Indigo Exporter C4D Plugin - BlackLizard 2006

This is a very preliminary plugin for Cinema4D enabling you to save scene in Indigo Render file format

Indigo Render is a very cool render engine by Nick Chapman: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/nickamy/indigo.html

Here is a brief description on how to use the exporter:

Installation:

Simply unzip into your C4D plugins directory

NOTES:
 - Name your directory "Indigo Exporter" (necessary for nkdata.xml metal config file)
 - Keep your materials different, even slightly different
 	(internally the plugin searches for materials using a C4D comparison function, so material with exactly same parameters
 	may be accessed when parsing the scene even if it is not the correct material attached to a material helper)
 - If using C4D 9.5+ delete the IndigoExporter.cdl file in the plugin dir and rename IndigoExporter9521.cd_ to IndigoExporter9521.cdl
 - Check NkData.xml is in the current plugin directory (where the .cdl file is)
 - When changing the NkData.xml beware not using invalid xml characters and .nk file exists in nkdata under Indigo main dir
 - If first time using the plugin go to Edit / Preferences / Import-Export / Indigo Render Export and select the Indigo.exe directory

Use:

- Plane and Sphere objects are directly mapped to the same perfect objects in Indigo scene file
- Other objects are first changed to Polys (in a temp doc, your scene is not changed) and then saved
  as a 3ds file (the name is the same one of the .xml file with a number and .3ds at the end)
- All objects (poly or those that will be changed to poly) must have a material
- Area light are supported (use tag to specify indigo parameters): Only position and dimension, no orientation
- A Null object may be used to define the sun position and enable skylight element in scene file (see Config tag)
- Default camera is used if no camera present and in use.
  If using target camera, focal length is defined by target camera position
- Mesh Light are enabled using the light tag

Tags:
- Config Tag:
	Add one of it to any valid element in the scene (any sphere, plane or object)
	Defines background color, override parameters for ini file, turbidity, global dimension multiplier, angle of view
	multiplier and provide a link where you can drag the sun null object.
	Lens radius for DOF can be specified here.

- Obj Tag:
	You can use it to enable No smooth Normal element for a poly object (or something that will become a poly obj, i.e. boole)

- Light Tag:
	Use it to define Indigo light parameter for area light or MeshLight (add it to a poly obj and it will become an emitter)

Materials:
  Indigo			Cinema4D

  Diffuse			Use only color channel (color define the...color :)
  Specular (non transparent)	Activate specular channel (width control specular parameter)
  Specular (Transparent)	Activate Transparency channel (Transparency color for absorption, ior and dispersion)
  Reflection			Activate Reflection channel (color and brightness for exponent)

Notes:

This is a very preliminary test plugin, I tried to work hard to make it behave nice with your PC but who knows, please save
all your data before testing, I'm not responsible for any damage it may create.
Tested and developed using the great Cinema4D version 9, please tell me if doesn't work on previous version.

Thanks again go to Nick for its wonderfull render engine and for its sharing to all the community!

Byez and Peace
	BlackLizard

Bugs, critics, flowers to blacklizard@bytejuggler.com


History:

0.59.6b	- 2006-06-10
 - Fixed a bug with area lights without a Light Tag (thanks ello)

0.59.6	- 2006-06-08
 - Updated to Indigo 0.5 test 7
 - Added fresnel_scale parameter in phong material

0.59.5	- 2006-06-05
 - Updated to Indigo 0.5 test 6
 - Added metals support in phong material (helper tag provides a list of nkdata files)
 - Added max_num_consec_rejections to override but it seems it's not correctly parsed

0.59.4	- 2006-05-18
 - Updated to Indigo 0.5 test 3
 - Added white_balance and sky_gain
 - Added support for sub dir path for exr/raw env maps
 - Added new override flags

0.59.3	- 2006-05-18
 - Fixed some problems withe lens_sensor_width and focus_distance

0.59.2	- 2006-05-15
 - Fixed Material/Light tag bug in 9.521
 - Added bidirectional override item

0.59.1	- 2006-05-14
 - Added new spectrum definition (peak, blackbody, rgb)

0.59		- 2006-05-09
 - Moved to version Indigo 0.5 format

0.58.2  - 2005-05-02
 - Corrected background color export (thanks Mrmoose)
 - Corrected FOV multiplier (thanks Phoenix)
 - Added Aspect Ratio (for WLAD :)

0.58.1  - 2005-04-09
 - Added gain/exponent parameters for textures

0.58  - 2005-04-09
 - Added texturing ;)

0.57  - 2005-04-09
 - Moving to 0.4 scene format (currently only external 3ds file support - No texturing)

0.56  - 2005-03-05/11/13/27
 - Italian translation by me :)
 - Spanish translation by Jordan Gantier R.
 - German translation by Micha1138B
 - Material remapping -> Reflection channel for Indigo specular non transparent
 - Bug Fixing (i.e. Meshlights don't need a material anymore to be activated, camera parameters)
 - Fixed some tonemapping option export
 - Fixed plugin ID problems and invalid res for MaterialHelperTag
 - Fixed scale element in non dual 3ds export - Thanks Petr

0.55  - 2005-03-01
 - Added Material helper tag to map C4D materials into Indigo ones
 - Material helper tag tutorial video
 - Two versions v9.102 and v9.521

0.51  - 2006-02-27
 - Fixed other bugs in material handling
 - Added a Save As and Render command that resave with the same scene name and Render after the first scene name definition

0.5  - 2006-02-25
 - Enabled and completed Save & Run Indigo Plugin command (save the scene and launch Indigo)
   Remember to set Indigo.exe path in Preferences\Export\Indigo Export panel
 - Should be fully compatible with Indigo 0.3 final specs
 
 
0.4  - 2006-02-23
 - Added first implementation of dual 3ds object export (still buggy)
 - No absolute path save
 - Better handling of light parameters
 - General fixing


0.2 and 0.3 - 2006-02-19
 - Fixed 3ds positioning export
 - Tutorial videos

0.1b - 2006-02-19
 - Fixed 9.102 compatibility issues

0.1  - 2006-02-18
 - First release
 - Materials video
