Script> Counter/Incrementer

I'm not sure if it is possible to write components using the Lua scripting but if so I wanted to suggest one for the scripters to consider.

I know that recursion or looping is high on the list of feature requests. What I was thinking is that the Switch component could be used to create a pseudo looping (or at least incremental sequential processing) of multiple nodes if there was a counter component that allowed you to add 1 to the selector value on each 'loop' so that counter=counter+1.

More of a visual guy so not quite sure how to explain. This is liable to sound convoluted.

I thought if the counter could be attached to a noise filter, and maybe to Variation, Roughness for example, generate a variation with the result going to something like Multiblend, and at the next 'tick' the new result would go to the next layer in Multiblend and so on. However the components like Multiblend (and maybe Bomber and Blend) that could be candidates to 'store' the result fr om each 'tick' (like an array) and have some operation performed, of course don't have a selector that could be used to be able to allow that. I also guess the first pass would run all the way through to the Result.

Sorry if that sounds confusing. Can't always funnel what I am thinking into coherent speech. Wh ere's the blush emoticon when you need it.

Only one sample is rendered per filter execution. Gray inputs affect components before the sample collection start in the rendering process (i.e. at initialization time). So we can't change gray inputs from sample to sample, only from full rendering to rendering and only manually (or via a batch rendering script). We don't have control scripts either, but even if we get that at some point, they will most likely not support per sample change (their connection context of ins and outs probably remain gray).

Also you have to consider the difference between inputs and outputs - it is not allowed to create a connection feedback:

Noise A -> Script A
Script A -> Noise A (input)

So the script that would take care of looping cannot define properties of one of its sources.

However some of you describe can be achieved indirectly. Variation can be thought of as different regions in the same source, and roughness can be thought of as scaling the source differently (not 100% correct though). Variation changes can be simulated by offsetting coordinates so each loop fetches from a different region in the source (assumes non seamless mode), and to increase "roughness" you multiply coordinates by a number > 1, to decrease you either divide or multiply by a number in range [0..1[. This assumes that you set roughness to 100 initially and found an initial scale level.

It gets a bit complicated, and it would be a great deal easier if a parent script component were allowed to configure inputs in its sources (by allocating them at initialization time, thus disabling them for traditional connections).