Category Archives: News

Softimage 2013 SP1 available for download

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http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=DL19744363

The latest service pack for Autodesk® Softimage® 2013 software includes 75 fixes.

Here’s the list of fixes from the README:

Animation

  • SOFT-2810 Retimer Tool Softimage: Swapping Buffer curves causes refresh issue
  • SOFT-2188 MOTOR – Mistakes in tag template for BVH file crash Softimage when you click Apply in Mocap To Rig

Data Management

  • SOFT-6095 xsi crash with refmodel in texture mapping
  • SOFT-5662 Using Save Cache to Mixer button from the Caching Files Tabs causes a crash
  • SOFT-5580 RefModel: Log messages are not being displayed
  • SOFT-5555 Saving a scene with an ICE tree on a referenced model and loading it back up and you lose the ICE Tree completely.
  • SOFT-4703 Missing an expression when merge Scene

General

  • SOFT-6007 Softimage Crashes when light is deleted after 3d light manipulator is turned on
  • SOFT-1943 Crash: Animation Mixer Audio Track
  • SOFT-1294 SetTagValue will crash scene
  • SOFT-1862 Setup | Installation Progress Bar was not calculated properly

ICE

  • SOFT-6000 Using locations with BuildArrayFromSet gives an array that changes each time you access the array
  • SOFT-2761 ICE : using an intrinsic attribute name with AddICEAttribute will crash Softimage
  • SOFT-2707 ICE camera scene references break when using memo cam buttons.
  • SOFT-2521 Bullet: Crash while computing simulation with high number of small particles
  • SOFT-1785 Construction history of ICE Explorer and XSI Explorer doesn’t match in specific scenes
  • SOFT-1356 Operator deleted when deleting top ICETree
  • SOFT-1311 ICE keeps evaluating old group members until I replug or repick the appropriate group
  • SOFT-1266 Softimage crash when playing back (in loop mode) a RBD simulation.
  • SOFT-979 SDK : AddICEAttribute failed if object is deleted
  • SOFT-890 problem with ICE relations related to groups
  • SOFT-6150 ICE: Softimage crashes when copy-paste geometry (with ICE Tree) into a model followed by undo

ICE Crowds

  • SOFT-5948 Crowdfx: Crash when disconnecting the 1st ICE Node in the Get_Animations_Sources ICETree of the point cloud

Modeling

  • SOFT-5003 Modeling | “Slide on Surface” option of Proportional doesn’t work

Rendering

  • SOFT-6019 RENDERING: Setting an Invalid Temp File Path Crashes XSI On Startup
  • SOFT-6015 Material manager no longer displays clusters
  • SOFT-5986 RENDERING: Unhiding an object in the High Quality viewport crashes Softimage
  • SOFT-5947 HQV: XSI Crash On Exit When Switching To HQV With A Crowd Scene
  • SOFT-5878 Hardware Renderer Scene Option causes polymesh to appear deformed.
  • SOFT-5770 Regression – Copy/Paste Shader Compound missing a refresh
  • SOFT-5687 SDK RENDER: Memory Leak in C3DShaderParamDef When Exporting a Shader Compound
  • SOFT-5620 Ambient occlusion generated map has artifacts, in certain scenarios.
  • SOFT-5612 Crash when setting prefs in Startup event
  • SOFT-5570 XSI Crashes, when Applying A Pass Override On A CustProp That Is Being Pulled By An ICETree
  • SOFT-5564 OGL – HQV – Objects disappear
  • SOFT-5451 Regression – Shaderballs are black when using Hardware Renderer
  • SOFT-5284 Memory leak when Ambient Occlusion shader is exported and re-imported back into scene.
  • SOFT-4741 OGL -HQV Texture Repeats break the Viewcube
  • SOFT-4691 RenderTree Nodes Menu uses Replace Shader instead of Create Shader Task.
  • SOFT-4652 HQV Viewport shaders are draw black when executing from a script on a new session
  • SOFT-2922 Changing viewport shade mode to/from OpenGL modifies user normals on polygon meshes.
  • SOFT-2646 OGL HQV Refresh issue: Environment ball is temporarily visible in middle of viewport, and shaders are black
  • SOFT-1663 Tiles randomly not being rendered on multicore systems with On-Disk Framebuffers enabled.
  • SOFT-1473 A parameter’s animation icon is disappeared when creating Group or Tab in a compound shader
  • SOFT-1402 OGL HQV Shadows: artifacts on polymesh edge and component selection
  • SOFT-1320 Wrong display results with generated ultimaps
  • SOFT-1071 Linux – Incomplete rendered EXR frames when On-Disk Framebuffers enabled
  • SOFT-5036 Crash when you assign specific tiff with LZW compression

