Hi, its possible see textures like houdini debug mode inside solaris and karma?

I am interested to know the answer to this too. It seems like it is a super useful feature within the regular render view in Houdini - it would be great to be able use the texture/shader debug mode in Solaris too - I imagine look development will be much more difficult without this feature!

There is the Visualize node that may be helpful for MaterialX (eg, select a shader node and press 'x' hotkey).

rafal
There is the Visualize node that may be helpful for MaterialX (eg, select a shader node and press 'x' hotkey).

Hi rafal. Thanks for that tip! Thought I would note down the method here for anyone else that wanted to know and for my memory:

1) In the karma/prman/etc. render properties add an extra render var with the following settings:
Name: visualize
Source Name: vis_visualize1
Source Type: Raw
Format: Color3f

2) In your material network click select the node that you want to visualize and press x.

3) In the Solaris scene view, LMB click the on the viewing output tool in the display options on the right hand side and change the currently displayed output from C to visualize.

rafal, is this the method that you were suggesting? Or is there an even easier way? It would be great to have the debug mode working because that seems like the quickest and easiest way, but this solution does the job well - thanks again!

Just curious, which debug mode in Mantra are you referring to? The only one I'm familiar with is drag-and-dropping the VOPs from the shader network onto the viewport (only works if shading tree is top-level at /mat though...).

nicholasralabate
Just curious, which debug mode in Mantra are you referring to? The only one I'm familiar with is drag-and-dropping the VOPs from the shader network onto the viewport (only works if shading tree is top-level at /mat though...).

Hi Nicolas. I am referring to the debug flag on vop nodes:
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/network/flags.html#vop-flags [www.sidefx.com]

In this video from Arvid Schneider, he shows how they can be used to isolate a specific texture in the render view - in this example he is using renderman (not in Solaris).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dn90gWZ2-I [www.youtube.com]

I noticed that the page below specifies that you can use the visualiser in Solaris but only if the translator supports it:
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/lop/materiallibrary.html#tips [www.sidefx.com]

I have managed to get the visualiser to work using Houdini based vops in Solaris using the method I mentioned above where I made an extra render var to display it, but I haven't been able to get that method to work with either MaterialX or Renderman in Solaris.

This seems like a crucial tool for look-development, so if anyone has managed to get it working in MaterialX or renderman in Solaris, I'd love to hear any tips to get it working. Cheers!

GABRIEL_ARNOLD
In this video from Arvid Schneider, he shows how they can be used to isolate a specific texture in the render view - in this example he is using renderman (not in Solaris).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dn90gWZ2-I [www.youtube.com]

The debug flag works similarly to the bypass flag, allowing the node to pass a different value than usual when the debug flag is engaged. Some renderers like redshift coopted the flag to do what you describe, but it's not an expected behavior in Houdini.