RPS 16 & Houdini problems

[dhernand]

Generally, RMS 16.0 is installed in labs 223 in linux and because of that, any previous versions of RMS no longer works. I have reminded students using Cutter to have their RMS paths updated for use in labs 223 because other labs are still using RMS15.2. But for some weird reason, once Cutter have been set for 16.0 it does not seem to work anymore when you try to revert it to 15.2 (at this point I am not sure if there is any updates on env variables) however Maya seems to work alright with either.

My solution for students right now is for them to either stick to labs 223 or keep 2 versions of cutter, once for each versions.

Also worth noting is that the new RMS does not seem to be fully compatible with the current Build of Houdini that we have.


Regards

Dave

[dhernand]

Hello,

I can't see why you wouldn't be able to switch back to 15.2 in Cutter if all preferences get properly changed.

Outside of Cutter, the environment variables were changed in 223. We could change them back if Malcolm doesn't mind having his students change their bash_custom file and/or the Cutter run script to set RMANTREE and RPSDOCTREE for RPS 16. Maya uses RMS only (until we can get Tractor working properly) so it could not be affected by any of this.

We could set up the houdini launch scripts to use an older version of RMS if that is desired. Would it need 3.0.0 or all the way back to 2?

Keep me posted.

Andrew

[dhernand]

RPS16 was causing problems with SSS in Maya but I have fixed that issue. Apart from Houdini I don't know of any other problems.
Malcolm

[dhernand]

The only issue regarding rps16 and rms3.0.2 is an application called ptfilter. The shaders within rms are compiled by pixar's "shader" compiler. But compilation of hypershade networks and slim networks use "shader" from two different locations.

Hypershade compilation is controlled by "RenderMan_for_Maya.ini". As you will notice the default pref points to "shader" in RMSTREE,
SetPref ShaderCompiler [list $RMSTREE/rmantree/bin/shader \
-I$RMSTREE/lib/shaders \
-I$RMSTREE/lib/slim/pxCoreV1 \
-I$RMSTREE/lib/rfm/rsl -C %f]

Slim compilations are controlled by "slim.ini" and it has this default pref,
SetPref ShaderCompiler [list $RMANTREE/bin/shader \
-I$RMSTREE/lib/shaders \
-I$RMSTREE/lib/slim/include \
-I$RMSTREE/lib/slim/pxCoreV1 \
-I$RMSTREE/lib/slim/pxslInterfacesV1 \
-I$RMSTREE/lib/rfm/rsl \
-C %f]

Unfortunately, there is not a pref that controls which ptfilter to use. There are two, one in RMSTREE and one in RMANTREE. To all intends and purposes RenderMan Studio is hard wired to use,
RMANTREE/bin/ptfilter
As a consequence shaders originating from hypershade are not compatible with ptfilter, hence the SSS problems. I have given my students a two line .sh file that they will use to launch maya. The script temporarily sets RMANTREE to release 15.2. It fixes the problem.

Malcolm