Pixar Renderman compatability with Rhino 3D 5.0 64

Hey Felix,

Just a few notes on this: Rhino5 install seems to be missing those files. The missing files in Rhino 4 have been located here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Rhinoceros 4.0\Plug-ins\RIB

If you use the regular rib output of Rhino5 (i do not mean RhinoAIR), then it writes this searchpath into the ribfile when you save your scene as *.rib:

Option "searchpath" "shader" "&:C:/Program Files/Rhinoceros 5.0 (64-bit)/Plug-ins/"

But the files simply do not exist over there. To fix that, i would suggest to set up a global searchpath pointing to a folder containing the files attached below. Let me know what errors you get next.

RIB_missing.zip (34.2 KB)

c.

A very god riend of mine, who, as a matter of fact, lead the animation team of the Simpsons movie, the storyboard for Fantasia II, was in charge of animation for the Grog Princess, and has done quite a few other movies, uses Rhino a lot. I don’t think ou know how much Rhino is used in animation. gain, because Pixar gave Renderman out free recently, you didn’t get many questions because it was an expensive program, people didn’t have it. This is like the hardware store that does not stock 1/20 20 bolts, because when he ran out, he never restocked, so his inventory show no sales of 1/4-20 bolts, so he never stocks them. I see a lot of fear to expand here. You state Rhino’s uses, and I hope that is not all you think Rhino is used for. You seem to have forgotten ship building. The NURBS modeling is excellent for mold making, and I was a mold maker for years.

If someone gives their time to provide a useless answer, I do not think it is necessary to Thank then for "filler posts.

That is a ridiculous statement. People should offer factual information. Trying to influence of discourage people from working with what they have, and you do not kow what the end result is of what I am trying to do, is presumptuous. This thread,

As to giving out something free, I said a few paragraphs of code, there was no mention of a program. That sentence could be interpreted a few was, what I was looking for was the reason why the exported file did not open from Rhino, when the export option is there, but does not “really” work. That should be stated in the program. Then I wouldn’t have to waste your time or mines, and read all the “How wonderful Rhino is” statements, and explanations of what Rhino does, especially as so many uses were not stated. I wish this thread would end. I won’t reply to anything unless I am addressed personally, or belittled. I speak German and Spanish, so language is not a barrier.

Render DotC is around $3000 dollars. A lot, considering the state of the economy. I downloaded Aqsis, I don’t know if it trial, shareware or buy, there was no mention of money. RIB Mosaic provides a complete interface between Blender and Renderman, interesting?

I just wanted some information and I did get some. Thanks for those of you who did actually offer information. For those of you who seem to think you are in the position to direct people’s interest, and have some kind of insight, if a thread when someone asks for specific information, if you feel you need to turn that person away because you think it’s too difficult, at that point, when you reach that conclusion, don’t post, mind your own business and don’t post, or, if you have the gonads, just say: “You’re too stupid to learn that so don’t bother”.

I have read so many threads on this forum that have people who need to post something, with no value. I do think Rhino is great. I don’t know, maybe because I actually make objects that I design in Rhino, from a Barn, to car parts, I have a machine shop, I have made bicycles and trikes. I am designing a 16’ foot Sharpie boat, amongst other things, and a “Tramp Bar” system for my M.G.'s rear suspension, I see this programs abilities in a far wider spectrum than those who posted in this thread, with the exception of a few. Bye.

@clement From box2.rib I created a new file box2_edited.rib where I replaced:

Option "searchpath" "texture" "&:C:/Program Files/Rhinoceros 5 (64-bit)/Plug-ins/"
Option "searchpath" "shader" "&:C:/Program Files/Rhinoceros 5 (64-bit)/Plug-ins/"
Option "searchpath" "archive" "&:C:/Program Files/Rhinoceros 5 (64-bit)/Plug-ins/"

with:

Option "searchpath" "texture" "&:C:/Temp/RIB_missing/"
Option "searchpath" "shader" "&:C:/Temp/RIB_missing/"
Option "searchpath" "archive" "&:C:/Temp/RIB_missing/"

Still, shaders are not found:

