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From Slim to RSL

MaxG
2005-02-13
2013-04-25
  • MaxG

    MaxG - 2005-02-13

    Does it exist an utility that allows encode Pixar Slim format to RenderMan Shader Language?
    (I don't have Pixar Renderman Tools)

    Thanks
    Max

     
    • Okan Arikan

      Okan Arikan - 2005-02-13

         Hi Max,

         Unfortunately, slim converts the shaders into sl and compiles it while the RIB is being parsed. If you had the RenderMan Artist Tools, you could get the compiled shaders after the scene is rendered (slim does not delete them after the scene is rendered).

          Okan

       
    • George Harker

      George Harker - 2005-02-25

      There will probably be additions to liquidmaya in the near future which will allow maya shader networks to be output as .sl shaders.  I think if you look on the dev mailing list you might even be able to find some source.

      Hope that helps

      George

       
    • MaxG

      MaxG - 2005-02-26

      Thanks George.
      It would be nice if LiquidMaya were also standalone for non-Maya users.

      Thanks
      Max

       
      • Moritz Moeller

        Moritz Moeller - 2005-02-26

        Errm, Liquid is a translator. Would it be standalone, from where would the scene to translate come from???

        Cheers,

        Moritz

         
    • MaxG

      MaxG - 2005-02-26

      From file. However It would be useful if LiquidMaya were also standalone for more function (slim2sl, sl2slim, shader editor, etc...).

      Max

       
      • Moritz Moeller

        Moritz Moeller - 2005-02-26

        From what file? Maya ASCII? How would you edit that? Liquid is a tool to bridge the Maya-RenderMan gap. It will never be a shader editor. It wil translate Maya Hypershade trees to RenderMan as this makes sense. There's already ShaderMan under Windoze and it runs well under Linux through Wine too. What are you missing from this tool?

        Furthermore, to translate Slim networks based on default nodes (as most publicly available pretty much are), you need to have the node template sources. These are copyright by Pixar. For what reason would you want to risc legal hassle with Pixar? Slim networks are useless w/o Slim. If you have Slim, you can edit them and create a SL. If you don't have Slim, you will not be able to create a SL from them, even with a home-brewed (or open source, or both) Slim to SL translator, as you lack the templates they're based on. You can re-create these templates too of course, but to guarantee 100% equal results, you need to copy them 100% more or less, which means, well, breaking copyright law.

        Did I btw. mention that Slim sucks anyway? Not more than one output per node, no clever nodes possble easily (e.g a fractal noise with a user plugable basis function), templates based on an evil scripting language named "Tcl", awkward "usability", slow.
        The reason to use it anway for many people simply is that " you don't pour out dirty water if you don't have clean". :)

        Cheers,

        Moritz

         
    • MaxG

      MaxG - 2005-02-26

      Thanks Moritz for full explanation :)

      Max

       

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