Live DB Import keep network consistancy. Tweet

[fantome]

Hi Guys,

I think it would be great when using Octane Live DB inside Houdini, to keep network consistancy beetween Octane Standalone network and Houdini Shading Network.

For exemple if i import a bamboo shader from live DB in standalone it give me this :

But when i import the same live DB shader in Houdini it give me this tentacular tree :

That would be great to get the exact same tree , and not have all the extra nodes.
Because it add complexity in the graph that is not needed, and it make the graph harder to read.

For the moment i had to
- manually delete each extra node
- set the correct value in the parameter view
That would be great if graph were identical by default

Cheers
E

[fantome]

hi Juanjo, sorry to bring this topic back, but i was wondering why you need to build all the possible nodes when importing a material in houdini from the octane DB ?
It is really time consuming to have to clean every material and delete every useless nodes to get the same network as in standalone for each material.
Is it a restriction from houdini side ? you can't bypass this ? that would be so much easier to only have 5 nodes when your network has only 5 nodes in standalone instead of 50 nodes.
do you think this could be solve in the future ? or do i need to learn to live with that cause it's the way houdini do things ?

thanks for your lights !
Cheers
E

[juanjgon]

Perhaps the plugin could avoid all these extra nodes, but it is not easy at all, so I don't have any ETA about when it could be available. The problem is that the Octane nodes have physically all these aux nodes to configure the main node's parameters, so the plugin should get the parameter's data from the aux nodes and somehow copy them to the main nodes. I need to think about it.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[fantome]

Thanks for your very fast feedback Juanjo !
If it's a PITA to get a clean graph from LiveDB, i was wondering if it would be doable to implement something similar to the material orbx in Maya Plugin ?

basically you just clic a edit button and it open the external octane standalone UI, were you can edit things.
https://docs.otoy.com/MayaH/MayaPluginM ... RBXMat.htm

would it be easier to do something like this ?
would it be compatible with indie license restriction ? for import only i think it would work, only export would be impossible.

The goal behind this is to be able to use a shader that was design in Maya or C4D or Standalone or whatever app and to import it in houdini.
At the moment i am able to use the SOP orbx but it lock editing possibilities on the shader, it's a read only access.
The problem with building your shader library dierctly in SHOP or MAT is that you are Lock into houdini when using indie License you can't export your work to other software in order to reuse them.
This is why i prefer to do lookdev in standalone or maya and then import the agnostic orbx inside houdini.

One easier option could be to just color the octane nodes that are important, and set an other color for the nodes that are not in the graph but need to be created
This could be trigger as an optionnal behavior in the Octane Option Panel regarding liveDB options ?

Thanks again for your great support Juanjo.
Cheers
E

[fantome]

Juanjo,
regarding this RFE, i was wondering if coloring the node that are in the initial orbx shading tree with a specific color could be possible as a quick fix ?
For exemple if the initial orbx contain 7 nodes. Those 7 useful nodes would have a yellow color in houdini mat tree.
That would help a lot to isolate them among all the others.

this could be a good temporary fix before you find the time to find a proper solve.
cheers
E