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v0.11.0​

  • Major baking workflow revamp on 3ds Max:
    • Baking is now performed in relation to the original meshes with minimal changes.
    • As a result, several texture/baking issues related to transforms have been solved.
  • Refactored/revamped RapidPBR internal Material system.
  • Initial support for several new types of materials:
    • VRaySkinMtl, VRayALSurfaceMtl
    • VRayHairMtl: no support for VRayHairMtl as a submaterial of any kind (e.g., of MultiMaterials, Blend/VRayBlendMtl, etc).
    • VRayStochasticFlakesMtl, VRayFlakesMtl, VRayFlakesMtl2: currently only supported as Coat materials of a VRayBlendMtl, no support for Clearcoat glTF extension yet.
    • VRayCarPaintMtl, VRayCarPaintMtl2: no support for Clearcoat glTF extension yet.
    • Shell Materials, replaced by their Rendering material.
    • VRaySwitchMtl, replaced by the Material set by their index parameter.
  • The treatment of the standard 3ds Max Blend Material has been updated:
    • Fixes issues with Refraction textures.
  • Direct support of MultiMaterials has been added (WIP):
    • MultiMaterials with only simple materials are now exported directly.
    • MultiMaterials with any simple or complex materials are baked down to a single atlas.
    • The new treatment is tied to the changes in the baking workflow, as the previous Detachment procedure is no longer supported.
    • This procedure will still undergo further changes and we expect it to improve overtime.
  • Geometry instances are now preserved in the output glTF file:
    • In addition, only one instance of each node is taken into account when unwrapping/baking.
    • This change results in severely improved quality and execution time when baking a high number of geometry instances in a single atlas.
  • Automatic Backdrop Detection/Removal (WIP):
    • A new procedure to detect backdrops automatically by their bounding boxes has been added.
    • Note that the Backdrop Removal feature:
      • Only supports scenes with one backdrop;
      • Ignores nodes with complex materials;
      • Is still in development, may still undergo further changes.
  • The VRayDisplacementModifier baking has been revamped:
    • Baking the modifier into Bump should now produce more accurate results.
    • When Baking the modifier into geometry, the result is now processed with RapidCompact for removal of excessive polygons.
    • Displacement baking now processes one geometry at a time, resulting in a faster, more stable and memory efficient process.
    • The edge length is now fixed at 4.0 (pixels or world units).
  • The treatment of Falloff nodes has been updated:
    • When the Front (1st slot) Color/Texmap is black, the Side (2nd slot) Color/Texmap is ignored.
    • Otherwise, defaults to the previously used 80%/20% mix.
  • Revamped Material Translation related to Metalness & IOR treatment.
  • The progress of the current rendering is now logged:
    • The progress reported includes an estimate of time needed to complete the current rendering, if the information is available (omitted otherwise).
    • Example: 50% [Rendering done in: 0:00:12 (est.)]
    • NOTE: The time remaining is an estimate based on the progress reported by the renderer, and is only for reference. Actual times may vary.
  • Adjusts thickness factor calculation for the glTF Volumetric Extension.
  • Improves support of VRayBitmap texmap nodes for simple materials.
  • Support for 3ds Max version 2022 has been deprecated.
    • Minimum supported 3ds Max version is now 2023.
  • Support for Python versions 3.7 and 3.8 has been deprecated.
    • Minimum supported Python version is now 3.9.
  • The recommended RapidCompact version is now v6.6.0 and up.
  • The installation procedure has been updated:
    • The installation will not proceed with unsupported Python or 3ds Max versions.
    • The 'ensurepip' step of the installation procedure no longer produces Python bytecode.
  • The 3ds Max system settings for RapidPBR are now isolated from the rest of the system.
  • Fixes issues related to Material IDs not being kept during the complex materials baking procedure.
  • Fixes issues related to UV preservation when using OpenSubDiv modifiers.
  • Fixes issues related to Particle objects removal.
  • Fixes issue related to Compact Material Editor cleanup.
  • Improved Baking Elements validation step.
  • TextPlus objects with no material are now ignored during scene preprocessing.
  • Fixes issues related to system Keyboard Interrupts and zombie subprocesses.
  • Known Issues:
    • Submaterials of complex MultiMaterials with non-bakeable parameters, such as Fog Color (usually translated into glTF's Attenuation Color), might have visual issues. A fix is under investigation.
    • Use of References and Instances together, in the same nodes, is currently not supported and might result in issues, depending on the Modifier configuration of the references.

