Gaffer 1.4.2.0

[murraystevenson]

Features

• ContactSheet : Added new node for creating contact sheets from multiple input images.
• LightPositionTool : Added Diffuse mode for placing lights along the normal of the target position.

Improvements

• TweakPlug : ListAppend, ListPrepend and ListRemove modes are now supported for string values. In this case, the string is treated as a space-separated list.
• Cycles :
  • Changed default value for principled_bsdf.specular_ior_level to 0.5, matching Blender.
  • Added support for uv.tangent and uv.tangent_sign primitive variables to assist in rendering with normal maps (Cycles : Correct tagging of tangent primitive variables to allow normal maps to render properly. #5269).
• AttributeQuery, PrimitiveVariableQuery, ContextQuery, OptionQuery, ShaderQuery : Added support for querying arrays of length 1 as their equivalent scalar types.
• CodeWidget : Added Ctrl+L shortcut for selecting all text on the current line.
• AttributeTweaks, CameraTweaks, ShaderTweaks, OptionTweaks, PrimitiveVariableTweaks :
  • Added support for a {source} token which is substituted with the original value when tweaking a string in Replace mode.
  • Added tooltips documenting the tweak modes.
• 3Delight : Added automatic render-time translation of UsdPreviewSurface shaders to 3Delight.
• USDLight :
  • Added Arnold-specific extension parameters.
  • Added parameter tooltips.
• LightEditor : Added columns for Arnold-specific parameters on USD lights.
• Switch : Added deleteContextVariables plug.

Fixes

• Viewer : Fixed Cycles shader balls.
• TweakPlug : Fixed incorrect results and potential crashes in list modes.
• USD : Fixed Unsupported value type "StringData" for parameter "input" warning when converting UsdTransform2d shaders with no in connections to Arnold.
• File Browser : Windows only : Fixed bug in HiddenFilePathFilter that caused sequences to be treated as though they are hidden files (File dialog: Show sequences shows no files unless Show hidden files is checked #5810).

API

• PlugAlgo : setValueFromData() and canSetValueFromData() now support conversion of arrays of length 1 to their equivalent scalar types.
• BoxPlug : Added Python bindings for ValueType, PointType and ChildType type aliases.
• RenderPassEditor : Added deregisterColumn() method.
• DocumentationAlgo : Added table and strikethrough support to markdownToHTML().
• LightEditor : Added columnName parameter to registerParameter() method, matching the behaviour of RenderPassEditor.registerOption().
• USDShader : Added support for loading from the UsdSchemaRegistry as well as from the SdrRegistry. This is now used when loading UsdLuxLights.
• PlugLayout : Added support for activators in Boxes and extension nodes by allowing layout:activator:activatorName metadata to contain a Python string to be executed. Execution is performed in an environment where a parent variable refers to node or plug represented by the layout, and from which plug values can be obtained.
• ContactSheetCore : Added a new node to do provide the basis for networks that create contact sheets from multiple input images.

Build

• MacOS : Fixed issue where Python.framework may not be found when building with a prebuilt dependencies package.

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This discussion was created from the release Gaffer 1.4.2.0.