-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
Copy pathNEWS.txt
1170 lines (737 loc) · 39.8 KB
/
NEWS.txt
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
2013-9-18, Alembic 1.5.1
Hello Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
small but useful bug fixes and enhancements to the API, some of the example
tools, and the Maya plugins.
API:
IXform/OXform:
Make default identity xforms use even less disk space.
Fix for Issue 313: IXformSchema::getInheritsXforms() crash with no samples
Python bindings:
Fix for Issue 308: ILightSchema.getCameraSchema() segfaults when no cameras
are available
Maya:
AbcImport:
Fix for Issue 311: properly set SubD creases, corners, and holes when the
geometry is animated
Fix for Issue 312: AbcImport doesn't accept long names when filtering
AbcExport:
Ogawa is now written out by default. (when the -dataformat flag isn't specified)
Multiple frame ranges can be specified for more control over the samples
exported.
-preRoll flag was added for specified frame ranges that you want evaluated but
not exported.
Misc Tools:
AbcLs - fix bugs, added new flag -s to view the size of a scalar or array
property, -t for printing time info of the archive and the time a sample
index of a property corresponds to. -f prints out the frame assuming 24fps.
AbcView - tweaked docs, lots of bug fixes, better camera support
prman Procedural - Fix for Issue 314: subdiv tags could become corrupted.
##-*****************************************************************************
2013-7-22, Alembic 1.5.0
Hello Alembic users, we are pleased to announce the official release of a new
data back end for Alembic, codenamed Ogawa with improved write, read, and
especially multi-threaded read performance.
Here are some improvements we are seeing with this version:
1) File sizes are on average 5-15% smaller. Scenes with many small objects
should see even greater reductions.
2) Single-threaded reads average around 4x faster
3) Multi-threaded reads can improve by 25x (relative to the same operations in
the existing HDF5 back-end) on 8 core systems.
We are maintaining backwards compatibility, and you will be able to continue to
read and write Alembic files backed by HDF5.
Other library features added:
Support for explicit hierarchical deduplication. (OObject::addChildInstance)
Hierarchical hash keys added to objects, making it easier to compare sub-graphs
of various archives. (IObject::getPropertiesHash, IObject::getChildrenHash)
Add AbcCoreFactory::IFactory class which is a convenience class for determining
whether an archive is backed by HDF5 or Ogawa and returning a properly
instantiated IArchive. All of the readers in the repository have been updated
to use this.
Python bindings have been extended to support the new features above.
New utility:
abcls this utility is meant to behave like ls or h5ls and offers an
inexpensive way to explore your object and property hierarchies.
Bug fixes:
ICamera:
Getting the film back xform channels needs to be done by index.
Animated film back data wasn't being reflected in isConstant.
Offset data should be applied after the filmback matrix.
AbcExport: preScale, and postScale film back xform should be 1.0/scale.
##-*****************************************************************************
2013-4-11, Alembic 1.1.5
Hello Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
small but useful bug fixes and performance enhancements for the Maya plugins.
AbcExport:
Improve the performance of util::isAnimated.
If MFnIkJoint's Scale Compensate is off, [IS] is ignored otherwise multiply it
after [T]. [IS] is actually the inverse of the inverseScale plug.
Fixed const related error caught by Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0 compiler.
AbcImport:
Use createPoint and createColor for MFnNumericAttribute when appropriate.
##-*****************************************************************************
2013-03-25, Alembic 1.1.4
Hello Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
small but useful and important bug fixes.
Fix several multi-platform issues to making compiling in Windows and OSX easier.
PyAlembic:
Fix typo XformSample::getZRotation should be XformSample::getScale.
AbcImport:
Directly set the string plug, as the default value is not saved to the Maya
file and thus is not restored.
AbcExport/AbcImport:
Fix bug where the conversion from shutter open, shutter close to shutter angle
was being improperly scaled.
##-*****************************************************************************
2013-02-11, Alembic 1.1.3
Hello Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
useful features and bug fixes.
