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RenderMan Studio 18

RenderMan Studio 18

Welcome to RMS 18, the newest version of Pixar's suite of tools designed to provide CG professionals with unprecedented, unfettered access to the groundbreaking technology in Pixar's RenderMan. RMS 18 introduces simple workflows for taking advantage of new PRMan 18 features like path tracing and Geometric Area ライト, as well as improved subsurface scattering, object instancing, sampling, and memory consumption, offering significant improvements in realism, interactivity, and complexity management. RMS 18 also introduces a completely new version of "it", rewritten from the ground up, more performant and easier to use.

Central to the release are the integration of PRMan's path tracing mode and Geometric Area ライト, two fundamental changes that further enhance the power and efficiency or RenderMan Studio's ray tracing workflows. The progressive refinement re-rendering provided by the path tracer improves flexibility, accelerates feedback, and expands the range of edits possible during interactive re-rendering sessions. Geometric Area ライト offer numerous benefits in quality and performance, improving sample management while simultaneously providing more physically accurate results.

Additionally, RMS 18 continues to provide improvements in performance throughout the pipeline, and introduces simple new features designed for increased efficiency, better performance, and simpler workflows. Users can find a new ライティング Panel, providing a central, simple interface for manipulating lights, as well as the all-new implementation of "it", which provides huge benefits in power and performance on the back-end of your RMS pipeline.

images/rossaBack.png

What's New

レンダリング & Re-rendering

Path Tracing

RPS 18 introduced a new path tracing mode for PRMan's raytrace hider that is fully supported in RMS 18. The new path tracing mode uses a large number of inexpensive but individually inaccurate samples to produce very fast but noisy initial results and then iterates over them to converge on a refined image. Path tracing is now the default mode for re-rendering, providing progressive refinement for interactive lookdev and near instantaneous feedback.

  • NOTE:

    Global quality knobs of the Rerender pass can be adjusted during a re-rendering session. For example, direct lighting samples can be adjusted while re-rendering.

    Furthermore, when path tracing, the value for Direct ライティング Samples is per pixel and therefore can be much lower than when not path tracing.

Previews

There is a new item under the RenderMan menu called Preview Render Frame, which starts a single frame render using settings from a new pass type called Preview. By default, Preview has lower quality settings than a Final render pass, allowing you to keep your final render settings untouched while you test render at a lower quality.

Any render pass can now be preview-rendered from the RenderMan Controls window by right-clicking on the pass name in the tree view list and choosing Preview Render.

Instances

Maya instances are now emitted as object instances by default. This can be disabled in the globals under the Advanced tab. However, PRMan's object instancing does not support attaching different shaders to instances; instead, shading variation is easily achieved by attaching RMSGPSurface as a co-shader to the transform of an instance.

Archives
  • When a RenderManArchive is created, a GPU cache is now baked out by default. The archive node has a Display Style setting that can be set to locator, bounding box, or GPU cache. The GPU cache is stored in the renderman/ribarchives directory in the same subdirectory where an archive's shaders are stashed; this subdirectory has the same name as the archive .zip file.
  • Archives have a new Read Method setting so archives can either be ReadArchive or DelayedReadArchive.
  • RenderManArchive nodes that are instanced in Maya will automatically be emitted as object instances in RIB (provided object instancing is enabled in the globals). RenderManArchive nodes also have a check box - Allow Object Instancing - that causes archives to be emitted as object instances if more than one archive node in the scene refers to the same archive file name. This is particularly useful when using Maya scene assembly; a RenderManArchive node can be part of an assembly definition that is referenced multiple times in a scene.
  • RenderManArchive nodes offer two new settings for light linking: ライト and Ignore lights. These can be connected to light sets.
New Re-rendering Features
  • There is a new Rerender pass accessible in the globals; it provides a collection of settings that can be adjusted indepently from a Final render pass's quality settings, eliminating the need to re-adjust settings. The Rerender pass has default settings that are appropriate for path tracing, which is the recommended mode for rerendering.
  • For faster re-starts of re-rendering, the re-rendering options dialog now provides a Reuse RIB Cache checkbox, which allows you to restart re-rendering without regenerating RIB; only the top level driver RIB containing lights and shading information will be regenerated.
  • Transform edits are newly supported during re-rendering for arbitrary geometry that is acting as an area light and for transforms of instances, when object instancing is enabled in the globals.