SDK

  • SOFT-6083 SDK: CRigidBodyAccessor.GetPatriarch (), GetShapes(), GetShapeCount() crashes, when no rigid body is present
  • SOFT-6025 FindView2 methods crash Softimage if the specified view does not exist
  • SOFT-6016 GetObjectFromID2 crashes Softimage if the object does not exist
  • SOFT-6003 ICE: GetPortFromName2() crashes if portname does not exist in ICE node
  • SOFT-5993 SDK: Primitive.GetGeometry3() with no arguments causes crash
  • SOFT-5970 SDK: Loading a workgroup on startup using a .wkg file causes assert and crash
  • SOFT-5861 SDK BACKCOMP: Python Import Shortcuts Syntax Help Not Compatible with Legacy Versions of Softimage
  • SOFT-5790 C++ SDK | Missing Classification Argument in Factory::CreateParamDef()
  • SOFT-5691 SDK: Memory Leak when executing WeightEditorView.GetAttributeValue( “invaliddeformers” )
  • SOFT-2709 SDK | AddScriptedOp fails on first execution under Linux
  • SOFT-1732 SDK: FCurve.Type conversion from siBooleanFCurve to siIntegerFCurve fails and asserts
  • SOFT-1546 SDK: LoadPlugin() not returning the existing plug-in
  • SOFT-6160 Softimage crashes when retrieving view collection from nested views

Simulation

  • SOFT-5355 Cannot use Simulate Bullet Rigid Bodies with states

FaceRobot

  • SOFT-2619 FR Game Export – Click on “Use Duplicate” on the Game Export PPG then Softimage will crash

UI

  • SOFT-2406 LINUX | PPGs pop under views
  • SOFT-1302 Transient Explorer pops under PPGs. ( Fedora Core 14 )
  • SOFT-5411 Scene specific: Layers nodes are not visible on SE and Layers Curves not visible on the AE with CharacterKeySets

Crosswalk

  • SOFT-6011 FBX | keying issue – being changed to 1 key in 2 frame
  • SOFT-5832 FBX material are in the wrong shader node after export import.
  • SOFT-5811 FBX : Diffuse port is missing during export / import of Blinn
  • SOFT-5677 FBX : ICE crash during FBX export in “Mesh_With_Set_ICEMaterials_Tree.scn”
  • SOFT-5632 Unused UVs in an object with “Turn Internal Edge” operation will be wrong in the FBX export-import process
  • SOFT-5352 FBX exporter is splitting UVs causing issues in pipeline
  • SOFT-5160 FBX: XSI crash when export fbx bone using Export Envelope options
  • SOFT-2308 The cancel button is not working in the crosswalk FBX import\export
  • SOFT-1725 FBX: unable to export an image node with constant shader

New product support offerings from Autodesk

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Autodesk recently unveiled its new support offerings. What does this mean for a Softimage customer?

  • Advanced support is basically Gold support renamed. You don’t lose any Subscription benefits that you already have.
  • Basic support is not available for Softimage and a handful of products, such as MotionBuilder, Showcase, Alias, and Simulation. In general, the reason why these products don’t have Basic are 1) they are acquisitions and we are maintaining the same level of support as they had before, and 2) they are complex products that require a high-level (eg expertise level) of support that our partners cannot provide.
  • Up & Ready support is available for 90 days (it was previously 30). So if you buy Softimage but not Subscription, you get 90 days of Up & Ready support for install and licensing problems.
  • Per-incident support is available for Softimage (it wasn’t before). Again, this is good for non-Subscription customers only. I believe it costs something like $150US.

