Gaffer 1.4.0.0

[murraystevenson]

Note : This release introduces linux-gcc11 builds which are only compatible with Linux distributions using glibc 2.28 or higher.
These specific linux-gcc11 builds are intended for testing purposes while we upgrade our toolchain and dependencies to better align
with VFX Platform 2023, and should be considered "beta" in advance of a stable release in Gaffer 1.5.

Features

• Arnold : Added support for Arnold 7.3. Note that a minimum of 7.3.1.0 is required, meaning that 7.3.0.0 is not supported.
• Cycles :
  • Updated to version 4.0.2.
  • Added support for CUDA and Optix devices (GCC 11 and Windows builds only).
• Dispatcher : Dispatchers are now TaskNodes, allowing them to be nested in a task graph. Possibilities include :
  • Using a LocalDispatcher and a Wedge to launch multiple TractorDispatcher jobs.
  • Using a nested LocalDispatcher to perform a group of tasks on a single blade within a TractorDispatcher job.
• SelectionTool : Added select mode plug. When set to anything except Standard using the SelectionTool causes the actual scene location selected to potentially be modified from the originally selected location. Selection modifiers work identically for deselection. Currently, two selectors are implemented :
  • USD Kind : When selecting, the first ancestor location with a usd:kind attribute matching the chosen list of USD Kind will ultimately be selected. USD's Kind Registry includes Assembly, Component, Group, Model and SubComponent by default and can be extended via USD startup scripts.
  • Shader Assignment : When selecting, the first ancestor location with a renderable and direct (not inherited) shader attribute will ultimately be selected. This can be used to select either surface or displacement shaders.
• GraphEditor : Added X shortcut for removing connections between nodules. Hold X then left click to remove all connections under the cursor. Hold X then left drag to draw a line, all connections that intersect with the line will be removed once the drag is ended (Select noodles for deletion #788).
• LightPosition Tool : Added a variation on the shadow placement tool to place highlights. Lights are positioned such that they will create a specular highlight at the target point.
• DeepSlice : Added a new node for clipping out part of an image based on depth.
• MeshTessellate : Added a new node for increasing the polycount of subdivision meshes.
• ImageInspector : Added a new panel for inspecting image format, metadata and channel statistics.