For more information, see the reference documentation for RapidPipeline DCC Importer.

v0.10.8​

  • The system stability when loading files and resetting scenes has been improved:
    • Several issues related to legacy components in scenes from older 3ds Max versions have been addressed.
  • Adjusts Validation features messages:
    • Python packages are now only printed during validation mode (--verifyInstallation) or upon verification failures.
  • Unified RapidPBR logs:
    • All 3ds Max and VRay log messages of severity Warning or higher are now printed to the main RapidPBR log.
    • Selected messages of severity Info or Debug are also printed to the main log file.
    • As a result, separate log files for the DCC and Renderer are no longer saved.
  • Scene statistics are now printed at the end of every scene executed:
    • Shows the number of scenes completed, skipped or with errors, up to that point.
  • The sub-object selection is now cleared during scene preprocessing.
  • Revamps file copy operation.
  • Revamps log tailing operation.
  • Improves node triangulation error check.
  • Certain image-related operations have been revamped for memory efficiency.
  • Automatic 3ds Max and RapidCompact path detection now prioritizes the newest possible version.
  • VRay License checks are now only performed when starting 3ds Max for the first time, or upon rendering failures.
  • Scene-specific log files now only start after the scene-skip check.
  • When exporting FBX files, the FBX SDK version is forced as version FBX202000.
  • Fixes issues with subprocess execution.
  • Fixes issues with Asset Retargetting.
  • Fixes log tailing issues related to encoding.
  • Fixes issues with AABB size calculation.
  • Fixes issues with Real World Scale detection.
  • Fixes issues with Color and Texmap functions on 3ds Max.
  • Fixes issues with VRayDisplacementModifier baking:
    • UVs are now transferred from the original object.
    • Disabled modifiers are now ignored.
    • Baked node transforms are reset after baking.
  • Fixes issues with Hair & Fur modifier baking:
    • Disabled modifiers are now ignored.
    • Hair node transforms are reset after baking.
  • Fixes issues related to mesh conversion from Deformable gPoly and other legacy geometry classes.
  • Python dependency changes:
    • The blend_modes Python dependency has been removed.
    • The watchdog Python dependency has been removed.
    • The pandas Python dependency has been removed.
    • Package versions of several Python dependencies have been updated.

For more information, see the reference documentation for RapidPipeline DCC Importer.

v0.10.7​

  • Revamps and homogenizes file operations:
    • A stricter logging, error check and treatment has been added.
  • Revamps VRay License Check:
    • New checks are now performed when errors happen during baking, as well as on scene load.
  • Adjusts error treatment when baking doesn't finish successfully.

For more information, see the reference documentation for RapidPipeline DCC Importer.

v0.10.6​

  • Fixes issues with Benchmark reimport process.
  • Benchmark entries for DCC execution time and full scene execution time are now included in the sceneInfo.json file.

For more information, see the reference documentation for RapidPipeline DCC Importer.

v0.10.5​

  • Scene files in output folders are now ignored during input file scan operations:
    • This is, effectively, only relevant if your output folder is contained in the input folder.
    • We recommend that the input and output folder are completely separate, one not including the other or vice versa.
  • Most subprocesses started by RapidPBR now have timeout error checks accordingly.
  • Fixes an exception during scene batch verification if the verification file is incomplete.
  • Revamps error checking for long paths during several file scanning operations.
  • Revamps error checking for invalid paths on Max system related function calls.
  • Fixes issues with encoding on JSon file I/O.
  • Fixes issues with encoding on glTF file I/O.

For more information, see the reference documentation for RapidPipeline DCC Importer.

v0.10.4​

  • Revamps RapidPBR return code treatment:
    • If any given scene processed by RapidPBR results in an error/didn't finish successfully, RapidPBR will now produce a return code of 1.
    • RapidPBR will, now, only return 0 if all scenes that have been found are finished processed correctly.
  • A VRay license check is now performed during the validation procedure of RapidPBR.
  • Revamps error checking during 3D model conversion with RapidCompact.

