MeshVolume object
(available from version 13.17)
The MeshVolume object convert a mesh from the scene to an Octane Volume or an Octane Volume SDF.
Workflow:
-Create a MeshVolme object (Geometry / Octane section)
-Set the Type as 'Mesh Volume' or 'Mesh Volume SDF'
-Set the Voxel size to a relatively large value first (4.0 or more)
-Click on the 'Mesh Node' button, and click on a node in the scene to be used as a reference mesh.
-See the resulting grid size, (evaluated when the Octane viewport is open), and reduce the Voxel size to increase the grid size if needed.
[Edit: MeshVolume objects need to be set as 'Movable proxy' in the Octane properties in order to be rendered correctly. that will be fixed in the next release..]
Octane Volume:
With the Type set to Octane Volume, you can apply a Medium texmap.
Here are some examples:
Octane Volume SDF:
With the Type set to Octane Volume SDF, you can use this object as input to the various Vectron operator objects, and with a custom Vectron OSL script.
For example, create a Vectron object, set the osl shader to SdfNoiseMaker.osl.
Set the noise texture to an octane 'Noise texture'
Adjust the noiseScale and distMultiplier values.
'Copy node Transform' button:
If the source mesh node is scaled or rotated, the resulting mesh volume object will not take those transform into account. It purely use the un-transformed mesh.
You can use the Copy node Transform button to apply the same scale and rotation to the MeshVolume object.
Alternatively, you could Reset XForm the source mesh node. That will 'bake' the mesh to include those transformations.
Display Settings:
The 'Display as' option allows to display the MeshVolume object as the mesh of the selected node.
'Default' will use the current viewport shading.
'Wireframe' will force the mesh display as wireframe.
A dummy box will be used if no valid node is set as 'Mesh node'
Here are some samples:
Known issues:
-The current Octane engine (2022.1) has issues with the Vectron operators, and with multiple Vectron using different Octane Volume SDF objects.
Those issues will be fixed in the next engine release.
-The 'Mesh node' button might disappear if the dialog is resized in Modify mode. Work around: avoid resizing, or disable 'Expand Object Dialogs width (Experimental)' in Octane Preferences / User interface tab.
-MeshVolume objects need to be set as 'Movable proxy' in the Octane properties in order to be rendered correctly. that will be fixed in the next release
-Export to orbx is not yet supported.
Note that a simple version of MeshVolumeSDF convertion is available in the Octane Geometry Modifer, but it is recomender to use an Octane MeshVolume object instead. (The Voxel size parameter in the modifier do not take into account the scene scale units.)