scripting with nodes: is it possible to be implemented in blender?

Hello to all the scripters! Some time ago I found this video about scripting with nodes in Unity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK72HzyYn_8&feature=channel_video_title
So I thought to myself :“If this will be implemented for blender scripting (not only for game engine, but for Python scripting in general inside blender) it will be like a suparnovar exploding: everyone will be able to make scripts with minimum python knowledge and it will lead to another era in Blender, because everyone could contibute with new amazing features and scripts…”
So, what you think, is it possible and is there some scripting Python Grandmaster that can implement this? or perhaps this is more like a collaboration project or something?

I personally think that this can help Blender to reach another Universe where there is no limits and no boundaries, no obstacles, plus everyone will turn their heads towards Blender, more people will start to use it and more contribution will be added!

Ricky, you misunderstood me, this is actually a system of using nodes to make scripts, not using scripting to make nodes!

I will be frank with you, python is much much much better. Think about it, if node scripting was better than writing your own code would not already heavily be used.

Imagine this you want to check for a condition between 2 variables.

Node system solution ->

  1. You go to your menu
  2. click “add condition”
  3. you position your node so its easily accessible
  4. you click the slot a for the first variable
  5. you click the slot b for the second variable
  6. you connect your node with the other nodes

python solution

  1. just type “if a < b :” and … DONE!

hmm what should I choose.

Nodes look nice , look shiny, look easy to use, but the truth they are not. Python is much , much , much better. Python is short . Python is simple . Python is easy to use.

The issue is that people has the stereotype that coding is hard. It can be when you use languages like c , assembly, java etc. But with python it cant get any easier than that even when compared to a fancy node system. And of course python will always be far more flexible than any node system out there. Even if you see the node system as a ways to visualise code , python still beats it because python is very readable as language, its commands are short , close to the english language and leave no room for assumption. The problem with blender scripting is not python itself which is an amazing language but bpy , or to be more precise the Blender Python API, its those commands that give you acess to blender and they are not part of the python language , they are provided by blender.

BPY is abit hard to learn mainly because the documentation is not so well formed, but if you are patient and invest several months on it , there is no way you would want to go back to a node system.

Concerning the possibility of a node system for scripting, one thing you should keep in mind “anything is possible with python”. The problem is not that is difficult to do , because it is not, the problem is that the python has gazillion of features, a huge standard library and that means that people writing python scripts will still be able to run around circles to your node system. It could probably take a code base as large as blender’s to be able to harness the full power of python in a node system. Good luck !!! :wink:

And I can bet you serious money people in the end might people may be impressed with you node system , if you ever be able to complete it with the help of hundrends other coders , but still go back to writing their own scripts.

Thanks for the answer, it looks very reasonable from that perspective - now I can understand that it will be a waste of time!Peace!

and because I love to contradict myself , let me put a counter argument on the table.

However a node system that goes higher level than python can be very useful as well. An example is those cases that the gui does not satisfy and yet you want to do something simple that should not need the flexibility or power of coding. Its easy to find examples inside blender because thats the purpose behind texture and material nodes, those functionalities could be performed with blender script however those node dont correspond to specific python commands but whole script that could take time and effort to make and thus saving loads of time.

So it make sense to produce a node system not that maps python commands but complete python modules , for common actions that the user may perform , you could for example creat a node system for animation, where the animaton follows a node logic like BGE , or maybe a node system for creating meshes like the ones used by Houdini and XSI .

There is certainly some potential. Taking complex python modules and turning into easy to use and customise node is certainly somthing that can be very useful.

However a birdy told me , that such functionality is its way to blender with a GSOC which is still WIP and it might be included in 2.6 or 2.7. Nodes are certainly the future.