OctaneRender 2021.1 for Houdini production build 2021.1.5.0

[juanjgon]

Hi,

This is a production release of the OctaneRender™ 2021.1 for Houdini™ plugin compiled with the Octane 2021.1.5 core. This 2021.1.5.0 release is available for the latest Houdini production builds on Windows x64 and Linux gcc6.3.1.

Houdini production builds supported by this release: 17.5.460, 18.0.597, 18.5.759, 19.0.561, 19.0.589 and 19.0.622
Additional build available for Houdini 19.0.657 and 19.5.303

This build includes the first beta version of the new Qt5 IPR Window, the core of the plugin's whole new IPR system that will replace the old OpenGL IPR Window. There are still some important features missing (like camera selector, shortcuts/preferences, background image, or snapshots gallery) that will be added this year, alongside the viewport IPR rendering feature, but the core technology is ready to be tested. The new Qt5 IPR window is available for both Windows and Linux (and macOS in the future) and it can be opened as a floating window or inside a Houdini pane.

This version supports Nvidia Ampere GPUs and as a consequence, we had to drop support for old Kepler cards with a compute model < 3.5. And please make sure to use a NVIDIA Studio driver with version at least 456.38 on Windows or 455.23 on Linux

New features
To learn more about the new features and improvements of OctaneRender 2021.1, please check out the 2021.1 release post


Release 2021.1.5.0 Enterprise subscription license
Windows builds
Linux builds
H19.0.657 builds
H19.5.303 builds

Release 2021.1.5.0 Studio subscription license
Windows builds
Linux builds
H19.0.657 builds
H19.5.303 builds

Release 2021.1.5.0 Demo version license
Windows builds
Linux builds
H19.0.657 builds
H19.5.303 builds

Standalone 2021.1.5 version for the network rendering nodes
Standalone


Release Notes
=============================================
RELEASE 2021.1.5.0
=============================================
* PLUGIN FEATURES AND FIXES:
- Added H19.0.622 plugin build.

* OCTANE 2021.1.5 FEATURES AND FIXES:
- Added new option to toggle bump/normal mapping for the ambient occlusion AOV.
- Added option to the volume Z depth AOVs that allows you define which depth is considered white (1).
- Added new pin Input axes to the vertex displacement node which provides the ability to choose between different ways how the XYZ coordinates of a vector map should be interpreted in object space.
- Fixed an issue where SSS + fake shadow enabled was rendering too dark when it sits inside another specular material that has fake shadow enabled.
- Fixed Vectron geometry becoming invisible if the bounds pin is unconnected. We now use the default bounds in that case which are 10m x 10m x 10x.
- The Bounds input of Vectron nodes doesn't allow negative values anymore and will be clamped at 0. Old scenes with negative values are converted to use very large bounds.
- Fixed another case of SSS being a bit too bright with nested dielectric.
- Fixed incorrect material rendering if RTX is disabled, nested dielectrics are enabled and you move the camera.
- Fixed incorrect rendering of Vectron geometry.
- Fixed texture projections on SDF objects (Vectron and Volume SDFs).
- Fixed a bug where auto bump map doesn't work as expected when box projection is used.
- Fixed object layer masks of volumes which were messing up custom AOVs.
- Fixed random net render hang when no local GPUs are used for rendering.
- Fixed render error when using the baking camera with a baking group ID with empty UV data.
- Fixed issue requiring you to re-login when switching versions of Octane on some Linux distros.
- Fixed issue on Windows causing an ORBX file corruption when updating files on remote drives that have been temporarily disconnected (for example by having the computer go to sleep)


Happy rendering,
Your OTOY Team

[Renbry]

"- Fixed issue requiring you to re-login when switching versions of Octane on some Linux distros."

Thank goodness! I was getting nervous for a few days when I couldn't render from Houdini -> Octane Plugin because it couldn't authorise the license.
Luckily Octane Standalone worked so I got through what I needed to.

I'm still having issues with Deadline + Octane Standalone not doing Windows/Linux path mapping unfortunately. There's a ticket open with them.

Thanks everyone,

Matt Hermans

[Renbry]

Hmm, i'm getting some differences between identical Houdini versions + same (this) Octane versions. Running Windows 10 on GPUs ranging from GTX through to A6000 but this doesn't seem like a generational or RTX on/off issue.

I know i'll have to spend time building a repro scene but this scene is a bunch of polygons, two Spectron lights and a regular Octane light.

I'm seeing different looking lights reflected in the gel orbs if you can see too ?

I am using "Surface Brightness" as the only override on the light apart from intensity.

Anyway i know these things need repro scenes but I may never get time to make one so posting this in case something is obvious.

Matt Hermans
Electric Lens Co

[juanjgon]

I've updated this post to add a plugin build for H19.0.657.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[thanulee]

Hi,

Can you add statistics in IPR about network rendering?
We can't know when slaves connect or disconnect otherwise.

Thanks

[thanulee]

Can we get the exposure slider in logical values? Now it goes from 1 to 1000 and it should be between 1-10 or something. I reported this in previous version as well.

[juanjgon]

Can you add statistics in IPR about network rendering?
We can't know when slaves connect or disconnect otherwise.

Hi,

In the new Qt5 IPR you have some statistics about the network rendering. Is there any missing information there, or are you talking about having these statistics in another place?

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[juanjgon]

Can we get the exposure slider in logical values? Now it goes from 1 to 1000 and it should be between 1-10 or something. I reported this in previous version as well.

The exposure slider has the same range found in the Octane camera imager node (in Standalone for example), so as usual, the RenderTarget HDA has inherited this range. Anyway, I agree that this huge range is not very useful, so I've updated it to 0..10 for the next 2022.1 plugin build.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[thanulee]

Can you add statistics in IPR about network rendering?
We can't know when slaves connect or disconnect otherwise.

Hi,

In the new Qt5 IPR you have some statistics about the network rendering. Is there any missing information there, or are you talking about having these statistics in another place?

Thanks,
-Juanjo

These are perfect I just didnt know they were there thanks

[juanjgon]

Post updated to include plugin builds for the new Houdini 19.5.303

Thanks,
-Juanjo