Overall, the purpose of these new support offerings is to let the [majority of] customers choose the support that is right for them.

What’s new in the 2013 SDK

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I see that some of you have found the 2013 docs.
For your convenience, here’s a list of the new commands and Object Model methods, but with actual links 🙂

New Commands

New Methods (Object Model)

  • ICEAttribute.DataArray – Sets a 1D Array object containing the data defined by an attribute.
  • ICEAttribute.DataArray2D – Sets a 2D Array object containing the 2D data defined by an attribute.
  • XSICollection.Filter – Returns a subset of this collection as a new collection of objects matching the filter criteria.
  • Clip.AddProperty2 – Creates and adds a UserDataBlob or CustomProperty to a Clip object. This method is specific to the python language.
  • Geometry.AddICEAttribute – Adds and returns a new attribute data on a geometry.
  • Geometry.RemoveICEAttribute – Removes a non-built-in attribute from a geometry if not required by an ICETree.
  • Layout.CreateViewFromDefinitionFile2 – Creates a new View object given the path to its definition on disk. This method is similar to Layout.CreateViewFromDefinitionFile but specific to the python language.
  • Layout.FindView2 – Finds an existing View object given a name in this layout. This method is similar to Layout.FindView but specific to the python language.
  • Menu.AddItem2 – Adds a menu item at to end of the menu. This method is similar to Menu.AddItem but specific to the python language.
  • Menu.AddCommandItem2 – Adds a menu item at the end of the menu and attaches a command. This method is similar to Menu.AddCommandItem but specific to the python language.
  • Menu.AddCallbackItem2 – Adds a menu item to the end of the menu and attaches a callback function. This method is similar to Menu.AddCallbackItem but specific to the python language.
  • ICENode.GetPortFromName2 – Returns the ICENodePort object that matches a specific port name. This method is similar to ICENode.GetPortFromName but specific to the python language.
  • ICENode.GetPortFromIndex2 – Returns the ICENodePort object specified by a port index, group index and group instance index. This method is similar to ICENode.GetPortFromIndex but specific to the python language.
  • Operator.GetPortAt – Returns the specified Port object. This method is similar to Operator.PortAt but specific to the python language.
  • Operator.GetPort3 – Returns the specified Port object for the operator. This method is similar to Operator.GetPort2 but specific to the python language.
  • Override.AddParameterEntry2 – Adds a new entry to override the input parameter and returns the new overriding parameter. This method is similar to Override.AddParameterEntry but specific to the python language.
  • Primitive.GetGeometry3 – Returns a Geometry object containing the object’s geometry. This method is similar to Primitive.GetGeometry2 but specific to the python language.
  • ProjectItem.AddICEAttribute – Adds and returns a new attribute data on this object.
  • ProjectItem.RemoveICEAttribute – Removes a non-built-in attribute from a geometry if not required by an ICETree.
  • SceneItem.GetPropertyFromName2 – Returns a property, given its scripting name. This method is similar to SceneItem.GetPropertyFromName but specific to the python language.
  • SceneItem.GetLocalPropertyFromName2 – Returns a local property, given its scripting name. This method is similar to SceneItem.GetLocalPropertyFromName but specific to the python language.
  • ShaderArrayParamDef.ItemDef2 – Returns the underlying ShaderParamDef or ShaderStructParamDef object for this array item. This method is similar to ShaderArrayParamDef.ItemDef but specific to the Python language.
  • ShaderArrayParameter.Item2 – Returns the specified ShaderParameter item in this array. This method is similar to ShaderArrayParameter.Item but specific to the Python language.
  • ShaderParamDefContainer.AddParamDef2 – This method is similar to ShaderParamDefContainer.AddParamDef but specific to the Python language.
  • ShaderParamDefContainer.GetParamDefByName2 – Returns the ShaderParamDef that matches the specified name from this container. This method is similar to ShaderParamDefContainer.GetParamDefByName but specific to the Python language.
  • ShaderParameter.Definition2 – Returns the shader parameter definition as a ShaderParamDef object. This method is similar to ShaderParameter.Definition but specific to the Python language.
  • View.FindView2 – Finds an existing View object given a name. This method is similar to View.FindView but specific to the Python language.
  • X3DObject.GetActivePrimitive3 – Returns the 3D object’s active Primitive for a given frame. This method is similar to X3DObject.GetActivePrimitive2 but specific to the Python language.
  • XSIApplication.ActiveProject3 – Returns or sets the active XSIProject object. This method is similar to XSIApplication.ActiveProject2 but specific to the Python language.
  • XSIApplication.GetObjectFromID2 – Returns the object matching the specified ID. This method is similar to XSIApplication.GetObjectFromID but specific to the python language.
  • XSIFactory.CreateObjectFromPreset2 – Creates an object from a preset and optional preset family name. This method is similar to XSIFactory.CreateObjectFromPreset but specific to the Python language.
  • ShaderParamDefOptions.SetReadOnly – Sets the Read Only capability of the Shader parameter.
  • XSIApplication.GetCustomPropertyCount – Returns the Custom Property count for a given type.

