Italian version

Vse


VirtuaLight shader editor



Vse is a program that allow user to create and edit description of Shaders for VirtuaLight global illumination renderer. It is entirely written in pure TclTk. Shaders (actually Plain and Pattern types only) can be created and edited almost in graphical mode by means of the Vse TclTk's GUI. At any moment the user can run a rendering test to verify the result, save the current single shader or save all the currently loaded shader. It is possible, as a matter of fact, to work with several shaders at the same time, switching between them within a simple editing list. The GUI is easy and intuitive, the user can change, add or remove shader's features and parameters with a few mouse clicks, move, rename or delete shaders between archive files by means of a dedicated 'Library' window interface.

At right you can see the main menu. Loading desidered shaders (previously saved with Vse) it's very simple by means of the dedicated window (bottom image). Select a shader in the list and look at the thumbnail on the right, that at the same time it is a button for loading the selected shader. Saving command can be used for the single current shader or for all the currently loaded shaders.

The simple rendering test scene (a primitive object inside a simple 'room') can be adjusted by means of dedicated parameters window (image at left). Rendering output will be drawn in the thumbnail at right immediately after VL has finished its work. This thumbnail will be saved togheter with the shader text description and used in 'Loading' and 'Library' windows to show up the selected shader.
There is a limitation in loading shaders in Vse. You can only load and manage shaders definition saved within Vse. You shouldn't manually edit the Vse's generated .vs files and you shouldn't try to load shaders from .vs files not created with Vse.

The 'Library' window allow user to manage shader definitions whitin Vse's .vs saved files. You can move shaders between files, reallocate shaders location whitin the .vs file, rename them or delete them by means of a mouse click. Shaders are showed with their related thumbnail, as long as they was saved within Vse. All thumbnails are saved in a dedicated folder, one for each .vs shader archive file (within a common directory named vseTns). 'Library' and 'Load' windows will make use of these thumbnails.
The commands in the 'Workspace' menu allows you to save or load a specific set of shaders simultaneously. For example, if you are working whit 5 shaders, you can save your 'workspace' in a file and restart your working session later (Vse will simply save a .vsw file with a list of the currently loaded shaders with their associated .vs files).

Vse has also the capability to create, edit and save the VirtuaLight so-called 'Spectrum Of Colors' (color maps) by means of a completely graphical user interface (see image at right).


System Requirements

Download

Vse is in alpha stage but pretty usable and stable (I hope). It was not extensively tested so it probably contains bugs and it is currently limited to 'Plain' and 'Pattern' shaders types. Please, try it out and give me any feedback, expecially bugs, suggestions for improvements, usability problems. You can download it as a zip file. Unzip wherever you want and double-click on Vse.tcl file:

Vse.zip (May, 29 2003)


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