Gaffer 1.4 release

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This page contains a collated and ordered list of changelog entries for all Gaffer 1.4.x.x releases up to and including Gaffer 1.4.15.2.

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).
  • ContactSheet : Added new node for creating contact sheets from multiple input images.
  • 3Delight :
    • Added interactive Viewer renderer.
    • Added “3Delight Cloud” renderer, for rendering using the 3Delight cloud.
  • DeepSlice : Added a new node for clipping out part of an image based on depth.
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • ImageInspector : Added a new panel for inspecting image format, metadata and channel statistics.
  • 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.
    • Added Diffuse mode for placing lights along the normal of the target position.
  • MeshTessellate : Added a new node for increasing the polycount of subdivision meshes.
  • MeshTessellate/MeshType : Added support for special-purpose subdiv options: interpolateBoundary, faceVaryingLinearInterpolation, triangleSubdivisionRule.
  • RenderPassEditor :
    • Added type column for configuring specific passes to render with a predefined type. We provide default configurations of a number of render pass types, these can be modified to suit specific workflows via the RenderPassShader node or by registering new types and processors via the RenderPassTypeAdaptor in a startup file.
    • The default render pass type configurations include :
      • A “shadow” type for catching shadows cast by caster locations on catcher locations.
      • A “reflection” type for catching reflections cast by caster locations on catcher locations. The roughness of the reflective material can be configured per catcher location by creating a user:renderPass:reflectionCatcher:roughness float attribute.
      • A “reflectionAlpha” type for catching reflection mattes cast by caster locations on catcher locations. The colour of the matte can be configured per caster location by creating a user:renderPass:reflectionCaster:color Color3f attribute.
  • RenderPassShader : Added new node for overriding a shader used by a render pass type.
  • 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.
  • ShaderTweaks : Added support for creating ShaderTweakProxy nodes that allow making input connections to the original network.
  • Viewer : Added support for Cycles GPU rendering via a new Device option in the Cycles viewer settings.

Improvements

  • Annotations :
    • Added support for {plug} value substitutions in node annotations.
    • Added Ctrl + Enter keyboard shortcut to annotation dialogue. This applies the annotation and closes the dialogue.
  • 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.
    • Added support for Int64Data and UInt64Data custom attributes, allowing USD’s instanceId to be used as a custom attribute in the Instancer node. Warnings are emitted if values are out of range for Arnold’s 32 bit ints.
    • If it exists, an ai:volume attribute is preferred over an ai:surface attribute when resolving shaders for volumes.
  • ArnoldAttributes : Added syntax highlighting and auto-complete for set expressions on the shadowGroup plug.
  • ArnoldShader :
    • Added parameter tooltips based on help metadata provided by Arnold.
    • Added a UI layout for the new openpbr_surface shader.
    • Moved Arnold 7.3.3.0’s new standard_volume.scatter_diffusion parameters to a “Scatter Diffusion” section of the UI.
    • Moved the toon shader’s *_tonemap_hue_saturation parameters to appropriate sections in the UI.
    • The following parameters are now visible in the GraphEditor :
      • The aov_input parameter of the aov_write_int shader.
      • The data_input parameter of the color_jitter shader.
      • The input_int and seed parameters of the random shader.
      • The index parameters of the switch_rgba and switch_shader shaders.
      • The default parameter of the user_data_int shader.
    • The following parameters can now be made visible in the GraphEditor :
      • The flake_layers parameter of the car_paint shader.
      • The data_seed, proc_seed, obj_seed, and face_seed parameters of the color_jitter shader.
  • Arnold light_decay :
    • Increased the size of the triangle indicators for the decay ranges.
    • The decay range indicators are now scaled by the light’s gl:visualiser:scale attribute.
    • The decay range is now ignored when framing a light in the Viewer.
  • 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.
  • AttributeQuery, PrimitiveVariableQuery, ContextQuery, OptionQuery, ShaderQuery : Added support for querying arrays of length 1 as their equivalent scalar types.
  • 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.
  • BackgroundTask : Added reporting of tasks attempting to wait for themselves.
  • Cache : Increased default computation cache size to 8Gb. Call Gaffer.ValuePlug.setCacheMemoryLimit() from a startup file to override this.
  • 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.
    • Added a handle for controlling the relative sizes of the listing and image property widgets.
  • CodeWidget :
    • Added highlighting of braces and operators.
    • Added Ctrl+L shortcut for selecting all text on the current line.
  • Collect : Added the ability to collect StringVectorData inputs.
  • ColorChooser :
    • Added channel names to identify sliders.
