Gaffer 1.4.0.0

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 (#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 (#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 (#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 (#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 (#901, #2788).
• TransformTool : Fixed alignment of green "value changed" icon for orientation plugs.
• PlugAlgo :
  • Updated canSetValueFromData(), setValueFromData() and getValueAsData() with support for missing types.
  • Fixed prom...

Gaffer 1.3.16.0

Improvements

• Shuffle : Added the ability to load Shuffles from Gaffer 1.4.
• Instancer : Added support for Varying primitive variables whenever they are equivalent to (have the same size as) a Vertex primitive variable.

Fixes

• Encapsulate : Fixed bug which could cause unwanted cancellation when rendering or unencapsulating.
• Unencapsulate : Fixed bug which prevented cancellation of long-running computes.

Gaffer 1.4.0.0b6

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.
• 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.
• Added MeshTessellate node, for increasing the polycount of subdivision meshes.

Improvements

• EditScope : Added a summary of edits in the NodeEditor, with the ability to select the affected objects and quickly navigate to the processor nodes.
• Arnold : OSL shaders with connections from multiple outputs are no longer duplicated on export to Arnold.
• ArnoldShader : Added parameter tooltips based on help metadata provided by Arnold.

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.
• GafferTest, GafferImageTest : Fixed import of these modules if the Gaffer module had not been imported previously.
• SceneAlgo : Fixed potential shutdown crashes caused by the adaptor registry [^1].
• Dispatcher : Fixed shutdown crashes caused by Python slots connected to the dispatch signals [^1].
• Display : Fixed shutdown crashes caused by Python slots connected to driverCreatedSignal() and imageReceivedSignal() [^1].
• LightPositionTool : Fixed crash when changing the tool mode with nothing selected [^1].
• ViewportGadget : Fixed selection issues with Intel GPUs (#901, #2788).
• TransformTool : Fixed alignment of green "value changed" icon for orientation plugs.

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.

Breaking Changes

• InteractiveRenderTest : Subclasses must now return the shader output plug from creation methods such as _createConstantShader().

Gaffer 1.4.0.0b5

Improvements

• 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.
• Render, InteractiveRender : Added resolvedRenderer plug, which outputs the name of the renderer that will be used, taking into account the influence of the render:defaultRenderer option ¹.

Fixes

• PlugAlgo : Updated canSetValueFromData(), setValueFromData() and getValueAsData() with support for missing types.
• LightPositionTool : Fixed lingering shadow pivot point after placing a shadow pivot, switching to highlight mode and switching back to shadow mode ¹.
• Catalogue :
  • Fixed undo for image reordering via drag & drop.
  • Fixed bugs caused by reordering images using GraphComponent::reorderChildren().
• InteractiveRender : Fixed context used to evaluate scene globals when renderer is set to "Default" ¹.
• Instancer : Fixed handling of unindexed primvars in RootPerVertex mode ¹.
• ImageGadget :
  • Fixed loading of 2 channel images ¹.
  • Fixed error message to include filename ¹.
• Expression : setExpression() now respects configs that provide backwards compatibility for old plug names.
• Shuffle : Fixed default name for plugs constructed via the legacy ChannelPlug( out, in ) constructor ¹.
• ImageReader :
  • Fixed loading of OpenEXR images with 32 bit float data and DWA compression ¹.
  • Fixed loading of secondary layers in OpenEXR images with DWA compression ¹.
• GUI : Fixed potential crashes during shutdown ¹.
• ScriptNode : Fixed execution of multi-line if : statements in .gfr files ¹.
• ArnoldShader : Fixed startup errors caused by unknown values in widget metadata ¹.

API

• 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.

Breaking Changes

• StandardLightVisualiser : Added attributeName argument to surfaceTexture() virtual method.

Build

• OpenEXR : Applied patches from the following pull requests :
  • AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr#1591
  • AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr#1684

1. To be omitted from final release notes for 1.4.0.0. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

Gaffer 1.3.15.0

Improvements

• Render, InteractiveRender : Added resolvedRenderer plug, which outputs the name of the renderer that will be used, taking into account the influence of the render:defaultRenderer option.

Fixes

• InteractiveRender : Fixed context used to evaluate scene globals when renderer is set to "Default".
• Instancer : Fixed handling of unindexed primvars in RootPerVertex mode.
• ArnoldShader : Fixed startup errors caused by unknown values in widget metadata.

Gaffer 1.4.0.0b4

Features

• Render, InteractiveRender : Added new nodes capable of rendering to any supported renderer, and using the render:defaultRenderer option to determine which to use by default.
• StandardOptions : Added render:defaultRenderer option, allowing the scene globals to specify which renderer is used by the Render and InteractiveRender nodes.
• RenderPassEditor : Added a column for the render:defaultRenderer option, allowing each pass to be rendered in a different renderer.

