This is the 2nd beta release of v3 which fixes a lot of bugs and adds a second way of defining a render region.
We split the v3 alpha release notes into two posts: This one, which provides the download links and information specific to this particular release and a features post describing and discussing the new features and changes of 3.00. The features post will be continuously updated until we reach the stable version 3.00.
Alpha and beta version disclaimer
In contrast to v2 we want to do the alpha and beta testing publicly, to get more feedback earlier and to have changes tested more thoroughly. The plan is to let all users with a valid v2 license use the v3 alpha and beta versions until we decide that the beta period has ended and we release the first stable v3. After that you will have to upgrade to v3 or will not be able to use any v3 versions (including alpha and beta versions) anymore. We don't know yet, when that will be, but we will give you a warning a few weeks in advance so you can prepare.
Since there is a higher likelihood of severe bugs in alpha and beta versions you shouldn't use them for production work. It would be nice if you could test some production scenes with the alpha and beta versions, but you should definitely not rely on the stability of those versions to finish your projects.
In the Standalone you should be able to load v3 scenes in v2, losing only features provided in v3 and maybe some converted settings (like the new "mid level" in displacement nodes). With the plugins this isn't necessarily the case, which means that you should not create any plugin projects with v3 alpha/beta if you are not 100% sure that you want to upgrade to v3 or that you don't mind losing these projects when the beta period ends.
Offline authentication is disabled in alpha and beta versions.
Manual
The manual has been updated and will continue to be updated further in the coming weeks.
CUDA requirements
Due to a CUDA compiler bug we had switch to CUDA 7.5, which means on Windows and Linux you may need to update your NVIDIA graphics driver to a current version which supports at least CUDA 7.5. On Mac OSX you may have to update the CUDA driver for Mac to a current version supporting at least CUDA 7.5.
Changes since 3.00 beta 1
- Added an explicit restriction of the rendered area via a new node "film settings", which connects to the new "film settings" pin of render target nodes. This also replaces the resolution pin of the render target.
This means there are now two ways to define a render region: Via the node system and interactively by drawing a region. Samples that are calculated for the interactive render region are not taken into account in the regular samples/pixel statistics, while samples calculated in the region defined in the film settings are counted as regular samples (and rendering stops, when max samples have been reached).
We added this new method to solve issues which were discussed here: viewtopic.php?p=272219#p272219 - Restructured the render target node a bit and cleaned up the node inspector toolbar (you have to reset the toolbar to see the changes).
- Added support for saving the deep pixel render data within the render state.
- Reverts the change made in beta 1 to allow deeper texture trees to fix the excessive memory usage by the kernel contexts (unavailable memory was very high).
- Added command line arguments
--sign-in,--sign-outand--offlineto control the authentication via the command line. - Fixed various issues with the new authentication system.
- After loading a render state, the resolution lock will always be disabled to avoid that the rendering restarts due to a changed viewport size.
- Fixed emission on displacement triangles.
- Fixed partial geometry updates on net render slaves, which was crashing slave kernels when triangles with multiple UVs were used and partially updated.
- Fixed shutter time not getting updated sometimes when changing FPS in time controls.
- Fixed baking camera when no UV geometry is available.
- Added support for rendering backfaces when using baking position with baking camera.
- Fixed caret colour (it uses the default text colour now instead of black).
- Fixed the preview of a gradient texture with constant interpolation in the node stack editor if the control points are not ordered.
- Implemented approximate way to preview cubic gradients.
- Tried to make sure the rendered image is displayed sharp at 100% zoom level. There have been some issues with Retina displays which should be fixed now. Please let us know if there are still issues.
- Fixed bug in the PS compositing extension which caused EXRs with mixed RGB and grayscale layers to be displayed incorrectly (see viewtopic.php?p=272653#p272653). We are currently waiting for Adobe to publish the updated version of the plugin (1.0.2). Until then please download the plugin directly and install it manually (see below).
OctaneRender Standalone downloads
Windows
- 64-bit commercial version (installer)
- 64-bit commercial version (ZIP archive)
Mac OS X
- 64-bit commercial version (DMG image)
Linux
- 64-bit commercial version (ZIP archive)
Photoshop workflow plugin download (UPDATED 16.05)
EDIT: We have updated the extension to v.1.0.3 which adds support for CS6 and fixes this issue.
You can download and install the updated plugin either via the Adobe Exchange platform (version 1.0.3 hasn't been made visible by Adobe yet) or you can download it from the link below and manually install it.
Windows and Mac OS X
- Photoshop extension (v1.0.3) (ZXP archive)
Changes since1.0.2:
- Added support for Photoshop CS6: Now you may use Adobe Extension Manger to install the extension.
- OpenEXR support: Greyscale layers get their channel loaded into all RGB channels when they are part of a multilayer EXR with other RGB layers.
Happy rendering,
Your OTOY NZ Team