    • Setting the saturation to zero no longer resets the hue and setting the value to zero no longer resets the hue and saturation.
  • CropWindowTool : Added Alt + C for toggling both the crop window tool and the relevant crop window enabled plug.
  • Cryptomatte : Renamed __manifestScene plug to manifestScene so it is no longer considered to be private.
  • Cycles :
    • Updated the UI of Cycles shaders and lights for ease of use and to match Blender conventions.
    • Hide certain parameters based on UI selections.
    • Renamed and reordered parameters and created sections to match Blender.
    • Changed all the Cycles items in the Gaffer tab menu to title case.
    • 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 (#5269).
  • 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.
    • Added support for multipart EXR renders by using the same file name parameter on multiple outputs.
    • Added support for scalarformat, colorprofile, filterwidth and arbitrary custom NSI outputlayer and outputdriver attributes.
    • Updated the default output presets to include scalarformat, colorprofile, filter and filterwidth output parameters.
  • Dispatcher : Reduced internal overhead of dispatch() call, with one benchmark showing around a 3x speedup.
  • EditScope :
    • Added a summary of edits in the NodeEditor, with the ability to select the affected objects and quickly navigate to the processor nodes.
    • Added summaries of set membership edits in the NodeEditor.
    • Filtered the EditScope menu to show only nodes that are active in the relevant context.
  • EditScopePlugValueWidget : Width can now be configured via <layoutName>:width metadata. This enables customisation of the Edit Scope menu width by registering metadata in a startup file, such as Gaffer.Metadata.registerValue( GafferSceneUI.RenderPassEditor.Settings, "editScope", "layout:width", 450 ) to double the standard width of the Edit Scope menu in the Render Pass Editor.
    • When viewing the output of a Box, the menu now displays the Edit Scopes contained within.
    • Added support for dropping an Edit Scope node onto the widget to set it as the current Edit Scope.
    • Added support for middle-dragging from the widget to access the current Edit Scope node.
    • Added icon representing the Edit Scope node colour.
  • File Browser : The “Type” column can now be sorted. This sorts directories separately from files, which are sorted by their extension.
  • GraphComponent : Node and Plug names may now start with a numeric digit.
  • 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.
    • Improved pointer used to indicate when dropping a location would find the source node.
  • Group : Added sets plug, to control what sets the group belongs to.
  • HierarchyView, LightEditor, RenderPassEditor, SetEditor : Reduced potential UI stalls when first showing a scene.
  • ImageReader :
    • Added fileValid = False metadata to images from missing frames, when missingFrameMode is Black or Hold.
    • 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.
  • ImageStats : Added areaSource plug, allowing area to be driven by the input display window or data window.
  • LightEditor :
    • Added support for Arnold light blockers and barndoor, gobo and decay light filters.
    • Values of inherited attributes are now displayed in the Light Editor. These are presented as dimmed “fallback” values. Values are inherited from an ancestor of the inspected location or from attributes created in the scene globals.
    • Default values are now displayed as dimmed “fallback” values for attributes that don’t exist in the scene.
    • When a fallback value is displayed, the cell’s tooltip includes a description of the source of the value.
    • Mute and solo columns now accurately reflect the presence of the light:mute attribute (for the Mute column) and membership in the soloLights set (for the Solo column) for all scene locations, not just for lights.
    • Added the ability to register columns for editing any parameter in a light’s shader network. The parameter to edit is registered in the form shaderName.parameterName when calling GafferSceneUI.LightEditor.registerParameter.
    • Added columns for Arnold-specific parameters on USD lights.
  • LightEditor, RenderPassEditor : Fallback values shown in the history window are displayed with the same dimmed text colour used for fallback values in editor columns.
  • LightPositionTool :
    • The tool is now only visible for members of the __lights set, instead of all objects.
    • Changed the pointer to notEditable when using keyboard combinations that do not apply to the current tool mode.
  • 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.
  • NodeEditor :
    • Improved image channel selectors :
      • Added “Custom” option, to allow strings to be entered manually.
      • Added right-click context menu.
    • Improved performance when showing a node with many colour plugs. Showing the Arnold standard_surface shader is now almost 2x faster.
  • NodeEditor, NameWidget : Invalid characters are automatically converted to _ when renaming a node or plug, and : is no longer treated as invalid.
  • NodeEditor, UIEditor, PythonEditor : Added popup hint for the Ctrl+Return shortcut.
  • NumericWidget : Added the ability to use Ctrl + scroll wheel to adjust values in the same manner as Up and Down (#6009).
