0.53.0.0

This release provides several features useful for look development, including component-level connections for colour and vector parameters, a new ShaderTweaks node for making downstream tweaks, and an ArnoldTextureBake node for baking UV textures. We’ve also added a nifty new system for quickly accessing nodes via numeric hotkeys, and made numerous other enhancements and bug fixes.

Caution

This release replaces nodes such as SceneLoop and ImageLoop with more general purpose nodes such as Loop. Backwards compatibility is provided for loading old scripts, but any scripts saved in Gaffer 0.53 will not be loadable in previous versions. Test carefully before upgrading, because there is no going back.

Features

  • ArnoldTextureBake : Added a new node for baking Arnold shading networks down into UV textures (#2931).

  • Numeric bookmarks : Added the ability to associate a numeric hotkey to a node, providing quick pinning of the node into any editor. Use Ctrl+[0-9] in the GraphEditor to assign the bookmark, and then simply hit [0-9] to pin that node into the editor below the cursor (#2974).

  • ShaderTweaks : Added a new node to allow shader parameters to be overridden downstream of the shader assignment. This replaces the old LightTweaks node, with the addition of new functionality to allow new connections to be made (#2954, #2983).

  • GraphEditor : Added support for making connections to the individual components of colour and vector parameters (#2938, #2973, #755).

  • Viewer (#2985, #2666, #2717, #3001) :

    • Added “History” context menu for the selected scene object.

      • Added “Edit Source…” to open a NodeEditor for the node that created the object.

      • Added “Edit Tweaks…” to open a NodeEditor for the most recent ShaderTweaks node applied to the object.

  • BoxOut : Added a passThrough plug, providing a convenient way of allowing Boxes to be disabled (#2879).

  • UDIMQuery : Added a new node to query the texture UDIMs used by a set of objects (#2913).

  • Wireframe : Added a new node for converting MeshPrimitives into a wireframe representation using CurvesPrimitives (#2914).

Improvements

  • Loop : Added plug context menu item for connecting previous to next (#2887).

  • ArnoldOptions :

    • Added adaptive sampling settings (#2919).

    • Added low light threshold (#2968).

    • Added support for JSON stats files (#2984).

  • ArnoldRender (#2919) :

    • Added support for a “camera” parameter in outputs, allowing renders from multiple cameras to be performed in a single process.

    • Added support for Arnold’s uv_camera.

  • SceneInspector : Added curve basis to Object section (#2892).

  • Dispatch app : Added -show argument to control which nodes are shown in -gui mode (#2900).

  • Dispatcher (#2942) :

    • Added dispatcher:scriptFileName context variable.

    • Added support for nested dispatchers, with the inner dispatch sharing the job directory for the outer dispatch (#2942).

  • Dot/ContextProcessor/Switch/Loop : Improved serialisation to use a call to setup() rather than manual creation of plugs. This makes the serialisation format a better learning tool for aspiring scripters (#2981).

  • BoolPlugValueWidget : Added colour to indicate animation inputs and compute errors (#2990).

  • OSLShader : Improved nodule labelling (#2983).

  • PlugAdder : Added support for label metadata (#2345, #2983).

  • Shader/Light : Improved the representation of shaders in the scene dataflow. These now use a dedicated IECoreScene::ShaderNetwork class rather than a cumbersome IECore::ObjectVector. This lays the groundwork for features such as downstream tweaks (#2902).

  • GraphEditor : Changed hotkey for the Bookmarks menu from Ctrl+B to B (#3000).

  • Error Handling : Added the plug full name, frame, and scene path (if applicable) to the logging output as additional DEBUG log messages (#2976).

Fixes

  • ValuePlug : Fixed bug in finding the ComputeNode for a plug. In specific circumstances this could cause a Value for Plug not set as expected error (#2955, #2950).

  • ViewportGadget/GadgetWidget : Fixed enter/leave event handling bug (#2938).

  • ShaderAssignment : OSL shaders of type “shader” are now assigned correctly as “osl:surface” and not “osl:shader” (#2983).

  • Metadata bindings : Fix crashes caused by calling value( None ) (#2996).

Documentation

  • Improved the “Getting Started” scripting tutorial, renaming it to “Node Graph Editing in Python”.

  • Added “Working with the Node Graph” section, including documentation for Box nodes in particular.

  • Improved the “Controls and Shortcuts” section (#2929).

API

  • SceneAlgo (#2985, #3001) :

    • Added history() method for returning the tree of operations used to generate a a particular part of the scene.

    • Added source() method to return the node originally responsible for the creation of a particular location.

    • Added shaderTweaks() method to return the most recent ShaderTweaks node applied to an attribute.

  • Metadata (#2953) :

    • Values may now be registered for plugs of a specific type.

    • Values may now be registered to specific named descendants of plugs of a specific type.

  • CompoundNumericNodule : Added new nodule type to allow connections to be made to child components (#2938).

  • MetadataAlgo : Added methods for numeric bookmarks (#2974).

  • ContextProcessor : Added setup(), inPlug() and outPlug() methods (#2880).

  • Loop : Added setup(), inPlug() and outPlug() methods (#2887).

  • TweakPlug (#2954, #2983) :

    • Added default template argument to valuePlug() method.

    • Made applyTweak() const.

    • Added mode argument to convenience constructors.

    • Added applyTweaks() method for tweaking ShaderNetworks.

    • Added support for connecting new shaders into a ShaderNetwork.

  • Nodule : Added nodule() virtual method, used to return a nodule for a child plug (#2938).

  • GraphBookmarksUI : Removed popupFindBookmarkMenu(). Use connectToEditor() instead (#2974).

  • ProcessMessageHandler : Added a MessageHandler for injecing Gaffer::Process information as additional DEBUG log messages (#2976).

Build

  • Replaced DEBUG option with BUILD_TYPE, with values of DEBUG, RELEASE or RELWITHDEBINFO (#2593).

Breaking Changes

  • LightTweaks : Replaced with new general-purpose ShaderTweaks node (#2954).

  • Shader : Shaders are now represented with IECoreScene::ShaderNetworks rather than IECore::ObjectVectors (#2902).

  • Dispatcher : The base class now saves the script to dispatch automatically, so derived classes no longer need to do so (#2942).

  • Metadata (#2953) :

    • Removed all deprecated methods.

    • NodeValueFunction has been replaced by a generic GraphComponentFunction. This allows metadata to be registered by Plug TypeId.

  • TweakPlug :

    • Changed signatures for applyTweak() and constructor (#2954).

    • Changed base class (#2983).

  • ContextProcessors : Removed SceneContextVariables, DeleteSceneContextVariables, SceneTimeWarp, ImageContextVariables, DeleteImageContextVariables and ImageTimeWarp nodes. Use the generic equivalents instead. Compatibility with old scripts is provided by converting them automatically on loading (#2880).

  • Loops : Removed SceneLoop and ImageLoop nodes. Use the generic Loop node instead. Compatibility with old scripts is provided by converting them automatically on loading (#2887).

  • ScriptEditor (#2876) :

    • Renamed to PythonEditor. Compatibility with old scripts and layouts is preserved by a config file.

    • Removed script variable. Use the new root variable instead.

    • Removed parent variable. Paste serialised scripts using the GraphEditor instead.

  • Screengrab app : Renamed -scriptEditor argument to pythonEditor (#2876).

  • Dispatch app : Renamed -nodes argument to -tasks (#2900).

  • Nodule : Added virtual method (#2938).

  • ScriptNode : Removed scriptExecutedSignal() (#2996).