Paint.NET

Here's an "effect" that Tom wrote. Basically what it does is let you write code that is compiled on the fly and that is then executed in the Paint.NET effect engine. This is the same plugin that we made available for Paint.NET v2.1, but it has been updated to work with Paint.NET v2.6 (and later). With this you can implement almost any type of effect you want if you have the programming and mathematical talent to do so. This plugin works by presenting you with a simple text editor that you can use to type in C# code that is then compiled and executed (rendered) as soon as you stop typing.

Please note that this is experimental technology and is not meant to provide a robust development environment. It is perfect for rapid prototyping and very useful for educational purposes including teaching computer graphics.

This plugin especially benefits from Paint.NET's extensive multiprocessor and multicore support. For instance, if you are interested in rendering high resolution fractals on an expensive workstation, this is the way to do it! The code you write is automatically multithreaded and the workload is spread across multiple CPU's resulting in near linear performance scaling (4 CPU's = almost 4x faster).

Download: http://www.boltbait.com/pdn/codelab/
Note: BoltBait is the current maintainer of CodeLab.

Help file:
http://www.boltbait.com/pdn/codelab/help/

Tutorials:
http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=5281
http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=5308
http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=6405


Work with complicated displacement filters:


Parametric images:


High resolution fractals:

Very cool!

I've been wondering what CodeLab was. I still don't have Visual Studio installed...school is very busy.
To compile the code with this plugin, does Visual Studio or another compiler need to be installed or is the compiler built-in?

Thanks for the post! I'm all hyped up about writing plugins now!

*starts installing Visual Studio*
-John

Visual Studio is not required. Everything is built-in to the .NET Framework that you've already got installed.

Thanks for the post!

For advanced users is correct! I myself have no idea how to write code.

However, there are some cool effects in the "Samples" folder included in the .zip file that you can fool around with. If for nothing else, grab this plugin for the included effects!

To where should bug reports and the like for the CodeLab utility itself be directed?

This topic will do fine, what's the bug?

I have several bugs/suggestions:

When a file is opened, it would be nice if the "Name: " text box were updated with the file name (minus the .cs). It does the opposite while saving, so I thought it would make sense to do this while loading.

Also, the ability to scroll sideways instead of wrapping text would be nice. Or, as in my copy of Visual Studio, have a small indication to the side of the text box that indicates that a line has been wrapped (I understand this is harder to implement).

I beleive this is more of a suggestion for Paint.Net and not CodeLab, but it would be nice if the image could be zoomed/panned while changing things in an open Effect dialog (or CodeLab).

When an error shows up in the error field, and I click on it, the text in the text box that is causing the error is highlighted. This is great, however, if the erroneous code is not currently visible, nothing happens. It would be nice if the code edit window were automatically scrolled to where the highlighted error can be seen...otherwise, it is hard to find the error.

One final thing:
The code line enumeration starts at line 13, and sometimes error messages refer to things on lines such as "10." For example, if I change something in the first line like if I change "Render" to "Rendxer" (for no reason, obviously), it reports an error on "line 10". I understand that this happens becuase there is actually more code above what can be seen. I don't think it can hurt to show this code.

Overall, however, I'm extremely pleased with CodeLab...it is a great tool!

Also, when I press the "Delete" key instead of "Backspace" to delete code, the code is not recompiled after .5 sec.

Thanks for the bugs, I'll look into those. I'm not sure about the wrapping thing, but I'll look at it. Don't count on a wrapping indicator, though.

Ideally, we would write a full-fledged code editor, but that would be a little overkill for these purposes.

-tjackson

Wow.
I have only been programming with a general knowledge in Javascript. I understand this is C#? I took to it quickly and I love the flexibility. I need to learn alot of the function, but nice none the less. creates nice functional colors.

Also, debuggers just give you a specific area. I think there is no 100% accuracy pinpoint on a processor > 80 MHz

Yup, it's C#. You'll find good reference for the Math functions here, btw (it uses the .NET Framework stuff):
That URL doesn't seem to get linked up correctly with this forum software. D'oh. Copy and paste wins this round. Also, I recommend setting the language filter to just C#)[/url]

I was looking around last night for the random function (which I know now is a Random instance (here r), referenced:

The system functions are almost foreign, also.
The sierpinski triangle example I did on 8192 x 6144 resolution. Zoomed in a good bit.
The fractals are fast.

my fathers looking into it. good job!

Here's a big fat bug: Go and dispose the source surface. It crashes it. I suppose a keyhook before it renders would do.