  • OpenColorIO : When a script-level OpenColorIO variable contains a Gaffer ${contextVariable} reference, its evaluation is now deferred to the point of use. This allows it to pick up overrides introduced by nodes such as ContextVariables and Wedge.
  • OptionTweaks : Tweak value plugs can now access metadata registered globally to option:{tweakName}, where {tweakName} is the value of the tweak’s name plug.
  • ParameterInspector : Added the ability to inspect parameters on any shader in a light or shader’s shader network.
  • PathFilterUI : Added the ability to drag and drop scene paths onto Box and Reference nodes. Doing so will create a new PathFilter with the selected paths if none is connected, or update an existing connected PathFilter.
  • Premultiply : Added useDeepVisibility plug, which weights samples according to their visibility based on the opacity of samples in front.
  • PythonCommand : Added standard popup menu to command widget in NodeEditor.
  • RenderPassEditor :
    • Added preset menu for choosing a render pass type from the list of available registered types. An “auto” type is included in the list when an auto type function has been registered.
    • Added “Camera Inclusions” and “Camera Exclusions” columns, providing control over the camera visibility of scene locations in each render pass.
    • Added “Matte Inclusions” and “Matte Exclusions” columns, providing control over the scene locations used as holdout mattes in each render pass.
    • The currently active render pass can now be unset by double clicking on its green dot in the “Active” column.
    • Added “Select Affected Objects” popup menu item.
  • RenderPassEditor, LightEditor : Improved update performance for certain graph configurations, by optimising SceneAlgo::history() (#5199).
  • Resize :
    • Added support for deep images.
    • Added “Nearest” filter.
  • SceneInspector :
    • Added support for dragging inspector labels, such as those containing the names of attributes, options, output parameters, parameters, primitive variables, and sets.
    • Set names beginning with “__” such as “__lights” or “__cameras” are now displayed as-is, rather than being transformed to “Lights” or “Cameras”.
  • SceneReader : ModelAPI extentsHints are now considered when loading the bounding box for a location in Gaffer. This can significantly reduce the time taken to load bounds for large USD assemblies. If necessary, this behaviour can be disabled by setting the IECOREUSD_USE_MODELAPI_BOUNDS environment variable with a value of 0.
  • ScenePlug, ImagePlug : Child plugs are now serialisable. Among other things, this enables them to be driven by expressions (#3986).
  • ScriptWindow : Added “Save” option to dialogue shown when closing a window containing unsaved changes.
  • SetEditor : Added support for dragging a set name onto a node in the Graph Editor to create or modify a connected SetFilter node. Holding Shift while dragging will add to the set expression. Holding Control will remove from the set expression. Only set expressions with a simple list of sets are supported. Expressions with boolean or hierarchy operators are not supported.
  • SetExpressions : Set Expressions containing only whitespace characters are now treated as empty rather than producing an error.
  • SetFilter, StandardAttributes, StandardOptions : Added syntax highlighting and auto-complete for set expressions.
  • ShaderTweaks : Added support for wildcards in the shader name, in order to tweak multiple shaders at once.
  • ShaderTweaks, ShaderQuery : Improved performance of parameter selection dialogue. For some particularly large shader networks, speedups are greater than 100x.
  • 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.
  • Spreadsheet : Added support for metadata to be automatically forwarded from plugs downstream of a column’s out plug to the column’s default row.
  • Switch :
    • Added deleteContextVariables plug.
    • Added connectedInputs output plug.
  • TaskList, FrameMask : Reimplemented in C++ for improved performance.
  • 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.
  • TweakPlug : ListAppend, ListPrepend and ListRemove modes are now supported for string values. In this case, the string is treated as a space-separated list.
  • UI Editor :
    • Added the ability to edit the scale of node icons.
    • Improved layout of Box node plug creator visibility toggles.
    • Added code examples to button code placeholder text.
  • USD :
    • Added automatic render-time translation of UsdPreviewSurface shaders to Cycles.
    • Added automatic render-time translation of UsdPreviewSurface shaders to 3Delight.
  • USDLight :
    • Added Arnold-specific extension parameters.
    • Added parameter tooltips.
  • Viewer : Added diagnostic shading mode for visualising the values of the usd:purpose attribute as colours :
    • White : Default
    • Green : Render
    • Blue : Proxy
    • Red : Guide
  • Wireframe :
    • Improved performance ~3x.
    • Improved cancellation responsiveness.

Fixes

  • AnnotationsGadget : Fixed potential hang in annotationText() Python binding.
  • 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.
    • Fixed bug preventing UI metadata for Imagers from being loaded for Arnold 7.3.
    • Fixed rendering of ai:volume shaders loaded from USD (#5830).
