Maya 2017 light editor in render layer problems

[DavidHenion]

Maya 2017 Update 4:

Have a scene with 20 or so lights. Create a render layer where I need to turn off all but a few lights. So I drag the lights in to the layer, double click on it to open the light editor - and start turning off lights - this is where it all goes haywire.  I can turn off about 3 lights then the whole thing just becomes unresponsive - can't turn off more lights, can't even turn the ones I did back on.

So delete the lights from the layer and try again - this time I solo a light, its turns off many of the other lights, but not all. The ones that are still on, I can't turn off.

Put a bunch of lights in a group - turn off the group and it only turns off the first light in the group.

Driving me nuts - am I missing something basic here?

Really wish it didn't automatically add lights to layers, I'd rather just add the ones I want - but whatever, I can turn the ones I don't want off if only it would work.

[mspeer]

Hi!

Edit: removed.

I think i don't understand your question correct,

Please upload a scene-file and/or a screencast.

[DavidHenion]

See attachments.

I double click on the lights in the layer in the render setup window.

I turn off the "enable" checkbox to try to turn off lights.  Just tried again now and when I tried to uncheck enable for one light, it disabled another light!

In Maya 2017 render layers now automatically get all lights (this was not the default behavior in 2016 I believe.)

I will work on stripping down the scene to post a sample.

Thank you.

[mspeer]

Hi!

You are right, the default behavior for lights is changed for Maya 2017 (didn't recognize this, because i still work with Maya 2016.5).

I also was able to reproduce your problem. After changing "Enable" of some lights a slow down and freeze of Light Editor (only, rest of UI still responsive) happens for some seconds. This problem seems to be independent from Render Setup and also happens in scenes without any render layers.

[DavidHenion]

Glad to hear its not just me - now just wish there was a solution.

My only work around now is to delete the lights and save as a separate maya file for each render layer - which kinda defeats the whole point of a render layer manager! 🙂

[cornelh]

@DavidHenion@mspeer

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, I will reach out to the Maya Development team about this, and do my own testing (as well as with 2018).  They may have re-designed how it works, or this in fact could be a defect?   I will let you know what they say.  Thanks

[jordan.giboney]

Hi @DavidHenion,

Thanks for your patience with this post, I was catching up with @cornelh's research and report back as accurately as I could 🙂

I've done some research, and the good thing is these have already been reported as a Defect and our Development is already hard at work on a fix for this. We have a lot of internal projects involving the improvement of this tool, and we are hopeful that upcoming releases will provide a more stable experience. As of right now, there is no workaround listed from the dev's, but I found that I was able to get the enable/isolate buttons to become responsive again if I grabbed a light in the Light Editor and rearranged the order (seemed to "wake up" the option to click those boxes). 

Just to make sure, I would make sure that your GPU drivers are up to date, and reset your preferences to ensure that there are no corrupted tools or scripts that are causing additional problems. There has been some work in 2018 that has made this tool more stable (I experienced the unresponsive symptom far less in that version), so if you have the ability to upgrade I would recommend it 🙂

Lastly, if you have any ideas on how to improve this tool (more features, improved UI, etc.), please do not hesitate to let us know by posting to our Feedback Forum - we always appreciate the opportunity to improve our software.

If you have any further questions please let me know 🙂 I'd be happy to help!

[jordan.giboney]

Hi @DavidHenion

I just wanted to check in and see if there was anything else I could help you with regarding this question 🙂 If you have any additional questions I would be happy to help. 

Also, if you have any difficulty logging into our Feedback Forum, please let me know. We have had some reports of account issues related to the site but I can reach out to the right people to get that fixed for you 🙂

Thanks again for posting! Best of luck with your projects, and have a great day.

[mspeer]

Hi!

@jordan.giboney i just wanted to add this thread

"After all these versions we finally got the light editor a couple versions back and were finally able to edit multiple lights (at least color, intensity etc.) at once, without having to use the channelbox or attrib spreadsheat and guess some nice RGB values for colors for multiple light."

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-shading-lighting-and/multi-light-editing-light-editor/td-p/73751...

I also would like to see this feature back, it was very helpful and for me the main use of Light Editor, fast and easy access to multiple lights at once.

Changing 10 lights at once is 10 times faster then doing this one by one.

For a final scene you can make use of expressions and other stuff, but not when building and testing scenes which is the bigger part of a project.

[jordan.giboney]

Hey @mspeer

Thanks for the reply! And I completely agree; the advantages of that tool are undeniable. I will make a note of your suggestion in our Defect Database, as I have found one specific to this feature. If you have the time, I would recommend posting it on our feedback forum as well (this will double the efforts and hopefully expedite the process).

Thanks again for your assistance and input!