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# Release Notes for Katana 2.5v2

# Release Date

18 August 2016

# System Requirements

## Qualified Operating Systems

- Windows 7 64-bit
- Linux CentOS/RHEL 6

## Hardware Requirements

- A graphics card which supports OpenGL shader model 4.0

# Feature Enhancements

## File Browser

### Favorites

The Favorites UI, in particular its context menu, has been modified for clarity.

Additionally, a number of bugs related to Favorites and Quick Links have been fixed:

- TP 208936 - If the KATANA_FILEBROWSER_QUICKLINKS environment variable contained paths which share a basename (e.g. "/tmp/shot_a/assets:/tmp/shot_b/assets"), only one of the paths was added as a favorite in the file browser.

- TP 208939 - File Browser Quick Links (provided in the KATANA_FILEBROWSER_QUICKLINKS environment variable or added by Asset plug-ins) were saved as part of the File Browser preference file and would therefore outlive the context for which they were intended. Default paths ('Home', 'Root', 'Current', 'Katana') were also saved and not repopulated in new Katana sessions, resulting in incorrect paths.

  Quick Links and default path favorites are now added as non-persistent, read-only entries.

  NOTE: Unwanted saved Quick Links and default path favorites (which may now appear as duplicates) may be removed using the File Browser UI, by removing entries from the File Browser preference file ([user home]/.katana/FileBrowser.ini), or by removing the File Browser preference file completely if no wanted favorites have been added using the UI.

- TP 219401 - (Linux only) The 'Katana' favorite directory was set incorrectly.

- TP 226757 - The File Browser Favorites list did not correctly adjust its selection when right-clicking to open the context menu.

### General File Browser Bug Fixes

- TP 224340 - The File Browser printed warnings every time a new character was typed for an invalid path ending with a path separator.

- TP 226386 - The File Browser dialog did not correctly assign keyboard focus when shown.

## Documentation

- TP 224316 - The Display Driver API documentation did not mention that 4 channel images should be encoded in ARGB format.

- TP 227068 - The KATANA Online Help has been updated to reflect that KATANA depends on PyQt 4.10.4.

- TP 227213 - The KATANA Online Help has been updated to reflect that, as of KATANA 2.5v1, KATANA depends on OpenColorIO 1.0.9, rather than OpenColorIO 1.0.7.

# Bug Fixes

- TP 225690 - The Viewer tab did not display locations of type sphere from the example project Generating Geometry in OpScript. To make this work, the required SphereRender Viewer Modifier Plug-in has now been made a core VMP, instead of one that's only available when the plugins/Resources/Examples/Lib/ path is added to $KATANA_RESOURCES.

- TP 226007 - On Windows , script output variables within single quotes used for scriptCommand parameters of RenderOutputDefine nodes lost backslashes when expanded.

  Katana now performs more consistent tokenization and variable expansion for values of scriptCommand parameters of RenderOutputDefine nodes. The rules form a subset of POSIX shell (e.g. Bash) rules. The new behaviour, which applies to both Windows and Linux, is as follows:

  - Variables inside single quotes (e.g. '$OUTPUT') are not expanded.
  - Semicolons may still be used to specify multiple commands in scriptCommand parameters, but only if not quoted.

  Note that Katana attempts to resolve each command token using the active asset plug-in's implementation of resolvePath(), which may further modify the command. For example, the default File asset plug-in calls pystring's expandvars() routine, which has slightly different semantics.

- TP 226264 - ( Windows only) The installer created invalid documentation links in the KATANA Start Menu entry.

- TP 226761 - The ExrCombine utility crashed when receiving malformed command-line arguments.

- TP 228360 - Katana could crash when encountering a scene graph location path of length 512.

# Known Issues

- TP 218742 - ( Windows only) Katana must be installed to a path no longer than ~140 characters. Attempting to install to a longer path results in an unintuitive error: "The system cannot find the path specified."

- TP 208802 - Closing the Histogram tab after use leaves the Monitor tab unable to display rendered images.

- TP 207623 - When entering a single number only in a Backdrop node, that number is not preserved when saving a Katana project or when copying and pasting that node.

- TP 199304 - The namespace parameter on Material nodes wrongly allows the insertion of Unicode codepoints outside the ASCII range.

- TP 191052 - Katana does not have any support for the texture reference object work-flows of V-Ray for Maya.

