Gaffer 1.5.0.0 alpha 2

Features

• PatternMatch : Added a new node for matching strings against wildcard patterns.

Improvements

• Arnold :
  • Added location names to warning messages.
  • A missing "P" primitive variable no longer aborts the render, but outputs a warning message instead.
• Instancer :
  • Improved Arnold raytracing performance for encapsulated instancers with many prototypes. All instances are now output in a single top-level procedural rather than a top-level procedural per prototype, resulting in more optimal BVH traversals in Arnold.
  • Reduced scene generation time for encapsulated instancers by around 20%.
• NodeEditor : Added Alt + middle-click action for showing context variable substitutions in strings.
• LightEditor, RenderPassEditor : History windows now use a context determined relative to the current focus node.
• NumericWidget : Added the ability to use Ctrl + scroll wheel to adjust values in the same manner as Up and Down (#6009).
• NodeEditor : Improved performance when showing a node with many colour plugs. Showing the Arnold standard_surface shader is now almost 2x faster.
• GraphEditor : Added colour coding to the strike-throughs drawn for disabled nodes. Black indicates that the node is always disabled, and yellow indicates that its enabled plug has an input connection, and therefore might be context-sensitive.
• ListContainer : Adding a child widget with non-default alignment no longer causes the container to take up all available space.
• PythonCommand : Added a framesMode plug which determines if the command is called once for each frame, once for each batch of frames, or once for each complete sequence.

Fixes

• Viewer, ImageGadget :
  • Fixed partial image updates when an unrelated InteractiveRender was running (#6043).
  • Fixed "colour tearing", where updates to some image channels became visible before updates to others.
  • Fixed unnecessary texture updates when specific image tiles don't change.
• Viewer :
  • Fixed drawing of custom mesh light texture visualisers (#6002).
  • Fixed BackgroundTask warning when deleting the node being viewed.
• GraphEditor :
  • Fixed lingering error badges (#3820).
  • Fixed D shortcut to respect read-only metadata on enabled plugs. Previously only metadata on the node itself was respected.
  • Fixed D shortcut to handle multiple selection with some nodes enabled and some disabled. This will now consistently disabled all nodes if at least one is enabled, rather than toggling each individually.
• RenderPassEditor :
  • Fixed history window to update on context changes, for example, when the current frame is changed.
  • Fixed invalid scene:path context variables created by the history window.

Breaking Changes

• IECoreArnold : Added messageContext argument to NodeAlgo::Converter and NodeAlgo::MotionConverter.
• Instancer : Renamed encapsulateInstanceGroups plug to encapsulate. Encapsulation now produces a single capsule at the .../instances location, instead of capsules at each .../instances/<prototypeName> location.
• GraphGadget : Moved D shortcut handling to GraphEditor.
• PythonCommand : Removed sequence plug. Settings from old files are remapped automatically to the new framesMode plug on loading.