MtoA 1.2.7.3 ships with Arnold 4.2.13.
If you want to take advantage of the improvements in Arnold 4.2.14.0 (like the increase in the maximum number of threads from 128 to 256), here’s what you need to do:
C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016-1.2.7.3\scripts\arnold
with the python\arnold folder from the Arnold 4.2.14.0 download. For example:
C:\solidangle\arnold\Arnold-4.2.14.0-windows\python\arnold
You must update the Arnold Python bindings, otherwise MtoA won’t load. That’s because Arnold 4.2.14.0 included a number of API changes, including the removal of some API (like AiLicenseSetServer). The older Python bindings still refer to the removed API, so there will be Python errors that prevent MtoA from loading.
If you’re using the Arnold API to update ASS files (for example, to change paths), you need to load all the plugins (aka shaders) that are referenced by the ASS file. Otherwise, the unknown nodes are skipped on load, and therefore won’t be in any ASS file you write.
For example, if you set ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH to point to the locations of the MtoA shaders and any custom shaders you use, then you could do something like this:
from arnold import *
import os
AiBegin()
AiMsgSetConsoleFlags(AI_LOG_ALL)
AiLoadPlugins( os.getenv( 'ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH' ) )
AiASSLoad("original.1001.ass", AI_NODE_ALL)
#
# Do your edits here
#
AiASSWrite("edited.1001.ass", AI_NODE_ALL, False)
AiEnd()
Settings like the image format and compression come from the defaultArnoldDriver node, so to set them through scripting, you need to set defaultArnoldDriver attributes.
The image format corresponds to the ai_translator attribute.
# Python import maya.cmds as cmds cmds.setAttr( 'defaultArnoldDriver.ai_translator', 'exr', type='string' )
# PyMel import pymel.core as pm d = pm.PyNode( 'defaultArnoldDriver' ) d.ai_translator.set( 'exr )
// Mel setAttr "defaultArnoldDriver.ai_translator" -type "string" "jpeg";
The rest of the attributes are named a little… better 😉 Here’s a Python snippet to list the driver attributes and their values:
from maya.cmds import *
sn = cmds.attributeInfo( inherited=False, short=True, type="aiAOVDriver" )
for s in sn:
print "defaultArnoldDriver.%s = %s" %( s, cmds.getAttr( "defaultArnoldDriver.%s" % s ) )
Arnold nodes can have user-defined parameters, like MyColor in this ASS snippet:
polymesh
{
name grid3.SItoA.1000
#
# ...
#
declare MyColor constant RGBA
MyColor 0.703999996 0 0.526000023 1
}
In Softimage, there are a number of ways you can assign data like MyColor to a polygon mesh. You could use ICE:
Or you could use the Arnold User Options property:
To access MyColor in the render tree, use the Color Attribute shader:
If you used ICE, MyColor will appear automatically in the Attribute list. But if you used the User Options property, you’ll have to use a script one-liner to set the Attribute value. That’s because Softimage doesn’t know about the user parameters on Arnold nodes: those come into existence only when SItoA translates the scene to Arnold.
Application.SetValue("Sources.Materials.DefaultLib.Material.Color_Attribute.attribute", "MyColor", "")
On a related note, the MtoA shader userDataColor does the same thing as the SItoA Color Attribute shader: it uses AiUDataGetRGBA() to get a color from a user parameter on the object being shaded. With SItoA 3.0, the Arnold > DLL Shaders menu makes it pretty easy to use an MtoA shader in Softimage.
By default, the Abort on License Fail option is off, so you could end up with water-marked renders if for some reason a render node can’t get a license.
Here’s one way to prevent that, with the -set flag:
kick -dp -dw -set options.abort_on_license_fail on some.ass
For the Point, and Sphere particles shapes, you get a single Arnold points node. For example, for the Sphere shape, you’d get a points node that looked something like this:
points
{
name pointcloud.SItoA.Sphere.5000
points 54 1 b85POINT
8LLwt8;`)381]^28S`W`8:l)EadWuf8[iB>89m7taW>aAaX=rn8...
radius 54 1 b85FLOAT
!8Fcb9$$$$Z
mode "sphere"
visibility 255
sidedness 255
matrix
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 1
shader "Sources.Materials.DefaultLib.Material.standard.SItoA.5000.2.sta_shading_group"
id 832
}
This particular node is for 54 points in sphere mode. For each point, you get the center position (the points.points parameter) and a radius (the points.radius parameter). If there’s any scaling applied to the particle in ICE, the radius is multiplied by the X scaling of the particle.
For the Point shape, you get an Arnold points node in “disk” mode, with radius = size * X scaling.
For the other supported shapes, you get the corresponding Arnold shape.
SItoA translates ICE particle shapes to native Arnold shapes. The supported particle shapes are already documented here, but here’s a little more information about how they are translated.
| ICE Shape | Arnold Shape |
|---|---|
| Point | points (mode “disk”) |
| Disc | disk |
| Rectangle | box (with 0 height) |
| Box | box |
| Sphere | points (mode “sphere”) |
| Cylinder | cylinder |
| Cone | cone |
| Instance Shape | ginstance |
The Segment, Capsule, and Blob shapes are not supported. SItoA skips them and they are not translated into the Arnold scene source.
This is great. Some (maybe all) of my friends have never heard of Arnold, or even know what a renderer is, so I just sent them this and said “see those final cg renders and shots? Arnold did that”.
Reminds me of how, back in the day, I would always bring up Jurassic Park to help people understand what Softimage was and did.
See also: Rendering the Universe
To show you where the polygon mesh subdivision settings are in Softimage, I’m going to start in Arnold and work back into Softimage via SItoA.
So, let’s start with an Arnold polymesh shape, which has a number of subdivision parameters:
C:\solidangle\Arnold-4.1.3.3\bin>kick -info polymesh | find "subdiv" ENUM subdiv_type none BYTE subdiv_iterations 1 FLOAT subdiv_pixel_error 0 NODE subdiv_dicing_camera (null) ENUM subdiv_adaptive_metric auto ENUM subdiv_uv_smoothing pin_corners BOOL subdiv_smooth_derivs false
In Softimage, you access most of these subdivison parameters by adding an Arnold Parameters property to a polygon mesh (you can’t add new parameters to Softimage built-in objects like a PolygonMesh, so we have to use a custom property).
Other Arnold subdiv parameters are mapped to existing Softimage parameters:
Finally, subdiv_dicing_camera is on the Subdivision tab of the global Render Settings.
Arnold Support Corner 