ライティング

Geometric Area ライト

RMS now supports Geometric Area ライト. Additionally, there is a new light node - RMSGeoAreaLight. RMSAreaライト can be changed into geometric area lights via a Geometric Area Light checkbox, but do not provide the full functionality of the new light type. Furthermore, arbitrary geometry can be tagged to act as a geometric area light. The geometry needs to be assigned a RMSGPSurface shader and the Make Emissive attribute needs to be enabled via the object's Attributes menu. The Incandescence parameter of the shader dictates how much light will be cast by the geometry.

サンプリング for geometric area lights is globally controlled by a setting called Direct ライティング Samples, found on the Quality tab of the Globals. This sample count is divided among all geometric area lights in the scene. When there are many lights in a scene geometric area lights should show a significant speedup compared to pseudo area lights of comparable quality.

  • NOTE:
    • RMSEnvLight nodes are always geometric area lights now, so old scenes may not look exactly as expected, in terms of sampling quality, until Direct ライティング Samples is adjusted.
    • It is possible to have both old-style, pseudo area lights and new Geometric Area ライト in the same scene.
    • Geometric Area ライト cannot be added to a scene during a re-rendering session. Users can, however, take advantage of the Reuse RIB Cache option to stop a session, add a light, and re-start the session without incurring the cost of repeating the RIB generation.
ライティング Panel

There is a new ライティング Panel, which provides access to commonly used controls for lights and emissive geometry in the scene. These are added to a table of settings for quick access. There is also a solo feature, which allows quickly viewing the isolated effects of individual lights/geometry.

"it"

RMS 18 introduces a new implementation of "it", totally rewritten from the ground up. Most of the big changes are "under the covers", providing improved performance and stability (and eliminating the X11 requirement on OS X), but there are new features, as well.

  • Displaying images is significantly faster.
  • Playing sequences is revamped: the old Flipbook window is gone; looping is now performed in the main image window. This allows all the normal view navigation to be performed while looping (pan, zoom, and wipe-reveal). Additionally, a background element can be active in this mode, and that background element can be a sequence, too, and it will also be looped.
  • There is a new scrub mouse-mode to flip easily through the catalog or sequence.
  • Wipes can now be horizontal, too.
  • Both the tcl and the IO Ice Script environments have been removed and replaced with a unified Python environment. Python can be used to extend both the image processing capabilities and the GUI of "it". GUI programming in Python is provided via a bridge to the Qt framework that allows user scripts to directly interact with the "it" GUI.
  • Users can now select an object or surface to render from "it"; mouse over an object in the "it" window and hit o or s to select the object or shader in Maya. Note, for this to work, the new id aov must be present for the image. Currently, this feature is only available for rendering, not for interactive re-rendering.
  • "it" now supports OCIO configurations for industry standard color mappings.
  • Images can now be opened by dragging and dropping them into the "it" catalog or window. Images dragged into the catalog will appear in sequence where dropped; images dragged to the display window will be added to the end of the catalog.
  • Images can now be opened by dragging them onto the Finder/Dock icon on OS X.
  • Users can now select multiple images in the Catalog pane (and multiple images are selectable for scripting).
  • Images can be copied from an "it" Catalog to the clipboard for pasting into other applications.
  • Crop window coordinates can be copied and pasted from and to "it".
  • カラー values can be dragged from the "it" display window to other places, such as text editors or terminal windows.
  • The tool bars and catalog window can now be docked and/or repositioned.
  • The Always On Top mode, previously a Windows-only feature, is now available for Linux and OS X.
  • There is a new Image Fits Window mode, wherein the image is resized to fit within the "it" display window. This can be useful for comparing low and high resolution images together, or using a different resolution background plate.
  • Zoom and Pan are now available with the Alt/Meta/Option keys, regardless of mouse mode (left-mouse button function); with the modifier key, middle-mouse drag is pan, right-mouse drag is zoom.
  • "it" can automatically select an image's colorspace by inspecting the file.
  • "it" now supports split-window viewing of images for side-by-side comparisons.
  • The Crop Window in "it" can now be changed during a re-rendering session.
  • For those wanting a quantative look at noise, "it" now has a commmand that computes the pixel variance. For an rgb image it first computes a luminance value and then finds the variance of that. Otherwise it just takes the first channel.
  • "it" is now a valid target for batch renders.
  • Users are encouraged to avail themselves of the copious mouse-over tool tips.

