(Resolved) render usd files directly

[ronald_a]

Is it possible to render a usd files that was created in solaris directly in vray? when trying to create a vrscene via usd render, it appears that all the stage (including the data from usd files on disk) gets witten into the vrscene file.

[Gosho.Genchev]

Hey ronald_a ,

If you're asking about rendering with the vray executable - the answer is yes but support is limited at the moment.

You best bet for batch rendering USD files for the time being would be to go with the Hydra delegate, through husk.exe (located under "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.455\bin\husk.exe")

You will need both Houdini and V-Ray set up on the farm for this to work. If Houdini licenses are a consideration - Husk doesn't checkout a license: https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/7...=1#post-350057

Hope that helps!

[ronald_a]

Thank you for the info (especially about husk not checking out licenses).


Out of interest and maybe to spark some kind of discussion: what would be the plan in the future to render out of Solaris on a farm? Ideally (at least for us) we would like to stick to handing over a file to vray standalone (either the final usd or a vrscene that references to usd(s)) and not involve anything else using a deadline lop.

[Gosho.Genchev]

Hey ronald_a ,

In the long run, the plan is for both the V-Ray Hydra delegate (the 'stuff' running in Solaris), and V-Ray Standalone (the vray executable) to be useable for final rendering of USD files.
At the moment, the Hydra delegate is a bit ahead in development - more V-Ray features are supported so if you want to render a scene coming out of Solaris, you should use that.
V-Ray Standalone rendering currently has support for meshes, materials and lights, with hair, particles, etc coming in the very near future.

If you'd like to use the Hydra delegate, you can either:
- use it with Husk (which requires a Houdini installation)
- use it with our pre-compiled USD builds (currently not publically available, we plan to start shipping those in the near future). Those builds will be the equivalent of having a V-Ray Standalone installation but instead of calling vray.exe, you'd call the usdRecord executable: https://graphics.pixar.com/usd/relea...html#usdrecord This will not require a Houdini installaion.

Hope that helps!

[ronald_a]

Excellent info. We are just tipping our toes into Solaris because right now we feel the advantages of using it do not yet outweigh its flaws (at least for our usecases).