New in Softimage 2013: Getting the selected materials in the Material Manager

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In 2013, you can use the selection view attribute to get the materials that are selected in the Material Manager.

Here’s a python custom menu item that shows how to do it. In summary, you do this:

  • Add a custom menu in the Manager Manager
  • Use a callback item, so you can get the view from the context
  • Use selection view attribute to get the names of the selected materials
import win32com.client
from win32com.client import constants

null = None
false = 0
true = 1

def XSILoadPlugin( in_reg ):
	in_reg.Author = "blairs"
	in_reg.Name = "MaterialsManagerPlugin"
	in_reg.Major = 1
	in_reg.Minor = 0

	in_reg.RegisterMenu(constants.siMenuMaterialManagerTopLevelID,"Custom_Tools",false,false)
	#RegistrationInsertionPoint - do not remove this line

	return true

def XSIUnloadPlugin( in_reg ):
	strPluginName = in_reg.Name
	Application.LogMessage(str(strPluginName) + str(" has been unloaded."),constants.siVerbose)
	return true

def Custom_Tools_Init( in_ctxt ):
	oMenu = in_ctxt.Source
	oMenu.AddCallbackItem("Get Selected Materials","OnGetSelected")
	return true

def OnGetSelected( c ):
	view = c.GetAttribute( "Target" )
	Application.LogMessage( view )
	
	Application.LogMessage( view.GetAttributeValue( "selection" ) )
	for mat in view.GetAttributeValue( "selection" ).split(","):
		Application.LogMessage(  mat )

	return true

New in Softimage 2013: Script the codec for viewport captures

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In Softimage 2013, you can use the ViewportCapture.DSCodec parameter to set the codec for your viewport captures.

http://vimeo.com/39630053

DSCodec is an string that encodes the codec ID and parameters. To get the DSCodec value, do a viewport capture and set the Codec. Softimage will log the DSCodec value in the script history:

# INFO : ViewportCapture.DSCodec: AAAAFnNwdGxycHphAAAAAAAQAAACAAAAABR0cHJsAAACAAAeAAAAAAAYAAAAGGRyYXQAAAAAAAAAUwAAAQAAAAEAAAAACW1wc28AAAAADG1mcmEAAAAAAAAADHBzZnIAAAAAAAAACWJmcmEAAAAACm1wZXMAAAAAABxoYXJkAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKc2RuZQAAAAAADGNtZnJhcHBsAAAAAA==

Here’s a Python snippet that shows how to set the DSCodec parameter:

from siutils import si
si = si()					# win32com.client.Dispatch('XSI.Application')
from siutils import log		# LogMessage
from siutils import disp	# win32com.client.Dispatch
from siutils import C		# win32com.client.constants

def dispFix( badDispatch ):
	    import win32com.client.dynamic
	    # Re-Wraps a bad dispatch into a working one:
	    return win32com.client.dynamic.Dispatch(badDispatch)

oViewportCapture = dispFix(si.Dictionary.GetObject( "ViewportCapture" ))
oViewportCapture.NestedObjects("File Name").Value = "C:\\test.mov";

oDSCodec = oViewportCapture.NestedObjects("DSCodec")