    • Renamed Arnold/Globals/Imager menu option to Arnold/Globals/Imagers so that the actual ArnoldImager node menu option wasn’t overwritten.
    • Fixed rendering of VDB volumes without file_mem_bytes metadata.
  • ArrayPlug :
    • Fixed error when resize() removed plugs with input connections.
    • Fixed error when resize() was used on an output plug.
  • BackgroundTask : Fixed potential deadlock caused by destroying a BackgroundTask from Python while it was still running.
  • Catalogue :
    • Fixed undo for image reordering via drag & drop.
    • Fixed bugs caused by reordering images using GraphComponent::reorderChildren().
    • Fixed bug which allowed locked Catalogues to be edited.
    • Fixed NodeEditor update when the first image is added or the last image is removed.
  • CodeWidget :
    • Fixed bug that could prevent changes from being committed while the completion menu was visible.
    • Fixed errors handling highlights which spanned more than one line, such as triple-quoted strings in the PythonEditor.
    • Removed unwanted \n prefix in lines passed to Completers.
    • Prevented spurious emission of editingFinishedSignal() when showing the completions menu.
    • Prevented the completion menu from popping up inappropriately when the highlighter was changed.
  • Collect : Fixed display of results collected from TypedObjectPlug inputs.
  • ColorChooser : Fixed emission of colorChangedSignal() while the widget was in an inconsistent internal state.
  • ColorChooserPlugValueWidget : Fixed bug that allowed the editing of locked plugs and nodes.
  • ColorToVector : Fixed parameter types.
  • Constraint : The target browser now shows locations from the targetScene if it has an input connection. Before it always showed locations from the main input.
  • CreateViews : Fixed loading of files saved from Gaffer 1.5+.
  • Cryptomatte :
    • Fixed errors when the input image didn’t contain the main RGBA channels.
    • Fixed inaccurate hash.
  • 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.
    • Fixed bug preventing a background light from being added to a light group.
    • Fixed rendering to the Catalogue using the batch Render node (#5905). Note that rendering a mixture of Catalogue and file outputs is still not supported, and in this case any file outputs will be ignored.
  • DeepState : Fixed handling of NaN values and samples where ZBack is less than Z.
  • 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.
  • Dispatcher : The job directory is no longer created when dispatch is cancelled by a slot connected to preDispatchSignal().
  • Expression : setExpression() now respects configs that provide backwards compatibility for old plug names.
  • FlatImageProcessor : Fixed bug that could cause an input to be evaluated with an invalid image:viewName.
  • File Browser : Windows only : Fixed bug in HiddenFilePathFilter that caused sequences to be treated as though they are hidden files (#5810).
  • FormatPlug : Fixed potential hang in acquireDefaultFormatPlug() Python binding.
  • FramingConstraint : Fixed crash caused by attempts to constrain objects that were not cameras.
  • 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.
  • GafferTest, GafferImageTest : Fixed import of these modules if the Gaffer module had not been imported previously.
  • HierarchyView, LightEditor, PrimitiveInspector, SceneInspector : Fixed bug which allowed scenes from private plugs to be displayed.
  • ImageGadget : Fixed loading of non-8-bit images. Among other things, this fixes the display of 16 bit node icons in the GraphEditor.
  • ImageInspector : Fixed broken UI caused by double-clicking in the Image tab.
  • ImageReader :
    • Fixed crash caused by invalid OpenEXR multiView attributes.
    • Fixed array metadata loading bugs, including the loading of ICCProfile metadata.
  • ImageStats :
    • Fixed output of infinite values, which were previously being clamped.
    • Results for min/max now correctly reflect zero values outside the data window.
  • InteractiveRender :
    • Fixed crash triggered by a render adaptor depending on its renderer input to adapt the scene globals.
    • Removed unintentional ability for render adaptors to change the renderer being used.
  • LazyMethod : Fixed errors caused by running idle callbacks without a valid Qt Widget.
  • LightEditor : Fixed regression (introduced in 1.4.8.0) causing the mute and solo icons to not show up for groups.
  • LightEditor, RenderPassEditor : Added missing icon representing use of the CreateIfMissing tweak mode in the history window.
  • LightPositionTool :
    • Fixed bug that caused the target/pivot positions to be lost when placing a light with Z scale not equal to 1.0.
    • Fixed bug that allowed a non-light object to be moved by clicking or dragging the target or pivot.
  • Linux : Fixed crashes at startup on platforms - including RHEL 9.4 - with a more recent glibc (#5856).
