this is the first release of the next development cycle (2.2x). Compared to version 2.16, it mainly adds 3 new features which have been a while in the making:
Render Layers
Render layers allow you to separate your scene geometry into one part that you want to be visible and the rest that "captures" the side effects of the visible geometry on it, as described in this proposal: viewtopic.php?p=207200#p207200
This feature is meant for compositing and not to hide parts of the scene, for which you either would disconnect the geometry to not render or use the general visibility in the object layer node. As a consequence, render layers really make sense only if you enable the alpha channel in the render kernel.
To assign an object to a layer you can use the pin "Layer ID" in the object layer node, which you assign via an object layer map node to a mesh. The render target has a new pin "Render Layer" which connects to a render layer node. There you can specify the layer you want to be visible. The main beauty pass will then only render this layer and cut out everything else, but the real power is in the shadow and reflection layer passes, where the "side effects" of the render layer are captured. You can use those to compose the render layer on some background and with shadows and reflections.
We currently distinguish between 2 shadow types: "Black shadows" and "coloured shadows". Black shadows are caused by opaque materials or specular materials that don't have the "fake shadow" option enabled. They are basically what the matte material is capturing and can be composed using normal alpha blending. Coloured shadows are shadows that are cast by specular materials with the "fake shadow" option enabled. The corresponding coloured shadow layer pass needs to be composed onto the background using multiplication. The "shadow layer pass" will capture both black and coloured shadows and also needs to be composed onto the background using multiplication.
More details on how to use render layers for compositing can be found here.
Multiple UVs
A mesh can have now up to 3 UV sets and the UV projection node got an option to choose the UV set you want to use. Unfortunately, OBJ doesn't support multiple UVs and Alembic doesn't have an "official" specification for multiple UVs and most Alembic exporters don't seem to export them. Octane tries to look for data that looks like additional UV sets in Alembic files and the plugins will have the possibility to export them, too, via the Octane API, but for now it's kinda tricky to use this feature if the source geometry doesn't supply multiple UV coordinates.
Alpha Refractions
A new option in the specular material that, if enabled, will give specular materials alpha transparency if the alpha channel is enabled in the kernel settings. The way how that works is by making reflections opaque and but refractions transparent. As a consequence, absorption, SSS and coloured specular transmission are not properly rendered with this option enabled.
Other Changes
- The environment render pass is now an info pass and will contain the environment over the whole image.
- The option "keep environment" got removed from the render kernel nodes. This option never really made sense, since blurry effects like DOF don't work with it. With the modified environment render pass you can now compose something between the environment and the scene.
Download
Windows
- 64-bit installer
- 64-bit ZIP archive
Mac OS X
- 64-bit DMG
Linux
- 64-bit ZIP
Happy rendering,
Your OTOY NZ Team