Alembic library:
Add missing setTimeSampling member function to OCurves and ONuPatch. (Issue 295)
Record the max number of samples written for various TimeSampling at the
archive level, and provide a utility function for getting the start and end time
of the archive using this data. (Issue 301)
Propogate the Error handling policy better.
Add Box2(s,i,f,d) array properties to match scalar properties.
INuPatch getTopologyVariance wasn't correctly taking into account animated
weights.
IsAncestorVisible utility function was returning the wrong value.
TimeSamplingType now allows for some floating point imprecision during
comparison. (Issue 301)
Add isStandardName and makeStandardName convenience functions.
- These functions offer plugin writers an easy way to get multi-application
name compliance. They help you convert any special characters your
application supports into a set universally accepted characters.
Add AbcOpenGL library which is based on the draw code from SimpleAbcViewer.
Python:
Add PyAbcOpenGL bindings.
Fix segfault with invalid getProperty index/name
Add getProperty to OCompoundProperty
Add getKey to IArrayProperty
- This is the preferred way to get the alembic hash of a property.
Previously you needed to build the a hash by marshalling
and serializing the data in python which is slooow.
Add getMaxNumSamplesForTimeSamplingIndex to IArchive.
Add high level Python API named "cask" built on top of the Alembic Python
bindings.
- This was developed to simplify scripting of alembic files
in Python.
- It is designed to be easy to use and "Pythonic". For example it
gives you a dictionary style interface to objects and
properties.
- It is an abstraction on top of alembic which allows you to create mutable
objects. This means scripters are not forced to use the separated,
immutable input and output core alembic objects.
- We will host documentation on docs.alembic.io shortly but for now please
convert the cask.rst file in python/examples/cask/doc to read the docs
and see examples.
Add abcview which uses PyQt and PyAbcOpenGL
- This tool is perfect for debugging alembic caches. It offers Katana-
style, lazy-UI hierarchy traversal and a script editor to do more
in-depth object and property queries using the Python bindings.
SimpleAbcView is embedded into the application for easy reference.
Bootstrap and CMake:
Fix boost configuration if you are not building pyalembic. (Issue 296)
Eliminate many warnings when compiling with Visual Studio 10. (Issue 294)
Improve many of our CMakeLists.txt so that you can use Cmake directly instead
of having to go through the bootstrap.
Better Windows compliance. (Look for further improvements over the next releases).
Maya:
AbcExport bounding box calculation for the entire archive is much more efficient
and is especially noticeable when calculating bounds on deep hierarchies.
Add identifyFile and haveNamespaceSupport to AlembicImportFileTranslator.
Fix bug where the AlembicImportFileTranslator could not be unloaded properly.
Arnold Procedural:
Fix bug with multiple samples potentially being added for uvlist.
Initialize makeInstance on creation.
Add instanced nodes to the list of createdNodes.
Utilities:
Add abctree which walks the entire hierarchy and prints out the names
of objects.
##-*****************************************************************************
2012-10-17, Alembic 1.1.2
Hello Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
small but useful features and bug fixes.
New features:
Maya AbcImport:
Added inclusive and exclusive filtering support to allow selective importing
of cache objects via regex matches.
Added file translator support. Alembic caches can now be opened directly and
imported as Maya references.
Facesets now get imported as Maya facesets instead of an integer array
attribute.
Maya AbcExport:
Write out curves with a basis of b-spline and repeat first and last
points twice (if they aren't repeated) if we have a cubic open curve.
Support exporting Maya facesets with the -wfs/-writefacets flag.
Add -ef/-eulerFilter flag which euler filters samples to rotate, rotate axis,
and joint orient.
Update -sn/-stripNamespaces flag with an optional integer to only strip
that number of namespaces.
Remove boost usage.
Core library:
Add static emptySample() convenience function.
Improve const correctness on most of the Abc and AbcGeom getter functions.
Child bounds are no longer written and read via the schema's sample class,
instead the child bounds property is directly exposed on the schema.
