Normal Maps and Color Correction Tweet

[Andreas_Resch]

Changing the Gamma doesn't do anything - so 2.2 is as good as anything else. And I don't see a "Non-Color-Data" selection anywhere, so that's not an option either. The RGB image node isn't the problem.

As for the bump map issue. I fear you got a point here. The other thread is a few months old already and the bug is still there. Plus the last official reply was "It seems to work", which isn't reassuring. I remember reporting the same issue to the Luxcore devs a few years back and they never solved it either. But there it was because in the background they already knew, that the project is going to die. I have a similar vibe here but I hope I am wrong. So far no third-party renderer for Blender has survived and thrived. That's why I'm a bit hesitant about Octane as well. I don't want to end up with even more project files that I will have to convert to Cycles in a year or so. We will see. For now I'll stay in testing mode and will hold back on production.

[linograndiotoy]

Octane is well alive, as Octane for Blender is, especially now we're working on constantly improving the addon version.

Again, the only operation that makes sense to perform on a normal map is to vay its strength (using the Multiply node) or combining them (Add node). Anything else doesn't make any sense. Unless you tell me about a situation where changing the Hue or Saturation (or whatever change the Color Correction node allows to do), we can't talk about a "bug", and we can't talk about a needed "work-around" either, since there are defined way to work with Normal maps "changes", and those implies using the nodes I just mentioned.

[Andreas_Resch]

Don't worry any longer. The Multiplier node will do for now. And if I need some more contrast, I will change the map in Photoshop and save a separate version. I never talked about changing the hue or saturation. Sometimes I tweak the contrast a bit. And the Color Correction node would allow me to both adjust the brightness as well as contrast. At least in Blender that's possible. But generally a node that doesn't work as supposed and even changes the output although it shouldn't do anything at all when no settings are changed, is something that I would look into as a programmer. Just to keep things tidy and avoid misunderstandings. A node that works differently for different sockets is prone to confusion.

And it's good to hear that OTOY intends to keep the Blender addon alive. I've been through many hopeful candidates before. Renderman, Luxcore, Appleseed, Mitsuba - there was potential in all of them. So a bit of scepticism here is expected. But an addon depends on its community. And OTOY doesn't make it easy for Blender users. The registering/subscribing is confusing. The delayed and separate rollouts of studio and prime versions is a constant talking point in the Blender forums. Restricting the Blender forum to only subscribed users keeps the community small and restricts feedback and bug reports. And the learning curve for the Blender implementation is steep, even for an experienced user like me. So Octane definitely would profit from a larger user base for the Blender version. The possibility is there and I consider Octane the only viable alternative to Cycles at the moment. But it shouldn't be too hard to get into it. So getting rid of the known bugs would be great and maybe streamline the UI would help (especially now with the switch to the addon version).

I'll keep testing and reporting. If some of the feedback is picked up, great.

[Andreas_Resch]

A little follow-up. If I feed the node through a baking texture node before going into the Normal socket, it works. Not that I would use it as a workaround, but maybe this is of some value in case the devs want to take a look into it anyway.

[elsksa]

I believe the Color-Correction node "clamps" what's fed to it. IIRC, not the case with the Range node. However, as Lino pointed out, normal map shouldn't be altered, aside from inverting the Green channel, Octane has a dedicated channel-inverter node for that.

[elsksa]

Restricting the Blender forum to only subscribed users keeps the community small and restricts feedback and bug reports.

I think that's just how the forum has been setup, many years ago. Licensed users have automatically access to licensed-areas of the forum. The same goes for other non-free-tier plugins categories.

[Andreas_Resch]

It's just that I told users in the Blenderartist forums to report Octane issues in the OTOY forum to get a better response and share the feedback. But I was told that they can't post here. I myself seem to be in a limbo somehow. I was a licensed user a few years back and because of that might be able to post here although at the moment I'm just using the free-tier version for testing.
Overall it would be great if ALL Blender/Octane users could come together here and share their experiences. This forum isn't exactly overcrowded at the moment. And the discord server is even more deserted.

[J.C]

It's just that I told users in the Blenderartist forums to report Octane issues in the OTOY forum to get a better response and share the feedback. But I was told that they can't post here. I myself seem to be in a limbo somehow. I was a licensed user a few years back and because of that might be able to post here although at the moment I'm just using the free-tier version for testing.
Overall it would be great if ALL Blender/Octane users could come together here and share their experiences. This forum isn't exactly overcrowded at the moment. And the discord server is even more deserted.

We have a dedicated Facebook group for Octane Blender. You are welcome to join there.
As far as forum is concerned it needs refreshment and mobile devices support so it is more user friendly and accessible on all devices. Until that happens I feel FB is better solution for now.

[J.C]

And it's good to hear that OTOY intends to keep the Blender addon alive. I've been through many hopeful candidates before. Renderman, Luxcore, Appleseed, Mitsuba - there was potential in all of them. So a bit of scepticism here is expected. But an addon depends on its community. And OTOY doesn't make it easy for Blender users. The registering/subscribing is confusing. The delayed and separate rollouts of studio and prime versions is a constant talking point in the Blender forums. Restricting the Blender forum to only subscribed users keeps the community small and restricts feedback and bug reports. And the learning curve for the Blender implementation is steep, even for an experienced user like me. So Octane definitely would profit from a larger user base for the Blender version. The possibility is there and I consider Octane the only viable alternative to Cycles at the moment. But it shouldn't be too hard to get into it. So getting rid of the known bugs would be great and maybe streamline the UI would help (especially now with the switch to the addon version).

I don't think you will find better alternative to Cycles nowadays except Octane maybe Unreal but this is quite different beast.

As far as licensing issues are concerned this has been alway an issue with Octane and been causing frustrations for many.
It would be nice the developers simplified the login/registering process for Blender version especially it would be much easier for all to have one Server app for all users. I'm not sure why developers still keep this unnecessary division for prime and regular users.

[Andreas_Resch]

We have a dedicated Facebook group for Octane Blender. You are welcome to join there.
As far as forum is concerned it needs refreshment and mobile devices support so it is more user friendly and accessible on all devices. Until that happens I feel FB is better solution for now.

I've been sent there via my Google results sometimes and found some information there as well. But theses days I'm not really on Facebook any more. I will check there for Octane issues now though. Thanks.