Toon stylized highlights doesn't work all the time

[JenusL]

While doing #26 I noticed that the stylized highlights in the Toon shader doesn't render properly every time. I haven't been able to reproduce it in kick so it seems like it only happens in Softimage.
This bug will cause test_0267 to fail randomly.

[JenusL]

I see that Arnold 5.2.0.1 has this in the release notes

#7436 Toon Render: random issues with keylight initialization

I will try the new core and see if this fixes the random issues I had with the Toon shader.

[JenusL]

I'm afraid the issue is still there so I'm keeping this open.

[JenusL]

I tried and changed all AiBegin(GetSessionMode()) back to just AiBegin() to see if there might be the new AtSessionMode set to AI_SESSION_INTERACTIVE that caused this but I still got the same bug with it set to AI_SESSION_BATCH.

@sjannuz Do you know if there are any more issues with this in the core that wasn't fixed with core ticket #7436?

[sjannuz]

Currently there is no open ticket about that. I'll try to reproduce it myself as well. Have you already tried things like using a single thread and such ?

[JenusL]

I hadn't tried a single thread so I just did, and I had the same result.
Just open up test 0267 and hit the Preview button. Refresh that several times and it's like a 50/50 chance that the stylized highlights will render correctly. I noticed that Texture search path is set on that test... So it might fail to find the texture on your machine. Will look in to that.

[JenusL]

I just tried options.parallel_node_init false with both a single thread and multi-thread but still have the same issue.

[JenusL]

Issue still there with Arnold 5.2.1.0

[sjannuz]

I just heard from the core team that they also have a failing case, and they're working on fixing it.

[JenusL]

Arnold 5.2.2.0 is out and has the same fix listed again:

#7436 Toon Render: random issues with keylight initialization

But I'm sad to say that it still doesn't work in SItoA.
@sjannuz Could you check with the core team?

[JenusL]

Still having issues with this in Arnold 5.3.0.1

[JenusL]

And still same issue with Arnold 5.4.0.0

[JenusL]

Issue is still there in Arnold 6.0.1.0.

[JenusL]

Issue still there in Arnold 6.0.2.0.