Improvements

• GraphEditor : 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.

Fixes

• Windows : Removed "Error(s) running Gaffer" shutdown message. It was misleading when errors originated in the renderer rather than Gaffer itself.

Documentation

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

Breaking Changes

• CyclesOptions : Removed cycles:integrator:sampling_pattern option. This is intended only for debugging, but is still available via a CustomOptions node.
• CyclesAttributes : Removed the cycles:dupliGenerated and cycles:dupliUV attributes.

Gaffer 1.3.14.0

Features

• Render, InteractiveRender : Added new nodes capable of rendering to any supported renderer, and using the render:defaultRenderer option to determine which to use by default.
• StandardOptions : Added render:defaultRenderer option, allowing the scene globals to specify which renderer is used by the Render and InteractiveRender nodes.
• RenderPassEditor : Added a column for the render:defaultRenderer option, allowing each pass to be rendered in a different renderer.

Gaffer 1.4.0.0b3

Fixes

• Tractor : Fixed failure to import Tractor API [^1].
• Cycles :
  • Fixed hangs and crashes when using non-default session modes such as SVM shading.
  • Fixed failure to render background light in batch renders (#5234).
  • Fixed failure to update when reverting a background shader to previous values.
• GafferUI :
  • Fixed Color space 'sRGB' could not be found errors when running with certain custom OCIO configs (#5695).
  • Fixed icon colours when running with an ACES OCIO config.
• DocumentationAlgo : Fixed generation of duplicate entries for aliased nodes in exportNodeReference() [^1].

Documentation

• Node Reference : Removed duplicate entries for nodes that have been aliased by compatibility configs [^1].

Breaking Changes

• CyclesOptions : Changed hairShape default value to "ribbon", to match Cycles' and Blender's own defaults.
• Pointer :
  • Removed Pointer( const ImagePrimitive * ) constructor.
  • Removed image() method.

API

• ImageGadget : Removed textureLoader() method.
• Pointer : Added fileName() method.

Gaffer 1.3.13.1

Fixes

• DocumentationAlgo : Fixed generation of duplicate entries for aliased nodes in exportNodeReference().

Documentation

• Node Reference : Removed duplicate entries for nodes that have been aliased by compatibility configs.

Gaffer 1.4.0.0b2

Features

• 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 (#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.

Improvements

• ImageReader : Added fileValid = False metadata to images from missing frames, when missingFrameMode is Black or Hold.
• Viewer : Added Ctrl+PgUp shortcut for displaying the RGBA image layer (or the first available layer if RGBA doesn't exist) [^1].
• RenderPassEditor [^1] :
  • Added "Inclusions", "Exclusions" and "Additional Lights" columns, to provide control over the locations included in the render for each render pass.
  • Added the ability to display render passes grouped in a hierarchy generated from the render pass name. The default grouping uses the first token delimited by "_" from the render pass name, such that render passes named "char_gafferBot" and "char_cow" would be displayed under a "/char" group, while "prop_ball" and "prop_box" would be displayed under a "/prop" group.
  • Render pass grouping can be configured in a startup file by using GafferSceneUI.RenderPassEditor.registerPathGroupingFunction( f ), where f is a function that receives a render pass name and returns the path that the render pass should be grouped under.
  • Grouped display can be enabled by default in a startup file by using Gaffer.Metadata.registerValue( GafferSceneUI.RenderPassEditor.Settings, "displayGrouped", "userDefault", IECore.BoolData( True ) ).
  • Dragging cells selected from the "Name" column now provides a list of the selected render pass names, rather than their paths.
  • Disabled render pass names are now dimmed to more clearly indicate their state.
• RenderPassEditor, LightEditor, PathListingWidget : Boolean values are now displayed as checkboxes rather than 0 or 1 [^1].
• Collect : Added the ability to collect StringVectorData inputs.
• StandardOptions : Added inclusions, exclusions and additionalLights plugs, to control which locations are included in a render based on set expressions entered on these plugs. These, plus the existing includedPurposes plug are now grouped under the "Render Set" section of the UI [^1].
• GafferScene : Registered the "RenderSetAdaptor" adapting the render:inclusions, render:exclusions and render:additionalLights options to prune scene locations before rendering [^1].

Fixes

• 3Delight : Fixed startup errors on Windows when the DELIGHT environment variable wasn't defined [^1].
• 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.

API

• ScenePath : Added automatic conversion of a list of Python strings to a ScenePath [^1].
• RenderPassEditor : Added registerPathGroupingFunction() and pathGroupingFunction() methods [^1].
• 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()

Breaking Changes

• CyclesOptions :
  • 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 offical Cycles feature.
  • Removed cryptomatteAccurate. This feature is no longer present in Cycles.

[^1] : To be omitted from final release notes for 1.4.0.0.