Plugins manager

[YGYL]

Hello YGYL, and thank you for your contribution [:)]

Thank you!
A unified and reusable multilingual support mechanism would be best
This forum is troublesome to upload files, but also through the network disk to be able to

[Daniels118]

The plugin manager is finally ready!

I'm still populating the database, so not all plugins are already available, but they will be soon.

Discover all its features here:
http://daniels118.altervista.org/sh3d/pluginmanager/

Download it from here:
Plugins Manager on SourceForge

[Daniels118]

I've finished to populate the database, now all plugins can be found within the plugin manager.

@developers
I will do my best to keep the DB updated, however if you wish to customize how your plugins display within the Plugin manager (search keywords, icons, descriptions and so on), please send me a request through sourceforge to receive private credentials to handle your plugins by yourself.

[YGYL]

I've finished to populate the database, now all plugins can be found within the plugin manager.

Thank you very much!!!!!

A few issues were found.
1. about the page does not use <META HTTP-EQUIV="CONTENT-TYPE" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8"> This will cause the translated page encoding to be displayed incorrectly
2. About the page, there is no file corresponding to multiple languages, so you can only force to overwrite the English file if you want to translate
3. The names of the plug-ins on the manager list do not take multilingual translations, they are all in English, but there are 2 exceptions. I do not know why.
4. The final version of the plug-in recognition is still incomplete

Finally, it is recommended to add a batch import plug-in directory function, select a directory, automatic one-click import all the plug-ins in the directory

[YGYL]

Your programming skills are so good, I suggest you to implement a function that has not been implemented for a few years, all of which are very critical for SH3D

One is to combine several objects and put them in the material library bar. And can be saved to the object library SH3F. For example, I have 1 kind of dining chair (1MB), 1 kind of dining table (1MB), 1 vase (1MB). If users use these objects, they have to put 6 dining chairs + 1 dining table + 2 vases by themselves, which is very troublesome
If the default do a set of 6 dining chairs + 1 kind of dining table + 1 vase objects, then the object library will be a lot of wasted space (6MB + 1MB + 2MB = 9MB). So it would be impossible to give the user different quick object combinations
If there is this function, the same 1 kind of dining chair (1MB), 1 kind of dining table (1MB), 1 vase (1MB), you can make dozens of colors and styles, dining chairs more or less, several different color schemes. This will greatly speed up the user's drawing speed, and may put a kitchen object in a few clicks
This is very critical for SH3D.


Also, the handling of textures.
A texture can be converted to a variety of tones and light and dark

[Daniels118]

Thank you for your feedback, here some observations:

1) ok, I will add it in the next release;
2) ok, I will fix it in the next release;
3) the plugin names in the list are not part of the plugin manger itself. They are downloaded from a remote repository that can be updated by me or by the plugin developer. Multilanguage is supported, but translating everything requires a lot of time. I may think of a collaborative approach, but it is a lot of work, I've no clear plans about this.
4) This happens if the installed version of the plugin isn't one in the database. The match is done using the plugin name, provider and version. If you have manually changed any of these fields within your sh3p files, then the plugin manager isn't able to recognize it. Unfortunately there is no workaround for this, unless you choose to build and mantain your own plugin repository.

You can already do this by uploading a file like this one on your own server, and changing the repository accordingly in the Plugin manager settings.

5) This could be achieved by simply copying the directory content to the SH3D plugins folder.

[YGYL]

Many users who use SH3D cannot find the software user directory, so it is important to have batch installation

[Daniels118]

combine several objects and put them in the material library bar. And can be saved to the object library SH3F

I think this can be achieved with the Furniture Library Editor [:)]

A texture can be converted to a variety of tones and light and dark

You can do this with any image editor. I may suggest GIMP which is free, cross platform and open source.
I have future plans for a texture editor, but it will be more oriented to tile arrangement than color management.

My intent is to implement missing features that cannot be achieved with alternate methods, or at least would require too much effort or time, leading the users to prefer other softwares.
The Plugin manager is an exception, its purpose is to help users to know that such features can be installed if needed.

Of course your hints are welcome, but you understand implementing (and mantaining) features is a time consuming task and I have to choose with care which ones worth the effort.

[YGYL]

I think a lot of people who use SH3D are some real newbies and are not likely to use the furniture library editor. (And the furniture library editor doesn't have this feature.) And will not go to use the picture editing software. (That is, using it is also a very troublesome thing)
The core of this thing is that an object is used multiple times and only occupies 1 file size. For example, as I said before, it is best to let the object library directly support the KMZ format (now the furniture library editor is all OBJ to save, as long as the same parts of the object KMZ is much smaller than OBJ, such as a large tree 3D model)
And I'm talking about the advanced version of this kind of thing, not only the same object inside the same part to save space, and the object can be called by another combination of objects, as long as you can save a lot of time and file space
I have been in contact with SH3D for more than 10 years, I think this is the most critical feature
Because in my opinion the value of SH3D is a simple 3D model placement tool, and then a tool for drawing walls.
It's not 10 years ago ~ the online platform of big companies is free and easy to use, the layout can be automated, the rendering effect is fast and good.
If SH3D doesn't change, less and less people will use SH3D. 10 years I feel it very obvious~.

[Daniels118]

Ok, I did misunderstand what you did mean, I was focused on the SH3F file.
This feature sounds interesting, but again is something that can be partially achieved with the current tools. You can place the furnitures in the home, group them, and then use copy/paste to replicate the whole group; you still have the capability to select single items within a group to change textures and other options. And it wouldn't matter how many copies you have, they will always occupy the same space.

Having such groups within a furniture library would be nice, but I think this is something a plugin cannot do, since the parsing of the SH3F files belongs to the core of the application.

A plugin could eventually show an alternate furniture catalog that can support such feature, but this is out of my plans (at least not for free).