Improvements

• Arnold :
  • OSL shaders with connections from multiple outputs are no longer duplicated on export to Arnold.
  • Gaffer's native OpenColorIO config is now automatically translated to Arnold. Use an ArnoldColorManager node to override this behaviour.
• ArnoldShader : Added parameter tooltips based on help metadata provided by Arnold.
• CyclesOptions : Improved device selection UI.
• 3Delight :
  • Added NSI screen static sampling pattern option (dl:staticsamplingpattern).
  • Added support for layerName parameter in output definitions.
  • Added support for filter parameter in output definitions.
  • Added camera overscan support.
  • Added support for reading dl: and user: attributes from shaders.
  • Added importanceSampleFilter plug to DelightOptions, providing denoiser-compatible output.
  • Added support for external procedurals.
  • Matched DelightOptions default values for oversampling and shadingSamples to 3Delight's own default values.
  • NSI scene description export format is now based on file extension - .nsi for binary and .nsia for ASCII.
• EditScope : Added a summary of edits in the NodeEditor, with the ability to select the affected objects and quickly navigate to the processor nodes.
• GraphEditor :
  • The source node for any location can be located by dragging the location into the GraphEditor from the Viewer or HierarchyView.
  • Removed all renderer-specific Render and InteractiveRender nodes from the node menu. These nodes still exist for backwards compatibility with old scenes, but the generic Render and InteractiveRender nodes should now be used instead.
  • Improved logic used to connect a newly created node to the selected nodes.
• GraphComponent : Node and Plug names may now start with a numeric digit.
• LocalDispatcher :
  • Added a new dockable LocalJobs editor, to replace the floating window previously accessible via the "Execute/Local Jobs" menu item.
  • Task output is now shown in the UI.
  • Jobs are no longer removed from the UI as soon as they complete.
  • Incomplete jobs are now killed automatically when the application is closed, after prompting to confirm that shutdown should go ahead.
• LightPositionTool : The tool is now only visible for members of the __lights set, instead of all objects.
• Catalogue : Added imageNames output plug, containing the names of all images in the Catalogue. Among other things this can be used to drive a Wedge or ContactSheet node and a CatalogueSelect.
• ImageReader : Added fileValid = False metadata to images from missing frames, when missingFrameMode is Black or Hold.
• Collect : Added the ability to collect StringVectorData inputs.
• Toolbars : Changed hotkey behavior to toggle any tool on and off. Exclusive tools such as the Translate and Crop Window tools activate the first tool (currently Selection Tool) when they are toggled off.
• CropWindowTool : Added Alt + C for toggling both the crop window tool and the relevant crop window enabled plug.
• TaskList, FrameMask : Reimplemented in C++ for improved performance.
• Cache : Increased default computation cache size to 8Gb. Call Gaffer.ValuePlug.setCacheMemoryLimit() from a startup file to override this.
• Dispatcher : Reduced internal overhead of dispatch() call, with one benchmark showing around a 3x speedup.
• ScriptWindow : Added "Save" option to dialogue shown when closing a window containing unsaved changes.
• Resize :
  • Added support for deep images.
  • Added "Nearest" filter.
• Shuffle :
  • Reimplemented to match ShuffleAttributes and ShufflePrimitiveVariables.
    • Any number of shuffles can be added using the UI.
    • Wildcards can be used to match multiple source channels, and expressions can be used to map them to destination channels.
    • Source channels can optionally be deleted after shuffling.
    • Overwriting of destination channels can optionally be avoided.
  • Added missingSourceMode plug to determine behaviour when a source channel doesn't exist.
• NodeEditor : Improved image channel selectors :
  • Added "Custom" option, to allow strings to be entered manually.
  • Added right-click context menu.
• Switch : Added connectedInputs output plug.
• Backdrop : Improved drawing order for nested backdrops :
  • Larger backdrops are automatically drawn behind smaller ones, so that nested backdrops will always appear on top.
  • Added a depth plug to assign a manual drawing depth for the rare cases where the automatic depth is unwanted.
• ImageStats : Added areaSource plug, allowing area to be driven by the input display window or data window.
• ScenePlug, ImagePlug : Child plugs are now serialisable. Among other things, this enables them to be driven by expressions (Serialise connections to children of ScenePlug/ImagePlug #3986).
• Premultiply : Added useDeepVisibility plug, which weights samples according to their visibility based on the opacity of samples in front.
• ImageReader : Improved multithreading of EXR reads. This can result in a performance improvement of around 4X for large images.
• Added OIIO config that disables OIIO threading by default. This simplifies our threading model, and has no impact on performance for our main use cases. If read performance of Gaffer compositing using non-EXR formats, such as Tiff, is important to you, you may want to add your own config to turn OIIO threading back on.
• Wireframe :
  • Improved performance ~3x.
  • Improved cancellation responsiveness.

