History, RPManagerLite R7+R6+R5 _____________________________________________________ 3.223 _FEATURES Support for OpenEXR output control with splutterfish's latest version, 1.0.1 _____________________________________________________ 3.22 _FEATURES Added 'Enable split' for commandline backburner renders. Hooking into the built in Scene States is available for 3dsmax 7.5 - this is via the Visibility Sets RC menu, you can have a Visibility set, Layer, Layer Set and now Scene State assigned. Use the 'Auto Capture Scene State...' option in this RC menu to have the scene states auto synched with your edits. Holding Alt while clicking the 'Duplicate Pass' button will duplicate visibility sets too, auto renaming them. Added a 'Duplicate Visibility Set' option to the vis sets RC menu. Copy and Paste common setup added to main pass name RC menu. Added the ability to color code passes in the main pass list. Job dependencies option added to backburner commandline submission. _TWEAKS Backburner can sometimes fail to return existing pass names, so if a pass fails to submit a second attempt is made with a unique string attached to the pass name to avoid failures due to BB reporting. The 'Rename Set Based On Pass Name' now checks to see if a set of that name already exists. Added a 'Layer Vis Controlled By Head Only' to the RPM preferencs. When you are using layers or layer sets to control visibility this toggles between the existing behavior where the individual objects are still hidden/unhidden, to just controlling the layer hidden/unhidden state. The not hiding/unhiding nulls/cameras/lights doesn't work with this mode. Holding Alt when selecting passes suppresses camera viewport restore. Selected passes now shown as BOLD, depending on the windows setup just highlighted can be hard to see. _____________________________________________________ 3.2195 _FEATURES OpenEXR support (per pass ouput parameters setup) with 0.9.6 or later of splutterfish's MaxOpenExr plugin. Note that extra channels are not yet supported - ie zbuffer etc., but until a compositing application can make use of these there is probably non point: this will likely be amended in the future. _TWEAKS Output format was not being set when using the non-auto-generated Auto Paths option: not sure why I set it up this way, but I've now changed it so the format parameters set when auto building the path is used. _BUG FIXES With Auto Gen Path on submit on RPM was not restoring the specified output format settings correctly. Inspect output paths/formats was not reporting the output settings correctly when using Auto Path Generation on submit. Inspect output paths/formats was not editing the output paths correctly when using Auto Path Generation on submit. Output format was not being set correcly when using Auto Path Generation on submit to set the output properties. _____________________________________________________ 3.216 _BUG FIXES Callback error fixed. _____________________________________________________ 3.215 _BUG FIXES Submitting to commandline backburner could error if the manager port value has been manually entered. _____________________________________________________ 3.212 _FEATURES Auto path generation on submit now can have the path and the output type disconnected separately - use the 'Local' checkboxes, one for path and one for output type, to toggle whether this setting is global or local to the pass. When previewing, hold the Control key when clicking the preview button to skip restoring the camera view (so preview whatever viewport is active.) When previewing, hold the Shift key when clicking the preview button to skip restoring the Visibility sets. Can be combined with the control override. Save/Load custom output setup for user defined paths enabled once again (main and render element) in the > menus of the Output Setup dialog New Visibility Per Pass Feature - Layer Sets. You can create sets of layers, and all the layers in a set contribute to object visibility for a pass. Create Layer Sets from the VisibilitySets menu, and assign from the Visibility Columns RC menu (the 'Assign a Layer Set...' submenu.). Assigned layersets are prefixed with "LS:" in the visibility set column. Added warnings about the state of the render-time visibility sets active to the Render Alerts. The Visibility Sets Active (Viewport) setting in the global viewport preferences is now disconnected from the 'Restore render Params (Always for Render) checkbox so you can have just visibility sets (and camera assigned) restored when selecting passes, without render parameters (faster, if visibility assignment is all you want to check) _BUG FIXES Uninstaller will now remove the RPManagerLite menu and quad items if detected. Environment Background Maps mapping modes should no longer revert to Screen on pass restore/add/put. Editing renderer parameters with restore params off no longer errors if current renderer not the same as the passes. Submission warnings for pass suspended was not checking the global submission status. Leftover RPM preview override objects are now automatically deleted from scene when submitting to