Render Xgen hair in C4D via ASS?

It's not quite that simple. The xgen procedural has dependencies on other Maya libraries.

See here: https://arnoldsupport.com/2018/02/02/maxtoa-rendering-xgen-in-3ds-max/

Thanks for the link Stephen. Any hints on how to best achieve this on a Mac?

Quick update, I tried to follow the steps in the link as best as possible (given that I'm on a Mac and using C4D), but it still doesn't work.

Using the terminal I added an environment variable for Path, pointing to the Maya install as indicated in the example (both the Maya/bin and Xgen/bin folders). Afterward, I put the path for the procedurals in the Arnold render settings just like the example. Restarted everything, and still get the same error, so clearly there's something amiss.

https://arnoldsupport.com/2019/02/01/macos-rendering-xgen-procedurals-in-another-app/

Thanks for the new link, Stephen! However, I still must be doing something wrong. Even following those steps, I'm getting the same error. I followed the instruction exactly, and ensured that the folder paths matched; this is a fresh install of Maya 2018.5 and a fresh install of both MtoA and C4DtoA, everything is in the default folders. Also, when I paste the path into the plugin field in Cinema, the console lists a bunch of errors immediately after. Anyway, not sure what I'm doing wrong, but attached is a screenshot showing the steps I took and the console errors. No doubt it's user error, but at this point I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Any insight would be greatly appreciated

Ignore the plugin ID messages. Those are coming from C4D

Sorry, there was copy-paste error in my blog post. "/MacOS" was missing from the "Maya.app/Contents" part. DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH should be set like this:

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/Applications/Autodesk/maya2018/plug-ins/xgen/lib:/Applications/Autodesk/maya2018/Maya.app/Contents/MacOS

Thanks again for the update, Stephen. I tried the new path, but I still get the exact same error. This is even after restarting and doing all the steps from scratch. I've double checked the env variables using the echo command, and it appears that they're correct. I've also made sure all the file paths to Maya and MtoA are correct. Any other thoughts of things I can do to troubleshoot this?

What versions of C4DtoA and MtoA do you have?

In a terminal, with DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH set, run these commands to see whether kick can load the xgen procedural

cd /Applications/MAXON/CINEMA\ 4D\ R20/arnold/bin
./kick -v 4 -nodes -l /Applications/solidangle/mtoa/2018/procedurals

Thanks Stephen, here's the results from that command:

loading plugins from /Applications/solidangle/mtoa/2018/procedurals
| alembic_proc.dylib: alembic uses Arnold 5.2.2.1
| cryptomatte.dylib: cryptomatte uses Arnold 5.2.2.1
| cryptomatte.dylib: cryptomatte_filter uses Arnold 5.2.2.1
| cryptomatte.dylib: cryptomatte_manifest_driver uses Arnold 5.2.2.1
| mtoa_ParticleInstancer_proc.dylib: particleInstancer uses Arnold 5.2.2.1
| mtoa_ParticleVolume_proc.dylib: volume_particle uses Arnold 5.2.2.1
| mtoa_ParticleVolume_proc.dylib: implicit_particle uses Arnold 5.2.2.1
| xgen_procedural.dylib: xgen_procedural uses Arnold 5.2.2.1
| xgenSpline_procedural.dylib: xgenProcedural uses Arnold 5.2.2.1
implicit_particle shape (implicit)
particleInstancer shape (procedural)
volume_particle shape (volume)
xgenProcedural shape (procedural)
xgen_procedural shape (procedural)

loading plugins from .
none

Also, the machine I'm using for this is a Mac running Sierra, C4DtoA-2.4.5 on Cinema 20.030, and
MtoA-3.1.2.1 with Maya 2018.5.

The actual character asset I need to import is very heavy, so for now I'm testing the pipeline using just the XGen presets (calico) on a sphere exported as an Arnold standin. Is there something I'm doing wrong in the export process maybe?

test-a.ass

kick was able to load xgen_procedural, so DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH is set correctly.

C4DtoA should be able to load it too.

In CINEMA 4D, set the Arnold log verbosity to Debug, and then Render to Picture Viewer. Check the Arnold log in the Console.