Katana 3.2v5 Release Notes

Release Date

03 June 2020

Previous Releases

• Katana 3.2v4 Release Notes

System Requirements

Officially Supported Operating Systems

• Windows 7 64-bit or higher
• Linux 64-bit operating system (CentOS/RHEL 6)

Hardware Requirements

	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	Dual-core processor
Storage	1+ GB available for installation
System RAM	1+ GB available
Graphics RAM	1+ GB available	2+ GB available
Display	800 x 600	1920 x 1080
OpenGL	OpenGL 4.3+

'Recommended' does not guarantee that it meets your particular needs

Tested Workstation Hardware

The configurations listed below are those that Foundry have tested with Katana. Due to the constantly changing nature and wide variety of computer hardware available in the market, Foundry is unable to officially certify hardware. The list below can be used as a recommendation and does not guarantee that it meets your particular needs.

• NVIDIA Quadro M4000

• NVIDIA Quadro P4000

• NVIDIA Quadro K4000

• NVIDIA Quadro K6000

Please download and install the latest graphics driver from the NVIDIA website.

If you encounter any issues, please contact Customer Support directly through the Support Portal at the following address: https://support.foundry.com.

What's New in Katana 3.2

These release notes describe changes from Katana 3.2v4 to 3.2v5.

For a high-level overview of important changes in the Katana 3.2 line, please see the accompanying What's New in Katana 3.2 document.

Bug Fixes

API/SDK Changes

• TP 426880 - When setting values of parameters via NodegraphAPI scripting, multiple value policy events were generated instead of a single one, possibly leading to unnecessary updates of UI elements in response to value policy event handlers being called.

Command Line

• TP 430009 - When the Katana executable was launched from within the bin subdirectory, the program would fail to find all its dependencies, failing to launch.

Example Plug-ins

• TP 420569 - When bringing an Example Viewer tab back to the foreground, an exception was raised, preventing manipulators from being updated correctly. (This issue was a regression in Katana 3.1v1.)

Gaffer

• TP 426892 - When changing the value of a parameter of a light package of a GafferThree node whose parameters are edited in the Parameters tab, the shader type of the light in the Shader column wrongly changed color from yellow to dark gray. (This issue affected shaders for the Redshift and V-Ray render plug-ins only.)

Hydra Viewer

• TP 385305 - TP 393055 - When flushing caches while using a layout with a Viewer (Hydra) tab, or other Viewer API-based viewer tab, Katana crashed. This was due to a combination of synchronization and data validation issues.

  The BaseViewerTab class now flushes ViewerDelegate caches as part of a CacheManager flush callback, rather than in response to the posted event. BaseViewerTab now provides a flushCaches() class method. BaseViewerTab._on_cacheManager_flush() remains, but now does nothing in this base class implementation.

  Invalid data in the form of out-of-order location events is now handled by the Viewer API as an error.

• TP 425701 - When an uncooked location was set as the look-through camera in a viewer (e.g. the Viewer (Hydra) tab), and one of the location's ancestors was given a rotation transformation, manipulating the active camera's view (e.g. via panning, zooming, tumbling, or framing) would result in an erratic behavior.

• TP 426590 - When a location was selected programmatically, the manipulators in the Viewer (Hydra) tab could, on occasion, deselect all the other locations except the just-selected location.

LiveGroups

• TP 415990 - When re-publishing a LiveGroup node without changing the state, a benign warning was logged. (This issue was a regression in Katana 2.0.)

• TP 419652 - When converting an entered LiveGroup node to a Group node by choosing the Convert to Group command in the context menu of the LiveGroup node's node button, for example in the node path bar at the top of a Node Graph tab, Katana crashed. (This issue was a regression in Katana 3.1v1.)

Network Materials

• TP 422651 - When moving a Backdrop containing shading nodes in the NetworkMaterialCreate node graph, the shading nodes within the Backdrop could become disconnected from the rest of the network. (This issue was a regression in Katana 3.2v2.)

• TP 424322 - When setting the name parameter of a shading node in the NetworkMaterialCreate context to an empty value and then attempting to undo the action, an exception was raised, and the undo history cleared.

• TP 427018 - Shader parameters that were defined as enumerations by renderer plug-ins (kFnRendererObjectValueTypeEnum) did not show correct default values in the Parameters tab.

• TP 428361 - When ShadingNodeBase.checkDynamicParameters() was called after a node name change, it would occasionally fail to (re-)populate its dynamic parameters, due to the node name change not being yet reflected in the Op Args of the internal Ops in the Op chain of the node. (This was a long-standing issue in Katana that was exacerbated in Katana 3.2v1.)

Node Graph

• TP 427465 - When panning the view while dragging nodes in the Node Graph tab, the nodes were wrongly dropped. (This issue was a regression in Katana 3.2v1.)

