Procedural Texture: "var aa = 0; aa = aa * 1; aa" Does not work

[Ezbaze]

What Application are you using? 
Designer

Are you using the latest release version?
v2.1.1

Can you reproduce it?
Yes

Does it happen for a new document? If not can you upload a document that shows the problem?
Yes

hardware acceleration
Same issue with both.

What happened for you (and what you expected to happen)

Does not work: "var aa = 0; aa = aa * 1; aa"

Does not work: "var aa = 0; var aa = aa * 1; aa"

 

But this does: "var aa = 0; var aa_ = aa * 1; aa_"

Meaning I can't use a variable to update itself?

If for some reason this is by design, I think that it would be a VERY good idea to mention this in the documentation, preferably highlighted in red

[stokerg]

Hi @Ezbaze,

Do you have an afphoto/afdesign setup where the working example is being used?  I'm struggling to see what the end goal is from just the working example and if something needs logging with the Developers around this, a sample file would be a big help!

 

[Ezbaze]

1 hour ago, stokerg said:

Hi @Ezbaze,

Do you have an afphoto/afdesign setup where the working example is being used?  I'm struggling to see what the end goal is from just the working example and if something needs logging with the Developers around this, a sample file would be a big help!

 

Agreed, here is the file:

File: Reassign_Variable.afphoto

[lepr]

14 hours ago, stokerg said:

I'm struggling to see what the end goal is from just the working example [...]

The end goal of the OP's example is irrelevant.

The bug is that the PT filter produces no effect when a new value is assigned to an already defined variable.

For example, the following contrived example will break the PT:

var aa = 0.2; aa = 0.4; aa

Whereas, the following will not break the PT:

var aa = 0.4; aa

 

[NotMyFault]

This is old, at least since 1.5, probably from beginning. despite the name „var“, the named objects are constants, not variables. You can assign a value only once per expression.

my workaround is to add a number to the „var“ name for re-assignments.

 

[NotMyFault]

On 7/8/2023 at 8:08 PM, Ezbaze said:

Meaning I can't use a variable to update itself?

Yes.

[Ezbaze]

4 hours ago, lepr said:

The end goal of the OP's example is irrelevant.

The bug is that the PT filter produces no effect when a new value is assigned to an already defined variable.

For example, the following contrived example will break the PT:

var aa = 0.2; aa = 0.4; aa

Whereas, the following will not break the PT:

var aa = 0.4; aa

 

That's wrong actually, the issue is with using the variable to reassign the same variable: var a = 0; a = 1; a

[lepr]

1 hour ago, Ezbaze said:

That's wrong actually, the issue is with using the variable to reassign the same variable: var a = 0; a = 1; a

Actually, what I wrote is not wrong. Your new example is identical to mine, except you used 'a' where I used 'aa' and you used 0 and 1 where I used 0.2 and 0.4.

The bug involves the assigning of anything to an already defined variable.

[NotMyFault]

Probably this is no bug, but a misleading name.

variables in PT filters are effectively constants, which can only be set once as input.

variables in the lower part are kind of global: these names are recognized in all formulas (channels).

variables set in formulas are local (recognized only in that line/formula per channel.

None of these can be re-assigned.

[Ezbaze]

1 hour ago, lepr said:

Actually, what I wrote is not wrong. Your new example is identical to mine, except you used 'a' where I used 'aa' and you used 0 and 1 where I used 0.2 and 0.4.

The bug involves the assigning of anything to an already defined variable.

You're right, I just tried "var aa = 1; aa = 0; aa" which should have turned the white fill layer to black but it stayed white 

[Ezbaze]

7 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

Probably this is no bug, but a misleading name.

variables in PT filters are effectively constants, which can only be set once as input.

variables in the lower part are kind of global: these names are recognized in all formulas (channels).

variables set in formulas are local (recognized only in that line/formula per channel.

None of these can be re-assigned.

Yes I see how this could be intended, but as someone who writes code I was very surprised when I noticed that it isn't working as code usually does, it also gets very messy the more things you add to the function line input per channel ( Using 0/1 as on/off for parts of PT filter )