What's new

Build Improvements

• Upgraded to Embree 4.2.0
• Upgraded to Optix 7.6
• Added lsb to the container build scripts
• Added support for VFX Reference Platform 2023, includes implicit support for Rocky9, GCC-11 and Python-3.10

Features

• Added initial implementation of a new adaptive light sampling scheme
• Implemented an improved dw_acos() over acos() to the scene_rdl2 math lib
• Added automatic CPU-affinity control to MoonRay, with own thread pool
• Exposed the execution mode (auto, xpu, vector, scalar) in hdMoonray
• Added a few Geo preview settings to hdMoonray
• Add tolerance for float equals and new vector equals mode to the OpMap
• Several improvements to DwaToonMaterial for non-photorealistic looks

Bug Fixes

• Removed a duplicate CPU handler in XPU mode
• Fixed XPU debug asserts
• Fixed XPU fallback behavior to only fallback when run in auto mode
• Fixed ShadowReceiverSets in XPU mode
• Fixed exclusion symbol ^ in LPEs.
• Fixed local motion blur to use the region with maximum reduction when within overlapping regions
• Fixed VDB light filter density_grid_name attribute type
• Fixed allocation of OIIO texturing time in the log output

Other

• Renamed debug and info variables
• Removed variance AOVs as part of a refactor
• Removed Dual code as part of a refactor
• Removed unused ray sorting code in XPU mode
• Removed and archived the PathIntegratorOneSampler
• Remove unused and unsupported multi-film support in the AOV system
• Removed deprecated attributes from SceneVariables
• Added Displacement map parameters to the documentation
• Added stats for bundled/gpu intersection rays
• Extended XPU queue support for regular rays
• Combined primary and incoherent ray queues
• Miscellaneous rdl2_print improvements and refactor
• With vfxrefplat-2023, hdMoonray can be running in Nuke 15, initial check shows it running.