Gaffer 1.6.0.0

[murraystevenson]

Features

• DiskBlur : Added image node for doing fast variable-radius blur.
• FocalBlur : Added image node for approximating depth of field effects based on an image with a depth channel.
• Arnold : Added multi-layer EXR support. All outputs with the same filename are now written to the same file via a single output driver.
• ImageSelectionTool :
  • Added new tool that allows selecting scene paths based on an image. Works with both Catalogue images and images on disk. Has two requirements : an id AOV (added using the ID preset on an Outputs node), and a render manifest (added using StandardOptions > Render Manifest > File Path ).
  • Also supports picking instance IDs, using an instanceID aov. Supported when rendering an instancer that is encapsulated ( USD instancers rendered to Arnold are encapsulated by default ).
• ColorInspectorTool : Moved the Viewer's colour inspectors into a dedicated tool, selected from the toolbar on the left.
• OSLObject : Added the ability to use pointcloud_search() and pointcloud_get() to query geometry from arbitrary scene locations.
• CameraQuery : Added a new node to query camera parameters (CameraQuery: a node to query camera attributes #6431).
• Cycles : Updated to version 4.4.0.
• SceneInspector :
  • Rewrote using the same framework as LightEditor, AttributeEditor and RenderPassEditor.
  • Added EditScope support, with in-place editing of attributes, options and shader parameters. Editing for other properties is planned for future versions.
  • Improved comparison abilities, including the added ability to compare two render passes.
  • Added subsections for options and attributes, splitting them by category.
  • Added column resizing, including automatic resizing to show long attribute names.
  • Added inspection of all shaders and parameters in shader networks.
  • Added more detailed inspection of meshes and curves.
  • Added more detailed inspection of primitive variables.
  • Added more detailed inspection of OpenVDB grids.

Improvements

• Viewer : Added Add image comparison mode.
• RenderMan :
  • Added dedicated viewport visualisers for RenderMan lights.
  • Removed the GAFFERRENDERMAN_FEATURE_PREVIEW environment variable. The RenderMan extension is now automatically enabled any time the RMANTREE environment variable is present. While the RenderMan extension is not yet feature complete, it is considered to be mature enough for general use.
• Arnold : Improved readability of shader node names as they appear in statistics and .ass files. They are now formatted as shader:{handle}:{uniqueId} where {handle} is the Gaffer node name of the assigned shader, or if loaded from USD, the prim name.
• DeleteAttributes : Optimised case where all attributes are deleted. The input attributes are no longer accessed at all in this case.
• ShaderAssignment : The scene:path context variable is now available in Switches connected directly to the ShaderAssignment.shader input. This allows different shaders to be assigned to different locations using a single ShaderAssignment node. Please note that the scene:path context variable remains unavailable to the individual shader nodes themselves for performance reasons.
• 3Delight, Cycles, OpenGL : Added support for custom EXR metadata, using header:* parameters on the output definition.
• RenderManAttributes, RenderManOptions : Plugs now respect minimum and maximum values specified by RenderMan.
• RenderManShader : Improved GraphEditor labels for parameter RGB and XYZ components.
• Cycles :
  • Improved responsiveness for Viewer camera updates when using Cycles as the viewport renderer. One benchmark shows around a 10x improvement in frame rate.
  • Added support for layerName parameter in outputs, to control the naming of channels in EXR outputs.
• StandardOptions :
  • Added render manifest option.
  • Added render:cameraInclusions, render:cameraExclusions, render:matteInclusions, and render:matteExclusions options.
• CyclesMeshLight : Improved presentation of cameraVisibility and lightGroup plugs in the Node Editor.
• VisualiserTool : Added visualisation of labels for uniform primitive variables, face indices and curve indices.
• PathListingWidget :
  • Improved formatting of Box and Matrix values.
  • Improved performance when showing colour values.
  • Added support for showing spline values.
  • Improved formatting of TypedVectorData.
• GafferUI : Added support for drag and dropping numeric vector data onto numeric vector plugs of compatible types (for example, dropping a list of integers onto a FloatVectorDataPlug).
• Switch : Optimised disabled switches using a direct internal connection, even when the index is not constant.
• PrimitiveInspector : Added location widget for selecting the location to be inspected.
• OptionalValuePlugValueWidget : The widget for the enabled plug can now be customised using plugValueWidget:type metadata.
• GafferML : Added experimental support for performing inference on CUDA devices. This can be enabled by setting the GAFFERML_USE_CUDA environment variable with a value of 1. This requires an ONNX runtime containing the CUDA execution provider, with compatible versions of the CUDA toolkit and cuDNN installed.
• ShaderTweaks :
  • Added support for inserting new connections in Create mode.
  • Added initial support for inserting connections to closure parameters (Feature request: ability to add shaderTweaks proxy connections between closure plugs #6522).
  • Added dragging of plugs onto the + button in the NodeEditor, to create a tweak for values of that type. Particularly useful for making tweaks for closure parameters.
• LocaliseAttributes : Added support for localising global attributes, controlled by the new includeGlobalAttributes plug.
• AttributeTweaks, ShaderTweaks : Global attributes are now localised when localise is enabled and no matching attribute is found at the target location or any of its ancestors.
• AttributeQuery, ShaderQuery : Global attributes are now queried when inherit is enabled and no matching attribute is found at the target location or any of its ancestors.
• SphereLevelSet : Improved performance when evaluating the bounding box.
• RenderPassMenu : Added a search menu which displays only the render passes matching the search text. The search menu can be disabled by registering the following metadata in a startup file. Gaffer.Metadata.registerValue( Gaffer.ScriptNode, "variables.renderPass.value", "renderPassPlugValueWidget:searchable", False ).
• RenderPassEditor, AttributeEditor, LightEditor, SceneInspector : Improved presentation of VectorData types in the Inspect popup.
• CompoundDataPlugValueWidget : Removed unnecessary nesting from the menu for adding plugs.

