Issue with HtoA not loading alShaders

[Lorne Kwechansky]

Not sure if anyone's seen this before, but one in every few systems I bring online will for whatever reason decide to do this...keep in mind here they all share identical .env files, all pointing to the same server install of HtoA with Anders' files merged into the plugins folder.

Warning:    Bad node type found: arnold::alHair in /shop/white_fur.

Error:      Unknown operator on load "alHair1.def".

            Unknown operator on load "alHair1.parm".

            Unknown operator on load "alHair1.userdata".

Normally I'd just assume I botched something on the setup, but literally as I write this, 4 render nodes are happily munching on frames despite all using the same Arnold and alShaders install.

All boxes just have these lines in their houdini15.0 env files:

PROJECT_ROOT="S:/unilever"

HOUDINI_IMAGE_DISPLAY_LUT="$PROJECT_ROOT/PIPELINE/ocio/ocio_linear.sRGB_to_ACES.Rec709.ODT/houdini/linear.sRGB_to_ACES.Rec709.ODT.lut"

HOUDINI_IMAGE_DISPLAY_GAMMA="1"

PATH = "$PATH;S:/unilever/PIPELINE/houdini/htoa_H15.0.244/htoa/scripts/bin"

HOUDINI_PATH = "S:/unilever/PIPELINE/houdini/htoa_H15.0.244/htoa;&"

So if anyone's seen this and knows a fix, or if anyone has any good ideas on what I could check out, please let me know!

Oh and this happens both under my 15.0.244.16 HtoA install and my 15.5.480 HtoA install. Neither one loads the corresponding alShaders, despite loading Arnold just fine along with other plugins.

[Frederic Servant]

Hi Lorne,

It looks like the alHair shader is missing or corrupted in your current setup, but present in your scene.

Does the Houdini startup log print alHair in the list Arnold shaders being loaded? (you need to start Houdini from the command line tool to see the startup log on Windows).

--

Fred

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[Lorne Kwechansky]

Yep it's in the print out and fails to initialize along with all other Al nodes.

[Lorne Kwechansky]

Here's the error message from it failing to find the plugins:

WARNING | unable to load dynamic library S:/unilever/PIPELINE/houdini/htoa_H15.0.244/htoa/arnold/plugins/alBlackbody.dll: The specified module could not be found.

But all other machines are pulling from that folder just fine, and all non-AL plugins are still loading from that folder on the machine too. If I navigate to that exact path on the box, I see all the .dll files just fine. And this still happens in H15.5.480 with the corresponding htoa_H15.5.480 network install and AL package.

It's really an odd thing.

[Frederic Servant]

You can try to load the shaders in Arnold with "kick -v 5 -l <path to shaders> -nodes t" to check if they load in plain Arnold.

[Lorne Kwechansky]

SOLUTION:

Anders pointed out that it was probably an issue with my VC++ and after installing the one found in this link, all is working well!

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999

Just wanted to make sure to log this here so anyone else finds it if they run into the same.

Thanks Frederic!