Time and Variable Rulers

 

Depending on the Time_Objects loaded the option menu may contain several rulers for int and time-dependent double variables.

By default all Time_Object instances use the same time variable. This variable can be edited with the time ruler in the option menu or with the local (scene) time ruler in the manag menu, see section 4.3.4. Changing the time will not affect the current frame but changing the frame will set the time to the current frame's time.

For each variable defined in a description file that is read in a ruler is added to the option menu. All double variables are time-dependent, they are functions over the time which are defined by splines. A variable can be changed by editing the spline or by changing the ruler directly. For double rulers either a constant (default) spline is created or a spline is read from the disk, this is the case if a file named name_parm_i.sp, where i is the number of the variable, exists in the directory the description file name.extension was read from.

If you press the ruler's button a spline editor pops up and you can edit the spline (see 4.1.2.10). For objects of some classes it might be necessary to change the time or even to press the and the button to see the effect of the changes.

For some subclasses of Time_Object changing double variables by editing the ruler directly also changes the spline, inserting new knots if necessary. For other classes changing the ruler is only possible if the current time is equal to the current frame's time, in this case the changes are local, they don't affect the spline and are lost when the time is changed and the variable is updated by evaluating the spline. Just open the spline editor, change the ruler and see what happens.

You can save the spline corresponding to the variable to make the changes permanent, the next time you read in the description file the spline file will be read automatically.