#log( oDSCodec.Value )
# INFO : ViewportCapture.DSCodec: AAAAFnNwdGxycHphAAAAAAAQAAACAAAAABR0cHJsAAACAAAeAAAAAAAYAAAAGGRyYXQAAAAAAAAAUwAAAQAAAAEAAAAACW1wc28AAAAADG1mcmEAAAAAAAAADHBzZnIAAAAAAAAACWJmcmEAAAAACm1wZXMAAAAAABxoYXJkAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKc2RuZQAAAAAADGNtZnJhcHBsAAAAAA==

oDSCodec.Value = "AAAAFnNwdGxycHphAAAAAAAQAAACAAAAABR0cHJsAAACAAAeAAAAAAAYAAAAGGRyYXQAAAAAAAAAUwAAAQAAAAEAAAAACW1wc28AAAAADG1mcmEAAAAAAAAADHBzZnIAAAAAAAAACWJmcmEAAAAACm1wZXMAAAAAABxoYXJkAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKc2RuZQAAAAAADGNtZnJhcHBsAAAAAA=="

New in Softimage 2013: Filtering XSICollections

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In Softimage 2013, the XSICollection object now has a Filter method, so you can filter XSICollections by type, family, or path name.

oFilteredCollection = XSICollection.Filter( [Type], [Families], [Path] )

I updated my find all cameras script to use XSICollection.Filter, and here’s the timing results (form the same scene, but in 2013).

# INFO : getCameras_FindObjects finished in 0.033000 seconds
# INFO : Found 8301 cameras
# INFO : getCameras_FindObjects_w_Filter finished in 0.269000 seconds
# INFO : Found 24 cameras
# INFO : getCameras_FindObjects_w_SIFilter finished in 0.044000 seconds
# INFO : Found 24 cameras
# INFO : getCameras_FindObjects2 finished in 0.001000 seconds
# INFO : Found 49 cameras
# INFO : getCameras_FindObjects2_w_Filter finished in 0.003000 seconds
# INFO : Found 24 cameras
# INFO : getCameras_FindChildren2 finished in 0.149000 seconds
# INFO : Found 24 cameras
# INFO : getCameras_SelectAllUsingFilter finished in 0.035000 seconds
# INFO : Found 24 cameras
  • FindObjects2 is fastest, with SelectAllUsingFilter a mildly surprising second (again note that I’m calling SelectAllUsingFilter with AffectSelectionList=False, so I’m not actually selecting anything). 
    FindObjects2_w_Filter		0.003000 seconds
SelectAllUsingFilter		0.035000 seconds
FindObjects_w_SIFilter		0.044000 seconds
FindChildren2			0.149000 seconds
FindObjects_w_Filter		0.269000 seconds
  • FindObjects finds a lot more than just cameras; it finds lots of nulls too because that GUID isn’t unique to cameras
  • In this context, SIFilter is faster than the XSICollection.Filter method

Here’s the updated script for Softimage 2013:

import time
si = Application
log = si.LogMessage
from win32com.client import constants as C

import win32com.client
oCameraColl = win32com.client.Dispatch( "XSI.Collection" )

si.SetValue("preferences.scripting.cmdlog", False, "")


def timeExecution(func):
    def closure(*args, **kwargs):
        startTime = time.time()
        try:
            ret = func(*args, **kwargs)
        except Exception, e:
            delta = time.time() - startTime
            log('Failed in %f seconds' % delta)
            raise
        delta = time.time() - startTime
        log('%s finished in %f seconds' % (func.__name__, delta))
        return ret
    return closure 

@timeExecution
def getCameras_FindObjects():
	oCameraColl = Application.FindObjects( "", "{5FC0CCAE-3DC8-11D0-9449-00AA006D3165}" )
	return oCameraColl.Count