Normals and UVs IGeomParams are no longer returned by reference.
On Xforms, only write the .animChans data once if necessary.
Bug fixes:
Maya AbcImport:
Clean up temporary trim curves when the trim operation fails for
MFnNurbsSurface.
##-*****************************************************************************
2012-9-20, Alembic 1.1.1
Hello Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
small but useful and important bug fixes.
Bug fixes:
Issue 291
Fix for some compile issues/warnings on Windows.
Issue 292
Hash keys are being computed incorrectly on Windows.
Some small CMake updates.
Fixed typo in OSubD::setHoles
##-*****************************************************************************
2012-7-26, Alembic 1.1.0
Hello Alembic users. We are excited to announce another release of Alembic
which contains many new features, bug fixes and performance improvements.
What's new:
- AbcCollections. Alembic now supports the concept of a collection. Sometimes
people refer to collections as "groups" or "object sets" (as in Maya).
- AbcMaterial. Alembic now supports the concept of a material. This is done by
defining a schema for a material definition which can act as a standalone object
or as supplemental data attached to another object. AbcMaterial also defines
conventions and utilities for binding and resolving marterial assignments
and overrides. We have not gone as far as defining what a material schema should
actually contain (as we did with cameras); instead we allow you to define your
own material "target" to allow all the many variations in material standards
that exist today. However we have reserved the name "abc" for a target
we will define at a later time; the hope is that this material target would
become the standard for material interchange.
- AbcLight. Alembic now supports the concept of a light. Light objects are
distinct objects that contain both a camera and a material schema. The material
on the light controls the shader parameters associated with the light and the
camera can contain all relevant camera-like light information.
- Python bindings. At long last the Alembic team has finally completed the
python bindings to allow scripters to access the full power of the alembic
c++ api. All the new features listed above as well as the layers Abc though
AbcGeom are bound. The base bindings of typed data (including typed arrays)
are pyimath types so if your program can natively create imath data types
there is no performance penalty to convert to and from alembic types.
- Performance optimization. When we profiled Alembic we found that, for some
caches, a great deal of time was being spent in HDF5 functions that access
groups and attributes by name. We now let you optionally write a side car
datastructure within the HDF5 file that maps the HDF5 hierarchy to HDF5 object
references which results in lookups that are much faster. You pay the price
of a slight disk size increase and memory footprint.
- Maya plugin updates. The ".userProperties" compound property that is available
on most Alembic objects is now supported for both read and write with full
support for animated values. Additional parameters have also been added to the
AlembicNode to allow cache retiming along with support for loop, reverse and
bounce.
- Boost removal from the core. We are no longer dependent on boost to give us
an implementation of a shared pointer (for example) so we were able to remove
the dependency on boost while building the core library.
Bug Fixes:
Issue 171:
OScalar and OArray Properties had a scoping issue when parented to the immediate
child compound property of an OObject.
Issue 245:
I<type>GeomParam would match to properties that aren't geom params.
IArrayProperty is always considered a geom param with constant scope.
Issue 253-255
Several bugs involved with the -rm flag on AbcImport have been fixed.
Issue 263
AbcExport UV write fix, loop over all faces, not just the faces which have UVs.
Issue 275
AddGeomToParamListBuilderAsFloat was calculating wrong boundary for the
IV2fArrayProperty.
Issue 280
Accomodate Unicode file names in AbcImport and AbcExport.
Issue 285
AbcGeom/Basis.h was not including Alembic/Util/Foundation.h
##-*****************************************************************************
2012-2-14, Alembic 1.0.5
Bug fix release.
Fix for issue 272.
Core:
String dimensions weren't being written correctly for string arrays when copying
a previous sample.
Correctness updates to "matches(..)" (data matching functions).
Houdini plugin:
Reverting frame - 1 change.
Including a clear cache function.
##-*****************************************************************************
2012-1-12, Alembic 1.0.4
Hello, Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
API additions and small but useful bug fixes.