Fixes

• Arnold :
  • Fixed rendering of shaders imported from HtoA via USD.
  • Fixed USD export of shaders to use outputs:out instead of outputs:DEFAULT_OUTPUT.
  • Fixed rendering of osl shaders using the code parameter.
• Cycles :
  • Fixed hangs and crashes when using non-default session modes such as SVM shading.
  • Fixed failure to render background light in batch renders (Cycles is not rendering the background light in the batch render, but renders in the interactive render #5234).
  • Fixed failure to update when reverting a background shader to previous values.
• 3Delight :
  • Fixed failure to change sampling pattern per frame.
  • Fixed Resolution Multiplier support.
  • Fixed UI visibility of angle parameter for distant lights, which was previously hidden.
  • Fixed export of Varying primitive variables on meshes (Pref broken in 3Dl but fine in Arnold #5781).
  • Fixed loading of surface shaders such as dlStandard so that they can be connected to the inputs of shaders such as dlLayeredMaterial.
• Widget :
  • Fixed bug that prevented Gadgets from receiving drops from another application.
  • Fixed errors when dragging from another application onto widgets that didn't expect it.
• Gadget : Fixed access to DragDropEvent.sourceWidget and DragDropEvent.destinationWidget from Python slots connected to a Gadget's DragDropSignals.
• GraphGadget : Fixed unwanted highlighting of nodes when custom drag & drop handlers were active.
• Viewer : Fixed selection overlay glitches with an Arnold skydome_light and an empty selection.
• GafferTest, GafferImageTest : Fixed import of these modules if the Gaffer module had not been imported previously.
• ViewportGadget : Fixed selection issues with Intel GPUs ([0.98.0] Can't select, move or connect nodes #901, cant left clic on nodes and in Viewer #2788).
• TransformTool : Fixed alignment of green "value changed" icon for orientation plugs.
• PlugAlgo :
  • Updated canSetValueFromData(), setValueFromData() and getValueAsData() with support for missing types.
  • Fixed promotion of CompoundDataPlugs with non-dynamic children, such as the Camera.renderSettingOverrides plug.
• Catalogue :
  • Fixed undo for image reordering via drag & drop.
  • Fixed bugs caused by reordering images using GraphComponent::reorderChildren().
• Expression : setExpression() now respects configs that provide backwards compatibility for old plug names.
• FlatImageProcessor : Fixed bug that could cause an input to be evaluated with an invalid image:viewName.
• Collect : Fixed display of results collected from TypedObjectPlug inputs.
• BackgroundTask : Fixed potential deadlock caused by destroying a BackgroundTask from Python while it was still running.
• Dispatcher : The job directory is no longer created when dispatch is cancelled by a slot connected to preDispatchSignal().
• LocalDispatcher :
  • Fixed delays and zombie processes caused by shutting down Gaffer while background jobs were running. Background jobs are now killed before Gaffer exits instead.
  • Stopped failed jobs jumping to the end of the Local Jobs UI.
  • Fixed message log update.
  • Fixed Job.statistics() errors on Windows, ensuring that a pid is always returned when available.
• ImageStats :
  • Fixed output of infinite values, which were previously being clamped.
  • Results for min/max now correctly reflect zero values outside the data window.
• NodeMenu, NodeEditor : userDefault metadata is now evaluated in the script context, so it can depend on script variables.
• DeepState : Fixed handling of NaN values and samples where ZBack is less than Z.
• Premultiply : Fixed handling of non-existent alpha channel.
• ColorToVector : Fixed parameter types.
• Windows : Removed "Error(s) running Gaffer" shutdown message. It was misleading when errors originated in the renderer rather than Gaffer itself.

