I have a patch where I need to repeat a spread of values so that each slice repeats a different number of times. I can do it by converting the spread to a string, using the Repeat(String) node, setting a spread of repeat lengths, then converting back to values, but it’s a bit hackish and I’d rather do it natively.
Is there a way to accomplish the same thing with (Value) nodes, or is a Repeat(Value) node something that might need to come into existence sometime in the future?
Select nodes?
An exhaustive picture with inputs and outputs, or the patch could help; for sure it’s just me, but I can’t understand completely your issue.
{img src = "sites/default/files/imagecache/large/images/Select.png" title = “title”}
ja, sounds like Select (Value).
Ah yeah, looks like select does exactly that if I plug a spread into the select pin that has integer rather than Boolean values like I’m used to doing. Cheers for answering my fairly obvious questions!
I reckon providing an example of this behaviour in the help patch could make this use more explicit for anyone who misses it like I did. What’s the process for having help patches added to the main releases? I’d love to see some kind of community based help patch gap filling initiative, if something like that would be practical. I’d definitely contribute a few myself.
You can create a new documentation page, a new tutorial contribution, hack Westbam’s westtricks, join github community…
Anyway, it’s impossible to fit into a helppatch all of the “consequences” of a node; once an user told me: “This should be the helppatch of SetSlice and GetSlice”, but just because what I shown was just solving its very problem, not because it was a really general demonstration of those nodes functionalities.
This will be a bit OT, but…
IMMHO, vvvv nature is sometime misleading, because the constant flow of data (I do this, lets see what happens… ah yes I get this; then to get that I add this and that… oh no it’s broken, but what if… LOL broken again… ah, ok. I need that… Yes it is it…) may get you to stick to a specific point of view on the problem, something that may not happen when you have to compile your code before you’re able to see actual results. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just a matter of approach to code. Using only the constant flow could not be the best choice; instead, fore-thinking before starting to spread nodes on the patch could be a better approach.
There’s a page somewhere in the documentation (probably related to a Node, or was it the Parasitic design? Ah…) where IIRC @joreg explains why you should “plan” your patch, and why is not so obvious to patch some logic, much, much better than I’ve done.
Yeah, I definitely plan to write some tutorials at some point, especially for gif making related stuff since that’s what I have the most experience with. (I’ve been saying this for at least a year but I’ll definitely get there eventually.)
I really love the help patches though. I learned most of what I know from just hitting f1 and playing around until I understood the logic and basic usages of nodes. If I can submit help patches via github I’d absolutely be up for that. Having general examples that are a keypress away can really help in terms of getting an understanding of what each node does, which can help a lot in the planning process. In this particular case I knew exactly what I needed to do, I just couldn’t find the node that did it and the help patch didn’t indicate that Select could repeat slices if you plugged non-binary values into it.
If I can make a small thing demonstrating that and add it to the help patch, I’m more than happy to do so. Learning materials are often a very underrated part of creative software/programming languages and I’d love to contribute.
hei feather,
the case of the Select node helppatch shall be taken care of. thanks for pointing it out!
your quickest way to support us on helppatches is just making them and uploading them to a forum thread. we can then check and add it to the library for you.
the more advanced way, via github, starts here: vvvv sdk
Thanks Joreg!
I’d say the vvvv sdk route is a bit beyond the scope of the contributions I had in mind at the moment, but when I have some free time I might identify some nodes that could use help patch-ification and share them in a forum post. We could even get a thread going for anyone to do the same.
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
