Zipped assets

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Zipped assets

Postby android272 » Mon Jun 12, 2017 3:00 pm

Why are the assets not zipped up for easy distribution? It is extremely aggravating to have to create a new folder for each asset and then download all the files for that asset. It would be much easier to download a zipped, .tar, .tar.gz (or whatever) into the make human data folders and then decompress them afterwords. This makes me not even want to download community assets. Is this an option when people upload their assets?
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Re: Zipped assets

Postby joepal » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:11 pm

Or you could use the asset downloader plugin.

There's a demo video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgswsTV_8lE

The plugin is here: https://github.com/makehumancommunity/c ... etdownload
The MHAPI dependency plugin is here: https://github.com/makehumancommunity/c ... gins-mhapi

Allowing zipped downloads is on the todo list, but using the asset downloader plugin is the recommended way to download assets. It will remain so even when/if zipped downloads become available.
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Re: Zipped assets

Postby blindsaypatten » Mon Jun 12, 2017 7:22 pm

Btw, what is the downloader plugin checking for when it starts up? From the logs it looks like it checks every single asset. Is that what slows the startup time? If so, does it need to do it on every startup?
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Re: Zipped assets

Postby loki1950 » Mon Jun 12, 2017 8:34 pm

blindsaypatten wrote:Btw, what is the downloader plugin checking for when it starts up? From the logs it looks like it checks every single asset. Is that what slows the startup time? If so, does it need to do it on every startup?


It is checking what you have from what is available in the repo as for doing at start I think it should be done after you do a synchronise
so that it does not affect start up time but the way it is ATM is the easiest to do :geek:

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Re: Zipped assets

Postby RobBaer » Tue Jun 13, 2017 12:40 am

This is a known issue that is likely to be fixed eventually, but like everything, the time oh the time. :( If only there weren't real life happening ...
https://github.com/makehumancommunity/c ... /issues/15
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Re: Zipped assets

Postby joepal » Tue Jun 13, 2017 7:57 am

blindsaypatten wrote:Btw, what is the downloader plugin checking for when it starts up? From the logs it looks like it checks every single asset. Is that what slows the startup time? If so, does it need to do it on every startup?


The problem is that it scans through all downloaded assets to figure out what to exclude from the lists as already downloaded. This is a very heavy operation on mechanical disks, particularly on windows. On my linux SSD, it isn't even noticable eventhough I've downloaded large parts of the asset repo for testing purposes.

In my current development branch (which is not actually usable yet, it includes significant refactoring), this is instead cached in the asset DB.

The asset downloader plugin is a priority todo, and the plan is to make a MH release which bundles at least that and MHX2. But as Rob says, real life keeps happening.

I'm currently tied up with a contract for the swedish military, as well as a significant negotiation about another contract. However, I hope to get some quality time with MH after mid summer.
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Re: Zipped assets

Postby blindsaypatten » Tue Jun 13, 2017 7:14 pm

Good to hear it's in the works. In the mean time I've just disabled the downloader and will enable it when needed. Because the splash screen is "always on top" my computer is basically unusable during the startup.

Thanks!
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Re: Zipped assets

Postby jujube » Wed Jun 14, 2017 1:57 am

joepal wrote:Or you could use the asset downloader plugin.

There's a demo video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgswsTV_8lE

The plugin is here: https://github.com/makehumancommunity/c ... etdownload
The MHAPI dependency plugin is here: https://github.com/makehumancommunity/c ... gins-mhapi

Allowing zipped downloads is on the todo list, but using the asset downloader plugin is the recommended way to download assets. It will remain so even when/if zipped downloads become available.


Frankly I find this ridiculous. If having zipped downloads isn't the preferred method, then why does literally every other site on the internet to offer downloads do it? I understand being too busy to implement it, but stop saying that it would be somehow in any way inferior to the asset downloader. It's not.

(Even if it didn't make MH startup slower on windows machines, it still stands that with the asset downloader you have to open up a new application rather than using the interrnet browser that you probably already have open. And default MH doesn't start up instantly on windows machines either. And again, because of the fact that basically everywhere else on the internet does zipped downloads, there's no imaginable reason why it wouldn't be recommended.)
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Re: Zipped assets

Postby blindsaypatten » Wed Jun 14, 2017 3:40 am

I like the way that Blender lets you install an addon from a zip file, you click the button to select the zip file using the file browser and then it takes care of putting it in the right place without the user having to know anything about the Blender directory structure.

I think there are legitimate use cases for wanting to load from a zip file, for example exchanging something that one doesn't want to put in the repository. An extra "Load asset" sub-tab in the Geometry tab could work.

Once I learn python and the MakeHuman code base I'll get right on it! (Don't hold your breath! :lol: )
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Re: Zipped assets

Postby joepal » Wed Jun 14, 2017 7:02 am

jujube wrote:Frankly I find this ridiculous. If having zipped downloads isn't the preferred method, then why does literally every other site on the internet to offer downloads do it? I understand being too busy to implement it, but stop saying that it would be somehow in any way inferior to the asset downloader. It's not.


It is inferior. The difference being that the downloader plugin is able to correct path mistakes and normalize file names, even inside asset descriptors. One of the most common problems with assets is that a file is wrongly named as in having differences in capitalization, illegal characters in the file name or having an erronous path inside the descriptor. Add to that, that the asset downloader is able to correctly place the asset in the appropriate subfolder, and you will have a solution which is preferable in most cases.

Note that I'm saying "preferable", not "obligatory for all users in all conceivable situations". If you for some reason don't want to use the asset downloader, no-one is going to force you to.

I fully intend to add zipped downloads at some point in time, but that will be for those cases where there is a compelling reason for not using the integrated solution.
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