Xgen Procedural Issues

[Gianmario Catania]

Hi everyone, I am having issues with the setup of the xgen_procedural in Gaffer. I tried everything in term of nodes externalProcedural, ArnoldProcedural with .ass file, USD export. They all lead me to the same result which has to do with the setting of the environment variables I believe. I did try multiple setups with the MAYA_PATH, MTOA_PATH, MTOA_PLUGIN_PATH, LD_LIBRARIES, but they all lead to the same message of xgen_procedural not installed.

Does anyone have a clear set of ENV Variables that I need to set and where they need to point to? Also I am having issues finding the procedural options for XGEN to add to my external procedural. Is there a list of attributes and their exact name somewhere?

I am using classic XGEN and not interactive grooming.

Thanks for for your help on this issue.

Gianmario

[John Haddon]

Hi Gianmario,

It sounds like you're on the right track with environment variables. ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH is the one you'll need - that's where Arnold looks for plugins, so you'll need to point it at the folder where the XGen procedural is installed. If XGen needs additional libraries then you may need to add the folder for those to LD_LIBRARY_PATH as well.

Once you have this set up, you should be able to get Arnold to tell you what the parameters are for the procedural with `gaffer env kick -info xgen_procedural`.

I don't actually have XGen to hand, so am unable to test this right now, but hopefully that gives you some pointers...

Cheers...

John

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[Gianmario Catania]

Hi John thanks a lot for your swift reply and also for helping me navigate this issue. I added the procedural path to the ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH and also added the maya and xgen lib folders to my PATH env (I am on Windows and I read that LD_LIBRARY_PATH is Linux). when I echo the variables in the cmd window I see the correct paths are getting added before starting gaffer. I also added the same lib folders to a LD_LIBRARY_PATH just in case. I am still getting this message when starting Gaffer

WARNING |  unable to load dynamic library c:\apps\win64\arnold\Arnold_7.4.1.0__MtoA_5.5.1__maya2026\procedurals\xgen_procedural.dll

so it still does not find the procedural. I also tried to add the procedural path in an Arnold Option node, I noticed it has search paths for procedurals and plugins, but still no results unfortunately.

Do you happen to have any other ideas on why this would not work at my side?

Thanks again for your precious help.

Gianmario 

[Murray Stevenson]

Hi Gianmario,

Are you able to confirm that standalone Arnold is able to see the xgen_procedural outside of Gaffer via `kick.exe -info xgen_procedural`? That may help you check that your environment is set up correctly for Arnold before introducing Gaffer into the mix.

> WARNING |  unable to load dynamic library c:\apps\win64\arnold\Arnold_7.4.1.0__MtoA_5.5.1__maya2026\procedurals\xgen_procedural.dll

This is an Arnold warning (Arnold messages tend to start with all caps "WARNING |", "ERROR |", etc), and may mean that Arnold did find xgen_procedural.dll, but was unable to load it successfully, possibly because of a missing or conflicting dependency - though I'm not equipped to suggest how to begin tracking that down on Windows. The path to the dll in the warning suggests that you're loading the procedural built for Maya 2026, which may have conflicts with Gaffer 1.6, as Maya 2026 is on VFX Platform CY2025 while Gaffer 1.6 is on VFX Platform CY2024. If there is a library conflict then you may have more luck with Maya 2025 and its equivalent MtoA release, which according to this page should be on VFX Platform CY2024.

Cheers,

Murray