i have a lot of questions generally about what is supported by karma CPU, vs xpu, and theres an old chart of mantra vs karma vs xpu from the houdini 19 release i think, which is way outdated. it would be nice if this got updated, and / or if there was a good place to see all the differences clearly?

for example, im curious to know if trace sets are supported yet in karma CPU or xpu, i have no idea where I could check that though. i suppose i could use the changelog but that definitely isnt quite as clear.

We have this for XPU
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/solaris/karma_xpu.html [www.sidefx.com]

I'm not sure about trace-sets. Definitely not yet for XPU, but maybe not yet for KarmaCPU either.
I'll check with the other guys and get back to you.

ChristopherRutledge
i have a lot of questions generally about what is supported by karma CPU, vs xpu, and theres an old chart of mantra vs karma vs xpu from the houdini 19 release i think, which is way outdated. it would be nice if this got updated, and / or if there was a good place to see all the differences clearly?

for example, im curious to know if trace sets are supported yet in karma CPU or xpu, i have no idea where I could check that though. i suppose i could use the changelog but that definitely isnt quite as clear.

what do you mean by trace sets, like categories in mantra for custom gather() ray tracing loops? I don't think that's supported.

@jsmack did you mean "scope"?
Anyway, no, trace sets aren't supported in karma CPU/XPU yet.

Edit: actually it was pointed out to me that "categories" was indeed correct (more powerful and flexible replacement for scope). My apologies.

my understanding is that if you say things are in the same trace set together they get path traced as one object or something? anyway, the only time im really familiar with using it is with SSS objects that intersect. you want to make them part of the same trace set if you dont want to get an ugly dark area where the two objects intersect. i was told at some point that this isnt yet supported in karma xpu, but i have no idea! was also just an example.


thanks this list is handy brian!