The newest version of Octane overheats my computer when it's real hot out, like today.

I'm going to buy a new computer in August.

Can I buy a license today for the sale price but not activate it until August?

Thanks for your reply.

I get it at the bottom of simple shapes and at the point where the back of a cylinder rounds away out of view.
It can almost make the object look semi transparent.
I think Greg is correct, maybe somebody can give us a more technical explanation of the difference between mesh smoothing and normals ...

I seem to get shading errors in Octane if I have smoothing on but I get faceting if I have it off.
Any suggestions concerning what I can do about that?
The shading errors are more pronounced if the model was exported to modo from another application than they are if the model originates in modo ...

Can someone suggest where I can find out about area lights in Octane - position and controls?
I watched the video on the homepage but that just comments on HDRI.
I've searched around the user interface and can't seem to find anything.

Thanks

What differences are there between the demo and the beta?
Thanks.

Is there any kind of PDF manual for Octane, or any other downloadable format?

This is important. I don't buy tools if I don't see an active and dedicated support for them and I'm willing to bet I'm not alone doing so.

You're definitely not alone. I tend to rate software by how active the forums are - that tells me how wide the user base is, how enthusiastic they are about ...

Solved the problem myself.
I haven't worked with OBJ files before.
Faces can't be angled pieces, otherwise they get 'triangulated' like that.

Thanks for the quick reply.
Turning off Smoothing got rid of almost all the shader errors but not the strange triangulation.

Any thoughts on that?

I created this model in SketchUp, imported it into modo, cleaned it up and saved it as an OBJ.
The file looks fine in modo but when I open it in Octane I get all these strange triangles and shading errors.
Any advice is appreciated