[HOU-2463, HOU-2465] Frame sequence issues

[david.anastacio]

Hi again,

Looks like frame sequence options in the image node are broken again. $F works, but end conditions and offsets don't.

Image sequence when it's inside the existing frame range:

Image sequence when it's outside the existing frame range, and end condition set to loop:

Image sequence uses $F, and in the sequence options we tried ON and OFF of the "Frame Sequence", with and without $F in the "Frame Number".
And all the options in the "Image File List" are not working.


Can we get a quick fix for this please.

We tested in:
V-Ray for Houdini number:9708 hash:60603f4 from 25 Nov 2020 05:01 (build number:9708 )
V-Ray Core 4.30.03 [262ab902] from 24 Nov 2020

and:
V-Ray for Houdini number:11604 hash:36f3030 from 08 Feb 2021 04:55 (build number:11604 )
V-Ray Core 4.30.03 [673eba1d] from 1 Feb 2021


Best,
David.

[Gosho.Genchev]

Hey David,

I want to inform you that we're looking into this - I'll ping you as soon as I know more.

Best regards!

[Gosho.Genchev]

Hey David,

Turns out that we'll have to implement this from scratch. The IFL options are specific to Autodesk: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...animated%20map.

We'd rather have a simpler solution. Andrei added an "Override Frame Number" option yesterday so we'll probably go with something along those lines:



I will message you once it is in the nightly builds.

Best regards!

[david.anastacio]

Hey,

Turns out that we'll have to implement this from scratch. The IFL options are specific to Autodesk:

IFD...yeah, kill it with fire.

We'd rather have a simpler solution. Andrei added an "Override Frame Number" option yesterday so we'll probably go with something along those lines:

Sounds good, so everyone keeps using $F on the file path as expected and as everyone is familiar in Houdini, and offset/loop/etc, using the new controls.

Best,
David.

[woytha]

Hey David,

Turns out that we'll have to implement this from scratch. The IFL options are specific to Autodesk: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...animated%20map.

We'd rather have a simpler solution. Andrei added an "Override Frame Number" option yesterday so we'll probably go with something along those lines:



I will message you once it is in the nightly builds.

Best regards!

Btw I just tried to render something on Vray Cloud with sequence of bitmpas in displacement and $F4 does not get through... Locally it works fine but Vray Cloud app gives me an error that it cannot find the file specified (and it reporst the name of file without frame number)

[Gosho.Genchev]

Hey woytha ,

Thank you for the heads up. I'll check right away.

Best regards!

[david.anastacio]

Hey David,

Turns out that we'll have to implement this from scratch. The IFL options are specific to Autodesk: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...animated%20map.

We'd rather have a simpler solution. Andrei added an "Override Frame Number" option yesterday so we'll probably go with something along those lines:



I will message you once it is in the nightly builds.

Best regards!

Hi again Gosho.Genchev,

I tested the current state of the new Frame sequence options and found some issues.

When using any option other than the "linear" mode the frame number is incorrectly evaluated. In Linear is correctly evaluates to 4 frame padding, but in Loop it only returns 2 Frame padding. (We always use frame ranges with at leas 4 frame padding and start usually the frame range at 1001)


When using Frame overrides my IPR goes into this strange loop. Refines for a couple of seconds then resets and starts refining again, and will keep going in this loop forever. If I disable the frame overrides it goes back to normal.



Also by using $F in the file name I always get the "Can't have channels which depend on time" warning.


Best,
David.

[Gosho.Genchev]

Hey David,

When using Frame overrides my IPR goes into this strange loop. Refines for a couple of seconds then resets and starts refining again, and will keep going in this loop forever. If I disable the frame overrides it goes back to normal.

We know about this - it's the reason I haven't messaged here yet. I'm waiting for one of the devs to figure out what's causing this.

Also by using $F in the file name I always get the "Can't have channels which depend on time" warning.

