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MayaToHydra.md

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Maya to Hydra

Render a Maya scene using a Hydra render delegate.

What's it good for?

This project allows you to use Hydra (the pluggable USD render ecosystem) and Storm (the OpenGL renderer for Hydra, bundled with USD), as an alternative to Viewport 2.0.

Using Hydra has big benefits for offline renderers: any renderer that implements a Hydra render delegate can now have an interactive render viewport in Maya, along with support for render proxies.

As an example, when paired with arnold-usd (Arnold's USD plugin + render delegate), it provides an Arnold render of the viewport, where both maya objects and USD objects (through proxies) can be modified interactively.

This could also be particularly useful for newer renderers, like Radeon ProRender (which already has a render delegate), or in-house renderers, as an easier means of implementing an interactive render viewport.

What about HdStorm, Hydra's OpenGL renderer? Why would you want to use HdStorm instead of "normal" Viewport 2.0, given that there are other methods for displaying USD proxies in Viewport 2.0? Some potential reasons include:

  • Using HdStorm gives lighting and shading between Hydra-enabled applications: Maya, Katana, usdview, etc
  • HdStorm is open source: you can add core features as you need them
  • HdStorm is extensible: you can create plugins for custom objects, which then allows them to be displayed not just in Maya, but any Hydra-enabled application

Usage

Load the included plugin, mtoh, located at:

Windows: [Maya-USD-Root]\lib\maya\mtoh.dll

MacOS: [Maya-USD-Root]/lib/maya/mtoh.dylib

Linux: [Maya-USD-Root]/lib/maya/mtoh.so

Then, using the Renderer viewport menu, select GL (Hydra) - or, if you have another hydra render delegate installed, select (Hydra)

List of supported Maya nodes

Shapes:

  • mesh
  • nurbsCurve

Lights:

  • areaLight
  • pointLight
  • spotLight
  • directionalLight
  • aiSkydomeLight

Shaders:

  • UsdPreviewSurface
  • lambert
  • blinn
  • phong
  • file