- TP 188533 - Expressions linked to non-local parameters on not previously edited Material nodes can't be evaluated.

- TP 176598 - Use of nodes that modify Graph State Variables in Interactive Render Filters is not currently supported.

- TP 123558 / BZ 50911 - When changing an array parameter's tuple count/size, any corresponding attributes are not properly updated in the Attributes tab.

- TP 114182 / BZ 49288 - When exporting a Catalog item you need to specify the export folder path to an existing folder. If the folder you're trying to export to does not exist on disk Katana will fail to export.

- TP 112544 / BZ 49051 - The Viewer tab may lose sync with the Scene Graph tab when changes to expansion state are interrupted.

- TP 107038 / BZ 47853 - Indication of attribute source nodes (such as the yellow 'glow' in the Node Graph tab) is not yet implemented in Katana 2.

- TP 105434 / BZ 47520 - Reference Expressions may not refer to dynamic parameters such as shader parameters.

- TP 85118 / BZ 41152 - When editing parameters of a node that is part of a LiveGroup node and reloading the parent LiveGroup node, the UI state of the Parameters tab is reset. This includes scroll bar positions, selections of items, and selections of nested tabs (for example Object, Material and Linking tabs for a Gaffer node).

- TP 84998 / BZ 41092 - When reloading a LiveGroup node's parameter interface and contents from its source, parameters of child nodes that are edited in floating panes disappear from those panes.

- TP 84326 / BZ 40709 - The Alembic library does not support multiple process or thread access to an Alembic file. This means that a crash occurs when modifying an Alembic file outside Katana, while it's loaded in an open Katana scene. To avoid this, you must Flush Caches before attempting to update any modified Alembic files.

- TP 84020 / BZ 40598 - Reverting a LiveGroup node does not revert its user parameters.

- TP 84019 / BZ 40599 - User parameters of non-editable LiveGroup nodes can incorrectly be edited.

- TP 84018 / BZ 40600 - Undoing a revert of an unpublished LiveGroup node does not restore the LiveGroup's editable and modified state.

- TP 83061 / BZ 40237 - Nodes can be dragged into the Group bubble of a non-editable LiveGroup node.

- TP 80738 / BZ 39261 - Operations that lock and unlock nodes do not currently create entries in the Undo History, which can lead to an incorrect node graph state when undoing and redoing operations.

- TP 74799 / BZ 36926 - The rendererSettings > displayOptions parameter of a RenderOutputDefine node for the PRMan renderer, shown when its type parameter is set to raw, cannot be set using the Parameters tab.

  For a workaround, the UpdatePrmanSettingNodes shelf script can be used. The script, available in the PRMan17 shelf, creates an AttributeScript node that converts display options, set using string attributes, to group attributes.

- TP 71965 / BZ 36691 - State badges are currently shown for attribute values of dynamic array child parameters, even though only their parent array parameter should appear with a state badge.

- TP 71954 / BZ 36663 - It is not currently possible to sort notifications in the Notifications popup window.

- TP 70217 / BZ 36176 - The 2D node Disk Render Upstream Render Outputs option does not use the batch render method, batchRender, for upstream render nodes, instead using diskRender.

- TP 70196 / BZ 36170 - Control keys (notably arrow keys) do not function as expected in shell mode.

- TP 65347 / BZ 34949 - Using Compiz can lead to text fields not receiving focus events correctly due to an incompatibility between Compiz and QT. Depending on your configuration, disabling Compiz "desktop effects" may resolve the problem.

- TP 65242 / BZ 34870 - Katana doesn't support render output directory creation for shadow, merge and script output types.

- TP 60457 / BZ 31790 - Setting an array or group parameter to an expression results in an invalid expression. Upon setting a valid expression (for example, an evaluation of an equivalent parameter on another node using getParam), the parameter is not immediately updated. To workaround this issue, close and reopen the parameter, or flush caches while the node is not edited.

- TP 56545 / BZ 28549 - Main menu commands that create nodes, notably File > Import..., File > Import LiveGroup..., and Help > I want a pony, do not create the nodes in a Group or LiveGroup node that has been entered in a Node Graph tab, instead they create the nodes in the root level of the node graph document.

- TP 12517 / BZ 16168 - Only one Monitor tab may display the results of a Preview Render. The use of multiple Monitor tabs is not currently supported.

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