cater for errors on preview leaving junk behind. Another fix for link UI time to pass range overwriting the range of the pass when holding/saving, and also with multiple passes selected and submitting/auto generating paths. Turned of all link UI timerange edit synching if more than one pass is selected and render range type is 3. Backburner: New scenes now use the same network manager that was used on the last job with RPM. Closing 3dsmax while RPM was docked could give a virtual function call error (didn't do any harm). Selecting multiple passes with Vray motion blur geometry samples different for two or more passes would error if viewing the Renderers rollout. The open quemonitor button in the backburner network rollout should now work again - same for the one in the submission complete dialog. Submitting via commandline with no servers selected will no longer error when it tries to report the problem. Cancelling a preview of multiple passes could end up with the preview progress dialog still visible after the preview was complete. Restoring visibility sets was always generating undo entries, rather than respecting the setting controlling this in the global preferences. The alerts for output size has been updated to cater for the new(ish) global output size controls. Using the 'select' button when the camera list is showing indeterminate no longer errors. The ignore helpers for visibility sets active checkbox was not being restored when the global viewport parameters was expanded. _TWEAKS Clicking a checkbox no longer triggers a pass change nor changes what passes are selected in the pass list. You can set the default for the Shot Prefix field: editing the RenderPassManager.ini file, add to the [Defaults] section: PrefixDefault=. Do not use quotes, ie PrefixDefault=#scenename_ , or PrefixDefault=RPMShot When the render submission feedback dialog fills up, it auto scrolls to accommodate new feedback entries. Added 'hold escape to cancel' to the preview/local render progress dialog. _____________________________________________________ 3.14 _FEATURES Save/Load custom output setup for user defined paths enabled in the > menus of the Output Setup dialog _BUG FIXES Closing 3dsmax while RPM was docked could give a virtual function call error (didn't do any harm). Selecting multiple passes with Vray motion blur geometry samples different for two or more passes would error if viewing the Renderers rollout. _____________________________________________________ 3.13 _FEATURES 3.13+ now supports R6 and R5 Enhanced Brazil/Rio preview override support to allows setting the sampling rate to specified values rather than just the 'disable' AA which would set it to 0/0. Final Render multipass editing parameters extended, for final render Stage 1 SP2 only. Pre-SP2 not supported due to the extent of the changes. Note any parameters that do NOT appear in the RPM FR rollout are *still editable/restorable on a pass-by-pass basis*: edit the parameters required in the main 3dsmax render dialog, a single restored pass at a time (this applies to all renderers with RPM). New Visibility Set Membership Inspector/Editor added (Vis Sets Menu), inspect and edit object membership in a table interface. _TWEAKS Optimised the speed and display of the 'Renderpassanager render alerts' messages display. _BUG FIXES Rendering Locally from a passes RC menu could error. _____________________________________________________ 3.12 _BUG FIXES Cancelling an RPM preview using escape could leave the preview indicator (red line top/bottom) object in scene. _____________________________________________________ 3.11 _BUG FIXES RPManagerLite installer updated: Uninstall now removes installed RPManager Menus and Quadmenus (oops) on next startup of 3dsmax. Error checking added to paths picked when writing external compositing files (for combustion/AE) _____________________________________________________ 3.1 Combustion .cws files can now be saved from the Quick Compositor - using the 'External' buttons RC menu - or from the Output menu. This respects layering order, transfer mode, blending but not prepass of the quick compositor setup. Passes set to 'Ignore' have their visibility off in the resulting Combustion workspace. Useful just to get all passes into combustion quickly even if you do not setup the composite in RPManager. Mental Ray support much enhanced with the ability to modify many parameters on multiple passes at once using the Renderers rollout in RPM. Initial FinalRender Stage-1 (cebas) support - preview overrides are now available for finalrenderS1. Overrides include AA, GI, DOF, SSS, MTD, Mapping,MotionBlur,Blurry Relections among others. Updated Backburner support - you can now override the Render Frame timeout (which defaults to 50 minutes - it kills a frame rendering if it takes longer than 50 minutes). Also the Load Timeout and Unload timeout, as well as overriding the Enable Task blocking and whether the VFB is displayed during rendering. This relies on a new submission system that will need to take control of the queue if 'Use All Servers' is off for the pass(es): the render feedback