Configuring Renderman for Houdini

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I see a lot of people seem to have the same problem, but I don't see much answers to the problem

I am trying to set up the Non Commercial Version of Renderman 20 to try with houdini. This is what I have done.

First, I set a windows environment variable under Path=C:\Program Files\Pixar\RenderManProServer-20.11\

Then I went into Houdini, under Edit/Preferences/Render and checked Renderman 20

I then modified the houdini.env

With these lines

RMANTREE=“CProgram Files/Pixar/RenderManProServer-20.11”
PATH=$PATH;$RMANTREE/bin
HOUDINI_DEFAULT_RIB_RENDERER=prman20.11

When I go to render, I get an error

CreateProcess failed for ‘prman’

If anyone knows the setup procedure, or what I am doing wrong. This would be helpful
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this thread seemed to help a number of people

https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/44421/ [sidefx.com]
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I don't know, I went through all that. And many other posts. What works for some, doesn't seem to work for others.

But I can't seem to find a simple official documentation by Pixar stating the setup procedures.

It's very strange and doesn't seem that complex to do. Set up other renderers using the environment file and haven't had any problems
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I was playing around with Renderman last month and the only two things that I did was check “edit - preferences - Renderman” like you said, and added the following to my houdini.env file:

RMANTREE = CProgram Files/Pixar/RenderManProServer-20.11
PATH = $PATH;$RMANTREE/bin

So in essence, the same as you except I didn't have the extra third line. Maybe that might make a difference?
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Well, it still does not work for me, but the error changed.

And no longer get this “CreateProcess failed for ‘prman'”

Attached is what it looks like now
Edited by vertigo262 - Nov. 10, 2016 07:35:04

Attachments:
Houdini Prman.jpg (530.3 KB)

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This is all you need to do.

Edit your houdini.env

RMANTREE=“cProgram Files/Pixar/RenderManProServer-20.9”
PATH=$PATH;$RMANTREE/bin
HOUDINI_DEFAULT_RIB_RENDERER=prman20.9

And make sure you have renderman ticked in the render prefs.

Rendering is a different story though. In your RIS rop you need to have an
integrator. The integrator is what does the light path calculations, you need
to create it in shops.

On the properties tab>RIS> you'll see the parameter for pointing to your
integrator.

In shops, drop a risnet down, hop in, drop a pxrpathtracer down. Now point your
integrator parameter to this.

Sorry about my dropbox link to the scene in the thread mentioned above has
expired. I will enable it again when I get home.

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Downloaded the new release of renderman 21 NC worked right away.
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Interesting,

I didn't think 21 support was available yet.
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vertigo262
Downloaded the new release of renderman 21 NC worked right away.


Where did you download it?
I can only seem to find the Maya version on the Pixar non-commercial site.
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Oddly enough. I tried Renderman 21 on another computer. the one I could not get 20 working on and it doesn't work.
but what is weird is the config is identical to the other computer.

Not sure what is going on, I checked folder perms, but the issue. Very strange
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Interesting. Figured it out. I originally installed the files with the downloader, and then copied the downloader to another computer. and installed it. But by doing that, it messed up the NC license file.

Once I redownloaded a new installer off their webstie, and installed it, it worked fine

I think
Edited by vertigo262 - Nov. 17, 2016 02:32:32
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Yeah, it's best to let the installer just go about its business.
I am pretty sure that seeing as how Pixar make the bridge between Houdini and PRman,
and that gets rolled into Houdini, you wont be able to use 21 properly until sidefx releases
a build with the updated plugin. Pixar are saying the plugin isn't ready just yet, and I'd
imagine it'll be rolled into H16.
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Are you guys using Renderman NC with Houdini NC? Or does Houdini need to be commercial / indie in order to use Renderman NC?

Thanks
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any news on renderman 21 and h16, i get the process failed also,
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I've been using prman21 with h16 since beta. Do you have your environment variables configured?
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15.5 was working just fine, so I just copied the ones from the .env file to h16.

Do you mind sharing your variables
Edited by tricecold - April 16, 2017 09:41:36
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in the houdini.env file:

# prman config begin
RMANTREE = "C:/PROGRA~1/Pixar/RenderManProServer-21.2"
PATH = "$PATH;${RMANTREE}/bin"
HOUDINI_DEFAULT_RIB_RENDERER = "prman21.2"
# prman config end

I haven't installed 21.3 yet.
Edited by jsmack - April 16, 2017 18:26:03

Attachments:
teapot_prman21_test.jpg (90.1 KB)

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Hi there;

I too am trying to get up and running with RIS. I had it working fine in 15.5, but now I can't produce a non-black image in H16. The renderer is indeed running, and I can see an alpha, and I get no error messages. I have an integrator set, lights created, shaders assigned, but no color data being produced.

Might anyone be able to share a HIP that should produce an image?
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OK..

Managed to get Renderman work in Houdini 16 on MacOS 10.12 by entering the following in the Houdini.env file

RMANTREE = /Applications/Pixar/RenderManProServer-21.5
PATH = /Applications/Pixar/RenderManProServer-21.5/bin:$PATH
Edited by nisachar - Sept. 5, 2017 18:42:20
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