Some highlights:
API:
- Now supports raw reads, and reading as a different precision, for array properties
via a new method getAs (). Currently strings, wstrings, and float16_t
can not be read as any other type.
- Added an optional velocity property to polymeshes, subds, nurbs, and curves.
Velocity is considered to be in units per second.
- Added a temporary work around for an HDF5 bug where parts of the file could become
corrupt. This workaround always stores the HDF5 links in dense storage. This can lead to
larger file sizes when you have a lot of IObjects.
- Improved the performance on partial hierarchy traversal by deferring opening of an
object's HDF5 group until truly needed.
Renderman Procedural:
- Added support for V3dGeomParam, P3dGeomParam, and BoolGeomParam
Houdini SOP:
- Dramatically increased the performance under Houdini 12 and pleasantly increased
performance under 11.1.
Maya AbcImport:
- Don't interpolate when the time values closely match the ceiling value.
- Don't create a new color set every time an animated color set is evaluated.
- Interpolating non indexed color values would sometimes cause a crash.
We welcome your comments on the discussion list.
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-11-11, Alembic 1.0.3
Hello, Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
small but useful bug fixes to our plugins.
Some highlights:
Renderman Procedural:
- Addition of Windows export information for ConvertParameters/Subdivide/Free
- Fixed an uninitialized variable for -flipv
- Fixed a string-related memory bug for declarations in ParamListBuilder
(issue 241)
- Addition of support for reading, caching and sharing argument strings from
files.
- Addition of support for restoring named resource blocks at specified paths
or names for objects and facesets
- Fixed support for getInheritsXforms in IXforms (issue 247)
- Fixed CMake where it failed to find libprman.lib because of a typo
(issue 229)
Maya AbcImport:
- Fixed compilation with Maya 2011 by adding an ifdef for the
setDisplayColors(true) call. (issue 244)
- Fixed some issues with the -connect option. Transforms weren't being
properly cleared when connection.
Maya AbcExport:
- Change for FBIK joints, there isn't always a connection to translate or
scale (like rotate for IK joints). We now treat them like they are animated.
- Return an error if the file can't be written to.
- The full -renderableOnly flag was not properly being detected (issue 252)
We welcome your comments on the discussion list.
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-10-12, Alembic 1.0.2
Hello, Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
small but useful bug fixes and a couple of new flags for some of our plugins.
Some highlights:
- In Maya don't flip V when reading and writing UVs. (AbcExport and AbcImport)
- Add a flag (-flipv) to the prman Procedural to flip V when necessary.
- Add a flag (-wcs / -writeColorSets) to AbcExport to write out color sets and
restore them on AbcImport.
- In AbcExport the -renderableOnly flag was doing the opposite of what it was
supposed to do.
- Fix bug in SimpleAbcViewer where XformSchema::getInheritsXforms() was not
being respected.
- Fix bug in AbcStitcher to prevent a segfault.
We welcome your comments on the discussion list.
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-09-15, Alembic 1.0.1
Hello, Alembic users, we've gotten great feedback from the community
and with their help we've created this collection of small but useful
bug fixes.
Some highlights:
- A collection of useful bug fixes in the Maya AbcExport and AbcImport
plugins
- The renderman procedural has some small bug fixes, e.g. fixes related
to arbitrary geometric parameters
As always, any files generated by either Alembic 1.0.0 or
Alembic 1.0.1 will interoperate. If you are working in Maya
we encourage you to look at this update.
The complete code changes for this release can be examined here:
http://codereview.appspot.com/4978066/
We welcome your comments on the discussion list.
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-08-09, Alembic 1.0
Hello, Alembic users, welcome to our first gold release of Alembic.
The complete code changes for this release can be examined here:
http://codereview.appspot.com/4819067/
Some highlights:
- Addition of the Arnold procedural.
- Removal of some things that weren't Alembic related (GLUtil)
- Addition of a python unit test suite for AbcExport and AbcImport.
- Lots of Houdini SOP improvements.
- Cleanup of many compiler warnings.