keeps you updated as to the progress of this, but it can mean delays while the queue control times out, or if another submission is taking place it will need to wait for the duration of that submission. Note that if it cannot take control of the queue the job is submitted with >all servers assigned> and you will need to edit the servers assigned using queuemonitor. Added a 'Rename set based on pass name' option to the visiblity sets RC menu, to make the workflow of Alt- or Control- clicking the add pass button automatically creating visibility sets somewhat more attractive to use. Entering a path into the auto path root field with offer to create the directory if it does not exist. Define Object Properties dialog lists now shows active properties BOLD as well as highlighted - XP theme choice can make the selection alone almost invisible. Pass Priority and suspended/critical settings have moved to the Network Setup rollout. Pass Priority and suspended/critical can now be set as global, with a per pass priority offset value. This allows you to change a single value to control all your passes priorities, but also maintain relative priority differences between the passes. Select camera button added to the commom parameters rollout - next to the camera dropdown. Global Output Size is now available - if you have this on for any passes, they can all be changed by editing any one of the passes set as global. Allows you to work with a lower resolution setting, and easily change them all to a high resolution. With this off the settings are local to the pass as before. New preference settings: default state for the global pass priority and default state for global output size enabled checkboxes. These both default to off. Updated licensing system - without a license RPM will not operate at all. A personal or evaluation license can be requested from www.rpmanager.com (2 pass limitation) Visibility Sets ingnore non-renderable setting in the global viewport parameters broken out into cameras/lights/helpers. Note that you no longer need both a camera/light and its target added to a set; where before if a target was not part of a set the object was not unhidden, now the target inclusion doesn't matter. Render Element Property RPM UI accessible properties improved - Diffuse Element: Diffuse Lighting checkbox, Lighting Element: Lighting directOn/indirectOn/ShadowsOn checkboxes. 'Save Bug Report...' menu item added to the Help menu. This simply saves the RPMversion, date, heapfree size, and the listener contents to a text file for ease of emailing to bugs@rpmanager.com. Scanline Renderer Multiple Renderer Editing controls updated with R6 global supersampler options. Scanline Renderer Global Supersampling options (new feature in 3dsmaxR6) available for in the Multiple Renderer Editing controls. Dockable, left or right, from the 'Customize' Menu. Undock from the same menu. swapped functionality of clicking on an RPManager Toolbar button - with Shift now closes if open, else just sets focus to the open RPManager dialog, bringing it to the front of any other dialogs. synchronising the common render parameters if the user has edited the standard render dialogs common parameters no longer tries to update with the users settings by default - this can be turned back on using the Preference setting 'Offer to Sync Render Parameters'. (This feature tends to just get in the way) New Vray preview override added - global reflect/refract Preview overrides now able to override the nth frame setting (useful only when rendering a sequence with preview overrides on). Some controls were renamed to make space for the new nth Frame spinner. When creating visibility sets via the visibility set RC menu if you hold SHIFT when picking the menu item a set will be automatically created based on selected objects with the pass name assigned. If you hold down CONTROL it will do the same but base the set on all visible objects. _BUG FIXES Backburner not being correctly installed with throw a message indictating this rather than erroring. If the user cannot submit through the standard network submit then RPManager will not be able to either. The ambient light 'Blk' button was setting the ambient light color to the background color instead of black. Editing the End Frame parameter of a passes range in the Common Controls would not correctly update the animation end range until the pass was restored, fixed. Link UI Time Range checkbox no longer takes two clicks to enable Fixed the browse button in the render element paths dialog. Generate visiblity for undo was using the global value rather than the scene value Duplicate Server .xml files could crash RPM on updating manager data. capture set override material store/restore was broken when dealing with pass counts over 6 or thereabouts. capture set override material names were incorrectly reported in the Capture Objects UI. 