mayaMatchMoveSolver v0.4.5.beta1 - MM ImagePlane support in useBackground shader

[David Cattermole]

Hello everyone,

I've just released v0.4.5.beta1.

This new beta release contains a critical feature needed for any matchmove task; MM Image Plane node rendering "behind" objects with "useBackground" shaders, with the use of MM ImagePlane.

This change allows users to use MM ImagePlane to render "hidden line" effects from Maya, just as was possible with Maya's native imagePlane node. To use this feature, please switch the Viewport 2.0 renderer to "MM Renderer".

Feel free to download from the GitHub releases page for testing:

https://github.com/david-cattermole/mayaMatchMoveSolver/releases/tag/v0.4.5.beta1

Once I get the thumbs up from people that have tested the new change I will release v0.4.5.

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This release also significantly changes the direction of the MM Renderer development.

It's been too hard/impossible to implement the various features I originally outlined in the GitHub issue while keeping good performance, intuitiveness, robustness and stability.

As a result of the difficulty faced I have decided to cut back the features to the bare minimum - useBackground rendering support with MM ImagePlane.

Other features, such as silhouette rendering are still planned once I can work out a good implementation.

The Display Layer rendering and compositing feature is currently dropped completely as the drawing/rendering overhead is too large and various Maya API Viewport 2 limitations make the feature set required really hard or impossible.

Thanks,

David