This initial 1.0 version can now be used for critical, deadline-driven
production work.
Also as usual, feedback and questions are welcome! The main discussion list
is low-traffic, but anyone can sign up and participate:
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-06-28, Alembic 1.0rc1
Hello, Alembic users, welcome to the latest beta version of Alembic. As we
close in on a 1.0 release, we hope the API and file format are now stable
and fully forwards-compatible. We consider these to be at a first
"Release Candidate" stage. (note that this doesn't yet apply to the
application-specific reference implementations). As with all pre-release
software, we can't guarantee that changes won't occur between now and a full
1.0 release.
This release is mostly a bugfix and cleanup release. We've improved the build
support for Windows and OS X, as well as conformed the definitions of the Curves
and NuPatch types more closely to the RI spec. Those changes, though, do mean
that Curves and NuPatch geometry written out with previous releases will not be
recognized with this release.
The complete code changes for this release can be examined here:
http://codereview.appspot.com/4662068
Some highlights:
- The flags and arguments for the AbcExport Maya plugin have been updated
based on feedback from the community, and to be more Maya-idiomatic.
You can see all the arguments supported by entering "AbcExport -h"
in the script editor.
- The Makefile setup for the AlembicIn Houdini SOP is greatly simplified,
though still not fully integrated with Alembic's CMake setup.
- The PRMan procedural now supports the Points, NuPatch, Curves, and FaceSet
types from AbcGeom.
One other important thing to note: previous releases of Alembic did not
require any of the compiled Boost libraries, but going forward, Alembic
requires libboost_thread.
Although this is our initial 1.0 release candidate, it should still be
considered pre-release software, and should not be used for critical, deadline-
driven production work.
Also as usual, feedback and questions are welcome! The main discussion list
is low-traffic, but anyone can sign up and participate:
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
As always, discussion is welcome on the discussion list.
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-05-18, Alembic 0.9.3:
The biggest news in this release is what we hope is the complete set of
geometric types for ALembic 1.0, which includes curves (fashioned after
RiCurves), nurbs surfaces, facesets in polygons and subds, and a camera
definition. See http://code.google.com/p/alembic/wiki/Alembic_Geometric_Types
for a complete list.
The complete code changes for this release can be examined here:
http://codereview.appspot.com/4517085
Some highlights:
- There is now a single class for expression transforms. Preivously
we had both SimpleXform and Xform objects for expressing transformation.
The new unified Xform class can be used more simply than the old
Xform class, while retaining the expressivity of the original.
- We have experimental support for building Alembic on Windows. Details
for how to perform the build can found in build/Windows/README.txt and
build/Windows/WindowsBuildSteps.html
- We've changed the API in a couple places, most notably, in the way
instances of the class class Alembic::AbcCoreAbstract::TimeSampling are
stored and referenced.
- There is a reference Houdini SOP that can read an entire Alembic archive
or a subtree of an archive with the option to bake in transformations. As
such, it could also serve as the "leaf" node for an import process which
rebuilt the full transformation hierarchy within Houdini. The intention is
to pair this with a CHOP (not slated for inclusion this round) which extracts
transformation channels from the archive. However, it is not yet integrated
into the Alembic build infrastructure, so compiling it may take some work.
As this is still a 0.9 release, it is still to be considered Beta, and
should not be used for critical, deadline-driven production work.
Also as usual, feedback and questions are welcome! The main discussion list
is low-traffic, but anyone can sign up and participate:
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
As always, discussion is welcome on the discussion list.
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-02-17, Alembic 0.9.2:
This is somewhere between a major and minor update. Numerous bugs
have been fixed, some new functionality has been introduced, and
reference Maya plugins for import and export have been added.
The code changes can be examined here:
http://codereview.appspot.com/4160045/
Some highlights in functionality:
- Maya export and import plugins are in the top-level "maya" directory.
- In the top-level "python" directory is the beginning of Python bindings
using Boost.Python. This effort is currently incomplete, but with
these bindings, the structure of an Alembic Archive can be examined.
