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This release of RenderMan for Houdini (RfH) 23, includes a number of new features and bug fixes that address feedback.

New Features in 23.6

Fixes

• fixed Fixed a bug when that was setting the Icon wrong icon path during args parsing.

• Fix Fixed file dependency path for RfH RenderMan TOP nodes.
• Light groups now work in light path expressions (no light selects) in Solaris.

• fix bug where renderman parameters were Fixed a bug where RenderMan parameters were being ignored inside locked HDAs.

• removing Removed single quotes in conditionalvis conditional visibility string in RfH. only double quotes or none are valid.

• Fixed incorrect math calculating velocity transform blur scale.

• Fixed channel references for domelight are not working with relative paths on the first frame rendering via hbatch. could be a complicated houdini bug, but can easily work around by getting the full path before setting the references. 

• Fixed a crash in hdPrman that could occur when running in the usdview that ships with Solaris if the camera was not created with Solaris and lacked certain attributes that we support for Solaris cameras.Fix incorrect screenwindow incorrect screen window calculation when pixelaspect=2

• fixes to Fixed incorrect types for bokeh settings (incorrect types)

• fixes to curve motion blur in /obj and /lops

• . 

• Fixed fixing transform calculations for obj_ blend , obj_bone
• Fixed a bug where vdb files with a first field not named density wouldn't render.
• and bone obj nodes and added support for subnet's outputobj parameter.
• Fixed fix bug that did not read time correctly to expand $F in string paths.
• Fixed a bug that caused some incorrect sample times when more than 3 samples for deforming motion blur in SolarisCurves with a basis that requires duplicating endpoints (we do this so the curve appears to extend to the endpoints) bug where curves with certain bases would look wrong when motion blur was enabled and "width" was defined, because the primvars at endpoints were ending up being duplicated twice.. 
• In Solaris - 
  • Fixed a bug where hdPrman would always specify the first field of a vdb file as the density field.
  • Fixed a backdoor workflow where display and sample filters are allowed to come through Hydra as shading nodes.
  • Fixed
   Fixed
  • the "Render to MPlay" and "Render to Disk in Background" buttons on the RenderMan LOP.
• Fixed a backdoor workflow where display and sample filters are allowed to come through hydra as shading nodes.
• Fixed a bug where hdPrman would always specify the first field of a vdb file as the density field.

Miscellaneous

• • Light groups now work in light path expressions (no light selects).
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when running in the usdview that ships with Houdini if the camera was not created with Solaris and lacked certain attributes that we support for Solaris cameras.
  • Fixed a bug that caused some incorrect sample times when using more than 3 samples for deforming motion blur.

Miscellaneous

• Added support for pre- and post- render hooks via RFHhooks.

• Brought back PxrDebugShadingContext VOP/
• Improved motion blur support for in Solaris:

• add support for pre and post render hooks via RFHhooks

• bringing back PxrDebugShadingContext hda
•  Improved motion blur support for hdPrman in Solaris

  • Motion blur for meshes, curves, and point particles is now supported through a shared codepath.

  • There is On Render Geometry Settings node there's now a Motion Blur tab under the RenderMan Master Attributes on Render Geometry Settings node.

  • Velocity blur and enabling/disabling motion blur for objects is now supported through the Render Geometry Settings node.

  • Enabling/disabling motion blur works for transforms and geometry.

• Other changes in Solaris:

  • The camera now tumbles around the mouse cursor when rendering in Solaris.
  • Added baking options to the RenderMan LOP under the Rendering/Render tab.
  • The RenderMan render is now paused when the user switches to the GL renderer.
  • RenderMan's Xcpt messages now go to stderr.  They were sometimes getting lost in Solaris.

• Removed remove xform_motionsamples and geo_motionsamples from the RenderMan tab (geo and cam) because these are not RenderMan-only parameters and are were affecting mantra Mantra renders. Now you must manually add if you want to set these parameters on the object.

• emitting all renderman geometry primvars to alembics because RfH doesn't know what type is inside the packed alembic so we need to cover all bases.

• read Added support for shop_materialpath in alembic attributes. add bundle to rop , but the material must be included in the RenderMan scene for the procedural to apply the material. Added a bundle parameter on the RenderMan ROP to force material export.

• Added back support for the Pause/Resume callbacks in hdprman
• improved Improved viewport lighting.
• read Read abcvelocityscale attribute to scale alembic velocity.
• Added baking options to the RenderMan LOP under the Rendering/Render tab
• promoted parameters can have different names now
• add acceleration blur support
• RfSolaris: The camera should now tumble around the mouse cursor when rendering with RenderMan in the viewport
• For hdPrman now just print xcpt messages rather than routing into TF_STATUS, etc.  because depending on the host app those may just get lost.