Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/System/Demo Mode

Demo Mode
Tooltip

UI location	File Menu and info header
Usage	File -> Demo Mode (Setup), select a directory of blend files to loop over.
Version	1.0	Author(s)	Campbell Barton
Blender	2.57	License	GPL
Category	System	Distribution	Release
Note(s)	Note(s)

Executable information

File name	?

Configure the Demo

This is done from File -> Demo Mode (Setup) in the file menu, from here you can select a directory which is searched recursively for blend files to loop over.

There are options as to what to do with each file at the moment the main options are to render or play an animation with options as to how many cycles to play, time to wait after render is done.

Automatic Configuration

the Auto option selects between Render and Play option based on the window layout's use of image/node windows. If you are happy to use these settings on all files you can leave the "Run Immediately" option enabled and confirm.

Adjusting the Configuration

If you want to set options per file, you can disable "Run Immediately", during setup and select demo.py text block.

This file has 1 line per file and settings can be edited and saved with the blend file.

When "demo.py" is present you only have to go to File -> Demo Mode (Start)

Attributes

These keyword arguments show up in generated demo.py, eg:

    dict(anim_cycles=2, anim_render=False, anim_screen_switch=0.0, anim_time_max=8.0, anim_time_min=4.0, display_render=4.0, file='foobar.blend', mode='AUTO'),

• anim_cycles - Number of times to play the animation.
• anim_render - Render entire animation (applies to mode='RENDER' only)
• anim_screen_switch - Time between switching screens (in seconds) or 0 to disable.
• anim_time_max - Maximum number of seconds to show the animation for (in case the end frame is very high for no reason)
• anim_time_min - Minimum number of seconds to show the animation for (for small loops)
• display_render - Time to display the rendered image before moving on (in seconds)
• file - The filepath for the blend file
• mode - 'AUTO' / 'PLAY' / 'RENDER' - what to do on load.

Portable Configuration

Once you setup a demo.py you may want to move it to a different system.

In this case the paths might not match up, In this case, update the search_path variable to point to the path on the new system.

You can also set the search_path to use the current blend files directory.

search_path = "//"

Running Demo Mode

Once the demo starts it will play, render and load different files in the same blender instance.

Since its using a modal operator you can still use with blender while the demo runs.

If you want to stop demo mode you can press Escape and continue using blender. to enable again there are 3 buttons at the right hand side of the file menu to navigate Prev/Pause/Next.

Limitations

• One file cant play an animation then render, you need to copy the line in demo.py and set one mode to RENDER the other to PLAY.
• No option to run the game engine since this cant run inside a modal operator.