シェーディング

GP Shader Updates & Improvements

  • The sampling behavior in RMSGPSurface has been improved.

  • RMSGPSurface now supports presets. Presets for Chrome, Clearcoat Brushed Brass, Red Metallic Fleck, Rough Copper, Skin (SSS), and Translucent Leaf, as well as the default (Base) settings, are now included, out-of-the-box.

  • RMSGPSurface now supports "loose" layering. This means that instead of wiring layers into the Layers attribute of a RMSGPSurface node, layers can also be picked up if any RMSGPSurface shaders are found connected as co-shaders at transforms above an attached RMSGPSurface.

    To connect a co-shader at a transform, add a Custom シェーディング Group attribute to the transform, connect a new shading group, and, on the shading group, add a Co-shader attribute and wire in a RMSGPSurface.

  • The subsurface scattering components of the RMS shading nodes now support beam diffusion and single scattering, introduced in PRMan 18.

  • RMSGPSurface supports several new AOVs: DiffuseShadow, SpecularShadow, GroupedSpecular_*, GroupedDiffuse_* and ID.

  • RMSGPSurface (in Maya and in Slim) now provides an Input Normal parameter for user-generated normals. Compatible normals can be generated via the バンプ2d/バンプ3d nodes in Maya, or the バンプMap node in Slim.

  • The behavior of roughness has been improved in RMSGPSurface (and RMSGlass) - Roughness values from 0-1 (or 0-255) now correspond to 0-90 degrees, which has the side effect of minimizing the need to remap textures. The old behavior can be restored via an Old Roughness parameter under Advanced Specular.

