Whats New - Version 6.8.0

Feb 5 2015

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• RIS Rib Authoring

RIS Rib Authoring

Cutter now supports the writing of ribs for Pixar RIS rendering. Of course Pixar's RenderMan ProServer must be installed on the users computer. The Preferences->Rman->Docs Installation Directories "RPS root" must also be set up.

To access Integrators, Bxdf and Patterns select RIS from the Rman Tool->Options panel.

The "Shaders" menu will change to "Plugins". The menu has sub-menus for inserting blocks of rib statements that define a geometric area light, an environment light and a displacement. For example, selecting "EnvLight" will insert the following rib into a document.

AttributeBegin
    # txmake -envlatl  ../tiffs/name.tif ../textures/name.env.tex
    Rotate 0  0 1 0 # Rotates the env
    ConcatTransform [-1 0 0 0 0 0 -1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1]
    ShadingRate 10
    AreaLightSource "RMSEnvLight" 1
            "color lightcolor" [1 1 1]
            "color envtint" [1 1 1]
            "float exposure" [0]
            "string rman__EnvMap" [""]
            "float procedural" [0]
            "color shadowColor" [0 0 0]
    Attribute "visibility" "int camera" [1]
    Attribute "visibility" "int indirect" [0] "int transmission" [0]
    Sides 1
    Geometry "envsphere"
AttributeEnd

The other sub-menus insert rib for integrators, bxdfs and patterns. Patterns are listed alphabetically and their menu items have icons that indicate the datatypes of their outputs. Popup tool tip text is derived from the <help></help> tags of the respective patterns .args files.

Selecting PxrTexture, for example, inserts the following rib into a document.

Pattern "PxrTexture" "PxrTexture1"
        "string filename" [""]
        "int firstChannel" [0]
        "int atlasStyle" [0]
        "int invertT" [1]
        "int filter" [1]
        "float blur" [0.0]
        "int lerp" [1]
        "color missingColor" [1. 0. 1.]
        "float missingAlpha" [1.0]
        "int linearize" [0]
        # PxrTexture1:resultRGB   "|color|vector|normal|point|" 
        # PxrTexture1:resultR     "|float|" 
        # PxrTexture1:resultG     "|float|" 
        # PxrTexture1:resultB     "|float|" 
        # PxrTexture1:resultA     "|float|" 

Cutter appends comments at the end of the lising of parameters that indicate the names and datatypes of the ouputs. The information about a patterns outputs makes connecting nodes together relatively easy.

AttributeBegin
    Pattern "PxrTexture" "PxrTexture1"
            "string filename" ["swazi.tex"]
            # PxrTexture1:resultRGB   "|color|vector|normal|point|"
    
    Bxdf "PxrLMDiffuse" "PxrLMDiffuse1"
            "reference color frontColor" ["PxrTexture1:resultRGB"]
  
    Polygon "P" [-0.5 0 -0.5  -0.5 0 0.5  0.5 0 0.5  0.5 0 -0.5]
            "st" [0 0  0 1  1 1  1 0]
AttributeEnd

A barebones RIS-style rib can be generated using the Docs->Beauty Pass menu.