I absolutely love the expanded capabilities, shortcuts and tricks that python gives us.
It’s really frustrating to upgrade and lose all of the python tools that you have been relying on. But then it’s super unfair to expect the clever people who have been writing these tools for free to volunteer more of their time to update them to make them compatible with the latest release.
Is their another solution to this? Should we all be chipping in to pay for someone to co-ordinate with Autodesk when a new release is imminent to ensure that all the python tools work with the new release?
I would definitely be into doing this, but I feel that maybe Autodesk themselves should be making a contribution to paying someone to improve Flame’s capabilities. Or maybe just bring someone in for a few days a month to get ahead of things and iron out bugs.
Well, I feel like user-created apps are user-created apps and not really Autodesk’s problem to maintain. A more public, in-advance announcement of “Warning, Flame 2022 will be switching to Python 3! Get ready…” etc. would have been welcome but I’m not sure what to do beyond that.
These things are ostensibly open-source so at least if something gets abandoned someone else could pick it up. I’m certainly willing to take a look at something and help make it work again if I can, if you have links to something in particular that’s not being updated.
Hi Andy,
Most, if not all of the “major” user-based python script creators are on the beta program, and knew about the change to Python3 ahead of general release.
I think that @randy (and others in their replies) have covered this in a more eloquent way than me here when talking about similar issues with Matchbox Shaders. I should probably just stop moaning and go and become a Patron Member and help provide some funds to make this happen.
Done.
Thank you good sir!
Thank you Mr. Brown! So, this has come up a few times in the last few months. I think its important to recognize this as an incredibly important issue for our community. As @ALan has said, there are lots of people that really give a shit and they are already in the Beta program doing their thing. They contribute an amazing amount of time and effort for the community’s benefit and the update to Python 3 is one of those things that just takes time to overcome, not unlike Catalina to Big Sur or Intel to M1 or Irix to Linux or SGI to Whatchamacallit or CentOS to WhateverOS or vertical reels to horizontal reels TM.
And please Mr. @AndyBrown, you are a standup member of the community and that’s crystal clear and what I’m about to say isn’t pointed in your direction AT ALL. You’ve raised a fair concern and I’ll gladly dust off my soap box for a hot minute and we can see what, as a community, sticks or at least doesn’t smell so funny.
The first thing I want to say is its okay to complain about something. For those that know me I complain when the wind isn’t coming from the right direction or the runners use a dull ass knife and serve squashed lemon slices with warm water to my clients or random reason #6012. But as a community, I want us to only have to complain about something once. After we complain about something once, that’s called whining. And whining breaks both unofficial Laws of Logik. So, congratulations Andy Brown for stepping forward and supporting us. Love ya. Thank ya.
The second thing I want to say is that I’m sure @Kirk can point to a very specific XKCD comic that perfectly illustrates this entire situation.
The third thing is that the helpers of our community need help. For anyone that has ever made a video or posted a post or liked a post or wrote a script or compiled a Matchbox or went on a Logik Live or just showed up and lurked here…the helpers need help. Heck, Andy Milkis and I need your help. After a year of Logik Lives and about 6 months of nurturing the forums along we’ve managed to get 1,000 subscribers on YouTube and about 800 users, which represents less than 25% of the total users on the old Facebook group. I know its ridiculous but having people show up here, login, and like a post or ask a question or respond to someone is the single biggest thing you can do to support the Flame community. Andy and I are actively using this data to try to leverage more sponsorships from bigger and better friends to do bigger and better things for you. And if you’re too busy, no prob, chuck us $5 a month or donate a few bucks for that time Andy brought on that guest that showed you that cool thing that saved your bacon last night.
I feel like we have a long ways to go but if we can get to the next level then crazy things do in fact become possible, like, building a marketplace for people to upload scripts or setups or textures or tutorials or plugins or matchboxes or pythons or whatever. Unless something is someone’s job then it will take a back seat to pandemics and version upgrades and summer holidays and production craziness and that general category of distractions called life.
If this sounds interesting and you want to help us get there someday, then thanks for caring and help us grow the forums by inviting your colleagues and consume our content and like a post or ask a question or donate $5 or call @Kirk a Flamist or refer to @andy_dill as Regional Renderdome Champion.
was it this one? because this one is a classic:
okay, that’s good. but what about the one with the guy and the thing in the place? ya know, the one where the entirely of the success of humanity rests on the shoulders of some knucklehead in Nebraska that is keeping one something running so the world doesn’t end? ya know, that one.
Oh, you mean this one! I didn’t realize you had something specific in mind. I thought I was just being summoned here to post comics. Sorry, working on minimal sleep these days.
YES! THAT ONE!!!
Legend. Go to bed.
Shit I hope my topic doesn’t come across as ‘Get the Python Scripts updated you lazy bastards’. That wasn’t my intention at all. Everyone contributing or who has ever contributed to matchbox shaders and python scripts is doing a stellar job way beyond the call of duty and I am very appreciative of all the hard work that has clearly gone into creating these amazing tools.
To your third point @randy I’d love to help you and @andymilkis out in any way I can.
Hit me up (as I never used to say and now I do, cos, you know, 'Merica).
It most certainly did not. Not at all. It’s a completely fair point and is something I’ve thought a lot about since 2022 came out.
Classic.
Mike I can’t thank you enough for all your hard work in maintaining the scripts. I use them all the time and they have saved me countless hours that I would never have gotten back!
Mike V is the man! I’ll say it time and time again. I LOVE these scripts. Thanks dude!