API

• SelectionTool : Added static registerSelectMode() method for registering a Python or C++ function that will modify a selected scene path location. Users can choose which mode is active when selecting.
• EditScopeUI : Added an API for customising the EditScope's NodeEditor with summaries for each processor :
  • ProcessorWidget provides a base class for custom widgets, and a factory mechanism for registering them against processors.
  • SimpleProcessorWidget provides a base class for widgets with a simple summary label and optional action links.
• TractorDispatcher : The preSpoolSignal() now provides an additional taskData argument to slots, which maps from Tractor tasks to information about the Gaffer tasks they will execute.
• LabelPlugValueWidget : Added optional labelPlugValueWidget:showValueChangedIndicator metadata entry. If a plug has this entry set to False, the icon next to the label that indicates the value has changed will not be shown. Defaults to True if the value is not set.
• TypedObjectPlug : Added Python bindings for the default values of the defaultValue constructor argument.
• Box2fVectorDataPlug : Added new plug type for storing arrays of Box2f.
• Catalogue : Deprecated image:index metadata.
• ImageGadget : Removed textureLoader() method.
• Pointer : Added fileName() method.
• ExtensionAlgo : Added exportNode() and exportNodeUI() functions.
• Widget : Added a 0.5 pixel offset to ButtonEvent.line objects passed to mouse event signals such as buttonPressSignal() and dragMoveSignal()
• PathColumn :
  • Added CellData::sortValue member, to provide additional control over sorting in the PathListingWidget.
  • Added missing Python binding for headerData() method.
• StandardPathColumn :
  • Added constructor which allows the full header CellData to be specified.
  • Added missing Python binding for property() method.
• IconPathColumn :
  • Added constructor which allows the full header CellData to be specified.
  • Added prefix() and property() accessors.
• Window : Added preCloseSignal(), which allows connected slots to prevent a window from being closed.
• LocalDispatcher :
  • Added Job.status() and Job.statusChangedSignal() methods.
  • Added Job.messages() and Job.messagesChangedSignal() methods.
  • Added Job.frameRange(), Job.environmentCommand() and Job.startTime() methods.
  • Added Job.cpuUsage() and Job.memoryUsage() methods.
  • Added JobPool.addJob() and JobPool.removeJob() methods.
• GafferTractor : Added tractorAPI() method used for accessing the tractor.api.author module.
• GafferTractorTest : Added tractorAPI() method which returns a mock API if Tractor is not available. This allows the GafferTractor module to be tested without Tractor being installed.
• ParallelAlgo : Added canCallOnUIThread() function.
• Label : Added textSelectable constructor argument.
• ShufflesPlug :
  • Added ignoreMissingSource argument to shuffle().
  • Added shuffleWithExtraSources() method.
• ShufflePlugValueWidget : Widgets for the source and destination plugs can now be customised using standard plugValueWidget:type metadata.
• ImageTestCase : in assertImageEqual function, maxDifference may now be a tuple, to specify an asymmetric range.
• Editor : Added Settings class, which should be used to store settings for subclasses. See LightEditor and ImageInspector for examples.
• DeepPixelAccessor : Added utility class for accessing deep samples while abstracting away the underlying tile storage.
• Color3fPlug : Added setValue( V3f() ) overload.

Documentation

• Updated with generic Render and InteractiveRender nodes in place of deprecated renderer-specific nodes.

