This post contains answers (The complete/commercial version) (a license/download/beginner F.A.Q.) to a large part of the questions we get from new customers, which will save you a lot of time with a general overview and explanation of how it works, what you can do in case of an issue, and what's possible otherwise.
Please do not respond to this thread, but contact us via private e-mail or private messaging instead to ensure your account privacy.
If you are new to the Beta 2.3 or any higher releases and use of OctaneLive(R), please read this full message or the F.A.Q. below first for a likely answer to any questions you might be having after your purchase. We encourage questions to be posted on our support forums instead of phone or e-mail due to timezone differences therefore you will get a quicker reply.
Thank you,
The OctaneRender® Team.
________________________________________________________________________
OFFICE OPENING HOURS:
Auckland, NZ: Customer support, order processing and license activation are available GMT+12 hours 9.30am (09:30) to 5pm (17:00) West Coast, US: are available PST 1.30pm (13:30) to 9pm (21:00) London, UK: are available GMT 9.30pm (21:30) to 5am (05:00)We would like to apologize to customers who are eager to start using OctaneRender® and for not activating your licenses sooner. This is due to the relocation of our main offices to a larger location, which has caused some delays in administrative processing.
Unfortunately, we are required to activate licenses manually during office hours. We are currently working on a secure system for fully automated sales, eg, instant download and licensing after checkout.
________________________________________________________________________
OctaneRender® GETTING STARTED / GUIDE FOR NEW USERS
________________________________________________________________________
- How to download my 2.3 beta OctaneRender® License(s) ?
- Go to our home page http://www.refractivesoftware.com/
- Click 'Forum', under 'Licensed Customer Forums' (2nd group from top) click the forum 'Release Candidate Testing Forum' (4th forum from top)
- Click the first announcement post on the top of the forum 'OctaneRender® pre-Beta 2.3 v5 (win/lin/mac) [CURRENT]'
- Scroll down to 'Download' and click to download the relevant package for your platform
- Once downloaded, unzip the file in a suitable location
- Go to our home page, log in to our 'Customer Area' with your activated username and password you used to purchase your license(s)
- Go to 'OctaneLive Accounts' and there you will find your 'OctaneLive Username' and 'Password' you must use to activate your Octane Render software.
- What access do I have with my OctaneRender® License(s) ?
- The full Licensed Customer Forums for VIP support
- Access / download of the commercial versions and release candidates of OctaneRender®
- A customer area where you can update your customer profile, print invoices and retrieve your software activation keys (OctaneRender® Keys)
- Free access to our electronic v1.0 final release, and subsequent v1.1, v1,2 etc... releases. (not including v2.0 and onwards)
- OctaneRender® User Manual found at: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4071 which contains an up to date step by step guide
________________________________________________________________________
OctaneRender® CUSTOMER QUICK SELF-HELP / F.A.Q. INFORMATION
________________________________________________________________________
- 1. My old (2.2 or older) machine ID / license key I received via email does not work with the beta 2.3 or higher versions. Why ?
- 1.1 The Beta 2.3 and higher versions use a newer, internet connection based authentication system called OctaneLive®, which is explained in the next chapter.
____________________________________
- 2. How do i get my License Key(s) ?
- 2.1 The OctaneLive® service (beta 2.3 and future versions) used by the current, commercial customer access only, allows dynamic moving of licenses between computers and/or different operating systems. Licenses can be transferred an unlimited amount of times, but can only be bound to one computer at the same time. It is essentially a secure internet foundation for our product, and future products.
- 2.2 You do not need to send us your Beta 2.2 Machine ID codes via email anymore, as OctaneLive® automatically creates login keys for your license(s).
These are available in the 'Customer Area', accessible with your Refractive Software® username and password (shared with the forum, etc…), on our website homepage: http://www.refractivesoftware.com
Note: after receiving your activation mail for the OctaneLive® login it can take up to 10 minutes for this information to appear in your Customer Area. - 2.3 Note that the new Beta 2.3 series requires an internet connection (which can be of very slow speed, such as GPRS/G1 /G2 or G3 mobile phone internet) to launch the application and use the OctaneLive® content sharing and stored preferences. Additional features will appear during the next several weeks in OctaneLive®.
The software will notify you if you're connection is lost and you can continue to work on your project until it's available again, but you cannot use the other features provided such as stored prefs and content live db content sharing. - 2.4 A license must first be activated / bound to a computer. When changing computers, or reinstalling the operating system, please deactivate the license in the 'OctaneLive® Account Settings Tab' and allow up to a maximum of 60 minutes before reactivating on a different computer, or on a reinstalled computer (due to database synchronization requirements).
____________________________________
- 3. Where can I download the commercial version of the software, and/or the documentation ?
- 3.1 Any OctaneRender® licensed beta customer with free upgrade to 1.x, or 1.x final licensed customer can download the latest releases and betas from our VIP customer forum section.
