Custom AOV Connection on referenced SG gets lost

[jakob.schwarzAHQFZ]

Hi everyone,

so this is my case: I have a modeling publish where there's dummy shaders and shading groups already assigned to my geo. This file gets referenced into my shading scene. There the dummy shaders are replaced by AiStandardSurface that get connected into the existing SG via reference edit. As well as a displacement shader that gets plugged into the SG. So far so good.

Now I also want to have a aiWriteColor of the displacementShader to be connected into a custom AOV slot on the SG. Works as expected! Renders fine, AOV is there. Reference edits do their job.

The problem: after saving and re-opening the file the connection to the customAOV seems to get lost. The reference edits are still there, the connection is still there in the node editor but in the attribute editor on the SG the custom AOV slot is blank, and the object renders completely black! It's not only the AOV thats broken, but everything. The whole object with that shader assigned renders completely black.

Is there any way around this? Is there another way to get the aiWriteColor info of the displacementShader into the customAOV?

Thanks for your help.

Best regards

[Stephen.Blair]

Where is this aiWriteColor node? Plugged into the SG, or plugged into the displacement shader? Can you post a screenshot?

[jakob.schwarzAHQFZ]

Actually I found out myself. The fault was like Stephen asked, the aiWriteColor was plugged into the SG itself, after changing that and plugging it between the texture and the displacement shader did the trick. Seems to be working. Thanks!

[jakob.schwarzAHQFZ]

PS The documentation about the AiWriteColor is a lacking a bit how to use it. Would be nice if an example how to use it would be added.. 🙂