'Remove all RPManager data' could leave the RPM UI enabled, editing would error. closing RPManager will disconnect the current renderer from the stored renderer, so changes to RPM stored data can no longer be accidentally done while RPM is closed. Preview override rollout was not updating correctly when opening a new scene. Setting vray AA filter types would error in the full versions. Auto synching RPM global range with scene animation range once again tweaked to get it to work. _____________________________________________________ 3.03 _FEATURES Backburner Network Rollout asks if you want to update the manager data if no servers detected in the server list Mental Ray support updated - many more controls in the renderers rollout Licensing system updated. Where the 3dsmax licensing is Flexlm AND the RPM license is NOT a site license the computernames of the machines that RPM will be licensed to will need to be part of the licensing. Help/Authorize Info dialog now displays computer name if a 3dsmax is licenced via Flexlm so this can be copied and sent during license requests. Help/AuthorizeInfo dialog now displays license status for newer licenses. Possible states are Valid HardwarelockID not license Computername not license License type mismatch (flexlm/local) If an older license is installed this status line does not contain any useful information. _____________________________________________________ 3.02 _FEATURES Preview Overrides for Mental Ray - override AA sampling, disable Motion blur/GI/DOF/Caustics/FinalGather/Shadows/Displacement, and enable distributed renderer. Preview buttons group (bottom left of interface) indicates whether the preview overrides are on or off in the group caption ("Preview:O'rides ON/OFF") Render elements controls enabled for mental ray. Limited Multiple Renderer access for mental ray, framework in place: modifying the sampling settings is all that works at this stage. Support for Mental Ray DOF multipass effect through the RPM multipass settings - fStop can be set per pass. Object Properties Capture progress bar displays when passes added or duplicated. _BUGFIXES Adding render elements via the RPM controls was difficult since the list items did not correspond to the items actually added. Mental Ray DOF effect no longer errors RPM. Merging objects with object properties assigned and adding to capture sets will no longer error - any existing object properties are deleted on assign. Installer no longer writes over your output preset file and custom rollout and custom struct files if they are pre-existing. Installer only updates the RPMdlx.dlx plugin if detects an old version. Installer will fix a certain incorrect output preset if it detects it (image aspect incorrect for the 'Custom' 720x576 (pal) output. Script error when date format set to show verbose month fixed. _____________________________________________________ 3.01 _FEATURES List of network servers in the network rollout now sorted by name. Network server list additional check by options - check selected, check unselected servers. Manager groups are now retrieved when using the 'Update Manager Data' button. _BUGFIXES Adding a pass when the network rollout was not visible would clear the checked server list (only affected submission if use all servers was off). Local and global server groups no longer error on retrieve if many servers are in the group; group storage reworked, any groups will need to be rebuilt. Submitting multiple passes with different format options (ie targa 24, targa 32) would not correctly set the format at render for network submissions and use the format set for the previously rendered pass - fixed. Locking the width and height of the output params and entering a new value for either would not always update the other value correctly. _____________________________________________________ 3.0 _FEATURES Auto build output paths is now a hybrid of the older auto build system and the newer system: if 'enable auto build paths on submit' is not enabled for any passes, picking the 'Auto build all paths...' menu item or 'Auto' interface button will prompt for a root directory and build the paths for those passes using that root. Any passes with the auto path generation root set will be built using those settings. If all passes have auto build enabled no output path is requested. This returns the old behavior which is quick and requires almost no setup, with the new auto build path behavior intact, and in both cases builds the output paths and output filename as defined in the output preferences. Cancelling the prompt to pick the root directory will cancel the auto build operation. New options for the output path construction: using certain keywords in the 'Strings_..' fields returns other data. The keywords are '#username', '#machinename', and "#date" (+ options). #username inserts the current username as logged in #machinename inserts the name of the computer #date requires some extra data: which parts of the date to include by index, and a divider to separate them. ie entering #date321_ inserts '2004_04_26' into the path when your regional settings are Australia. '#date21-' inserts '04-26'. Note that the specifics returned are dependent on your regional settings, but based on US settings the indices would correspond to: 1: month 2:day 3:year 4:hour 5:minutes 6:seconds 7:AM/PM