  • LocalDispatcher :
    • Fixed delays and zombie processes caused by shutting down Gaffer while background jobs were running. Background jobs are now killed before Gaffer exits instead.
    • Stopped failed jobs jumping to the end of the Local Jobs UI.
    • Fixed message log update.
    • Fixed Job.statistics() errors on Windows, ensuring that a pid is always returned when available.
  • Loop : Fixed handling of empty indexVariable. This now disables the Loop instead of creating an unnamed context variable.
  • MultiLineTextWidget :
    • Fixed rendering of disabled widgets, which now show faded text.
    • Fixed behaviour of editingFinishedSignal() to match TextWidget : it is now also emitted when the text is activated (see activatedSignal()).
  • MultiLineStringMetadataWidget : The Ctrl+Return shortcut now updates the metadata value immediately.
  • NameSwitch : Fixed NodeEditor tab order, so that the Settings tab precedes the Advanced tab.
  • NameWidget : Fixed bug which allowed plugs on locked nodes to be renamed.
  • NodeAlgo : Fixed presets inheritance for promoted plugs with multiple outputs.
  • NodeEditor : Fixed broken layouts caused by computation errors in plugs used by section summaries.
  • NodeMenu, NodeEditor : userDefault metadata is now evaluated in the script context, so it can depend on script variables.
  • OpenColorIO : Fixed the display transform used to show colours in popups.
  • OptionQuery : Fixed bug which allowed the scene:path context variable to leak into the context used to evaluate the globals.
  • PathFilter : Fixed bug allowing dropping paths onto read-only PathFilter nodes in the graph.
  • PlugAlgo :
    • Updated canSetValueFromData(), setValueFromData() and getValueAsData() with support for missing types.
    • Fixed promotion of CompoundDataPlugs with non-dynamic children, such as the Camera.renderSettingOverrides plug.
  • PlugPopup : Fixed error when displaying a popup with no PlugValueWidget.
  • Premultiply : Fixed handling of non-existent alpha channel.
  • PrimitiveInspector : Fixed bug which claimed “Location does not exist” for objects without any primitive variables.
  • PythonCommand : Fixed loading of files saved from Gaffer 1.5+.
  • ResamplePrimitiveVariables : Fixed handling of periodic curves.
  • SceneReader :
    • Fixed crash reading facevarying normals skinned with UsdSkel.
    • Fixed loading of facevarying normals skinned with UsdSkel.
    • Stopped loading USD lightLinks and shadowLinks collections as sets.
    • USD asset paths on Windows now use / as the path separator, instead of \. Set IECOREUSD_FORCE_ASSET_PATH_FORWARD_SLASH=0 to keep the previous behaviour.
    • Fixed loading of animated ModelAPI extents from USD.
  • SceneAlgo : Fixed exception handling for Python render adaptors. Previously an exception during adaptor construction caused a SystemError.
  • SceneWriter :
    • Fixed crash when writing to a USD file that is already open elsewhere.
    • Fixed handling of ‘:’ characters in set names when writing to USD. These were previously converted to ’_’ but are now preserved.
    • Fixed writing of locations with names that are not valid USD identifiers.
    • Fixed handling of shader parameters not supported in USD, such as texture inputs to OpenGLShader.
    • Fixed import of treatAsPoint and treatAsLine parameters on UsdLux lights.
  • SceneInspector : Fixed “Show History” menu items.
  • SceneReader :
    • Fixed duplicate loading of arnold:* attributes on lights. These are now omitted, since they are converted to parameters on the light shader itself.
    • Fixed error loading USD Volumes with empty fields. These will now issue a warning and load as empty locations.
  • SceneReader, SceneWriter : Fixed handling of Arnold-specific parameters on UsdLux lights.
  • Shader : Fixed “Revert to Defaults” menu item in NodeEditor (#1862).
  • ShaderTweaks : Fixed potential crash if a ShaderTweakProxy was used to accidentally create a cyclic connection.
  • ShaderView : Fixed crash caused by a SceneCreator returning None.
  • ShowURL : Fixed opening of “file://” URLs on Windows (#5861).
  • Slider : Fixed bug where two undo steps were needed to get back to the original value when dragging.
  • Spreadsheet : Fixed “Sets”, “Operators” and “Select Affected Objects” popup menu items, which were broken in 1.4.5.0.
  • TaskNode / GafferCortex : Fixed missing GIL releases that caused hang at ImageEngine.
  • TransformTool : Fixed alignment of green “value changed” icon for orientation plugs.
  • TweakPlug : Fixed incorrect results and potential crashes in list modes.
  • UI : Fixed hangs caused by garbage collection of removed Editors. One common example involved viewing a Catalogue in the NodeEditor after removing the ImageInspector (#5877).