C:\Temp>dir RIB_missing | head
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 8234-1652

 Directory of C:\Temp\RIB_missing

04/03/2015  04:28 PM    <DIR>          .
04/03/2015  04:28 PM    <DIR>          ..
01/18/2007  05:09 PM               374 brushedmetal
01/18/2007  05:09 PM               215 checker
01/18/2007  05:09 PM               685 checker.sl

C:\Temp>prman box2_edited.rib
S01001 {WARNING} Cannot load shader "rh_background". [<Loading Shader>] (System Error: No such file or directory)
S01001 {WARNING} Cannot load shader "rh_paintedplastic". [<Loading Shader> Object: ] (System Error: No such file or directory)
R12001 {ERROR}   File Cherry Polished cannot be opened by RiReadArchive. (System Error: No such file or directory)

hm just guessing here, did you compile your shaders for prman ? If not, please try it with one shader first. Go to a command prompt, and navigate to C:\Temp\RIB_missing then type this:

shader brushedmetal.sl

If your commandline then shows “brushedmetal: compiled” and you have an brushedmetal.slo file there, please try rendering again. If it still complains, what happens if you define a global searchpath ?

Here are some links to consider:

https://renderman.pixar.com/resources/RPS_17/options.html#searchpath

http://renderman.pixar.com/view/simple-shader-writing

http://renderman.pixar.com/view/a-rib-file-line-by-line

c.

Er, no. But I did it now, for some, according to your instructions:

c:\Temp\RIB_missing>shader rh_brushedmetal.sl
rh_brushedmetal: compiled.

Anyhow, if I remove all materials, then I can render. However, if I add a simple material, such as red matte, to my test model box3.3dm (54.4 KB) then rendering fails:

c:\Temp>prman box3_edited.rib
R12001 {ERROR}   File Red Matte cannot be opened by RiReadArchive. (System Error: No such file or directory)

I still don’t know how to define a global search path, so I just edit the search paths in the .rib file.

Hi Felix,

if you name your Rhino material eg. “Red Matte” this has nothing to do with materials of renderman at all. (The rhino helpfile has an error here). Save your file from Rhino as a *.rib file and open the *.rib file in a text editor. You will see that line:

ReadArchive "Red Matte"

An archive is not a material. I´m not shure why Rhino’s rib exporter adds that. :wink:

To get materials working, you can start using the standard Rhino material dialog it should just write color etc. to the rib file. Once you assign a texture, rhino automatically assigns rh_paintedplastic to this object in the rib file. Once you have compiled this rh_paintedplastic shader i would first check if it is found. If not, your searchpath is not set properly. But from your recent post i think the searchpath works as you don`t get the error about missing rh_background anymore which is good. (this should be once compiled if not).

Please try this next: delete your material assignment in Rhino. Then just create a blank new unnamed rhino material (assign by object, not layer), then change the color, gloss, reflection and transparency values of this material and assign any texture in the texture slot. Save as *.rib. Open the *.rib file in a texteditor and you should see rh_paintedplastic is the shader which got written somewhere below the AttributeBegin of your object. eg. like this:

Surface "rh_paintedplastic" "roughness" 0.067451

Now, add your searchpath in the rib file and try to render. Does it find rh_paintedplastic ?

A global searchpath is not set in the local rib file to render. Usually you have a rib file in your renderers home directory, eg. when using AIR this is called air.rib and located in C:\ProgramFiles\AIR\air.rib. There you can define searchpaths, archives etc. I´m not shure if prman allows the same, but you can try that. Maybe search for a file “.rendribrc” as stated in the Rhino helpfile under RenderMan (.rib) Export.

Note: all written above applies if you write your rib files without RhinoAIR, just using Rhino -> SaveAs *.rib.

Btw. You may later try to use RhinoAIR to write rib files. If you don`t want to start AIR for rendering, just use AirExport command. Then you manually have to send the rib to prman to render it, eg. using one button macro for both steps…

Without RhinoAIR i currently see no way to get access to full shader assignment and value control from within Rhino.

c.

Yes, but I had to do some additional edits to make it render:

  • Adjust paths. (Didn’t yet look for a global configuration, but thanks for the suggestion!)