Fixes

• ImageReader :
  • Fixed color-space handling for secondary RGB layers. Previously color transformations were only being applied to the main RGB channels and not to someLayer.RGB (ImageReader ColorSpace Only Affects RGB Layer #6524).
  • Adjusted default channelInterpretation heuristics to better match Nuke's behaviour for single-part EXR files with bogus part name metadata (ImageReader: Undesired Behavior with name Metadata Set #6527). In this case, the part name is no longer used as the layer name.
• LocalDispatcher, SystemCommand, gaffer env : Fixed unwanted upper-casing of environment variable names on Windows (Context.substitute only recognize uppercase env vars on Windows #6371).
• OpenGLAttributes : The default values of attribute plugs now correctly reflect the default behaviour of the OpenGL renderer.
• Arnold : Fixed default behaviour of ai:abort_on_license_fail option with Arnold 7.3 and above.
• Cycles :
  • Fixed bugs handling identical cameras with different transforms.
  • Fixed handling of cycles:volume_precision attribute, which was previously being ignored.
  • Fixed bugs handling unknown VDB grid types.
  • Fixed potential crash rendering VDB objects.
  • Fixed potential threading-related crashes.
• RenderPassEditor : Fixed default values displayed for dl:oversampling and dl:quality.shadingsamples options.
• PlugLayout : Fixed bug resolving layout:index metadata.
• ScriptNodeAlgo : Stopped polluting the ScriptNode context with ui:* variables. Warnings are now emitted by the UI if anything else causes similar pollution.
• Checkerboard : Fixed crash when evaluated for non-existent channel name.
• PathListingWidget :
  • Prevented emission of updateFinishedSignal() when a new update is pending anyway.
  • Fixed potential threading-related crash.
  • Fixed ordering of selectionChangedSignal() emission from setColumns() call. It is now emitted when getColumns() returns the new columns, not the old ones.
  • Fixed unwanted vertical scrolling caused by setColumns().
  • Columns set to automatically stretch now equally share available space when a PathListingWidget's columns are updated via setColumns().
• LightEditor, RenderPassEditor, AttributeEditor :
  • Fixed missing history entries when two edits have the same source plug.
  • Fixed potential crashes in Show History....
  • Fixed potential UI lag in Show History....
  • Fixed flickering in history window when scrubbing the timeline.
  • Fixed unwanted vertical scrolling when switching tabs.
  • Fixed flickering when switching tabs.
• RenderPassEditor : Fixed error when deleting a pass while a history window was open for it.
• AttributeEditor :
  • Added missing Cycles volume attributes.
  • Renamed OpenGL "Shading" section to "Drawing", to match the NodeEditor.
• OptionalValuePlugValueWidget : Fixed handling of keyword constructor arguments. In particular this meant that parenting arguments did not work.
• ScenePathPlugValueWidget :
  • Fixed context used to evaluate the scene. This is now focus-aware, so the scene browser only shows locations that are available with respect to the current focus.
  • Fixed bugs that prevented usage in Editor.Settings nodes.
• SceneReader : Fixed bug reading USD cameras without authored shutter attributes. Previously, the loaded camera would have an unwanted shutter parameter, but now the shutter parameter is correctly omitted.
• SceneWriter : Fixed bug writing cameras without a shutter parameter to USD. Previously shutter attributes were authored with default values, but now the shutter attributes are not authored at all.
• ContextQuery : Removed Create Context Query... menu item from plugs where it was not relevant.
• Menu : Executing a non-searchable menu item from a searchable menu no longer causes it to appear as the last used action in the menu's search field.
• ShaderTweaks : Fixed errors when Remove or Create modes are used to tweak a parameter with an input connection. The input connection is now removed.

