managed to do something like this with the above file - added faloff on the opacity channel on top of all of this.. that dispersion around the edges is the key - I tried getting the same result through the scatter node, but didn't appear to be achievable.. - it's slower with the alpha channel on
..basically it is a huge pain in the ass to do anything with volumetrics, it seems something is achievable through this cone/sss technique - only it will go through the geometry (maybe if the volume detects and automatically booleans the cone with any geometry it touches.. can be achieved - or - some workaround the octane team could do inside the 3dmax plugin).. like at least it can behave like a post effect, or create some fake volumetric light.. or bring us example scenes with usable setups to analize from..
- BTW check this one for volumetric photos just cause it's nice:
https://vizkultura.hr/izgubljena-noc/