Aperture value for DOF set to zero Tweet

[Andreas_Resch]

If already posted this in the Facebook group. But as I'm not sure if the devs saw it there, I'll post it here as well.

As of now, the default value for the camera aperture is set to 0.8928571. Not sure why. But unless there's a reason for that, it would make more sense to set the default value for that to 0. Otherwise there will always be a blur for distant objects. The culprit is easy to find in the "camera.py" file.

[elsksa]

The "0.8928572" corresponds to the F-stop value of 2.8, as default.
In fact, to disable DoF, the aperture slider has to be set to 0, not the F-stops.

[Andreas_Resch]

That might very well be. But I don't think it's beneficial if DOF is active by default. Most users will not be aware of that and always have a blur on distant object. So either the Aperture value should be set to 0 by default, or there should be a parent checkbox to enable/disable DOF.

[elsksa]

Absolutely. Matter of fact, mine is always disabled unless required (typically isn't at the start of a project file). I am quite sure I shared this concern in the past.

[linograndiotoy]

The main question is why a user should or shouldn't want Depth Of Field to be on or off by default.
Do you always need it on?
Do you always need it off?
In both case the answer is no.
There may be users never using it, or using it rarely, and others almost always using it.

We can't extend our personal taste to the one of thousands users.

Right now camera options are set as in Standalone.

Also, we shouldn't underestimate our users skills and understanding. They can decide what kind of startup options they want to use.

What are the reasons it should be disabled by default according to you? Let's evaluate those.

[Andreas_Resch]

The main issue might be that Blender users are not used to having DOF ON because the DOF setting is OFF in Blender by default. So when you switch from Cycles to Octane in the same scene, the camera will usually switch from DOF set to OFF to ON. And in most scenes the aperture value might just be set too high for the user to actually know that it's on and as a result some OOF objects might become blurry without the user wanting it.

There's also no clear checkbox in Octane to turn DOF ON or OFF. In Cycles there is. So unless one spots the 0.89 value in the Aperture field, it might easily be overlooked. But here I will probably run into the default "But that's how it works in the Standalone version" block and that's it. But it might just be the case, that the Standalone version isn't that perfect either. At the end of the day the majority of Octane/Blender users will not care about the Standalone version at all - maybe not even know that there is one. And many usability improvements would just be sacrificed for that.

[linograndiotoy]

We should consider 2 important factors.

1) Using Octane is a choice, which implies learning how it works.
2) Octane and Cycles are different in so many ways. The MB on/off options is just one of those.

You mentioned the case of a user switching from a Cycles scene not using DOF to Octane.

What about the case of a user doing the same thing, but with a Cycles scene actually using DOF?

As you mentioned, there's no on/off option in Octane for the DOF.

Once again, using Octane is a precise choice. And if a user is seeking for photorealism (a good reason to use Octane), for sure he needs to know how to use DOF, among all the other things.

My feeling is that you're somehow underestimating users skills and learning/adaptation capabilities.

Dealing with camera options is something any artist needs to get familiar with when it comes to rendering.

We're not talking about rocket science here.