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Maniphest T82682

Support Directories as Asset Repositories
Needs Triage, NormalPublicDESIGN
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Description

Currently only single .blend files can be "mounted" as asset repositories in the Preferences.
Directories with .blends should be "mountable" as well.

There are however some design questions for this:

  • Do we reflect the directory hierarchy in the Asset Browser (ie show sub-directories)?
  • Should all assets from all .blend files inside a single directory be displayed in a linear list, or would we then display the .blends and then allow entering them, like the regular File Browser on Link/Append?
  • Should we limit the "deepness" of the hierarchy (ie limit the number of recursions)?

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Event Timeline

Julian Eisel (Severin) created this task.Nov 13 2020, 2:26 AM
Julian Eisel (Severin) moved this task from Restricted Project Column to Restricted Project Column on the Restricted Project board.Nov 24 2020, 9:19 PM
Vilem Duha (pildanovak) added a subscriber: Vilem Duha (pildanovak).Nov 25 2020, 10:22 AM

I switched to one-asset-per-directory approach with BlenderKit, because one asset can have several texture resolutions (in future possibly also LODs) and each of these can have own textures subdirectory (enables easy swapping of the textures). This kind of storage would then have to list 2 levels down the hierarchy. The 'deepness' you mention would thus make sense per - repository, since everybody will store assets in a different way.

Julian Eisel (Severin) moved this task from Restricted Project Column to Restricted Project Column on the Restricted Project board.Nov 30 2020, 11:27 AM
Julian Eisel (Severin) mentioned this in D9722: Asset Browser: Support custom asset library paths through Preferences.Dec 2 2020, 8:56 PM
Julian Eisel (Severin) moved this task from Restricted Project Column to Restricted Project Column on the Restricted Project board.Dec 10 2020, 3:10 AM

Checking the design Brecht wrote down again (see description in #asset_browser_milestone_1), it says a directory should should show all assets in a linear file list.

Turns out Bastien's file reading code already supports reading data-blocks (and thus assets) from all .blend files in a directory. So this was trivial to get to work, just needed a fix for drag & drop.

Addressed with rB452336751e23, also disabled .blend file repositories rB7ad6c45d5937.

Oh also, repositories are called "Asset Libraries" now.