Status update - Standalone migration

[HungryProton]

ConceptGraph becomes a full standalone software and the Addon version won't be maintained anymore
Any issues that are not applicable to the standalone version will be closed when the new release will be available.

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ConceptGraph started as an editor plugin but this approach quickly showed its limits. A crash in ConceptGraph would often crash the entire editor as well, and some bugs, (like the dreaded rich text label infinite loop) would just randomly appear and there would be no way around it.

Turning this addon in its own application allows for more flexibility, stability and better performance. Instead of being an addon, it becomes a "Godot game". We're no longer constrained by the editor's limits, we can easily write custom gizmos with more complex behaviors (I'm looking at you Path gizmo). But this also means we have to rewrite a lot of things the editor provided, like the inspector panel, a large part of the user interface and all the interactions that comes with it. As of today, most of this work is already done but the documentation and tutorials are missing at the moment.

This also means it's no longer necessary to use Godot to use ConceptGraph, turning it into a more general purpose software that can be used by anyone.

[Griefchief]

A bit unfortunate but I can see how this would help not just Godot devs, but other users too.

[HungryProton]

I guess I should write a short update on this one.

Version 0.6.2 is available in the release page as a preview build. I say preview because it's still missing a few important features (like a 3D curve editor), documentation is lacking and I need to update the examples. However it's usable and much more stable than before, at least from my personal experience.

@Griefchief One of the long term goals is to provide a live preview from Godot (or any engine really). You could use the ConceptGraph editor to create the node graph and drive the parameters from the game engine without having to bother with the export / import process. This is going to take some time but will also lead to a more interesting feature which is being able to use this at runtime and generate new models as the game is running. We're definitely not there yet though but it's on the roadmap.

[dvergeylen]

Hi @HungryProton ,

Protongraph looks very promising, do you have any update on its current status? 🙂

[HungryProton]

Hi @dvergeylen
I rather bad with time estimates but the next version is supposed to be released "soon".
I need to:

• Add the path / spline editor (currently working on this one)
• Complete the plugin that sends the data between ProtonGraph and Godot (this is mostly done)
• Complete the documentation for all the nodes + examples

The big unknown right now is how long I will take to complete the documentation. I took my week off, so I'm hoping to do as much as I can

[dvergeylen]

Thanks for the quick reply, can't wait to use this tool!

[zohozer]

More than a year passed. Any news on this project?

[HungryProton]

So, there is a working standalone build you can try here, but it's quite dated:
https://github.com/protongraph/protongraph/releases/tag/0.6.2-preview

Then the project was put on hold for a while and I started to actively port it to Godot 4 two months ago.

• This is required to access compute shaders (which are pretty much needed for everything).
• I also took the opportunity to rewrite some core systems to make it easier to modify built-in nodes and create custom ones without having to rebuild the whole project. This should make external contributions easier and lead to much shorter release cycles.

There's no update right now because I'm moving to another country and that takes up all my time, but I'm also trying to raise funding, so I can start working on this part-time.

If everything goes according to plan, the new version should be out in the coming months

[zohozer]

Nice to see some updates. As I see you are making this program as standalone app now. This means that will be able to interact also with other softwares? I am interested in finding a Grasshopper/GeometryNodes alternative for FreeCAD.

[HungryProton]

Yes, that's the plan.
At first, I want to be able to use it from the Godot editor (while keeping the standalone version running next to it).
I also want to provide a headless version you can pack with any binaries, for runtime, in-game generation. (Something Houdini strictly forbids, and not really doable with GeometryNodes unless you're packing Blender along, but then your final product has to be GPL).

In the end, it should be able to talk to any programs, probably through a local websocket (or something else If I can find a better alternative).