Project Migration Guide

This page outlines how to migrate your Notch projects from 0.9.23.253 to 0.9.99.XXX. While most of the node systems and workflows in 1.0 are unchanged and require no changes to migrate, there are some key areas where major changes and improvements have been made, and therefore which will need special care when migrating.

We strongly recommend against migrating 0.9.23 projects in active productions to 1.0. We cannot maintain support for many pre 1.0 nodes, and so many projects cannot match the previous results when migrated.

For a full list of the deprecated nodes, check out Deprecated Nodes.

Lighting #

0.9.23.253, Voxel Cone Lighting + Point Cache

0.9.99.XXX, Hybrid Renderer

With the new improvements to the rendering systems in 1.0, a lot of the previous lighting FX nodes have been deprecated. On loading a project which includes these deprecated nodes, a Renderer node will automatically be added to the scene and the settings will attempt to roughly match the previous set up from 0.9.23. Old Lighting FX nodes will no longer function, and will display a deprecated emoji to reflect this.

• In most cases, a Standard Renderer will be added, and settings like ambient occlusion and scattering will be matched.
• If a path tracer node is detected, the new Path Tracer node will be added, and the depth / ambient occlusion / refines will attempt to match the previous nodes setup, checking the supplementary path tracing nodes too.
• If Deferred Rendering was enabled alongside RT Mirror Reflections, a Hybrid Renderer will be added with a similar attention paid to matching settings.
• All emissives will have ‘Emissive Lights Scene’ disabled, as Emissive materials didnt emit light in 9.23.
• Anti-Aliasing has changed a bit with 1.0; some methods have been deprecated or made unique to certain renderers, while newer methods have been added which. In cases where no direct AA method exists, AA will default to Off.

Finally, you should not expect scenes to match their pre 1.0 lighting. Large parts of the render engine have been entirely rewritten, therefore even with heavy tweaking of renderer properties the underlying technology is completely different, and cannot match. The positive, is that it will generally run a lot faster and look more physically accurate.

For more information on the new rendering workflow, take a look at the new Rendering page.

To see the list of affected Lighting and Lighting FX nodes, check out the Deprecated Nodes page.

Raytracing #

0.9.23.253, Path Tracer, RT Refinement, RT Ambient Occlusion

0.9.99.XXX, Path Tracer

The new rendering workflow has made all of these nodes obsolete, scenes with the individual raytracing nodes in them will be replaced by the deferred renderer, and scenes with the path tracer + refinement will be replaced by the new path tracer with the refinement built-in.

As with the Lighting changes, improvements to the performance and lighting quality have meant that results cannot be guaranteed to match with a pre-1.0 project.

For more information on the new rendering systems, take a look at the new Rendering page.

Bins #

Bins have been removed for 1.0, and in their place a new system called Assets has been created. You can think of assets as bins that are easier to use, share and edit (and way more powerful too). Unfortunately, there isn’t a direct migration path for bins to Assets, so they will need to be migrated manually if you choose to do so.

To do this, you’ll need to load all of your old bins into a project in 9.23 and save this project. Load this project in 1.0, and manually convert the individual node systems into assets using the Assets creation guide.

For more information on the assets workflow, take a look at the Assets page.

Fields #

As a general rule, upgrading a Field system to 1.0 is not advised. The new simulation technology is substantially more advanced than what was previously available, so while the same Emitters and Affectors will still work, the settings will need to be adjusted significantly to generate similar behaviour to older releases.

2D Field systems mostly work in the same way as previous releases, the only major change being the Field Root becoming the Field 2D Root. The Field Renderer has also had a name change to the Field 2D Renderer, to reflect this change. Further, the properties of the Fluid Affector have now been incorporated into the Field 2D Root, to match the settings of the 3D Field.

However, 3D Field operate quite differently, and you should not expect similar results to previous releases. If you are seeking a workaround, a good starting point is to set the Temperature Mode to Forces Only and adjust the Advection Modes to Simple. Density may also need to be adjusted for all Fields to match previous behaviour. The properties for fluid simulation previously existed on the Fluid Affector, but are now built into the Field 3D Root and the Field 2D Root, so you may need to adjust the simulation performance and vorticity values to match the previous behaviour.

The rendering of 3D Fields has been completely rewritten to function with the new Rendering system. As a result, 3D Fields require a new Field 3D Renderer to render the field in the scene. There is also no longer a need to add special nodes to light a field system - the field will be accurately lit by the lights already present in your scene. Old scenes with the previous Field Lighting nodes will require new light setups to match the previous look.

Shading #

The Shading nodes in version 1.0 have undergone a complete redesign. This means that existing systems will need to be rebuilt from scratch.

In most cases, this will only involve reconnecting the nodes to either the colour or normal inputs on the material. In some cases, some properties may need adjusting too, but these changes will likely be minimal.

For more information on the new shading nodes workflow, take a look at the new Shading page.

Realsense Cameras #

Support for Intel Realsense cameras has been removed.

Property Connections #

Lots of nodes have had their properties moved around and renamed. In some cases, this can mean a connection (such as from modifier to a property) breaks and will need to be reconnected manually.

Below is a list of known properties where this is the case.