(done,open )[HOU-2059][HOU-2105] Render Environment Parameter doesn't work with Reference Path Expression

[andreyluccahannes]

We need to make the environment parameter work with a relative reference path to another node. We had the same issue to work for the camera parameter a while back. Here is the link to that post

https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/...rting-vrscenes

[bdancer]

Hip file may be helpful since I don't entirely get which param doesn't work...

[andreyluccahannes]

I hope the Image makes it clear which parameter I am talking about

[chakarov]

Hi andreyluccahannes , I can't reproduce the issue. I've tried with a numbered env network and changing a switch works. Also tried with named env network and changing "ordered menu" parm also works. I'll need a hip file, it could contain only your "switch" node and env networks, just to check your setup. Which Houdini and V-Ray build you are using?

[andreyluccahannes]

Hi andreyluccahannes , I can't reproduce the issue. I've tried with a numbered env network and changing a switch works. Also tried with named env network and changing "ordered menu" parm also works. I'll need a hip file, it could contain only your "switch" node and env networks, just to check your setup. Which Houdini and V-Ray build you are using?

Hello chakarov I looked at your scene file and you were right it works that way. I then went back and did some further testing on our scene and found out that it just doesn't work with the "$F" expression. I implemented the issue in your scene which is provided below.

changingEnvNetworks_bug.zip

For us it is really important that it is working with the expression because we are currently working on a project in which we heavily rely heavily on the "$F" expression.

Greetings Lucca

[chakarov]

OK, I'll take a look at your setup.

[chakarov]

I've reproduced and reported the problem. Thanks for the feedback!

[chakarov]

Hi andreyluccahannes the issue is fixed in last nightly build.

[Jon3D]

Hi,

We have again the problem that the environment parameter is not working with a relative reference expression.

It works with ipr and in the scene like it should you can check it if you move the time slider. After creating the vrscenes and render, it just uses some env node but not the one it should.
It seems like it renders the first changes correct but when it changes to an environment it was rendering before it renders wrong.

Example scene is attached.

It would be nice to have this fixed very fast if possible since this is slowing us down heavily on a recent project. Thank you very much!!

[chakarov]

Hi Jon3D , I've reproduced and reported the problem.

[bdancer]

You can't do this in V-Ray: SettingsEnvironment plugin (as all the other render settings plugins) is not animated so you can't set different plugin at different frames.
This will work if you'll export to separate files though.

[Jon3D]

You can't do this in V-Ray: SettingsEnvironment plugin (as all the other render settings plugins) is not animated so you can't set different plugin at different frames.
This will work if you'll export to separate files though.

What do you mean by that? Different vrscenes? This is what we are doing. We save all Frames as different vrscenes and render them one by one. Cant Vray change the settings in the env parameter before exporting the vrscene?
It works if I manually submit all my thousands of frames but If submit a frame range it seems it just does not update the paramter?

kind regards
Jon

[bdancer]

> but If submit a frame range it seems it just does not update the paramter?

I guess for frame range a single vrscene is created and this won't work when exporting to a single vrscene...

I'll check if there is a way to make those plugin parameters animatable thus be possible to write to a single vrscene file...

[Jon3D]

Hey Andrei,

Thank you for your answer.

> but If submit a frame range it seems it just does not update the paramter?

I guess for frame range a single vrscene is created and this won't work when exporting to a single vrscene...

I'll check if there is a way to make those plugin parameters animatable thus be possible to write to a single vrscene file...

Just in case we missunderstand each other. When we export our vrscenes for rendering lets say Frame 1-4000:
We save 4000 single individual vrscenes. A lot of parameters are changing per frame (objects, lights, materials, camera perspective....) its not 4000 frames with the same scene setup. Its 4000 individual images. We just save them with a running frame number to submit them easily manually in deadline for vray standalone. So I dont try to render a frame range out of one vrscene with animated environment plugin. I try to render a bunch of individual vrscenes with different scene configurations among other things the changing values for the environment. It works if I save them manually frame per frame but we do have too much images to do it that way.

In the test scene that I provided you can see it renders frame 1-30 as frame range but saves 30 individual vrscenes. If you export this vrscenes with frame range and submit them to vray standalone they will render wrong. If you submit them one by one manually they will render correct. If you scrub through the timeline while rendering with ipr you can see the environment is changing per frame without problems. It just ignors the configuration if you export the vray scenes per frame range.

Besides that I was not even aware of that I can render sequences out of one vrscene file which is very interesting but is not an option in our current render scene I think.

kind regards
Jon

[bdancer]

All I'm saying is that parameters on SettingsEnvironment plugin are not animated and there is no easy way to make this work for single file vrscene export.
chakarov will check why exporting to per-frame vrscene files doesn't work...