Viz Artist User Guide

Version 5.1 | Published October 31, 2023 ©

Moving from the Classic to Viz Engine Pipeline

This document describes the various differences between the Classic Render Pipeline in Viz Engine 3.x and the Viz Engine Render Pipeline introduced in Viz Engine 4. As the Viz Engine Renderer is a new implementation, there are known incompatibilities when switching between Classic and Viz Engine Render blades.

Features and missing functionality will be added in future versions. For a list of known limitations, please refer to Viz Engine Release Notes.

Moving existing scenes from the Classic Render Pipeline to the Viz Engine Render Pipeline requires some changes in how to design your scenes or how to use certain plug-ins. Some functions provided by plug-ins are now integrated either directly into the new Viz Engine Render Pipeline or are now obsolete.

The following table lists differences between the Classic Render Pipeline and how to achieve the same on the Viz Engine Render Pipeline.

Feature Replacement Table

Classic Render Pipeline Feature

Viz Engine Render Pipeline Feature

Comment

Shaders in General

-

Classic shaders do not work anymore in the Viz Engine Render Pipeline. This affects all fragment as well as vertex shaders (for example: RTT, PixelFX etc.).

Global Scene lights

obsolete

Scene lights have been replaced with container-based Viz Engine lights.

HDR Lighting

obsolete

HDR environment rendering is an essential part of the new render pipeline.

Viz Engine scenes require a global environment for rendering.

Front- and Back-Layer

obsolete

Front- and Back-Layer functionality should be replaced with GFX Channels.

Stencil Shadows

removed

Deprecated - Only Shadowmaps are supported.

Projector and Projector Target

removed


Bump Map Shader

obsolete

Integrated into PBR Materials as normal/height map.

Glowing

removed

The old Glow Implementation was quite slow and has been dropped. It should be replaced by Bloom effects.

Per Object Lighting

obsolete

Per object lighting has been replaced with container-based Viz Engine lights.

Multitexturing

removed

Replace with Texture Slot plug-in.

Image Blending

removed

Dynamic Scene

obsolete

Dynamic Scenes are not supported anymore, try to use GFX Channels instead.

Dynamic Texture

obsolete

Dynamic textures are not supported anymore. Try to replace them with Viz Engine Shaders if needed.

RealFX, Particles

not yet implemented


Interactivity using Viz Scripting Language

not yet implemented


Tonemapper, Gamma Correction and Color Spaces

The Viz Engine Render Pipeline is designed to be in linear space whereas the Classic Render Pipeline is sRGB. If pixels are alpha blended, there can be different colors that get blended due to linearization. The Viz Engine Renderer can automatically apply Tonemapping Effects, Gamma corrections etc.

For Media Assets that should not be touched by these effects please use the Masking plug-in.