  • UIEditor : The Ctrl+Return shortcut now updates the button code immediately.
  • USD : Fixed Unsupported value type "StringData" for parameter "input" warning when converting UsdTransform2d shaders with no in connections to Arnold.
  • ValuePlug : Fixed the plug passed to Monitor::forceMonitoring(). Previously Process::destinationPlug() was being passed instead of Process::plug().
  • VectorDataWidget :
    • Fixed bug allowing dropping paths onto read-only widgets.
    • Fixed bug causing paths to display as “…” after the last visible “/” when the widget wasn’t wide enough to show the entire path.
  • Viewer :
    • Fixed handling of Gaffer ${contextVariable} references in OpenColorIO variable values. The Viewer now updates the Display Transform appropriately when the value of the context variable changes.
    • Fixed Cycles shader balls.
    • Fixed selection overlay glitches with an Arnold skydome_light and an empty selection.
    • Fixed drawing of custom mesh light texture visualisers (#6002).
  • Viewer, ImageGadget :
    • Fixed partial image updates when an unrelated InteractiveRender was running (#6043).
    • Fixed “colour tearing”, where updates to some image channels became visible before updates to others.
    • Fixed unnecessary texture updates when specific image tiles don’t change.
  • ViewportGadget : Fixed selection issues with Intel GPUs (#901, #2788).
  • 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.
  • WidgetAlgo : Fixed issue preventing grab() from capturing popup menus on Windows.
  • Windows :
    • Removed “Error(s) running Gaffer” shutdown message. It was misleading when errors originated in the renderer rather than Gaffer itself.
    • Fixed conflicts with other software installations on PATH. The PXR_USD_WINDOWS_DLL_PATH environment variable is now set to an empty string if it is not already set, preventing USD from adding all entries from PATH to Python’s DLL search paths.

API

  • ArnoldShaderUI : Added support for gaffer.nodeGadget.color RGB metadata in .mtd files, to specify per-shader colouring of nodes in the GraphEditor.
  • AnnotationsGadget : Added annotationText() method.
  • Box2fVectorDataPlug : Added new plug type for storing arrays of Box2f.
  • BoxPlug : Added Python bindings for ValueType, PointType and ChildType type aliases.
  • Catalogue : Deprecated image:index metadata.
  • Color3fPlug : Added setValue( V3f() ) overload.
  • ContactSheetCore : Added a new node to do provide the basis for networks that create contact sheets from multiple input images.
  • ContextAlgo : Deprecated. Use ScriptNodeAlgo instead.
  • ContextTracker : Added a new class that determines what contexts nodes are evaluated in relative to the focus node. This allows UI components to provide improved context-sensitive feedback to the user.
  • DeepPixelAccessor : Added utility class for accessing deep samples while abstracting away the underlying tile storage.
  • DocumentationAlgo : Added table and strikethrough support to markdownToHTML().
  • Editor : Added Settings class, which should be used to store settings for subclasses. See LightEditor and ImageInspector for examples.
  • 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.
  • ExtensionAlgo : Added exportNode() and exportNodeUI() functions.
  • GafferTractor : Added tractorAPI() method used for accessing the tractor.api.author module.
  • GafferTractorTest : Added tractorAPI() method which returns a mock API if Tractor is not available. This allows the GafferTractor module to be tested without Tractor being installed.
  • HierarchyView : Added sceneListing() method, to allow the context menu to be customised.
  • IconPathColumn :
    • Added constructor which allows the full header CellData to be specified.
    • Added prefix() and property() accessors.
  • Image : Added createSwatch() static method.
  • ImageGadget : Removed textureLoader() method.
  • ImageTestCase : in assertImageEqual function, maxDifference may now be a tuple, to specify an asymmetric range.
  • Label : Added textSelectable constructor argument.
  • 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.
  • LightEditor :
    • Added deregisterColumn() method for removing columns.
    • Added registerShaderParameter() method for registering parameters for shader attributes that are not the same as the rendererKey.
    • Added columnName parameter to registerParameter() method, matching the behaviour of RenderPassEditor.registerOption().
  • LocalDispatcher :
    • Added Job.status() and Job.statusChangedSignal() methods.
    • Added Job.messages() and Job.messagesChangedSignal() methods.
    • Added Job.frameRange(), Job.environmentCommand() and Job.startTime() methods.
    • Added Job.cpuUsage() and Job.memoryUsage() methods.
    • Added JobPool.addJob() and JobPool.removeJob() methods.
  • Loop :
    • Added previousIteration() method.
