Contact Support

Release Notes for Mari 4.0v3

 

Release Date

02 March 2018

System Requirements

Note:  Mari increases its level of performance with newer, more advanced hardware configurations. However, Mari is tested and capable of operating on many older, prior-generation systems. For this reason we are listing minimum requirements, which are recommended, and on which tests have been performed. Your particular needs may vary from that of other users.

Supported Operating Systems

• Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or higher

• Windows 7 64-bit or higher

• Linux 64-bit operating system (CentOS/RHEL 6)

Minimum Hardware Requirements

• Quad-core processor

• 10+GB disk space available for caching and temporary files

• At least 4GB RAM

• Display with 1680 x 1050 pixel resolution

• An NVIDIA or AMD* graphics card with the latest drivers

• 1GB of graphics memory

• OpenGL 3.2* or higher

*Displacement preview is currently only available on the cards and drivers that support OpenGL 4.0 or newer.

Recommended System Requirements

• 2.5+Ghz Quad-core processor

• 250+GB disk space available for caching and temporary files. SSD is preferable.

• 16GB RAM with additional virtual memory*

• Display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution

• An NVIDIA or AMD* graphics card with the latest drivers

• 2+GB of graphics memory

• OpenGL 4.4 or higher support

*The use of virtual memory improves stability and helps prevent data loss on large projects.

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

Tested Workstation Hardware

The configurations listed below are those that Foundry have tested with (Undefined variable: Mari_ReleaseNotes.Product). 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.

Please download and install the latest graphics driver from the NVIDIA or AMD websites, and ensure that you are using 8.982.1 drivers or higher for AMD cards.

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

Tested Workstation Hardware
Apple	• MacPro4,1 • MacPro6,1 • iMac13,2 • MacBookPro9,1 • MacBookPro10,1
HP	• HP Z600 • HP Z620 • HP Z640 • HP ZBook Studio G3

Tested GPU Hardware
NVIDIA Prosumer Graphics Cards	• NVIDIA Titan X
NVIDIA Enterprise Graphics Cards	• NVIDIA Quadro 4000 • NVIDIA Quadro M1000M • NVIDIA Quadro P4000 • NVIDIA Quadro P5000

New Features

There are no new features in this release.

Feature Enhancements

There are no feature enhancements in this release.

Bug Fixes

• BUG ID 328280 - With the Paint Through tool activated, panning, scaling, and rotating an image using a Wacom tablet did not work.

• BUG ID 335105 - Windows 10 only: Mari sometimes crashed at start-up.

Known Issues and Workarounds

Mari Tools

• BUG ID 13640 - The Blur tool can be slow to use on the initial stroke.

Wait for Mari to process the blur before applying a second stroke.

• BUG ID 13394 - Using the Select Items tool with the Facing set to Front to select and hide a portion of faces causes some of the faces within the selection to remain visible when zoomed in.

To catch all selected faces, either:

• select Facing > Through instead of Front, or

• zoom in closer to the object.

Shaders

• BUG ID 34729 - Mari displays a rendering error on the canvas when it is unable to create a shader. More information has been included to help you determine the cause of the error. Some solutions might be to hide groups and layers, or to cache parts of your layer stack until a shader can be created.

• BUG ID 34679 - On extremely large projects, issues can arise with shader limits, and reaching the maximum allowed texture slots available. To avoid reaching these shader limits on large projects, try the following workarounds:

• hide groups and layers, or

• cache groups and layers.

Layers

• BUG ID 34690 - Flattening or caching layers or channels on complex projects may cause Windows to reset the graphics driver due to the long processing time. To work around this issue, you can try to flatten or cache fewer layers at a time, or reduce the value of the Max Render Size For Baking setting. This setting can be found under Preferences > GPU > Baking and Projection.

Reducing this size breaks the flattening or caching operation up into smaller pieces, which individually take less time to calculate, and thereby avoids a Windows graphics driver reset.

• BUG ID 26460 - Painting a mask in a Mask Layer Group sometimes results in unexpected paint results. To prevent this from happening, either:

• Use a white “color” layer at the bottom of your mask stack. Any layer used over this initial “color” layer should then be fine, or

• If you want to create a mask in a Mask Layer Group, simply add another layer on your Mask Layer Group instead, and paint white into it to create a mask.

Importing and Exporting

• BUG ID 50886 - Session Scripts: Imported shaders don't have channels assigned.

• BUG ID 49131 - High polygon .obj files, exported using the OBJ Exporter plug-in, cannot be read back in to (Undefined variable: Mari_ReleaseNotes.Product).

• BUG ID 29386 - When using the Export for Maya script, Maya’s viewport may incorrectly show some patches as transparent. This can be resolved by selecting High Quality Rendering or Viewport 2.0 from the Renderer menu within Maya.