Additional Changes & Enhancements

RfM

  • Hair rendering support has been updated.
    • There are new shading rate controls for hair rendering.
    • There is a new Directライティング Samples override, which allows users to sample hair at an acceptable, lower rate, accelerating hair rendering.
    • Users can now override Shave-supplied colors, and textures can be mapped to hair.
  • RenderManArchives have been improved:
    • Interaction is faster.
    • Users can now choose how the node is displayed in the Maya viewport - as a locator, bounding box, or nothing at all.
  • Grouped outputs for a Light Set's diffuse and specular can now be created with a single click in the ライティング Panel. Additionally, all of the RMS GP shaders, including RMSGlass, now support light groups. Currently Slim GP shaders do not support light groups.
  • RfM now fully supports ID AOVs. These can be added via the 出力 tab, under GP Comp.
  • RMS now allows Maya to open Pixar textures (files with a .tex, .tx, .env extenstion). Note that to ensure that HDR images display properly in the viewport HDR maps are clamped to 0-1.
  • The XGen procedural for RenderMan is now part of the RMS distribution, but it is still a work in progress. Users are welcome to try it out, but should not expect complete functionality in the b3 release. Current caveats include:
    • XGen insists you must save the Maya scene before rendering.
    • Archives require that users to add references to .rib or .zip files in .xarc files manually.
  • The AlembicProcPrim is now supported on Windows. Note that this requires Alembic 1.5. Alembic files are rendered via the RenderManArchive node; simply browse to an .abc file in the node's file chooser.
  • The RMSEnvLight has a new Local Mode that turns it into a finite environment light, rather than the traditional infinite light.
  • レンダリング of Maya Fluids has been improved.
  • The Volume Controls now include attributes for Use Fluid Cache, dice:minlength, and dice:minlengthspace.
  • The re-renderer now includes settings for ray depth: maxdepth, maxspeculardepth, and maxdiffusedepth.
  • RfM now supports an arbitrary map center and a generic world space vector for displacement, bypassing the shifting and scaling of maps from ZBrush and Mudbox. This can be useful if you bake out a vector from PRMan in world space and want to re-use it.
  • バンプs can now be added, post-displacement. In the new order of operations, displacement will run, then normal maps, and finally (using the resultant normal of the previous two operations), bump will be applied.
  • The Tint カラー of the RMSEnvLight now supports connections, to, e.g., procedural environment maps.
  • The renderer will no longer proceed with a render if shaders fail to compile.
  • Added support for viewing floating point images via Maya's Render View.
  • Stats files are now accessible via the RenderMan menu, under Diagnose.
  • RLF scopes from imported scenes are now editable.
  • The RenderMan shelf's archive button now writes archives to disk as it creates them.
  • There have been numerous improvements to the user interface.
シェーディング Node Changes
  • The GPSurface shaders have a new decoupled specular mode, wherein the Specular Gain and Reflection Gain can be adjusted independently.
  • There is a new RMSOcean node.
  • The RMS shading nodes now have Linearize カラー enabled by default.
  • Users can now Add Linearize Control to a Maya Image Plane node for color management.
  • The GI lights and GP shaders now provide an Occlusion AOV.
  • There is a new RMSHoldOut shader. RMSHoldOut is similar to the Use Background shader, with support for a few more behaviors:
    • Users can specify a proxy color that will be used for reflections and, optionally, indirect diffuse, or the user can specify the surface color that will be shaded.
    • Uses the same specular model as GPSurface, so Roughness settings will behave in predictable manner.
  • The テクスチャAtlas template has been updated.
  • The RMSGlass shader now effectively communicates its index of refraction (IOR) to objects that are found below the surface. This allows accurate simulation of the interaction of objects of different indices of refraction, e.g. dielectric objects in refractive objects, like the hull of a boat in water, or a plastic monkey in a jar.
  • GP Surface shading nodes' Transparency can now be mapped.
  • The Occlusion node has a new Bias parameter.
  • RMSGlass has a new Importance Threshold parameter.
  • The Cosine Power parameter has been changed to Distribution Angle for the RMS and Slim GP shading nodes.
  • Ramps in RMS shader networks can now be inverted or reversed.
  • RMSHair now supports indirect diffuse (both ray-traced and point-based) and AOVs, as well as the ability to ignore Cs.
  • AOV nodes are now "insertable".
  • RMSGPSurface now supports sheen behavior, controlled via Sheen and Sheen Tint parameters. Sheen controls the amount of sheen, and Sheen Tint controls how much of the surface color is in the sheen color.
  • RMSGPSurface's default settings for Mask Reflections and Tangent Source have been changed, from 0 to 1 and -1 to 0, respectively.

Slim

  • Slim includes several new utility nodes
    • SideMask can be used to determine which side of a surface is being shaded.
    • ReadAOVImager reads a specified AOV.
  • There have been numerous updates to various templates.
  • Slim now includes an imager shader that can be attached to the render camera and specifies specify the white point based on color temperature.
  • There is a new Linearize setting for the MayaImageFile node in Slim.

LocalQueue

  • LocalQueue now allows users to pause a job (and terminate the active process) without deleting the job from the queue.
  • Jobs in LocalQueue can now be removed from the queue with the Delete/Backspace key.