• TP 430188 - When the deletion of a Macro node was undone, the node's shape attributes (e.g. background color) were not restored correctly. (This issue was a regression in Katana 3.2v1.)

Performance

• TP 425645 - The Scene Graph tab could cause previously expanded scene graph to be cooked prematurely.

• TP 435310 - Pasting or importing document node graph performed poorly in documents with many nodes whose synchronized node-name-driving parameter is an expression. (This issue was a regression in Katana 3.2v2.)

Python

• TP 413940 - When an exception was raised in a Python tab, Katana could potentially crash on shutdown due to exceptions's traceback objects not being fully freed. This issue also affected the ScriptButton class.

  Besides the potential crash, there were also some related memory leaks; cached traceback objects would prevent referenced objects from being collected by the garbage collector.

  Similarly, Katana's LogRecordHandler was also caching a reference to the exceptions' traceback object, also keeping potentially-large Python objects alive for longer than one would expect them to be.

  (These issues were a regression in Katana 3.1.)

• TP 426888 - When running Katana in script mode as a child process from within Katana, the KATANA_*_MODE variables set in the Configuration module, which indicate in which mode Katana was launched, were passed through to the child process without being modified, resulting in a Python exception being raised and the process being aborted. (This issue was a regression in Katana 3.1v1.)

Rendering

• TP 424374 - 2D renders of images with no alpha channel were displayed and processed as having zero opacity, rather than full opacity. This also affected images generated or processed with an explicit 1-filled alpha channel. (This issue was a regression in Katana 3.1v3.)

Scene Graph

• TP 416898 - When cooking DAPs, for example by calling InterfaceUtils.CookDaps() in an OpScript node, a provided attribute root was not respected by the OutputChannelDefine DAP, resulting in attributes such as widget hints being lost in certain circumstances, for example when used in GenericAssign-powered parameters on custom node types.

UI

• TP 112782 / BZ 49091 - When setting the value of a parameter using NodegraphAPI scripting, corresponding exposure triangles of ancestor group parameters in the Parameters tab did not properly update to show the right color (e.g. yellow for a locally set parameter value).

• TP 415305 - When choosing a menu command from the Util menu that was added via FarmAPI.AddFarmMenuOption(), the associated callback function was not called. (This issue was a regression in Katana 3.1v1.)

• TP 426413 - When a light location was selected in a viewer, and the parameters of the light were visible in a Parameters tab, the pointer's cursor would occasionally change to the I-beam cursor. (This issue was a regression in Katana 3.2v4.)

• TP 426569 - When setting up a TeleParameter to show the outputs parameter of a Render node in the parameter interface of a Group node (e.g. a custom SuperTool node), the list of render outputs in the Parameters tab was not always updated correctly.

• TP 435108 - When starting Katana for the first time, the application/macroSavePath preference was set to an incorrect value. (This issue was a regression in Katana 2.0v1.)

Known Issues

Hydra Viewer

• TP 431869 - When selecting a light or camera while the Center of Interest manipulator is selected, Katana stalls briefly before the manipulator's handles appear.

• TP 420882 - Changing between the Viewer (Hydra) tab's multipane layout options quickly can cause a crash or many error messages to be written to the terminal/console.

Live Groups

• TP 85118 / BZ 41152 - When editing parameters of a node that is part of a LiveGroup node and reloading the parent LiveGroup node, the UI state of the Parameters tab is reset. This includes scroll bar positions, selections of items, and selections of nested tabs (for example Object, Material and Linking tabs for a Gaffer node).

• TP 84998 / BZ 41092 - When reloading a LiveGroup node's parameter interface and contents from its source, parameters of child nodes that are edited in floating panes disappear from those panes.

• TP 84020 / BZ 40598 - Reverting a LiveGroup node does not revert its user parameters.

• TP 84019 / BZ 40599 - Parameters that are added to LiveGroup nodes are wrongly discarded when performing a reload from source, leading to loss of data.

• TP 84018 / BZ 40600 - Undoing a revert of an unpublished LiveGroup node does not restore the LiveGroup's editable and modified state.

• TP 83061 / BZ 40237 - Nodes can be dragged into the Group bubble of a non-editable LiveGroup node.

Materials

• TP 429206 - Parameter expressions when promoted from shading nodes in a NetworkMaterialCreate node are of a constant value, relative to the resolved expression at time of creation.

• TP 410474 - In a NetworkMaterialCreate context, shading nodes appear to shake during view state changes if the node's width is adjusted.

• TP 402064 - In a ShadingGroup node graph, the connection between a Dot node and a shading node port can be wrongly colored in some cases.

• TP 269449 - Choosing Edit Shader Parameters from the main wrench menu of Material nodes does not show wrench buttons next to shader parameters. This can be worked around by toggling the edit flag on the node.

• TP 199304 - The namespace parameter on Material nodes wrongly allows the insertion of Unicode codepoints outside the ASCII range.

• TP 191052 - Katana does not have any support for the texture reference object workflows of V-Ray for Maya.

Parameter Expressions

• TP 188533 - Expressions linked to non-local parameters on not previously edited Material nodes can't be evaluated.

• TP 105434 / BZ 47520 - Reference Expressions may not refer to dynamic parameters such as shader parameters.

• TP 60457 / BZ 31790 - Setting an array or group parameter to an expression results in an invalid expression. Upon setting a valid expression (for example, an evaluation of an equivalent parameter on another node using getParam), the parameter is not immediately updated. To workaround this issue, close and reopen the parameter, or flush caches while the node is not edited.

Qt 5

• TP 356345 - Partially covering the Hydra Viewport with a floating tab will cause it to repaint continuously.

Rendering

• TP 381284 - The 3Delight renderer plug-in makes use of source material locations rather than resolved material attributes as a means of de-duplication. This can result in material data being lost when excluding material locations from the Render Working Set during a Live Render session.

• TP 344118 - (Windows only) When installing Katana and opting to install the bundled version of 3Delight, the installation of 3Delight is made by modifying system-wide environment variables such as KATANA_RESOURCES. Thereafter, launching any version of Katana will pick up this installation of 3Delight, which may be incompatible with the version of Katana being launched.

  Note:  This does not affect Linux, where a bundled 3Delight installation is tied to its corresponding Katana installation.

• TP 208802 - Closing the Histogram tab after use leaves the Monitor tab unable to display rendered images.

• TP 176598 - Use of nodes that modify Graph State Variables in Interactive Render Filters is not currently supported.

• TP 114182 / BZ 49288 - When exporting a Catalog item you need to specify the export folder path to an existing folder. If the folder you're trying to export to does not exist on disk Katana will fail to export.

• TP 94052 / BZ 44199 - The Repeat Previous Render menu command only works on renders started from a 3D node's context menu.

• TP 74799 / BZ 36926 - The rendererSettings > displayOptions parameter of a RenderOutputDefine node for the PRMan renderer, shown when its type parameter is set to 'raw', cannot be set using the Parameters tab.

• TP 70016 / BZ 36137 - Rendering repeatedly with a large number of AOVs consumes more and more memory, possibly leading to a crash when running out of memory.

• TP 12517 / BZ 16168 - Only one Monitor tab may display the results of a Preview Render. The use of multiple Monitor tabs is not currently supported.

Widgets

• TP 373702 - Clicking in the Viewport and pressing a shortcut whilst the mouse is hovered in another widget will still send the event back to the 'focused' Viewport widget, for shortcuts where the widget hovered over does not handle the shortcut.

• TP 123558 / BZ 50911 - When changing an array parameter's tuple count/size, any corresponding attributes are not properly updated in the Attributes tab.

• TP 65347 / BZ 34949 - Using Compiz can lead to text fields not receiving focus events correctly due to an incompatibility between Compiz and Qt. Depending on your configuration, disabling Compiz "desktop effects" may resolve the problem.

Miscellaneous

• TP 381692 - (Windows only) When logging out and logging back in again, the colors in the UI are incorrect. For example, certain parts of certain types of tabs may appear with a white background color.

• TP 337653 - Katana logs deprecation warnings when loading the PyMockAsset, PyMultiMockAsset and PyMockFileSeq shipping example Asset API plug-ins.

• TP 218742 - (Windows only) Katana must be installed to a path no longer than ~140 characters. Attempting to install to a longer path results in an unintuitive error: "The system cannot find the path specified."

• TP 112544 / BZ 49051 - The Viewer tab may lose sync with the Scene Graph tab when changes to expansion state are interrupted.

• TP 107038 / BZ 47853 - Indication of attribute source nodes (such as the yellow 'glow' in the Node Graph tab) is unavailable as of Katana 2.0v1.

• TP 84326 / BZ 40709 - The Alembic library does not support multiple process or thread access to an Alembic file. This means that a crash occurs when modifying an Alembic file outside Katana, while it's loaded in an open Katana scene. To avoid this, you must Flush Caches before attempting to update any modified Alembic files.

• TP 80738 / BZ 39261 - Operations that lock and unlock nodes do not currently create entries in the Undo History, which can lead to an incorrect node graph state when undoing and redoing operations.

• TP 71965 / BZ 36691 - State badges are currently shown for attribute values of dynamic array child parameters, even though only their parent array parameter should appear with a state badge.

• TP 70217 / BZ 36176 - The 2D node Disk Render Upstream Render Outputs option does not use the batch render method, batchRender, for upstream render nodes, instead using diskRender.

• TP 70196 / BZ 36170 - Control keys (notably arrow keys) do not function as expected in shell mode.