• BUG ID 16324 - Windows only: You cannot currently import an image into a channel using a relative file path. To work around this, use an absolute path when importing images.

• BUG ID 14985 - There may be a slight pause after importing textures when creating new projects, while Mari saves the project.

Nuke<>Mari Bridge

• BUG ID 23010 - Nuke<>Mari Bridge: If Mari crashes when receiving incoming components from Nuke when the Virtual Texture Type is set to Float, lower the Virtual Texture Size to a value below 8192x8192.

• BUG ID 19780 - Nuke<>Mari Bridge: A projector created in Ortho view in Mari does not re-project correctly in Nuke.

Ptex

• BUG ID 17626 - It can take a long time to import very large or very high polygon count Ptex models.

The workaround is to assign a small uniform face size (1x1 or 2x2) on import, and then increase the resolution of the relevant bits of the model as necessary after loading.

• BUG ID 17618 - Ptex does not bake properly if the resolution of the face is too small.

The workaround is to increase the resolution of the selected faces you are having problems with.

Graphics Cards

• BUG ID 217864 - Mac OS X only: AMD D500 and D700 graphics cards, found on modern Mac Pro's, are physically limited to 16 Texture Mapping Units, which can block operations such as multiple procedural layers.

• BUG ID 207913 - Mari may crash, or operate with lower than expected performance, when using recent graphics drivers with some AMD cards.

There have been reports that Plays.tv and Raptr, which come bundled with the AMD FirePro drivers, can cause instability in Mari. If you are experiencing instability, please try uninstalling these applications.

• BUG ID 18457 - Using NVIDIA graphics cards from the Fermi series with drivers older than version 270 results in various rendering issues when the Virtual Texture Type is set to Half or Float.

To resolve this, please download and install the latest graphics driver for your card from the NVIDIA website.

• BUG ID 12567 - Enabling Sync to VBlank in NVIDIA settings can drastically reduce Mari’s performance. If you experience very slow interaction, even with low-polygon models, on one of the Tested Workstation Hardware, navigate to:

• Linux: NVIDIA X Server Settings > X Screen 0 > OpenGL Settings and turn off Sync to VBlank.

• Windows: NVIDIA Control Panel > 3D Settings > Manage 3DSettings > Vertical Sync > Force off

Then, restart Mari.

Node Graph

• BUG ID 168753 - AIStandard nodes created in (Undefined variable: Mari_ReleaseNotes.Product)3.0v1 are not compatible with (Undefined variable: Mari_ReleaseNotes.Product) 3.0v2, or later.
As a workaround, remove the old AIStandard nodes and recreate them in (Undefined variable: Mari_ReleaseNotes.Product) 3.0v2, or later.

• BUG ID 126902 - In No Port List mode (top-to-bottom navigation), creating a shader and attempting to view it in the Node Graph palette gives the impression that the DiffuseColor input pipe is missing from the shader node. The input is present, but is incorrectly hidden. (Bugzilla ID: 51462)

• BUG ID 51452 - When importing a gizmo, the nodes in the gizmo do not retain their organization if they were created using the item name in the menu.

• BUG ID 51263 - It is not currently possible to attach the Viewer node to standard (Undefined variable: Mari_ReleaseNotes.Product) shaders, because they are hidden.
As a workaround, select the channel you want to view in your Channels palette and click the Current Channel option in your Shaders palette.

• BUG ID 51247 - Channel transfer doesn't transfer Graph Layers as expected.

• BUG ID 51082 - The Ambient Occlusion node's properties don't include a generate AO option.

• BUG ID 48790 - Autoplace does not respect Backdrop nodes.

Miscellaneous

• BUG ID 200836 - Scrolling in the Tool Properties palette makes the scratch pad go blank.

• BUG ID 167883/51934 - When a project that contains a Tiled procedural is upgraded from 2.6 to 3.0, the frame rate drops drastically.
To avoid this, replace the image in the Tiled procedural once the project has been upgraded.

• BUG ID 129292/51771 - Removing, changing, or hiding subdivided objects takes a long time.

• BUG ID 99115/46223 - The Sponge Desaturate mode does not work through the full dynamic range as it uses HSL for desaturation. HSL cannot be used with HDR because HSL works well only in LDR values.

• BUG ID 51370 - Heavier projects are initially slower to render when colorspace is enabled.

• BUG ID 51322 - Modo Render: The preview occasionally fails to update fully.

• BUG ID 51273 - Mac OS X 10.10 and above: Rendering is occasionally incorrect when using multiple lights.

• BUG ID 51199 - The AiStandard, RedshiftArchitectural, and VRayMtl shaders are not connected to the Current Channel automatically.