Bug Fixes

  • Several minor re-rendering bugs have been addressed.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause AOV error messages when rendering RMSHair.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause incorrect culling of light from hair.
  • Addressed an issue with area light shadows and Maya Fluids that could cause incorrect (overly dark) shadow results.
  • Fixed a bug that could prevent hair parameters from being properly saved along with the Maya file.
  • Addressed an issue wherein the Occlusion AOV generated via AP shaders differed for point-based and ray-traced occlusion.
  • Fixed a bug wherein RMSGlass did note respect displacement for refraction of outgoing rays.
  • Addressed a bug that could cause injectable payloads using rlf.py to inadvertently clobber IDs.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the dragging and dropping of layers in Slim's MaterialEnsemble node.
  • Toggling the visibility of lights during re-renders now behaves as expected.
  • Fixed a bug that could lead to a crash when ending a REYES re-rendering session.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the fluidShape shader from working properly with instanced Maya Fluids.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause 3D textures "swim" on object instances when using a texture reference object.
  • Addressed an issue that could lead to incorrect motion blur when animating camera attributes.
  • Fixed a bug that could prevent Preview-style renders from working.
  • Addressed an issue that could cause a crash when rendering a preview swatch.
  • Addressed an issue that could cause the renderer to hang when rendering gzipped RIB archives.
  • Fixed an OS X-only bug that could cause Maya to crash at the end of a render.
  • Addressed an issue that could inadvertently lead to high CPU usage even when idle.
  • Addressed an issue that prevented GPSurface co-shaders using a texture as Surfaceカラー from working properly.
  • A bug that prevented textures upstream of RMS lights from being converted has been fixed.
  • Fixed a bug that could prevent RMSGPSurface from compiling if two file nodes share a single place2dテクスチャ node.
  • Normal maps now behave the same way in Slim as they do in Maya.
  • Fixed a bug that could lead to self-shadowing artifacts in ray-traced shadows if Trace Displacements was disabled.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause shading results to be doubly pre-multiplied, which is bad.
  • Addressed an issue that prevented color components (R,G,B, etc.) working properly when connected to a float parameter in Maya shaders.
  • furFeedback nodes now respect visibility.

Changes in 18.0_1378199

  • Addressed an issue that could prevent re-rendering from working.
  • Fixed a Slim bug wherein certain actions with or in a palette could cause connections to be broken, inadvertently.
  • Addressed a bug that could cause errors when selecting outputs of area light pass.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented RMSDEBUG from working correctly with "it".
  • Fixed a bug wherein the -s and -e arguments to a command line render weren't overriding values in the scene file that had been set with render layer overrides.

Changes in 18.0_1365910

New Features in 18.0_1365910

  • Re-rendering now supports object picking in "it". It is enabled via a checkbox in the Rerender Controls window, which causes an object id to be generated automatically.
  • RMS 18 is now compatible with Maya 2015 on OS X and Linux. Note that support for new Maya 2015 features and Maya 2015 on Windows is TBD.

Miscellaneous Changes in 18.0_1365910

  • Light groups now work for archives.
  • Swatch renders for RMSGPSurface nodes with layers now display all the layers.
  • Keyboard navigation when working with AOV images in "it" has been improved: Page Up/Down will now move to the same AOV in the next/previous image, if present, and "Left" will now take you to the primary image from an AOV.

Bug Fixes in 18.0_1365910

  • Fixed a bug that prevented Slim's version of the RMSHair shader from compiling.
  • Addressed an issue that could prevent environment variables from expanding properly.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when connecting and disconnecting co-shaders on RMSGPSurface.
  • Addressed an issue that prevented Preview renders from getting the simplified file name based on the File Name Prefix in the global settings.
  • Fixed a bug where setting a camera under a group node as the current camera could cause UI issues for the Rerender Controls window.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause incorrect data in grouped AOVs.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented deformation blur from rendering properly if one had a Post Render MEL script.
  • RfM now deals more elegantly with malformed NURBS surfaces.
  • Fixed a bug in "it" that could result in a crash if a background image were deleted.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause "it" to crash if one were to strike the up or down arrow key subsequent to deleting an AOV.
  • Fixed a bug that could result in a crash when re-rendering with AOVs to "it".
  • "it" no longer discards the original rendered image when burning in a LUT.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented LUTs in the form of a list.
  • The Ice DirectionalBlur operation no longer ignores the width and angle parameters.
  • Addressed a naming issue that could prevent Dynamic Rules from working properly, particularly with layers.
  • Addressed a bug that could lead to a crash when opening the Dynamic Rules editor (RMS for Maya 2015 Service Pack 3-only).
  • Incorporated XGen bug fixes from Autodesk.
  • XGen collections with namespaces now render correctly.
  • Fixed a bug that could lead to a crash in scenes using XGen.

