:cry:
I have recently discovered houdini but am keen to try renderman alongside.
Having installed renderman and configured environment variable PATH as discussed on a posting describing how to set up - I am now really confused!
I can render using RMAN from within houdini - but whenever I apply a RIB shader as I would a VEX in SHOPS - I see no preview of the material to edit /refine. If I apply to the shader to an object and render out some of the RIB shaders seem to work and some not. Can somebody please help - or point me to some further reading that would enable me to use renderman with houdini???
frustrated
!RENDERMAN HELP!
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- mrpuss
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- rcortes
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ok.. it seems that your are kind of new to houdini and renderman (dont be offended if you are not). I will give you some pointers that might help you on the future.
1 - Rib shaders… no such thing. RIB stands for RenderMan Interface Bytestream. It is an easier, more compact way to access the Ri API. The Ri API is what describes your scene (models, lights, shaders, camera view). Renderman shaders are written in RenderMan Shading Language (RSL or SL). People refer to them as RenderMan shaders.
2- when you apply a RMan shader to geometry in Houdini you will NOT get visual feedback of that PRMan shader until you render. Real time visual feedback its usually handled by OpenGl, and at the moment Houdini doesnt offer a way to visualize RMan shaders real time (someone correct me if im wrong)
3- if some shaders work and others dont, then its most likely that PRMan is not finding the missing shaders. Make sure they are compiled and included in the shaders folder. You can also include a shader search “Option” inside the RIB file, but at the moment I cant remember how you can have Houdini insert RIB statements before it renders. Please read you PRman user Docs, it should explain how to setup paths for shaders and how to use “Options”
I believe Ian Stephenson did a little houdini how-to.. you can read it here
http://www.dctsystems.co.uk/Houdini/index.html [dctsystems.co.uk]
and here
http://www.dctsystems.co.uk/Houdini/hKickstartPrman.html [dctsystems.co.uk]
another one
http://home.earthlink.net/~mdcronin1/PRMan.htm [home.earthlink.net]
good luck
rcortes
1 - Rib shaders… no such thing. RIB stands for RenderMan Interface Bytestream. It is an easier, more compact way to access the Ri API. The Ri API is what describes your scene (models, lights, shaders, camera view). Renderman shaders are written in RenderMan Shading Language (RSL or SL). People refer to them as RenderMan shaders.
2- when you apply a RMan shader to geometry in Houdini you will NOT get visual feedback of that PRMan shader until you render. Real time visual feedback its usually handled by OpenGl, and at the moment Houdini doesnt offer a way to visualize RMan shaders real time (someone correct me if im wrong)
3- if some shaders work and others dont, then its most likely that PRMan is not finding the missing shaders. Make sure they are compiled and included in the shaders folder. You can also include a shader search “Option” inside the RIB file, but at the moment I cant remember how you can have Houdini insert RIB statements before it renders. Please read you PRman user Docs, it should explain how to setup paths for shaders and how to use “Options”
I believe Ian Stephenson did a little houdini how-to.. you can read it here
http://www.dctsystems.co.uk/Houdini/index.html [dctsystems.co.uk]
and here
http://www.dctsystems.co.uk/Houdini/hKickstartPrman.html [dctsystems.co.uk]
another one
http://home.earthlink.net/~mdcronin1/PRMan.htm [home.earthlink.net]
good luck
rcortes
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