Breaking Changes

• Arnold : Removed support for Arnold 7.1.
• Cycles : Updated to version 4.0.2.
• 3Delight :
  • Changed default layer names for outputs.
  • Changed NSI scene description export with .nsi file extension from ASCII to binary (.nsia is used for ASCII now).
• InteractiveRenderTest : Subclasses must now return the shader output plug from creation methods such as _createConstantShader().
• StandardLightVisualiser : Added attributeName argument to surfaceTexture() virtual method.
• CyclesAttributes : Removed the cycles:dupliGenerated and cycles:dupliUV attributes.
• CyclesOptions :
  • Changed hairShape default value to "ribbon", to match Cycles' and Blender's own defaults.
  • Removed useFrameAsSeed plug. The frame is now automatically used as the seed if seed is not set.
  • Removed all texture cache options. These had never been exposed in the UI because this never became an official Cycles feature.
  • Removed cryptomatteAccurate. This feature is no longer present in Cycles.
  • Removed cycles:integrator:sampling_pattern option. This is intended only for debugging, but is still available via a CustomOptions node.
• Pointer :
  • Removed Pointer( const ImagePrimitive * ) constructor.
  • Removed image() method.
• Render : Changed render:includedPurposes default to "default", "render".
• Backdrop : Changed default drawing order. Use the new depth plug to override the order if necessary.
• ValuePlug : Removed deprecated getObjectValue() overload.
• Preferences : Removed cache plug.
• TaskNode :
  • The Task constructor no longer takes a copy of the context, so the context must not be modified after being passed.
  • Removed Task( taskNode, context ) constructor. Use Task( taskNode["task"], context ) instead.
• Dispatcher :
  • Removed createMatching() method.
  • Removed non-const TaskBatch accessors frames() and preTasks().
  • Made TaskBatch constructors private.
  • The job directory is no longer available in slots connected to preDispatchSignal().
  • Removed nodes arguments from dispatch signals. Use the dispatcher["tasks"] plug instead.
  • Removed script and context arguments from frameRange() method. The current frame and full frame range are now queried from the current context.
• DispatcherUI :
  • Removed appendMenuDefinitions(), appendNodeContextMenuDefinitions(), executeSelected() and repeatPrevious() functions.
  • Removed DispatcherWindow class.
• LocalDispatcher :
  • Removed JobPool.jobFailedSignal().
  • Removed JobPool.failedJobs() method. Failed jobs now remain in place in the main jobs() container.
  • Removed Job.failed() and Job.killed() methods. Use Job.status() instead.
  • Removed Job.execute() method. This should not have been public.
  • Removed Job.messageHandler() method. Use Job.messages() instead.
  • Removed Job.description() method.
  • Removed Job.statistics() method. Use Job.memoryUsage() and Job.cpuUsage() instead.
  • JobPool no longer derives from RunTimeTyped.
• LocalDispatcherUI : Removed appendMenuDefinitions() function.
• Process : Removed non-const variant of the handleException() method.
• StringPlug : Removed deprecated precomputedHash argument from getValue() method.
• OpenColorIOContext : Removed configEnabledPlug(), configValuePlug(), workingSpaceEnabledPlug() and workingSpaceValuePlug() methods. Use the OptionalValuePlug child accessors instead.
• Windows launch script : Removed the hardcoded /debugexe switch used when GAFFER_DEBUG is enabled, making it possible to use debuggers other than Visual Studio. Debug switches can be added to the GAFFER_DEBUGGER environment variable instead.
• Enums : Replaced IECore.Enum types with standard Python types from the enum module.
• Shuffle :
  • Removed ChannelPlug type. Use Gaffer.ShufflePlug instead.
  • Renamed channels plug to shuffles plug, matching nodes such as ShuffleAttributes and ShufflePrimitiveVariables.
• ShuffleUI : Removed nodeMenuCreateCommand().
• ImageStatsUI : Removed postCreate().
• OSLShader : Output parameters are now loaded onto the out plug for all types (surface, displacement etc), not just shader.
• DelightOptions : Changed default values for oversampling and shadingSamples plugs.
• SceneProcessor : Subclasses no longer serialise internal connections to the out plug.
• ImageProcessor : Internal connections to the out plug are no longer serialised.
• USD : Removed Embree Hydra delegate.

Build

• Cortex : Updated to version 10.5.6.2.
• Cycles : Updated to version 4.0.2.
• Embree : Updated to version 4.3.0.
• Imath : Updated to version 3.1.9.
• MaterialX : Updated to version 1.38.8.
• LibWebP : Added version 1.3.2.
• OpenEXR :
  • Updated to version 3.1.12.
  • Applied patches from the following pull requests :
    • Fix issue with decompressing fp32 dwa files AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr#1591
    • Fix typo causing prefix len to be wrong AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr#1684
• OpenImageIO : Updated to version 2.5.8.0.
• OpenPGL : Updated to version 0.5.0.
• OpenShadingLanguage : Updated to version 1.12.14.0.
• OpenSubdiv : Updated to version 3.5.1.
• OpenSSL : Removed.
• OpenVDB : Updated to version 10.1.0.
• PsUtil : Added version 5.9.6.
• PySide : Updated to version 5.15.12.
• Python : Updated to version 3.10.13.
• Qt :
  • Updated to version 5.15.12.
  • Removed QtPurchasing library.
  • Removed QtNetworkAuth library.
• USD : Updated to version 23.11.

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This discussion was created from the release Gaffer 1.4.0.0.