Difficulties using vrayproxy with Maya references and saving ASCII files

[mojofutbol]

We are using vray for Maya 1.5 core build 1.80.01.
When we create vray proxies (with automatically create proxies checked off), and import the proxies back in, there are two nodes associated with the mesh:
proxy_vraymesh (node type VRayMesh)
proxy_vraymeshmtl (node type unknown)

We manually hook the shaders into vraymesh node, and connections go to both the vraymesh and vraymeshmtl nodes. Our problem is that we like to keep our pipeline with Maya ASCII files and are unable to save the files as ASCII files because the proxy_vraymeshmtl node is classified as 'unknown'.

We prefer to use ASCII files because we can always go into them to make fixes to files paths, or other manual fixes, and would like to know how we can change the node classification of the proxy_vraymeshmtl.

Running the following command on the vraymeshmtl node:

nodeType -api COMMON_PARTS_proxy_vraymeshmtl;

returns:
kUnknown

running the same command on vraymesh node returns:

kPluginDependNode

I'm wondering if there's a way to set the node type of this node so that we are able to maintain an ASCII based pipeline.

The other thing that makes working with these two nodes in a reference, is that once this mesh gets referenced into another scene, it's impossible to change assigned shaders to the the vrayproxy through the UI. Through scripting it's possible if you know which shader you want to swap out, but for artists that don't know MEL it's difficult to make it work.

These are issues that may have been addressed in later builds, but if not would be great to see them come into the upcoming builds.

Best regards,
Ivan Guerrero

[vladimir.nedev]

It looks like you're using different builds on different machines. I introduced the VRayMeshMaterial node somewhere back in October 2009 after the official build. The COMMON_PARTS_proxy_vraymeshmtl should be a VRayMeshMaterial node. You're probably loading (and then saving) a scene with a proxy created with a newer build, on a Maya installation with an older build ( the official one for example). Since the older build doesn't have a VRayMeshMaterial node registered, Maya lists is as "Unknown". Updating both builds to a newer one should fix the problem.

With the VRayMeshMaterial (i.e. newer builds) you don't need to make any connections to the VRayMesh node itself. The UI in the VRayMesh will say something like "Please use the assigned VRayMeshMaterial to change the proxy materials". You can either assign a new VRayMeshMaterial ( and make sure its filename points to the same filename as the VRayMesh itself) or change the materials assigned to the VRayMeshMaterial. I think Maya's reference system should allow this.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev