Gaffer 1.4.0.0b6

[murraystevenson]

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 ([0.98.0] Can't select, move or connect nodes #901, cant left clic on nodes and in Viewer #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().

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This discussion was created from the release Gaffer 1.4.0.0b6.