API

• Gaffer module : Added environment() method, returning a dictionary containing all current environment variables. Unlike os.environ, this preserves case on Windows.
• GafferScene::RenderManifest : Added class for representing mapping of ids to paths in renders. Supports reading EXR and cryptomatte manifests, and writing EXR manifests.
• Metadata :
  • Added registerValues() function that registers multiple metadata entries from a dictionary of string targets.
  • Updated targetsWithMetadata() function to support matching multiple targets.
  • Added the ability to register metadata against multiple string targets, by including wildcards in the target name.
  • Added per-target signals for string targets, available via the valueChangedSignal( target ) method. The old all-target valueChangedSignal() method is now deprecated.
• MetadataAlgo : Added createPlugFromMetadata() function.
• RenderController : Added renderManifest() method.
• ImageGadget : Added support for showing selected and highlighted ids. Controlled using setIDChannel, setSelectedIDs, and setHighlightID.
• ShadingEngine : Added support for passing custom pointclouds to the shade() call.
• SceneAlgo :
  • applyCameraGlobals() now always applies the render:overscan[Top/Bottom/Left/Right] options to the camera if they exist in the scene globals.
  • applyCameraGlobals() now applies the render:depthOfField option to the depthOfField camera parameter. The fStop camera parameter is no longer overridden to 0.0 when the render:depthOfField option is False or not specified.
• Path : Added contextProperty() method.
• ScenePlug : Added optional withGlobalAttributes arguments to fullAttributes() and fullAttributesHash().
• VectorDataWidget : Added optional maximumVisibleRows argument.
• ClosurePlug : Added new plug type to GafferScene, providing a common base class for GafferOSL::ClosurePlug and GafferRenderMan::BXDFPlug.

