timeline
        c4d.GeSyncMessage(c4d.EVMSG_TIMECHANGED)

        # Redraws the viewport and regenerate the cache object
        c4d.DrawViews(c4d.DRAWFLAGS_ONLY_ACTIVE_VIEW | c4d.DRAWFLAGS_NO_THREAD | c4d.DRAWFLAGS_STATICBREAK)



    # Pushes an update event to Cinema 4D
    c4d.EventAdd(c4d.EVENT_ANIMATE)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Redshift Manager Here, and Octane also had a huge update, please use my plugin manager version to check new furtures.

And a great example by @ferdinand at Building menus with C4DPL_BUILDMENU in S26+.

I have add zh-CN string to this and make an icon that similar to c4d Disc object.

Hi @RTF , the c4d.PREFS_REDSHIFT_MATPREVIEW_MODE doesn't seem stored in Redshift VideoPost, is this code generated by GPT or something similar？

Back to the topic, this parameter is stored in the Redshift tab of the preferences node. You should get the redshift preference node and then set the parameter.

If you installed Renderer lib or boghma hub, you can use this:

import c4d
from Renderer import Redshift

if __name__ == '__main__':
    Redshift.SetMaterialPreview(preview_mode = 1)

or just few codes:

import c4d

ID_PREFERENCES_NODE = 465001632 # Prefs ID

def GetPreference() -> c4d.BaseList2D:
    """
    Get the Redshift preferenc.
    """
    prefs: c4d.plugins.BasePlugin = c4d.plugins.FindPlugin(ID_PREFERENCES_NODE)
    if not isinstance(prefs, c4d.BaseList2D):
        raise RuntimeError("Could not access preferences node.")
      
    descIdSettings = c4d.DescID(
    c4d.DescLevel(1036220, 1, 465001632), # pref ID Redshift
    c4d.DescLevel(888, 133, 465001632)
    )
    return prefs[descIdSettings]

if __name__ == '__main__':
    redshift_pref: c4d.BaseList2D = GetPreference()
    redshift_pref[c4d.PREFS_REDSHIFT_MATPREVIEW_MODE] = 1

Cheers~
DunHou

Hi community!

New versions here!

I had change the name from renderEngine to Renderer, and also changed the main structure. see more in the very first of this topic. (renderEngine had been move to versions folder, if you still interested.)

This version is way more organized and user-friendly, you can use few lines of code to do something normal work, find an example below:

Cheers~
DunHou

Result:

Code:

import c4d
import maxon
from Renderer import Redshift, EasyTransaction, TextureHelper

tex_helper: TextureHelper = TextureHelper()
disp: maxon.Url = tex_helper.GetAssetUrl("file_fa9c42774dd05049")

def HowToUse():

    material: c4d.BaseMaterial = Redshift.Material("MyMaterial")

    with EasyTransaction(material) as tr:

        tr.AddDisplacementTree(filepath = disp, shadername = "DISP")

        tr.InsertMaterial()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    HowToUse()

Hey @d_keith ,

I'll hide all nodes preview and un-hide the output preview, I write two examples.

• First one uses my Renderer lib, if you installed boghma plugin manager, it will out of the box to use.
• Second one uses maxon codes, it should work more widely.

Cheers～
DunHou

Renderer

import c4d
import maxon
import Renderer

def mylib_solution():
    doc = c4d.documents.GetActiveDocument()
    for mat in doc.GetMaterials():
        with Renderer.EasyTransaction(mat) as tr:
            tr.FoldPreview(tr.GetAllShaders(), False)
            tr.FoldPreview(tr.GetOutput(), True)
    c4d.EventAdd()

maxon

import c4d
import maxon
def maxon_solution():
    doc = c4d.documents.GetActiveDocument()
    for mat in doc.GetMaterials():
        nodeMaterial: c4d.NodeMaterial = mat.GetNodeMaterialReference()
        if not nodeMaterial.HasSpace(maxon.NodeSpaceIdentifiers.RedshiftMaterial):
            continue

        graph: maxon.NodesGraphModelRef = nodeMaterial.GetGraph(maxon.NodeSpaceIdentifiers.RedshiftMaterial)
        root: maxon.GraphNode = graph.GetViewRoot()
        nimbusRef: maxon.NimbusBaseRef = mat.GetNimbusRef(maxon.NodeSpaceIdentifiers.RedshiftMaterial)
        endNodePath: maxon.NodePath = nimbusRef.GetPath(maxon.NIMBUS_PATH.MATERIALENDNODE)
        endNode: maxon.GraphNode = graph.GetNode(endNodePath)

        with graph.BeginTransaction() as transaction:
            node: maxon.GraphNode
            for node in root.GetInnerNodes(mask=maxon.NODE_KIND.NODE, includeThis=False):
                node.SetValue(maxon.NODE.BASE.DISPLAYPREVIEW, maxon.Bool(False))

            endNode.SetValue(maxon.NODE.BASE.DISPLAYPREVIEW, maxon.Bool(True))

            transaction.Commit()

    c4d.EventAdd()

Hey @Gemini ,

You should take a look at py-render-token example, and filter the version number of your project like re.findall("v"+"\d+",filePath) if I understand not wrong.

Cheers~
DunHou

Love the mxutils and GeDialog Changes, I use these features almost every time, thank you for having a more refined official version.

Thank you to the SDK team for their work achievements

Cheers~
DunHou

@ferdinand Maybe the broblem in not the code but the Cinema Application, Some friends also told me when they load Aseets(especially at a large Asset data like 20G in disk) , It always take a long time or even not load unless restart C4D.

You are right, I should call WaitForDatabaseLoading() function for safe. That's my stupid , I didn't notice the loading failed in state bar

I do check the Python examples in GitHub , but I think maybe it is a dcc of my config problem, some friends also said assets broswer is a little slower . (perhaps due to china a internet far away from maxon server) .hope it will be fix in uncoming C4D