    • Added nextIterationContext() method.
  • Menu : Menu items with “checkBox” enabled now draw their checked indicator in place of their “icon” when both are defined.
  • MetadataWidget : Added NumericMetadataWidget class.
  • MultiLineTextWidget : Added setSelection() and getSelection() methods.
  • ParallelAlgo : Added canCallOnUIThread() function.
  • Pointer : Added fileName() method.
  • PathColumn :
    • Added CellData::sortValue member, to provide additional control over sorting in the PathListingWidget.
    • Added missing Python binding for headerData() method.
  • PathListingWidget : Added columnContextMenuSignal(), allowing multiple clients to collaborate on the creation of a column-specific context menu.
  • ParallelAlgoTest : Added UIThreadCallHandler.receive() method.
  • PlugAlgo : setValueFromData() and canSetValueFromData() now support conversion of arrays of length 1 to their equivalent scalar types.
  • 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.
  • PopupWindow : Added parent argument to popup() method. This allows popup windows to inherit the display transform from the main UI.
  • RenderPassEditor : Added deregisterColumn() method.
  • RenderPassWedge : Render adaptors may now be used to delete and/or disable render passes, by passing client = "RenderPassWedge" to SceneAlgo.registerRenderAdaptor().
  • RenderPassTypeAdaptor :
    • Added registration methods for defining render pass types and processors.
    • Added registerAutoTypeFunction() method to define a function used to automatically derive the render pass type from the render pass name when the renderPass:type option value is “auto”.
    • Added autoTypeFunction() method.
  • SceneAlgo : Added mechanism for scoping render adaptors to specific clients and/or renderers.
  • ScenePathPlugValueWidget : The scenePathPlugValueWidget:scene metadata now accepts a space-separated list of plugs, taking the first plug which has an input connection.
  • ScriptNodeAlgo : Added new namespace with functions for managing shared UI state for GafferSceneUI.
  • 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.
  • SetExpressionPlugValueWidget : Added new editor for set expressions, with syntax highlighting and auto-complete.
  • ShaderPlug : Added parameterSource() method returning the ValuePlug responsible for generating a parameter in a shader network.
  • ShaderUI : Added support for nodeGadget:color metadata registered against {shaderType}:{shaderName}, to specify per-shader colouring of nodes in the GraphEditor.
  • ShufflesPlug :
    • Added ignoreMissingSource argument to shuffle().
    • Added shuffleWithExtraSources() method.
  • ShufflePlugValueWidget : Widgets for the source and destination plugs can now be customised using standard plugValueWidget:type metadata.
  • StandardPathColumn :
    • Added constructor which allows the full header CellData to be specified.
    • Added missing Python binding for property() method.
  • TextWidget : Added selectedText() convenience method.
  • TextWidget, MultilineTextWidget :
    • Added setPlaceholderText() and getPlaceholderText() methods.
    • Added placeholderText constructor argument.
  • 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.
  • TypedObjectPlug : Added Python bindings for the default values of the defaultValue constructor argument.
  • USDShader : Added support for loading from the UsdSchemaRegistry as well as from the SdrRegistry. This is now used when loading UsdLuxLights.
  • VisibleSet : Added Python constructor with keyword arguments for expansions, inclusions and exclusions.
  • Widget : Added a 0.5 pixel offset to ButtonEvent.line objects passed to mouse event signals such as buttonPressSignal() and dragMoveSignal()
  • Window : Added preCloseSignal(), which allows connected slots to prevent a window from being closed.

Documentation

  • Windows : Documentation is now included in Windows release packages.
  • Updated with generic Render and InteractiveRender nodes in place of deprecated renderer-specific nodes.

Breaking Changes

  • Arnold : Removed support for Arnold 7.1.
  • Backdrop : Changed default drawing order. Use the new depth plug to override the order if necessary.
  • Cycles : Updated to version 4.0.2.
  • CyclesAttributes : Removed the cycles:dupliGenerated and cycles:dupliUV attributes.
  • CyclesOptions :
    • Changed hairShape default value to “ribbon”, to match Cycles’ and Blender’s own defaults.
    • 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 official Cycles feature.
    • Removed cryptomatteAccurate. This feature is no longer present in Cycles.
    • Removed cycles:integrator:sampling_pattern option. This is intended only for debugging, but is still available via a CustomOptions node.
  • 3Delight :
    • Changed default layer names for outputs.
    • Changed NSI scene description export with .nsi file extension from ASCII to binary (.nsia is used for ASCII now).
  • DelightOptions : Changed default values for oversampling and shadingSamples plugs.
