FIXED: Parameter to provide variable number of inputs to GLSL Multi TOP

[tekt]

It would be useful to have a string parameter on GLSL Multi TOP that can be used to specify a list of TOPs to use as inputs, similar to what Composite TOP and Merge DAT have.

The RayTK library is based around a component that generates and runs a shader. Within that there’s a generated table of TOP input sources, which has a variable length. Currently it’s using a DAT Execute to connect and disconnect a series of Select TOPs based on how many are needed. It sort of works but there are sometimes dependency update issues where it doesn’t reattach the inputs when things change.

If there was a parameter, it could use an expression to provide a list of TOPs, without having to do any scripting or manual change detection.

Related topic from 2015:

In ops with a flexible number of connectors

I’d like to put a GLSL Multi TOP in a custom base, but how can I wire multiple TOPs to it? Maybe one solution would be to have a second kind of In op that takes a variable number of inputs–a lot like the Merge and Switch ops.

I think back then there weren’t yet the parameters on things like Composite TOP. Now that those exist, would it be possible to do the same for GLSL Multi TOP?

[malcolm]

Yep, sounds like a good feature to add, makes it more consistent with some other multi-input OPs. I’ll add it to me TODO

[malcolm]

This will be in the next builds of the 2023.10000 series experimental we post.

[tekt]

thanks! this will simplify portions of raytk