Whats New - Version 7.4.0

April 26 2016

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• OSL Shader User Interface Preview

OSL Shader User Interface Preview

The current version of RenderMan for Maya 20.x (RfM) does not support the use of Pixar's PxrOSL node in HyperShade. OSL shaders can be used with PRMan but only directly using Rib or a Rib Box in Maya. The Open Shading Language supports a rich set of metadata tags that will play a role in structuring the UI of a shader in HyperShade once version 21 of RfM is released.

To help RenderMan artists get started with using OSL's UI tags this version of Cutter provides a web browser UI preview facility. For example, after adding UI tags to the code shown in listing 1 - figure 1 the UI of the shader would change to figure 2 - listing 2.

Listing 1

shader
st2color(float s = 0 [[int lockgeom = 0]],
         float t = 0 [[int lockgeom = 0]],
         float cutoff = 0.5,
         int   invertT = 1,
         int   swapST = 0,
        output color resultRGB = 0)
{
//... code omitted ...
}

cutoff
invertT
swapST

Figure 1 - Without UI Hints

Listing 2

shader
st2color(float s = 0 [[int lockgeom = 0]],
         float t = 0 [[int lockgeom = 0]],
         float cutoff = 0.5 [[string label = "Cut Off"]],
         int   invertT = 1  [[string widget = "boolean", 
                              string label = "Invert ST"]],
         int   swapST = 0   [[string widget = "checkBox",
                              string label = "Swap ST"]],
        output color resultRGB = 0)
{
//... code omitted ...
}

Cut Off
Invert ST
		Swap ST

Figure 2 - With UI Hints

Right-mouse click to access the "Preview UI in Browser" menu - figure 3.

Figure 3