Houdini - Mantranode

Pipeline Integrations
1

Hi,

I’m trying to set a default value in the settings for the houdini mantra node but I can’t get it to work.

I need to have vm_inlinestorage inside the shotgun mantra node automatically set to checked/true but no matter what key/value pair I input in the YAML it errors out.

Tried:
settings: {vm_inlinestorage: 1}
settings: {vm_inlinestorage: True}

Any insight into how this works would be nice.

Also, I would like to suggest Shotgun adds some examples to their documentation instead of just mentioning “You can add key/value pairs here”.
Sometimes looking at an example would just get us that extra bit of understanding straight away. Doesnt have to be complicated, just add 1 example so we can see how it looks and do a sanity check for ourselves. Thanks! :slight_smile:

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3

Hi Ricardo

Just to let you know I have been looking into this, but I’m having a few issues with my Houdini setup at the moment so I’ve not been able to test yet. What you’ve put there looks correct to me on the face of it. But some examples would be good I agree.
I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve been able to test.

Phil

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4

OK I finally figured out what was wrong with my setup, and have been able to test.

I received an error in Houdini saying there was no parameter called vm_inlinestorage.

So I printed out all the parameters for the SG Mantra node and it seems it doesn’t have an vm_inline_storage parameter (see attached file). It looks as though we are not exposing the standard Mantra node’s parameter on the SG Mantra node, which I would say is an oversight. It’s my guess that it’s been added more recently in Houdini and we’ve just not updated the node to included it.

I’ll add an internal ticket to get this resolved. I apologise about that, but I think your use of the settings in the YAML was just fine.

Thanks
Phil
sg_mantra_params.py (8.5 KB)

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7

Thanks Philip,

I was wondering what was happening haha.
I’ve now managed to include this in the CustomSanityCheck script after it transforms the nodes back to standard.

However, yes, please make sure not to break any functionality the original DCC offers :stuck_out_tongue:

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8

Hi Philip,

I have a few more issues which I think may all have to do with what you mentioned and it’s really breaking basic render functionaility.

The first is that a separator gets created on the Shotgun mantra node which breaks functionality as it shifts everything down the list (see screenshot)
image

  1. When converting back from a MantraNode to a Shotgun Mantra Node the Cryptomatte setup is not retained.
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10

hmm sounds like these probably need ticketing up as well, sorry you ran into them.
I’ll run it by an engineer first, and let you know where we go from there.

Thanks
Phil

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11

Yes Please!
It seems quite some normal functionality is being broken by whatever the conversion does/adds.

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13

Hey Ricardo

Please excuse my inexperience with Houdini, but on your point 1, the separator, is this just a visual issue or does it cause a deeper problem?

Thanks
Phil

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14

The separator causes a problem that when you add something from that list, for instance I click Shading_Samples, I actually get Opacity_samples.
So it offsets list items but not visually.

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