Breaking Changes

• ImageReader :
  • Changed color-space handling for secondary RGB channels.
  • Changed the behaviour of channelInterpretation = "Default" so that part names are ignored in single-part EXR files. The behaviour of channelInterpretation = "EXR Specification" remains unchanged.
• Arnold :
  • Removed support for Arnold 7.2.
  • Removed GafferArnoldUI.GPUCache.populateGPUCache() function.
  • Changed the naming of shader nodes in the generated Arnold scene.
• ArnoldAttributes, CyclesAttributes, DelightAttributes, OpenGLAttributes, StandardAttributes, USDAttributes : Attributes plugs have been renamed to match the name of their attribute (e.g. attributes.visibility is now attributes.scene:visible). Compatibility configs have been provided to allow these nodes to be loaded from scripts saved in earlier Gaffer versions.
• ArnoldOptions, CyclesOptions, DelightOptions, StandardOptions : Option plugs have been renamed to match the name of their option (e.g. options.renderCamera is now options.render:camera). Compatibility configs have been provided to allow these nodes to be loaded from scripts saved in earlier Gaffer versions.
• ArnoldOptions : Changed the default value of the ai:texture_max_memory_MB plug to 4096 to match Arnold's default.
• StandardNodule : Removed deprecated setCompatibleLabelsVisible().
• DeleteAttributes : Changed base class and marked as final.
• Wrapper : The gaffer wrapper on Linux no longer allows a custom Python build to be used. If you wish to use a custom Python, call python _gaffer.py instead.
• RenderPasses, DeleteRenderPasses : Renamed TypeId enum values to RenderPassesTypeId and DeleteRenderPassesTypeId.
• OpenGLAttributes : The default values of the attribute plugs authoring the gl:primitive:bound, gl:primitive:outline, gl:primitive:points, gl:primitive:pointColor, gl:primitive:wireframe, and gl:primitive:wireframeColor attributes have changed to match the default behaviour of the OpenGL renderer. Scripts loaded from previous Gaffer versions with these plugs enabled and set to the default value will see a difference in OpenGL renders.
• SceneTestCase : Removed assertBoxesEqual() and assertBoxesAlmostEqual() methods.
• RenderController : Removed pathForID(), pathsForIDs(), idForPath() and idsForPaths(). Use renderManifest() instead.
• Catalogue, CatalogueSelect, Display : Moved from GafferImage module to GafferScene.
• StandardAttributes : Changed the default value of the linkedLights plug to "defaultLights". Scripts loaded from earlier Gaffer versions containing linkedLights plugs set to the previous default of "" will need to be updated as those plugs will now default to "defaultLights".
• ImageView : Changed image comparison hotkey from Q to K ( Q now selects the selection tool in the image view, same as in the scene view ).
• OSLObject, OSLImage, Expression : Removed support for file-based pointclouds.
• ContextAlgo : Removed deprecated API. Use ScriptNodeAlgo instead, which has been available from Gaffer 1.4.13.0 onwards.
• ScriptNodeAlgo : Reimplemented using Metadata rather than Context variables for storage. Use the ScriptNodeAlgo API instead of attempting direct access to ui:* context variables.
• SceneReader, SceneWriter : Changed handling of missing shutter parameters. See Fixes section for more detail.
• Path : Removed inspectionContext() method. Use contextProperty( "inspector:context" ) instead.
• SceneInspector :
  • Removed setTargetPaths() and getTargetPaths() methods. Use the location and compare.location settings plugs instead.
  • Removed registerSection() method.
  • Removed Diff, SideBySideDiff, TextDiff, Row, Inspector, DiffRow, DiffColumn, Section, LocationSection, HistorySection and SetsSection classes.
• TestShader : Moved outputs to be children of the out plug, instead of it being a fixed Color3fPlug.
• StandardLightVisualiser : Removed protected methods for drawing visualiser elements. These are now part of GafferSceneUI::Private::LightVisualiserAlgo. This namespace can be used by light visualisers, but is currently Private while the API details are being resolved.
• AttributeTweaks : Tweaks with localise enabled and a mode of CreateIfMissing will now not create an attribute if it is missing from the scene hierarchy, but exists in the globals.
• AttributeQuery : Queries with inherit enabled will now return a result when querying an attribute that does not exist in the scene hierarchy, but does exist in the globals.

Documentation

• Added RenderMan configuration instructions to the "Getting Started" guide.
• Fixed invalid link to OIIO metadata documentation in "Anatomy Of An Image".
• Fixed invalid internal links within "Camera", "Anatomy Of A Camera", "Light Linking" and "Spreadsheet Node" sections.
• Fixed invalid link anchor targets in "Contexts" and "Node Graph Editing In Python" sections.

Build

• Boost : Updated to version 1.82.0.
• Cortex : Updated to version 10.6.0.1.
• Cycles : Updated to version 4.4.0.
• FreeType : Updated to version 2.13.3.
• LibRaw : Updated to version 0.21.4.
• MaterialX : Updated to version 1.39.3.
• Minizip : Updated to version 3.0.10.
• OpenColorIO : Updated to version 2.3.2.
• OpenEXR : Updated to version 3.2.4.
• OpenImageIO : Updated to version 3.0.6.1.
• OpenShadingLanguage : Updated to version 1.14.5.1.
• OpenSubdiv : Updated to version 3.6.0.
• OpenVDB : Updated to version 11.0.0.
• Python : Updated to version 3.11.12.
• PySide : Updated to version 6.5.6.
• Qt : Updated to version 6.5.6.
• Qt.py : Updated to version 1.4.6.
• USD : Updated to version 25.05.01.

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This discussion was created from the release Gaffer 1.6.0.0.