- UVs on PolyMeshes and SubD meshes, as well as Normals on PolyMeshes,
are included in their definition, and can be written and read as
indexed arrays or expanded, non-indexed arrays, with automatic
interconversion between the two representations.
As this is still a 0.9 release, it is still to be considered Beta, and
should not be used for critical, deadline-driven production work.
Also as usual, feedback and questions are welcome! The main discussion list
is low-traffic, but anyone can sign up and participate:
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
As always, discussion is welcome on the discussion list:
##-*****************************************************************************
2010-12-13, Alembic 0.9.1:
Just a minor update to enable Alembic on 32-bit systems, along with
getting the code in examples/bin/AbcEcho reasonably working.
2010-12-08, Alembic 0.9.1:
The main things in this release are the addition of a Renderman procedural
plugin, and a bunch of bug fixes. The example Maya exporter
(AlembicSimpleAbcExport) can be used to create an Alembic file from a Maya
scene, and that Alembic file can be read by the Renderman plugin to create
images, which means that an end-to-end workflow can be achieved. A complete
overview of the changes to the code is here:
http://codereview.appspot.com/3427045
A summary of the bugs fixed in this change:
http://code.google.com/p/alembic/issues/detail?id=71
An internal implementation detail that fixed an issue where files created by
the AlembicSimpleAbcExport Maya plugin were invalid.
http://code.google.com/p/alembic/issues/detail?id=118
Another internal implementation bugfix that ensured that certain properties of
a subdivision surface were properly animatable.
http://code.google.com/p/alembic/issues/detail?id=17
Method to return a Property's parent Object simply did not work.
http://code.google.com/p/alembic/issues/detail?id=121
Methods to determine high-level type now more flexible and correct.
http://code.google.com/p/alembic/issues/detail?id=7
Build system improvement; now behaves better when trying to find the Boost
headers and libraries.
http://code.google.com/p/alembic/issues/detail?id=13
A consequence of the bug that was fixed in issue 71.
http://code.google.com/p/alembic/issues/detail?id=123
Alembic was not reading all the required data from an ISimpleXform.
In progress, we have:
http://code.google.com/p/alembic/issues/detail?id=102
This is an arbitrary transform "stack" type, roughly equivalent to Renderman's
transformation model. It has per-operation hints that allow it to be
recognized as a transform and mapped directly to another application's
transformation model. It can also be read and written as a regular 4x4
matrix.
##-*****************************************************************************
2012-2-14, Alembic 1.0.5
Bug fix release.
Fix for issue 272.
Core:
String dimensions weren't being written correctly for string arrays when copying
a previous sample.
Correctness updates to "matches(..)" (data matching functions).
Houdini plugin:
Reverting frame - 1 change.
Including a clear cache function.
2012-1-12, Alembic 1.0.4
Hello, Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
API additions and small but useful bug fixes.
Some highlights:
API:
- Now supports raw reads, and reading as a different precision, for array properties
via a new method getAs (). Currently strings, wstrings, and float16_t
can not be read as any other type.
- Added an optional velocity property to polymeshes, subds, nurbs, and curves.
Velocity is considered to be in units per second.
- Added a temporary work around for an HDF5 bug where parts of the file could become
corrupt. This workaround always stores the HDF5 links in dense storage. This can lead to
larger file sizes when you have a lot of IObjects.
- Improved the performance on partial hierarchy traversal by deferring opening of an
object's HDF5 group until truly needed.
Renderman Procedural:
- Added support for V3dGeomParam, P3dGeomParam, and BoolGeomParam
Houdini SOP:
- Dramatically increased the performance under Houdini 12 and pleasantly increased
performance under 11.1.
Maya AbcImport:
- Don't interpolate when the time values closely match the ceiling value.
- Don't create a new color set every time an animated color set is evaluated.
- Interpolating non indexed color values would sometimes cause a crash.
We welcome your comments on the discussion list.
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-11-11, Alembic 1.0.3
Hello, Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
small but useful bug fixes to our plugins.