Changes in 18.0_1291887

New Features in 18.0_1291887

  • Re-rendering now supports editing material networks in the Maya Hypershade window during a session. For example, attach a new RMSGPSurface, wire in file nodes, select images, break connections, etc. Note, this does not apply to editing networks for lights.
  • There is an RMS Presets sub-menu that can be accessed via the RenderMan menu. At this time, the menu includes presets for GPSurface.

Miscellaneous Changes in 18.0_1291887

  • RMSHair has been improved.
  • The GP shaders have been updated with support for Specular and Diffuse contribution for the emission mode of the shader as well as Shadow カラー.
  • Diffuse response of the GP shaders has been improved.
  • The RenderManArchive node now provides an option for generating individual archives per-frame or a single .zipped RIB file.
  • There have been minor tweaks to the GPSurface node UI.
  • Users can now add the directlighting samples option on a per-pass basis.
  • TxMake now supports the use of glob characters in a file name, for generating multiple textures.
  • File nodes now support using the _MAPID_ keyword in animated textures.
  • The default mode setting for TxMake passes is now wrap.
  • RiAttributes can now be added to the shape node of Geometric Area ライト.
  • The file dialog for texture parameters now shows all image files, not just files of type .tex.
  • The Slim GPSurface material now supports connections to the Sheen and Sheen Tint parameters.
  • RMS is now linked against OpenEXR 2.1.0.

Bug Fixes in 18.0_1291887

  • Addressed an issue that affected rendering 16-bit images to "it".
  • Addressed several catalog navigation issues in "it".
  • Fixed a Slim bug that could lead to a crash when attempting to "Add to Scene" a shader that has inappropriate parameter types.
  • Addressed a bug that could lead to a crash when wiring an area light into the camera slot for an area shadow pass.
  • Addressed precision issues for motion-blurred Paint Effects curves.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause artifacts in sphere particles.
  • ライト are now properly recompiled/reloaded during re-rendering when internal parameters (via upstream networks, e.g. a ramp connected to the light's color) are tweaked.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented final passes that reference a render layer from appearing in the RenderMan Controls window when the scene is reopened.
  • A bug that prevented the auto-crop mode of "it" from working properly under certain circumstances has been addressed.
  • Fixed a bug that could lead to a crash if the RMS_SCRIPT_PATHS variable ended with a backward slash - \.
  • Addressed UI issues with missing added parameters.
  • Addressed several issues with fur curve attractors.
  • Fixed several bugs that could affect txmake when working in ProjInProd mode.
  • Addressed an issue with incorrect shader references when working in ProjInProd mode.
  • Addressed several issues with .zip archives.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause "potential space problem" warnings.

Changes in 18.0_1254895

  • Fixed a bug in "it" that could lead to a crash if an image is deleted from the Catalog while rendering.
  • Addressed a licensing issue that could arise when a license is tied to a USB dongle.

Known Issues & Limitations

  • Geometric Area ライト cannot be added to a scene during a re-rendering session. Users can, however, take advantage of the Reuse RIB Cache option to stop a session, add a light, and re-start the session without incurring the cost of repeating the RIB generation.
  • Currently, switching directly from one RMSGPSurface preset to another is not possible; users must re-apply the Base settings and then select a new preset.
  • The Save and Open file dialogs in "it" are not functioning reliably on OS X when Always On Top mode is active. Users should toggle out of that mode (default hot key t) before saving/opening files.

Documentation Changes

About That Version Number...

You might have noticed that RenderMan Studio seems to have skipped a dozen or so versions. With this release we have adopted the policy of versioning RMS in tandem with the PRMan version it is built with and for. Simple enough, isn't it?

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