Release date: November 4, 2021

Welcome to RenderMan for Blender 24.2!

RenderMan for Blender 24.2 brings some new functionality to artists, as well as several bug fixes. 

Blender Builds Supported

What's New:

• Add a new Volume Aggregates editor. For more information on volume aggregates, see the documentation 
  (https://rmanwiki.pixar.com/display/RFB24/Aggregate+Volumes+in+Blender)
• For PxrCamera projection, you can now select an object as tilt-shift focus object.
• Add a new UI for adding user attributes.
• Add a new preference that inverts the behavior of light linking. When enabled, only objects that are linked to a light will be illuminated.
• Added a new preference to control collapsing of nodes when node soloing is turned on.
• A new PackageScene operator has been added to the side N-panel. This will try to zip your scene and assets, so that it can be sent to support.
• Tangent and bitangents are now exported as primitive variables for meshes.
• Preset browser now has storage options for where assets such as textures for presets are saved.

Changes:

• Edits to ramps should now work with IPR. Using the "Force Refresh" button should no longer be required (requires your scene to be saved first).
• PxrDiffuse will be used as a fallback if we don't have a Bxdf node connected to the RenderMan output node.
• Clipping planes now work in IPR
• We now respond to render regions during IPR. The Crop Winodw operator will now also draw a render region if used.
• The CropWindow and Enhance/Zoom operators now also responds to the numpad enter key.
• Solo/Unsolo button is now available in the side N-panel.
• Connection and preset menus are now available in the side N-panel.
• Motion blur hair should now be working
• For particle emitters, we now use velocity as the basis for motion blur.
• Add a new button to revert to regular Blender view layers, when RenderMan displays were enabled.
• You can now change the default size of RenderMan shading nodes, using a JSON override file.
• We now have a separate micropolygonlength control for volumes.
• There's now a separate motion samples control for deformation motion blur.
• For OpenVDB, there are now new controls: Filter Width, Density Multiplier, Density Rolloff
• Ray number stats have been added to the live stats panel.
• There is now a preference to control the amount of stats that are printed in the live stats panel.
• Add a new clear unused textures button to the texture manager.

Bug Fixes:

• Fix issue with viewport rendering causing icons in the UI to corrupt.
• Fix issues with redrawing the stats panel causing flickering
• Fix a bug that cause importing of assets from the preset browser dropdown menu to fail
• When converting a Blender point light, take the scale into account
• Multiple fixes for node groups in shading networks.
• Fix issue where Depth of Field did not update correctly during IPR.
• Fix issue with displacement not working with per-face materials.
• Fix issue where OptiX denoiser was not working when RenderMan displays was used.
• Multiple fixes for the PxrOSL node.
• PxrToFloat3 and PxrToFloat nodes will be automatically inserted when connections between floats and float3 types are used.
• Fixed a bug that caused issues when importing presets with ramp nodes in them.
• Fixed issues with PxrPortalLight's not inheriting intensity and light color correctly from the connected dome light.
• Fixed multiple issues with linking to materials and objects from another Blender file, that included ramps
• Node soloing nodes that are within node groups should now work.
• Fix issue with viewport snapshot not working correctly when using the resolution multiplier
• Fix issue with zoom/enhance not working correctly when using the resolution multiplier