You must be logged in with your customer forum account to have access to the customer forum section. (it's also case-sensitive, so username 'John' is not 'john')
This section is also much bigger then the relatively small public forum sections.
To download the latest cutting edge OctaneRender® beta, which is very suitable for demanding work and recommended by us as it has a lot of new features, go to:
"Forum" "Licensed Customer Forums" (2nd group from top) "Release Candidate Forum" (4th forum from top)
Then, download the relevant package for your platform. It is the first post in the forum on top, marked with [CURRENT].
For example: "OctaneRender® pre-Beta 2.3 v5 (win/lin/mac) [CURRENT]"
[direct link]: viewforum.php?f=33
To download the current stable OctaneRender® beta 2.2b , which is recommended for tight deadlines and mobile use (no internet connection required to launch):
"Forum" "Licensed Customer Forums" (2nd group from top) "Commercial Product News & Releases (Download here)" (1st forum from top).
Then, download the relevant package for your platform. (It is the first post in the forum on top, marked with [CURRENT]).
For example: "Octane Render 1.022b beta2.2b released (Recommended/Stable)"
[direct link]: viewforum.php?f=24 - 3.2 The OctaneRender® manual is included with all releases. A new, fully redesigned 140+ page bookmarked PDF manual is included in the new 2.3+ beta releases.
____________________________________
- 4. How do I install or upgrade the software, and what hardware do I need to use the software ?
- 4.1 Please watch our 'Getting started with OctaneRender®' video tutorials.
The video tutorials are split into bite-sized chapters, and the first chapter, 'Installation', demonstrates how to install the software and the required drivers for all 3 supported operating systems by selecting the operating system used (eg MS Windows® XP or higher, Apple Mac OS X® 10.5/6 (Leopard and Snow Leopard) and most modern Linux® distributions).
Direct link to video tutorials: http://www.refractivesoftware.com/demotutorial.html
The tutorials are produced for the betaeta 2.2 version, but the new Beta 2.3 v5 requires an identical installation procedure and and is similar in usage, so the videos are all valid for beta 2.3+ too. - 4.2 To run the software you need a computer with an NVIDIA® GPU / Video card in it, and an Intel®, AMD® or any x86 or x64 compatible CPU (processor), and 1GB of RAM memory minimum.
For a smooth experience, we recommend a PC with a low-end Intel® or AMD® dual or quad core CPU, 4GB RAM (or 8GB or more for professional users), and a fermi class GPU. (see below)
Fermi class GPUs are video cards from various brands (we recommend ASUS® and EVGA®), with an NVIDIA® fermi chip, named the GTX400 series.
At this time of writing we recommend one or 2 GTX460 cards with onboard 2GB VRAM (Video memory on the card) for users with complex scenes (exterior architecture or animation),
or the GTX480 (fastest) or GTX470 (slightly less fast) for users who want a lot of speed. (keep in mind these cards can also fit pretty complex scenes into there onboard VRAM.
You may use any number of GPUs you're system supports, but we recommend to stay within the same class/type.
Eg mixing an old Geforce 8000 with a GTX480 will not work well (the 8000 will just slow down the GTX480)
Mixing a GTX470 and GTX480 is fine, but keep in mind that you have the lowest of all GPUs used to render together available as the scene data needs to be copied into each video cards onboard VRAM.
Using multiple older GPUs does not always work well. We recommend to invest in a set of GTX460 cards (at the time of writing) as these are the best price/performance ratio, and together with an octane license cost roughly the same as a traditional, slow CPU-based unbiased render engine. - 4.3 I have a laptop or older PC and the software is very slow. What can I do ?
As the render engine in the software is not a PC application, but an embedded GPU render engine, you need a decent gaming grade video card for a smooth experience.
We recommend investing in a desktop PC with a gaming grade GPU, or use the subsampling option (the checkerboard buttons above the renderviewport, to speed up navigation) (more information on the 'GPU-X' link on our website)
____________________________________
- 5. How do I use OctaneRender® without any internet connection at all?
- 5.1 At this time you can only use the software without an internet connection with versions 2.2b and prior.
Just reply to this mail and ask for your 2.2b or lower key, providing the machine ID code the software presents after installation.
We are developing a new secure solution to enable mobile use of OctaneRender® v1.0+, without the requirement of an internet connection.
____________________________________
- 6. Where do I download the plugin(s) for my 3d modeling application like Autodesk 3DS Max®, Maya ®, Maxon Cinema 4D ®, etc… ?
- 6.1 The plugins are constantly being upgraded and enhanced. So it's best to always get a latest version from the plugin forum in question.
To download a plugin, go to:
"Forum" "Licensed Customer Forums" (2nd group from top) "Plugin Discussion/Support" and choose the relevant plugin forum with the name of the modeling/animation application.
You may download the plugins there for free, and ask support questions about them in the relevant plugin forum.
[direct link]: viewforum.php?f=26
________________________________________________________________________
OctaneRender® END OF CUSTOMER QUICK SELF-HELP / F.A.Q. INFORMATION
________________________________________________________________________