  • Replace:

    Surface "rh_paintedplastic" "texturename" "C:/Users/Public/Pictures/SAMPLE~1/CHRYSA~1.tif" "roughness" 0.056631
    

    With:

    Surface "rh_paintedplastic" "roughness" 0.056631
    

    As texture I assigned one of the Windows 7 sample images, which are in JPEG format. The RIB exporter instead specified a TIFF file in the same location, which doesn’t exist. In a previous experiment I tried creating the TIFF file by converting the original JPEG image, but RenderMan didn’t take that either.

  • Remove:

    ReadArchive "New material 001"
    

Ok good. I´ve found that if you do not assign a texture at all, it uses the rh_plastic shader by default. The reason why it does not eat jpg format is explained here:

https://renderman.pixar.com/resources/RPS_17/rendering.html#Using_textures

One feature of AIR in comparison is that it converts images automatically so you do not have to do that everytime. The ReadArchive thing is something i don’t fully understand according from the Rhino helpfile. It could only be used if you eg. define archives containing a material, however this would overwrite your material assignments done through the Rhino interface and it would require to give a file extension after the archive name eg:

ReadArchive "Chrome.rib"

Since this does not define a path, you would have to make shure the rib file is found in one of your searchpaths. It then may contain the material reference and attributes.

c.

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That also explains why it didn’t eat the TIFF that I created from the JPEG using gm convert image.jpg image.tiff:

The TIFF texture format, containing tiled image data and Pixar-specific tag information.

You guys really took off with this. I have almost given up. For what I am doing, I don’t need such fancy Rendering, as I am ending up with a finished product.

My friend, who did The SImpson’s movie, “The Frog Princess”, “The Meaning of Life”, says they do many stills and stitch them together from many programs. From there “mum” is the word. Proprietary information I guess.

Thanks for your continued interest. I guess there is no easy way. At least somewhat easier. I can blueprint an M.G. engine in the time it takes to get some of these programs to work together, (and in fact, since the last post I made on this forum , I did blueprint an M.G. 127 motor!!).

It would have been nice to have seen a way that these two programs could work together. Since the “.rib” function does not really work with Renderman, why is it there?

Also, two of the links: https://renderman.pixar.com/resources/RPS_17/options.html#searchpath2

http://renderman.pixar.com/view/simple-shader-writing--- 404’d, but the 3rd one was very interesting.

The nerve damage in my hand makes for some sloppy typing, I apologize for that, but “Shure” sure used to make a nice phonograph cartridges!! :smile:

My animator friend smiled at the thought that "Rhino was geared primarily at Construction and “Rendering”, he commented on the nature of what a series or anime, or animated features are, a series of Stills and Renders, stitched together. He was just given an Honorary .Phd. from the University of Taiwan, for his work in animation, and left Dizney after over 10 years. He makes far more doing consultation work.

Thank You for you help. Your work on this at least told me which way not to go, and that can be worth a lot!!

“.Rib” should be removed as an extension because it does not interface, or function in any manner I can discern, I am not sure what it does at all as Renderman does not even recognize it.

I still do push RHINO big time on my forum, as it is great for making some of the most complicated paper models, ships, tanks, and models of anything else you can imagine, from flat sheets of paper, though other mediums are more than welcome. The model below the “Messana” an ugly French dreadnought) was designed exclusively using Rhino. It would take around a year of on and off building, 3 months dedicated. He builds these models as he finds them to be so ugly! They make excellent topics. Rhino is used for many many things. This SuperBolt (below) an XP-72by Republic (never saw production) is a beautiful paper model, all done in Rhino.

Since my working with Rhino usually ends up with an object, virtual flights of fancy aren’t of much use, except for inspiration, and that is an end unto itself. Thanks.

Still a personal project but I think it’s pertinent to discussion: RenderMan for Rhino integration prototype

Best, R

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Where are you with this? I visited you Facebook page, and the link posted their is not registered and apparently available in Europe? Are you going to sell this, I just could not discern from what you are posted where you are what and what you intend to do with this. I do hope you succeed! :wink:

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