@timeExecution
def getCameras_FindObjects_w_Filter():
	oCameraColl = Application.FindObjects( "", "{5FC0CCAE-3DC8-11D0-9449-00AA006D3165}" )
	oCameraColl = oCameraColl.Filter( "camera" )
	oCameraColl.RemoveItems( oCameraColl.Filter( "", "", "CopyPaste*" ) )
	oCameraColl.RemoveItems( oCameraColl.Filter( "", "", "View*" ) )
	return oCameraColl.Count

@timeExecution
def getCameras_FindObjects_w_SIFilter():
	oCameraColl = Application.FindObjects( "", "{5FC0CCAE-3DC8-11D0-9449-00AA006D3165}" )
	oCameraColl = si.SIFilter( oCameraColl, "camera" )
	oCameraColl.RemoveItems( oCameraColl.Filter( "", "", "CopyPaste*" ) )
	oCameraColl.RemoveItems( oCameraColl.Filter( "", "", "View*" ) )
	return oCameraColl.Count


@timeExecution
def getCameras_FindObjects2():
	c = si.FindObjects2( C.siCameraID )
	return c.Count

@timeExecution
def getCameras_FindObjects2_w_Filter():
	cams = si.FindObjects2( C.siCameraID )
	oCameraColl.Items = cams
	oCameraColl.RemoveItems( cams.Filter( "", "", "CopyPaste*" ) )
	oCameraColl.RemoveItems( cams.Filter( "", "", "View*" ) )
	return oCameraColl.Count


@timeExecution
def getCameras_FindChildren2():
	cams = si.ActiveSceneRoot.FindChildren2("", "camera")
	return cams.Count

@timeExecution
def getCameras_SelectAllUsingFilter():
	cams = si.SelectAllUsingFilter("Camera", "siIgnoreComponentVisibility", False, "")
	return cams.Count



@timeExecution
def getCameras_Model_FindObjects():
	cams = si.ActiveSceneRoot.FindObjects( C.siCameraID )
	return cams.Count


log( 'Found %d cameras' % getCameras_FindObjects() )
log( 'Found %d cameras' % getCameras_FindObjects_w_Filter() )
log( 'Found %d cameras' % getCameras_FindObjects_w_SIFilter() )
log( 'Found %d cameras' % getCameras_FindObjects2() )
log( 'Found %d cameras' % getCameras_FindObjects2_w_Filter() )
log( 'Found %d cameras' % getCameras_FindChildren2() )
log( 'Found %d cameras' % getCameras_SelectAllUsingFilter() )

XSI List – 2011 retrospective

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In 2011, there were just under 12K posts on the XSI mailing list. Here’s the top posts, posters, and keywords for 2011.

Top 10 posts:
I listed the top 11 because “Friday Flashback” is an ongoing thread.

  1. Friday Flashback (329)
  2. Softimage at Autodesk – an observation (212)
  3. PyQt For Softimage (153)
  4. Softimage 2012 (126)
  5. “Power Extrude” (110)
  6. 2012 AP (66)
  7. GEAR 1.0.0 Released (65)
  8. Requirements for task development? (61)
  9. Mental Ray is it going anywhere? (59)
  10. Clouds – Simul software technology (55)
  11. Ice Tutorials (55)

Top 10 posters:

  1. Alan Fregtman (431)
  2. Steven Caron (428)
  3. Stephen Blair (382)
  4. Eric Thivierge (291)
  5. Matt Lind (258)
  6. Guillaume Laforge (245)
  7. Paul Griswold (217)
  8. Chris Marshall (180)
  9. Ciaran Moloney (179)
  10. Raffaele Fragapane (176)

Top 10 keywords in Subject lines
I removed words like “Softimage”, “Autodesk”, “using”, “getting”, and “SI” before generating this word cloud.

The 2010 list retrospective, for comparison…

If you prefer Top 25 lists, here you go…
Continue reading →

2011 in review

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 180,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 8 days for that many people to see it.

In 2011, there were 475 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 722 posts. There were 542 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 354mb. That’s about a picture per day.

The busiest day of the year was October 21st with 1,182 views. The most popular post that day was Friday Flashback #40.

Click here to see the complete report.