Some highlights:
Renderman Procedural:
- Addition of Windows export information for ConvertParameters/Subdivide/Free
- Fixed an uninitialized variable for -flipv
- Fixed a string-related memory bug for declarations in ParamListBuilder
(issue 241)
- Addition of support for reading, caching and sharing argument strings from
files.
- Addition of support for restoring named resource blocks at specified paths
or names for objects and facesets
- Fixed support for getInheritsXforms in IXforms (issue 247)
- Fixed CMake where it failed to find libprman.lib because of a typo
(issue 229)
Maya AbcImport:
- Fixed compilation with Maya 2011 by adding an ifdef for the
setDisplayColors(true) call. (issue 244)
- Fixed some issues with the -connect option. Transforms weren't being
properly cleared when connection.
Maya AbcExport:
- Change for FBIK joints, there isn't always a connection to translate or
scale (like rotate for IK joints). We now treat them like they are animated.
- Return an error if the file can't be written to.
- The full -renderableOnly flag was not properly being detected (issue 252)
We welcome your comments on the discussion list.
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-10-12, Alembic 1.0.2
Hello, Alembic users, thanks to your feedback we have another collection of
small but useful bug fixes and a couple of new flags for some of our plugins.
Some highlights:
- In Maya don't flip V when reading and writing UVs. (AbcExport and AbcImport)
- Add a flag (-flipv) to the prman Procedural to flip V when necessary.
- Add a flag (-wcs / -writeColorSets) to AbcExport to write out color sets and
restore them on AbcImport.
- In AbcExport the -renderableOnly flag was doing the opposite of what it was
supposed to do.
- Fix bug in SimpleAbcViewer where XformSchema::getInheritsXforms() was not
being respected.
- Fix bug in AbcStitcher to prevent a segfault.
We welcome your comments on the discussion list.
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-09-15, Alembic 1.0.1
Hello, Alembic users, we've gotten great feedback from the community
and with their help we've created this collection of small but useful
bug fixes.
Some highlights:
- A collection of useful bug fixes in the Maya AbcExport and AbcImport
plugins
- The renderman procedural has some small bug fixes, e.g. fixes related
to arbitrary geometric parameters
As always, any files generated by either Alembic 1.0.0 or
Alembic 1.0.1 will interoperate. If you are working in Maya
we encourage you to look at this update.
The complete code changes for this release can be examined here:
http://codereview.appspot.com/4978066/
We welcome your comments on the discussion list.
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-08-09, Alembic 1.0
Hello, Alembic users, welcome to our first gold release of Alembic.
The complete code changes for this release can be examined here:
http://codereview.appspot.com/4819067/
Some highlights:
- Addition of the Arnold procedural.
- Removal of some things that weren't Alembic related (GLUtil)
- Addition of a python unit test suite for AbcExport and AbcImport.
- Lots of Houdini SOP improvements.
- Cleanup of many compiler warnings.
This initial 1.0 version can now be used for critical, deadline-driven
production work.
Also as usual, feedback and questions are welcome! The main discussion list
is low-traffic, but anyone can sign up and participate:
http://groups.google.com/group/alembic-discussion
##-*****************************************************************************
2011-06-28, Alembic 1.0rc1
Hello, Alembic users, welcome to the latest beta version of Alembic. As we
close in on a 1.0 release, we hope the API and file format are now stable
and fully forwards-compatible. We consider these to be at a first
"Release Candidate" stage. (note that this doesn't yet apply to the
application-specific reference implementations). As with all pre-release
software, we can't guarantee that changes won't occur between now and a full
1.0 release.
This release is mostly a bugfix and cleanup release. We've improved the build
support for Windows and OS X, as well as conformed the definitions of the Curves
and NuPatch types more closely to the RI spec. Those changes, though, do mean
that Curves and NuPatch geometry written out with previous releases will not be
recognized with this release.
The complete code changes for this release can be examined here:
http://codereview.appspot.com/4662068
Some highlights: