Release Notes for Katana 2.5v4

Release Date

14 October 2016

Previous Releases

System Requirements

Qualified Operating Systems

  • Windows 7 64-bit
  • Linux CentOS/RHEL 6

Hardware Requirements

  • A graphics card which supports OpenGL shader model 4.0

Feature Enhancements

  • TP 62067 / BZ 32984 - It is now possible to specify the icon to use for any scene graph location type, including the use of custom icons.

    Icons must be registered for scene graph location types by calling the newly added UI4.Util.ScenegraphIconManager.SetIconForLocationTypes() function as part of a 'UIPlugins' script (or any other script called during start-up). Icon files of the form "[iconType][size].png" are sourced directly from the "Icons/Scenegraph" subdirectory of Katana Resource directories, and currently must be provided with size 16 pixels, e.g. "group16.png".

    Below is an example for illustration:

    [ResourceDir]/Icons/Scenegraph/myIcon16.png
[ResourceDir]/UIPlugins/RegisterMyIcon.py

    RegisterMyIcon.py:

    from Katana import UI4
import UI4.Util.ScenegraphIconManager

UI4.Util.ScenegraphIconManager.SetIconForLocationTypes('myIcon', ['myLocationTypeA', 'myLocationTypeB'])

  • TP 230675 - The indentation of scene graph locations in the Scene Graph tab and in the table of objects of edited GafferThree nodes now scales with the application font size preference. As part of this, disclosure triangles for scene graph locations that contain children are scaled as well.

    Scene graph locations in the Scene Graph tab and in the table of objects of edited GafferThree nodes are now shown with alternating background colors.

Bug Fixes

  • TP 66331 / BZ 35346 - When defining arbitrary geometry attributes following the geometry.arbitrary.<groupAttrName>.<attrName> convention, warnings are printed to the render log if the number of values in a geometry.arbitrary.<groupAttrName>.value or geometry.arbitrary.<groupAttrName>.index attribute does not match the required number of values. The text of those warnings has been rewritten to be more helpful.

  • TP 200305 - Windows: .katana files are now associated with the KATANA application.

  • TP 226464 - Specifying the dynamic array parameter 'tupleGroupSize' in an args file resulted in errors and its value was ignored.

  • TP 230656 - Certain CEL statements that contained more than one recursive pattern (e.g. //pony, //*) could incorrectly match locations.

  • TP 231341 - Windows: Cmd.exe AutoRun Commands are no longer run when Katana launches subprocesses. These are commands specified by a batch file whose path is given by the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun registry key.

  • TP 231920 - Looking through a live light location with a single local scaling xform during a live render updated its scale incorrectly.

  • TP 232119 - When pressing the . (dot) key with the pointer over the Node Graph tab, two Dot nodes were created.

    When pressing the . (dot) key with the pointer over a tab other than the Node Graph tab, an exception was raised.

  • TP 232376 - The FnGeolibCookInterfaceUtils::resolveFileNamesWithinGroup() function was not thread-safe, and could trigger incorrect results or crashes if called on multiple threads.

  • TP 232503 - When reloading LiveGroup nodes from their respective sources, additional array parameter entries were wrongly discarded, and removed array parameter entries were wrongly restored.

  • TP 232524 - Katana would hang when resizing scene graph columns beyond their individual width constraints.

  • TP 232619 - When deleting items from MaterialStack, InteractiveRenderFilters, or PonyStack nodes, exceptions were raised.

  • TP 233197 - ScenegraphXML channel data was not read if the 'ref'/'basepath' attribute was given as an empty string.

  • TP 233266 - File system errors encountered while traversing KATANA_RESOURCE directories could prevent unaffected GenericAssign resources from being loaded and cause failures when cooking DAPs.

  • TP 233796 - No profiling information was written when using the --force-profile command-line argument in batch mode.

  • TP 234065 - The ScenegraphXml_In node type did not load attribute files declared in ScenegraphXML files.

    NOTE: ScenegraphXml now uses the 'AttributeFile_In' Op, rather than the 'AttributeFile' Attribute Modifier, meaning the respective Attribute File intermediate attributes (those existing prior to resolution) have changed.

  • TP 234516 - Node Graph tab '.' keyboard shortcuts interfered with the 'Cancel Render' keyboard shortcut ('Ctrl+.').

Known Issues

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

  • TP 207623 - When entering a single number only in a Backdrop node, that number is not preserved when saving a Katana project or when copying and pasting that 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 work-flows of V-Ray for Maya.

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

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

  • 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 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 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 not yet implemented in Katana 2.

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

  • 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 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 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.

  • 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 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.

    For a workaround, the UpdatePrmanSettingNodes shelf script can be used. The script, available in the PRMan17 shelf, creates an AttributeScript node that converts display options, set using string attributes, to group attributes.

  • 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 71954 / BZ 36663 - It is not currently possible to sort notifications in the Notifications popup window.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • TP 65242 / BZ 34870 - Katana doesn't support render output directory creation for shadow, merge and script output types.

  • 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.

  • TP 56545 / BZ 28549 - Main menu commands that create nodes, notably File > Import..., File > Import LiveGroup..., and Help > I want a pony, do not create the nodes in a Group or LiveGroup node that has been entered in a Node Graph tab, instead they create the nodes in the root level of the node graph document.

  • 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.

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