The warning is coming from Houdini itself. Drop a Null, add an Image File parameter and give it the same path - you should get the same warning.
This should not give you any issues but I understand it might be confusing/annoying to deal with - we could work around this warning by wrapping the Image File VOP into an HDA, or possibly by setting some UI tag on the parameter's definition.

When using any option other than the "linear" mode the frame number is incorrectly evaluated. In Linear is correctly evaluates to 4 frame padding, but in Loop it only returns 2 Frame padding. (We always use frame ranges with at leas 4 frame padding and start usually the frame range at 1001)

Could you please change the Start/Offset/Lenght a bit to make sure the set up is correct? Initially I wanted to not even have an "Offset" option but that meant using the Time slider's Start/End as anchor points for the sequence when in Loop/Ping-Pong/Hold. Thus changing the range of the timeline would mess things up. Now, the Offset is assumed 0 and used as the anchor. Hopefully that makes sense somehow ...
Anyway, why not use $F4 if the issue is the frame padding ? The "Evaluated To" result is simply a call to hou.parm(#File).evalAsStringAtFrame(#current_frame )

Best regards!

[david.anastacio]

Hi Gosho.Genchev thanks for the reply,

We know about this - it's the reason I haven't messaged here yet. I'm waiting for one of the devs to figure out what's causing this.

Great, thanks.

The warning is coming from Houdini itself. Drop a Null, add an Image File parameter and give it the same path - you should get the same warning.
This should not give you any issues but I understand it might be confusing/annoying to deal with - we could work around this warning by wrapping the Image File VOP into an HDA, or possibly by setting some UI tag on the parameter's definition.

I mentioned this because I have almost every artists here ask me about that warning, and I saw that it was still coming up with in the "image" node. But you're right, no issues whatsoever with it, but good to have confirmation there is no problem, thanks.

Could you please change the Start/Offset/Lenght a bit to make sure the set up is correct? Initially I wanted to not even have an "Offset" option but that meant using the Time slider's Start/End as anchor points for the sequence when in Loop/Ping-Pong/Hold. Thus changing the range of the timeline would mess things up. Now, the Offset is assumed 0 and used as the anchor. Hopefully that makes sense somehow ...
Anyway, why not use $F4 if the issue is the frame padding ? The "Evaluated To" result is simply a call to hou.parm(#File).evalAsStringAtFrame(#current_frame )

I tried adding now the $F4 , it added the missing 2 zeros, but this is a solution yes but not great as everything else always works with $F and even in linear it works with $F so it won't even cross people's minds do check it with $F4. Plus to make it work I need to change my start frame to 1001, when in Linear it had to be 0.
In the other modes it always resolves to starting the sequence from 0 and in my case the sequences starts at 1001.

Additionally the "Length" parameter might cause issues, as it forces us to always specify the length of the sequence. Example, I make an HDA where a plate is loaded, and that plate will have different lengths in each shot, now in addition to specify the plate path I also need to specify the length, and if the plate length is adjusted/modified by editorial I need to go to the shot manually and correct it. The "Length" parameter should not exist, should always take the texture range and in case you really need it then it should be an option and it should be off by default.

Also the start frame should not be 1, should be 0, 1 introduces a 1 frame offset.

And finally, the start frame currently is not working great, in Linear I need to set it to 0 although my frame range starts at 1001. It there is a Start frame defined then my frame range should start at that Start frame in all modes (Linear, loop, ping-pong and Hold) no matter what the first frame in the texture sequence is (1, 100 or 1000 all should be offset to start at the "Start").
If I didn't have that "Evaluated To" would be really hard to line up a plate when changing to loop, ping-pong or hold to the right frame.

Best,
David.

[frame48]

Hello, Are there any updates on this issue? We are facing the same problem using Houdini 18.0.597

[Gosho.Genchev]

Hey david.anastacio and frame48 ,
We're preparing an update to the script that handles the looping, it should be coming to the nightlies by the end of the week.

Best regards!