• BUG ID 51185 - PythonAPI: (Undefined variable: Mari_ReleaseNotes.Product)'s Paint node does not appear in typeList().

To add a Paint node Pythonically, call:

ng = mari.geo.current().nodeGraph()

ng.createPaintNode(width, height, bitDepth)

• BUG ID 51084 - Animated objects can take a long time to subdivide.

• BUG ID 50548 - Modo Render: Only camera moves are respected by live update.

• BUG ID 50520 - Although faces with degenerate UVs can be loaded into Mari, they can cause issues in some cases. They do not occupy any space in UV, so it's impossible to properly paint on such faces. There is also the risk that some shaders may show undesirable lighting effects on faces with degenerate UVs.

• BUG ID 50149 - Texture transfer does not take object transformation into account.

• BUG ID 50898 - Existing subdivision calculations are lost when recalculating, even if recalculation fails.

• BUG ID 47180 - Mac OS X 10.10 and above: Resizing palettes is restricted to a certain width or height per drag action.

• BUG ID 46600 - Ambient Occlusion must be updated after any OpenSubdiv calculation.

• BUG ID 43020 - Mac OS X with retina screens only: When a hidden menu is unfurled over the canvas, the canvas zooms in dramatically.

• BUG ID 41573 - Windows 8 only: The Windows key (Meta key) does not disengage when used in conjunction with a Wacom pen.

To successfully disengage, you need to press the Windows key again over the desktop, which rectifies the problem.

• BUG ID 37140 - Mac OS X only: By default, when you first install Mac OS 10.8 or higher, the security preferences are set so that any applications not downloaded from the Apple App Store can’t be installed.
To ensure that Mari installs correctly, navigate to System Preferences > Security & Privacy on your Mac and select Anywhere for the Allow applications download from field.

• BUG ID 33293 - Linux: Launching Mari with the language set to one without certain character symbols resulted in Mari failing with an error that the specified transform could not be loaded.

To work around this, set the locale (language) to English.

• BUG ID 31946 - Sometimes paint is not baked because of memory management issues on the graphics card. This can be due to issues such as a high resolution paint buffer, a high bit-depth paint buffer, large virtual texture size, or even a large scale value on the paint buffer transform. These issues can usually be identified by glError: 0x505 out of memory messages in the log.

Try reducing any or all of these values to prevent it happening. Graphics drivers are continually improving, so it’s also worth checking whether upgrading your drivers resolves the problem.

• BUG ID 308268 - Windows only: When working on multiple monitors, palettes sometimes cannot be docked.
As a workaround, you can change your default monitor. To do this, open the Windows Display Properties, select your secondary monitor and enable the Make this my main display checkbox.

• BUG ID 20510 - If you find that the startup time for Mari is longer than usual, please check that the LIC files in your RLM licensing data folder do not refer to obsolete server ports. If they do, place them in another directory and restart Mari.

• BUG ID 20021 - Textures in the canvas intermittently switch between lower and higher resolutions.

This issue is more likely to occur if your virtual texture resolution is low, and you're working on a complex model with displacement. Possible workarounds include increasing your virtual texture size, reducing the number of channels Mari has to access at once (for example, by reducing the number of channels required for the current shader), to reduce the patch resolution of patches in the channels used in the shader, or to use a smaller canvas window or monitor.

• BUG ID 14201 - Linux only: Mari becomes unresponsive after the system is woken from sleep.

• BUG ID 13700 - Adjusting the Camera > Perspective settings for a Projector is not reflected on the canvas until the Projector is made Current.

• BUG ID 13571 - Launching a new version of Mari for the first time, when a config file exists from a previous version, sometimes results in an object not appearing in the Ortho view.

To solve this, close Mari, delete the following config file and relaunch Mari:

• Linux: ~/.config/TheFoundry/Mari.conf

• Windows: C:/Users/<login>/.mari/TheFoundry/Mari.ini

• BUG ID 13294 - Windows: Mari sometimes crashes when trying to load data on large projects due to the program exhausting all window manager objects.

To reconfigure the user object limit:

• Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\NT\CurrentVersion\Windows, and

• Edit USERProcessHandleQuota to a larger number.

If this number gets too large, you may also have to modify GDIProcessHandleQuota.

• BUG ID 12102 - Current brush settings do not get saved as part of the project. Instead, Mari reverts to the default settings when you close and relaunch it.

• BUG ID 11874 - Mari doesn’t recognize 3-digit padded .obj sequences as animation.

Developer Notes

These are the changes relevant to developers.

New Features

There are no new feature in this release.

Feature Enhancements

There are no feature enhancements in this release.

Bug Fixes

There are no bug fixes in this release.