Nodes Render nodes

Houdini provides different types of render nodes:

• Nodes corresponding to renderers and scene description formats (such as the Mantra node and RenderMan node). These nodes output scene description files and call the appropriate renderer to render the file.

• Nodes for generating other outputs, such as the Geometry node which “renders” the scene geometry to a geometry format such as .bgeo or .obj.

• Utility nodes to control renders and dependencies. For example, you can use the Merge node to sequence renders. You can use the Switch node to switch between different render nodes based on an expression.

For example, you can set up different output nodes for different render qualities (such as test render and final render) and independent render passes. Or, you can render a scene with different renderers.

Each driver renders the view of the scene through a camera. For a driver to work correctly, the camera associated with the driver must exist.

	Bypass	Makes this node have no effect. The node will not render as part of a dependency graph.
	Lock	Makes this node have no effect: this node and all of its parent nodes will not render as part of a dependency graph. Once you render out a good set of frames from a branch of the render network, you can lock it to prevent the node from re-rendering the frames when a child node renders. If some input ROP has another ROP that is dependent on it, and that ROP isn’t locked, it will still render. Locking a ROP only blocks one dependency path through the locked ROP.
	Render button	Clicking this button will cause the node to render.

Bypassing or locking a subnetwork will prevent any of the ROPs inside from rendering.

You can still force a bypassed or locked render node to render using the “Render All Bypassed Nodes” and “Render All Locked Nodes” options in the render control window.