Fusion 16_MasterPrefs Env Var

I think I've seen/looked at everything on the net so far about env variables regarding to fusion. I currently have various paths like macros and scripts pointed to a network share, which is great when I append the share after the default paths in the preferences. And I've recently just installed Reactor to the network share as well and that works swimmingly as well.

We have a several users here that I want them to have the same path mappings without me having to go on each machine and changing each pref by hand. I have a logon script that auto downloads some prefs files for hotkeys and the render node prefs for cryptomatte to work, but I don't have it download the regular Fusion prefs because that saves layout info and people like their windows set differently. Setting the MasterPrefs env variable works, sometimes. I got it to work, but then noticed it would only update in the User section of the path maps. And then after several attempts at changing the prefs file I was pointing to with the env var, it stopped updating when i relaunched Fusion.

So, the question, I guess, is two fold.

1: Do you need to use the FUSION16_MasterPrefs env var in conjunction with FUSION16_PROFILE_PATH to get it to work correctly? Its currently not working for me, though it was.

2: Should the MasterPrefs file that I make overwrite the current ones in the regular prefs file? I thought I read that somewhere.

[Steve Roberts]

By adding Locked = true, at the head of the Network prefs, it will make this Master pref as the dominant pref.
like this:
{
Locked = true,
Comp = {


Normally it will merge the prefs together, and then save them as local.

Thanks for your reply. I still can only get it to work like 50% of the time, and even then it only adds user paths and doesn't overwrite the default paths.

I did notice that sometimes after I load fusion to check the result, the order of the Fusion.prefs gets rearranged, almost like when you sort an excel column in reverse order, like gets flipped from top to bottom and vice versa. So I'm not sure if order is relevant for the master prefs and fusion.prefs files to be in the same order or something. I just don't know how it actually searches the two files and combines it. That info might actually help me diagnose it.

Secondly, I tried just deleting all the path maps in the Fusion.prefs and restarting fusion, and that worked! But again, if I make a change in the master prefs file I'm trying to use, it won't overwrite the current path maps; not on the default paths anyway.

I also tried as a test just changing a different setting using an example I found online to turn off the EnableReverseMapping setting. In the prefs file it will change to false or true depending on what I have in the master prefs file (sometimes) but I noticed that the little checkbox in the preferences window will never be checked "on" unless I manually check it on.

Are these things something to do with the "locked = true"? Or is it a bug that it only works some of the time? Has anyone gotten this to work reliably?

After more futzing around, it does seem like the "Locked = true" snippet seems to keep it in line. I must have put it in the wrong spot before.

For anyone wondering, what Steve said works but I was following this guide:

https://www.steakunderwater.com/VFXPedia/96.0.243.189/indexdca0.html?title=Environment_Variables

Where it put the "locked" bit under the things you're trying to edit like this:

Code: Select all

{
   Global = {
      Network = {
         IsRenderServer = false,
      },
   },
   Locked = true,
}

and I had to do this:

Code: Select all

{
   Locked = true,
   Global = {
      Network = {
         IsRenderServer = false,
      },
   },   
}


I'm not sure if that really matters, but it started working for me that way.