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This section guides you to the point where you have a default Katana workspace and are ready to start.
System Requirements
Before you do anything else, ensure that your system meets the following minimum requirements to run Katana effectively:
• Katana 8.0v1 is tested and qualified on Linux 64-bit operating system (Rocky Linux 9), and Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit).
• 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.
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NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000
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NVIDIA Quadro RTX A4000
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NVIDIA Quadro RTX A3000
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NVIDIA Quadro P4000
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.
• A supported renderer (see Renderers).
Note: Due to Python's handling of imports on case-insensitive platforms (see PEP 235), it is not possible to run Katana from a file system location on a network-attached storage device (NAS) that has been set up with mount options for case-insensitive names.
Third-Party Dependencies
Katana version 8.0v1 has dependencies on the following third-party libraries:
As part of this release, we have updated to VFX Reference Platform 2024. Some highlights of the specific versions are included below but for a complete list, please refer to the Developer Guide.
| VFX Reference Platform 2024 | Katana 8.0 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| GCC | 11.2.1 | 11.2.1 | |
| glibc | 2.28 | 2.28 | |
| Windows Toolset | Visual Studio 2022 | Visual Studio 2022 | |
| Windows SDK | 10.0.20348 | 10.0.22621 | |
| Python | 3.11.x | 3.11.7 | |
| Qt | 6.5.x | 6.5.3 (modified) | |
| PySide | 6.5.x | 6.5.3 | |
| OpenEXR | 3.2.x | 3.2.1 | |
| OpenSubdiv | 3.6.x | 3.6.0 | |
| Alembic | 1.8.x | 1.8.6 | |
| OpenColorIO | 2.3.x | 2.3.1 | |
| Boost | 1.82 | 1.82.0 | |
| Intel TBB | 2020 Update 3 | 2020 Update 3 | |
| OpenVDB | 11.x | 11.0.0 | |
| NumPy | 1.24.x | 1.24.x | |
Outside of the VFX Reference Platform, we have also updated to USD 24.05, in addition to moving to PySide.
These libraries are provided in the Katana distribution, in separate directories under ${KATANA_HOME}/bin
An ABI-compatible copy of these libraries needs to reside on your LD_LIBRARY_PATH in order for many of Katana's plug-ins to run. The Katana application itself uses RPATHs to locate the required libraries.
Note: Katana's wrapper script ${KATANA_HOME}/katana appends ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH} to ensure these libraries are visible to Katana plug-ins.
If you manage your own LD_LIBRARY_PATH or wish to expose these libraries to plug-ins by some other means, you can call the Katana binary directly using:
${KATANA_ROOT}/bin/katanaBin
