OctaneRender® for Maya® beta 2.58[OBSOLETE] Tweet

[JimStar]

thomaslee1312
Look at PM please!

[Lerathon]

Hi,
Does this plugin release support kepler yet ?

[Joss]

Is there any documentation for Maya plug-in at all? Installed it, but now i can't understand how to control camera focus distance, and i can't find any clue of where to look for documentation...

[JimStar]

Is there any documentation for Maya plug-in at all? Installed it, but now i can't understand how to control camera focus distance, and i can't find any clue of where to look for documentation...

During the IPR rendering just select "region" on the RenderView that you want in focus (that works in IPR mode only). Otherwise - just set "Focal depth" attribute of Octane camera.

[Joss]

I have a script that creates focus distance locator so i can move focus all around the scene where i want.
In my scene distance is 21.7cm, and i'm getting image totally out of focus.

Also it seems with alpha channel/alpha shadow options on, image in render view is unpremultiplied.
See attached file.

[Joss]

Ok, found that there's plenty of new attributes added to camera AE template, and there's "premultiplied alpha" attribute that with those two options in renderGlobals produces proper image with proper alpha.

But now...how to fire up the light/control environment, etc, etc?
Are there any other types of objects has those new attributes added?
Couple of short tutorials would be nice.

Problem with focus is still here. Testing with autofocus=on at the moment, but i'm not sure it's ok.

[JimStar]

Joss
Yes, Octane has its own camera attributes set, I already wrote about that for focus: "Focal depth".
I'm trying to make some videos, but I'm not the 3D-artist and I do not work with Maya (I'm programmer to the core), so I can't promise that these videos will be very good. But I will try.
For environment - just add Octane SunSky Node, and set its attributes. Only one such node needed for the scene...

PS. Read the included PDF manual please.

[Doodle_Monkey]

I just purchased OctaneRender® for Maya® beta 2.58 and installed it. I have an active license of the standalone render and I activated the OctaneRender® for Maya® beta 2.58 plugin in Maya. Octane is selected as the renderer. I tried clicking on the Octane Render button in the shelf toolbar under the OctaneRender tab that was automatically created by the plugin. I don't get anything. Nothing happens. I don't get a render window. I don't get any warning messages or feedback in the Script Editor or anything. What is wrong? Everything is installed and activated and it's not working. I'm extremely disappointed. Is there an installation instruction PDF or something? Wouldn't this have been something that was worked out before charging for it? Or at least have videos available the very day of the release? Please help.

[JimStar]

Doodle_Monkey
You must have the RenderView opened before using the Octane toolshelf button "Start/Reload" - that is in the PDF manual, read it please, you will find there something that helps you.
Otherwise - you just may use the standard maya buttons "Render the current frame" or "IPR render the current frame" (that is described in the manual too), these buttons do not require the RenderView opened, they open it automatically.

[Joss]

Ehm....maybe kind of stupid question: but WHERE's pdf manual?
I can't find even installation folder of Octane for Maya, not talking about manuals.

Also, there's a list of strange/weird things noticed up to date:

1. Very slow plug-in initialization.
Loading just octane plug-in take as much time as loading all other maya native plug-ins and scripts all together.
2. Can't find any documentation. Where is it?
3. To get a proper image with premultiplied alpha user have to turn on _three_ checkboxes: attribute on camera and two checkboxes in renderGlobals.
4. Vague camera focus controls. Bu the way, why just not use native Maya focus distance attribute, or make a checkbox, something like "use focal distance from Maya"?
5. Would be nice to support default materials, maybe just at the level of diffuse color/reflectivity/transparency + textures on those attributes. Really frustrating to load scenes from previous projects with dozens of materials and not be able to quick render those. Upd: Found material converter, but still, internal conversion of materials would be awesome. But with converter it's much better now.
6. // Octane data types are registered...
// Octane nodes are registered...
// Octane settings instance is created...
// Octane settings store is registered...
// Octane camera is registered...
// Octane tool shelf commands are registered...
updateRendererUI;
// Octane UI is registered...
// Starting Octane engine...
// Octane plugin is activated.
// ...done in 0 min. 4 sec.
// Error: line 1: No object matches name: octaneSunSky1 //

7. Any progress bar for render? At the moment it's impossible to say if render is still rendering or stopped already.
8. Materials not updating in IPR window when drag'n'dropping.
9. At the moment CUDA device in renderGlobals is always off initially. Have to turn it on with every new scene manually.
10. Strange bug with normal render/IPR. Glossy material on lots of parts, when rendering it with normal render, materials renders as almost black. If the same scene feed to IPR render, and drag "specular" slider just a bit(like 0.01), material changes drastically.
I've attached couple of images from normal render/ipr.

I will edit this message if i will find anything else.

PS: But to be honest at least it handles my robot scene, i thought there will be problems with multiple references/animation of hundreds of parts - no, everything is fine. Now just to understand how lighting works.