Get and Set DTYPE_COLORA/DTYPE_VECTOR4D on basecontainer or gedata

ECHekman

How do I get and set Vector4 and ColorA to the basecontainer/gedata?
I have tried pretty much every possible function and method but I dont seem to be able to use Vec4/Color4.

I have managed to get it via unsafe c-style casting:

	GeData ge(DTYPE_COLORA, DEFAULTVALUETYPE::DEFAULTVALUE); // Create
	
	// Get
	const CustomDataType* customPtr = ge.GetCustomDataTypeI(DTYPE_COLORA);
	maxon::ColorA color = *(maxon::ColorA*)customPtr;

	// Set
	color = maxon::ColorA(0.5, 0.1, 0.6, 0.7);
	CustomDataType* customPtrDst = (CustomDataType*)&color;
	ge.SetCustomDataTypeI(DTYPE_COLORA, *customPtrDst);

	// Get again to check if it worked
	const CustomDataType* customPtr2 = ge.GetCustomDataTypeI(DTYPE_COLORA);
	maxon::ColorA color2 = *(maxon::ColorA*)customPtr2;

But this is basically undefined behavior

ferdinand

Hi @ECHekman,

I have shown the very thing in the other threads of yours.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

ECHekman

This is a different question from:
https://developers.maxon.net/forum/topic/15823/data-datatypes-python-and-gui/6?_=1732092863717

If you are referring to the same post i wrote on the backstage forum the suggestion i got there does not work:

const ColorA* color = data.GetCustomDataType<ColorA>();

^^ this does not work

I am asking how to use existing types here. And not new/custom ones
Specifically the DTYPE_COLORA and DTYPE_VECTOR4 and not the regular types DTYPE_COLOR and DTYPE_VECTOR

ECHekman

I made this separate thread specifically because of the clear singular question rule i have been told to follow. And this is a different question from the question on custom data types.

ferdinand

Hey,

I appreciate you separating questions But there is code for this exact question in the old thread:

https://developers.maxon.net/forum/topic/15823/data-datatypes-python-and-gui/2.

You must wrap the Data as GeData. One can of course play pointer games, as with pretty much everything, Cinema API types are usually just Maxon API types in disguise, but I would not recommend that. GeData, i.e., a BaseContainer, cannot store Data directly.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

ECHekman

DTYPE_VECTOR4 and DTYPE_COLORA are not maxon::data types internally in c4d.
When I get or set them as maxon::data like your example code the GeData changes to a DTYPE_DATA instead
Additionally the existing 4d colorpicker GUI for DTYPE_COLORA will override the maxon::data type and reset it to whatever DTYPE_COLORA is internally.

ferdinand

Hey @ECHekman,

COLORA and VECTOR4D are both Maxon datatypes. For how to deal with custom data types, you can have a look at this. But since this is a maxon data type and not a cinema data type, you cannot use a static_cast. When you do not want to store your maxon data wrapped as data, the only thing which remains is unsafely casting the data (but our style guide recommends using reinterpret_cast to make the unsafe nature obvious).

const maxon::ColorA* myColor = reinterpret_cast<const maxon::ColorA*>(geData.GetCustomDataTypeI(DTYPE_COLORA));

I had a look and we do this in some UI related places too, so this might be a side effect of the 2024 changes to data types in relation to that specific custom gui.

Cheers,
Ferdinand