MASH updated to 2.2.2

[Chris Hardcastle]

It's a free update to those of you who have purchased MASH or are just experimenting with the free trial. Just log-in to your account and use the link to download the latest. 

This release brings three new utilities, including one for baking out your MASH networks. It also includes a new noise type, a re-written deformer, a hold values mode on the Offset node along with a few other minor improvements and bug fixes.

Features:

General:

There are three new utility scripts, in addition the utilities menu has been tidied up.

Bake Instancer Scripts:

Create > MASH > Utilities > Convert Instancer to Objects

Select an Instancer and then run this script. It can bake either a still frame or the whole animation. The script will also perform tests to make sure the baked objects end up where you want them (offsets to rotation and position can cause things to end up where you wouldn't expect).

Connect nParticles to MASH script:

Create > MASH > Utilities > Connect nParticles to Waiter

Select some nParticles, then a Waiter, then run this script to connect the two. After doing this you can then add nodes as normal to MASH. Please note that this script only connects the particle position to the MASH network. You will have to connect per particle attributes manually (scale, rotation, id etc.).

Create > MASH > MASH Helper:

A new dockable control that allows you to quickly select the MASH nodes in your scene, it's a help when you're working in large scenes with multiple Waiters. It also affords access to the MASH utilities. Refresh the lists of nodes available for selection by clicking the 'Refresh Menus' button.

When you select a Waiter, any current selection is replaced, however when you select a node, any current selection is maintained (this is in case you wish to connect a MASH node to a selected item, such as a curve with a Curve Node.).

To make the Helper load each time you load MASH, use the button at the bottom of the Utilities tab.

Deformer:

Re-written Deformer: 

The deformer now comes with two modes:

Vertex:

Works similarly to the previous incarnation of the deformer, each vertex is moved according to the incoming position array.

Face:

Each face on an object can be scaled, rotated and moved as one. There are checkboxes to control this.

In addition when creating a MASH deformer, MASH will check if you've selected the transform rather then the shape, and alter your selection accordingly.

Influence:

Inherit Position:

Influence locator positions can now be inherited. The checkboxes that enable this are off by default.

Noise:

New Noise Type:

fBM Noise: Fractal Brownian Motion, sometimes called Turbulent Noise. As a basic explanation: whereas objects under the influence of Perlin noise will generally move at the same speed, those being moved by fBM noise will speed up and slow down.

New attribute:

Persistence: This can be used to help control both fBM and Perlin noise. It is used to control the amplitude of the frequency - but you don't need to know that, just move it about a bit and see if it does anything you like.

Curve:

Curve Scale:

This new slider acts as a multiplier for the Time Step and Animation (slide) attributes. If you have either an extra small or extra large scene then this slider will make setting up your curve animation somewhat easier. 

Offset:

Hold Values Mode:

In Hold Values mode you can adjust a 'Hold Strength' slider to slow down and pause any of the channels. If you fade this slider down, and then back up, your objects will catch up to where they should be. This mode runs as a 'simulation' and thus requires caching before sending for network rendering.

Inherit:

Connect and Create Buttons:

Quickly create and connect transforms for use with this node by using the new buttons.

Bug fixes:

Deformer:

The Falloff node now works with the deformer. Note the event system (add & remove falloff) does not work with the deformer.

Distribute:

Fixed a crash that occasionally occurred when adding this node to the rotation channel.

Multi-Curve:

Fixed a harmless error that occurred when first switching to 'Tracer' mode.

Influence:

Fixed a bug where disabling scale wouldn't work correctly.

Waiter:

Perhaps not a bug, but the Waiter now automatically set the number of calculations when in 'Use Set Members' mode (when you're moving real world objects rather then instanced objects).