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.
Conversion Tools
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.
Viz Engine version 5.3 and newer provide basic tools to automate these tasks, however, these tools can only assist in basic tasks and do not perform a complete conversion, some manual adjustment is still needed. The tools are located in the Conversion Tools dock. The following tools are supported for now, the functionality will be extended in the next versions of Viz Engine.
Open a Classic Scene, change the Render Engine to the Viz Engine Render Pipeline and choose which type of helper you want to use:
Materials
Creates a new Phong material based on the same settings as the classic material. Existing textures are set into the Phong color part.
Lights
Creates compatible lights based on the existing classic lights. All classic lights are reconstructed as new Engine Renderer lights inside the scene tree. Unused lights are not needed, can be deleted afterwards.
Texts
Converts existing Classic text objects to the new font render system in Viz Engine Renderer. The tool convert the original font data into the new format and replace the Classic Text plug-in to Viz Engine Renderer Font.
Classic Text objects can also be converted on a container base level by usign the context menu and choose the “Convert Classic Text…” entry.
Information: The original base font needs to be available on the Graphic Hub to allow a correct conversion.
Particles
Helps in transitioning old ParticleFX objects into the new Particle System.
Feature Replacement Table
The following table lists differences between the Classic Render Pipeline and how to achieve the same on the Viz Engine Render Pipeline.
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 Viz Engine Render Pipeline. Viz Engine scenes require a global environment for rendering. |
Front- and Back-Layer | supported for compatibility | Front- and Back-Layer in the Viz Engine Render Pipeline use internal GFX channels for compatibility reasons. |
Self Layered Scenes | removed | Self layered scenes (Same scene in Front- and/or Backlayer) are not supported in the Viz Engine Render Pipeline. |
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. |
Glow | 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, use GFX Channels or Scene Views instead. |
Dynamic Texture | obsolete | Dynamic textures are not supported anymore. Try to replace them with Viz Engine Shaders or Texture Renderers if needed. |
Interactivity using Viz Scripting Language | partially implemented | Simple mouse object picking is supported already to allow for some base interactivity with Viz Engine Renderer. |
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.