For more information, see the reference documentation for RapidPipeline DCC Importer.

v0.10.3​

  • Introduces retry of failed scenes, if the status in the status tracking field of the sceneInfo.json file is not RPDP_FINISHED.

For more information, see the reference documentation for RapidPipeline DCC Importer.

v0.10.2​

  • A RapidPBR status tracking feature has been added:
    • The status of a given scene is now tracked in the sceneInfo.json file.
    • In the event of errors, description about the issue may also be included.
    • The new status field of the sceneInfo is used by the application to ensure workflow consistency.
  • The geometry node attachment procedure has been revamped:
    • The performance of this specific method has been drastically increased for scenes in the order of thousands of nodes.
  • Error checking during scene file gathering has been revamped.
  • Fixed issue with transforms during Hair & Fur conversion.
  • Breaking changes:
    • The flag --skipExistent has been removed: scenes will now always be skipped if the output is encountered:
      • The presence of the new status field, with any status value, in the sceneInfo.json, indicates that some sort of output is present in the scene.
    • The flag --timestampLog has been removed: log messages will now always have a timestamp.
    • The flag --quick has been removed:
      • The previous default quality settings will always be in effect now.
      • To render quick tests, use a lower resolution parameter instead.
  • A new flag (--forceMaterialBaking) to force simple materials to be baked has been added.

For more information, see the reference documentation for RapidPipeline DCC Importer.

v0.10.1​

  • The Asset Retargetting feature has been revamped:
    • The Material Editor is now reset during retargetting, removing unused assets from scene;
    • Input folders are now scanned for missing assets, in certain situations.
  • Instances are now converted to unique objects during scene preprocessing.
  • The base color calculation has been adjusted.
  • Fixes issues with DCC-server connection:
    • Revamps connection checks.
  • Improves error and exception logging.
  • Fixes encoding issues with process logging.
  • Fixes issues with "useRoughness" property in VRayMtl materials used in VRayBlendMtl materials.
  • Improves non-geometric nodes deletion.
  • Fixes issues with 3ds Max command line argument case sensitiveness.
  • Fixes error checking during scene load and merging.
  • Fixes issue with baking with mismatching material ID.
  • Fixes error with missing output options for 3ds Max bitmaps for simple materials.

For more information, see the reference documentation for RapidPipeline DCC Importer.

v0.10.0​

  • Adjusts Basecolor translation.
  • Improves IOR To Metalness workflow.
  • Adds full support to VRayBumpMtl:
    • Extra Bump Map is now taken into account.
  • Adds support for VRayMtl Multipliers in simple materials.
  • Adds support to 3ds Max Bitmap Parameters for simple materials.
  • Adjusts quality presets:
    • Quality setting is now a boolean flag, -q or --quality.
    • When no flag is provided, the default quality settings will be used.
    • When the flag is provided, the results will be noisier but faster to process.
    • The flag might have further internal (quality, parameter) changes but no further changes to the flag usage are planned at this point.
  • Fixes normal map inversion in simple materials.
  • Fixes glTF validation issues.
  • Fixes issue with asset paths in the glTF Reimporter.
  • Fixes issue with process interruption.
  • Adjusts RapidPBR to make use of new Path classes:
    • This fixes issues with certain file names, as well as adds additional error checks.
  • Adjusts DCC-system wide functions.
  • Fixes issues with empty group heads.
  • Improves error checking, inside and outside the DCC.
  • Adds initial support for scene metadata.
  • Bone nodes are now removed during scene preprocessing.
  • Fixes issues with VRayLightMtl translation:
    • Emission is now also used as Diffuse.
    • Takes opacity into account properly.
  • Adjusts triangulation procedure.
  • Improves stability of installation script.
  • Upon a crash during the glTF reimport, temporary/incomplete files will be deleted for consistency.
  • Missing Texmaps are now ignored in the material classification.
  • Fixes temp files race condition when using verification mode flag.
  • Adjusts USDZ scale:
    • For compatibility with Omniverse, files will be exported in centimeters.
    • This change requires usage of RapidCompact v6.4.3.

For more information, see the reference documentation for RapidPipeline DCC Importer.