Why enviromental FOG is such a struggle? Tweet

[MartinBoom]

I costately see all other DCC apps getting easy, well optimized environmental fog/volumetrics working wonderful with Octane.
In Max they don't work. 2018 here. what am i missing?

PS: i can't even duplicate this 8 Year old techinique.
Also, the outstanding lacking of visual/learning of 3dsmax and octane is huge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGQI5_gjgzs

cheers

[paride4331]

Hi MartinBoom
Medium environment should be considered as a kind of atmospheric effect.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=56728&p=291355&hilit=fog+medium#p291355

You can try using a traditional fog cube
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=59549&p=304625&hilit=fog#p304633

Best using the "unit volume" node
viewtopic.php?f=51&t=82067&p=426574&hilit=+fog#p426574

Alternatively you could try using vectron
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=78552&p=405269&hilit=+coilbook#p405269

Regards
Paride

[MartinBoom]

Thanks Paride,

i'll try the last two methods. the other ones are really full of problems and limitations.
i've seen caustic/focuesed volume effects in cinema. wondering what are the limitations here.

[paride4331]

Hi MartinBoom,
The video you shared is using a medium node in the DayLight:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=56728&p=291355&hilit=fog+medium#p291355
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=56599
I don't understand what issues you're referring to. Are you sure you've correctly set up your Kernel?
Regards
Paride

[jimho]

I was also struggling a lot with fog when begin to use octane render.
I personally believe part of the reason that octane's fog is a problem for us,
is the default model of medium is based on a bad assumption which made the fog effect very flat.
that is the default medium is preset as a sphere which is around the camera lens, what we usually expect is a gradually fall off effect that means the fog should around the object instead of the lens, but seems otoy do not want to change this basic assumption...

[skientia]

To complement Paride's messages, here is a page on Octane's volume.

A new section will be added to specifically cover "environmental fog".

[frankmci]

I'm still a big fan of the 2D Specular Plane hack. Place a plane to cover the camera's FOV. It can be quite small, and a child of the camera object. Make a Specular material with both an IOR and Transmission of 1. Add a Scattering Medium to the plane and you've got a simple, fast volumetric fog that interacts with lights (glows, god rays, etc.) and that can be moved a set distance (and scaled accordingly) from the camera to determine the starting range of the effect.

This trick was broken for a while in some older version of Octane, but it works again, at least as of Octane 2023.

There are lots of other, more refined ways of doing it, but as a quick 'n' dirty trick when you just need to get it out the door fast, it works wonders. Here's a simple example. This is not a split A/B render comparison, but a single render with the "fog filter" positioned to only cover the left half of the frustrum. It works for murky underwater shots, distant landscape haze, whatever.