  • Dispatcher :
    • Removed createMatching() method.
    • Removed non-const TaskBatch accessors frames() and preTasks().
    • Made TaskBatch constructors private.
    • The job directory is no longer available in slots connected to preDispatchSignal().
    • Removed nodes arguments from dispatch signals. Use the dispatcher["tasks"] plug instead.
    • Removed script and context arguments from frameRange() method. The current frame and full frame range are now queried from the current context.
  • DispatcherUI :
    • Removed appendMenuDefinitions(), appendNodeContextMenuDefinitions(), executeSelected() and repeatPrevious() functions.
    • Removed DispatcherWindow class.
  • Enums : Replaced IECore.Enum types with standard Python types from the enum module.
  • ImageProcessor : Internal connections to the out plug are no longer serialised.
  • ImageStatsUI : Removed postCreate().
  • InteractiveRenderTest : Subclasses must now return the shader output plug from creation methods such as _createConstantShader().
  • LocalDispatcher :
    • Removed JobPool.jobFailedSignal().
    • Removed JobPool.failedJobs() method. Failed jobs now remain in place in the main jobs() container.
    • Removed Job.failed() and Job.killed() methods. Use Job.status() instead.
    • Removed Job.execute() method. This should not have been public.
    • Removed Job.messageHandler() method. Use Job.messages() instead.
    • Removed Job.description() method.
    • Removed Job.statistics() method. Use Job.memoryUsage() and Job.cpuUsage() instead.
    • JobPool no longer derives from RunTimeTyped.
  • LocalDispatcherUI : Removed appendMenuDefinitions() function.
  • OpenColorIOContext : Removed configEnabledPlug(), configValuePlug(), workingSpaceEnabledPlug() and workingSpaceValuePlug() methods. Use the OptionalValuePlug child accessors instead.
  • OSLShader : Output parameters are now loaded onto the out plug for all types (surface, displacement etc), not just shader.
  • Pointer :
    • Removed Pointer( const ImagePrimitive * ) constructor.
    • Removed image() method.
  • Preferences : Removed cache plug.
  • Process : Removed non-const variant of the handleException() method.
  • Render : Changed render:includedPurposes default to "default", "render".
  • SceneProcessor : Subclasses no longer serialise internal connections to the out plug.
  • Shuffle :
    • Removed ChannelPlug type. Use Gaffer.ShufflePlug instead.
    • Renamed channels plug to shuffles plug, matching nodes such as ShuffleAttributes and ShufflePrimitiveVariables.
  • ShuffleUI : Removed nodeMenuCreateCommand().
  • StandardLightVisualiser : Added attributeName argument to surfaceTexture() virtual method.
  • StringPlug : Removed deprecated precomputedHash argument from getValue() method.
  • TaskNode :
    • The Task constructor no longer takes a copy of the context, so the context must not be modified after being passed.
    • Removed Task( taskNode, context ) constructor. Use Task( taskNode["task"], context ) instead.
  • USD : Removed Embree Hydra delegate.
  • ValuePlug : Removed deprecated getObjectValue() overload.
  • Windows launch script : Removed the hardcoded /debugexe switch used when GAFFER_DEBUG is enabled, making it possible to use debuggers other than Visual Studio. Debug switches can be added to the GAFFER_DEBUGGER environment variable instead.

Build

  • Cortex : Updated to version 10.5.9.5.
  • Cycles : Updated to version 4.0.2.
  • Embree : Updated to version 4.3.0.
  • Imath : Updated to version 3.1.9.
  • MaterialX : Updated to version 1.38.8.
  • LibWebP : Added version 1.3.2.
  • OpenEXR : Updated to version 3.1.13.
  • OpenImageIO : Updated to version 2.5.8.0.
  • OpenPGL : Updated to version 0.5.0.
  • OpenShadingLanguage : Updated to version 1.12.14.0.
  • OpenSubdiv : Updated to version 3.5.1.
  • OpenSSL : Removed.
  • OpenVDB : Updated to version 10.1.0.
  • PsUtil : Added version 5.9.6.
  • PySide : Updated to version 5.15.12.
  • Python : Updated to version 3.10.13.
  • Qt :
    • Updated to version 5.15.12.
    • Removed QtPurchasing library.
    • Removed QtNetworkAuth library.
  • USD :
    • Updated to version 23.11.
    • Added sdrOsl, for inclusion of OSL shaders in the Sdr Registry.
    • Fixed issue where gaffer wrapper may not exist when calling usdGenSchema from a clean build.
  • MacOS : Fixed issue where Python.framework may not be found when building with a prebuilt dependencies package.