OctaneRender™ 2018.1 RC5 Tweet

[tim_grove]

Jules, could you explain the logic behind GPU limits and why they exist for Octane?

Is it because of a cost or is it because you are trying to funnel customers into segments based on what their requirements might be (hobbyist, freelancer, studio)?

[renderingz]

Wouldn't it have been prudent to figure out how you want to handle this before arbitrarily cutting down GPU limits by a factor of 20?

There are quite obvious things that make this a bad decision to make without consulting the community;

Not everyone has RTX cards
RTX speedup is completely scene dependant

The approach to licensing is awfully communicated.

[stevenemersonuk]

"Important: Studio builds now only supports 1 GPU, and no network rendering. "

Could someone explain this to me? Is this only for bleeding edge / developmental releases? Or is this for all Studio releases moving forward?

If it is indeed only for the bleeding edge / developmental, it's a shame as I'm frequently happy to use these releases in my workflow.
Not all my projects have such intense deadlines etc. So it may greatly cut down the amount of feedback you guys generate on bugs etc?

A link to the FAQ mentioned would be good. Was it the FAQ Jules linked on Facebook back before Christmas?

Many thanks.

[handsomeninja]

what two gpu limit? The website still says 20gpus! I just bought a third card this week after months sparing money!! I can't use my subscription today , my hardly bought hardware because conditions changed overnight???

[Goldorak]

Jules, could you explain the logic behind GPU limits and why they exist for Octane?

Is it because of a cost or is it because you are trying to funnel customers into segments based on what their requirements might be (hobbyist, freelancer, studio)?

We have two tiers that are now priced radically far apart ($20 vs. $700+), and we try to make both sets of users feel like they are getting the best value for their segment, which is a delicate balancing act.

We do want monthly subs to be a feature complete version of Octane, so limiting compute power is the only lever we then have to separate these tiers.

If you are investing in thousands or tens of thousands of $$$ in extra GPU HW, the price delta to enterprise is minimal relative to that. For the cost of a single mid range GPU, you get an enterprise license. With RTX we will see 2 x 2080’s == 10 x 1080’s ( 20x for info passes) in some scenes, so that changes things, but to what extent is still TBD until we release 2019.2 and get real world feedback from the community.

[tim_grove]

Jules, could you explain the logic behind GPU limits and why they exist for Octane?

Is it because of a cost or is it because you are trying to funnel customers into segments based on what their requirements might be (hobbyist, freelancer, studio)?

We have two tiers that are now priced radically far apart ($20 vs. $700+), and we try to make both sets of users feel like they are getting the best value for their segment, which is a delicate balancing act.

We do want monthly subs to be a feature complete version of Octane, so limiting compute power is the only lever we then have to separate these tiers.

If you are investing in thousands or tens of thousands of $$$ in extra GPU HW, the price delta to enterprise is minimal relative to that. For the cost of a single mid range GPU, you get an enterprise license. With RTX we will see 2 x 2080’s == 10 x 1080’s ( 20x for info passes) in some scenes, so that changes things, but to what extent is still TBD until we release 2019.2 and get real world feedback from the community.

To me this is really good evidence that you need a third tier that exists between both.

I'm sure you have good data that informs your pricing but in my mind Octane has 3 tiers of consumers.

1. Hobbyists:
These consumers are out of industry and are unlikely to be using octane to make significant income. Their systems are often pre-existing and used for multiple purposes. Expect a lot of single card setups, lower tier current cards like 2060's or higher tier older generation cards like 980ti's or 1070/1080's.

2. Freelancers:
These consumers are in the industry, they are in formative years of their career, they often work from home or rent a desk at a studio space. They make less than $100k per year. They've often built or acquired systems specifically for rendering at home or their creative space. They have enough income generated by Octane to build everything from a high end single GPU system to a 4 x GPU system, sometimes using a single node licence between a laptop and a workstation. I don't know of anyone at this level with the income required to build a 10x or 20xGPU system. Their clients are often other artists and musicians, small brands, or large brands with small campaigns.

3. Studios:
These consumers are at the top of the industry. They have a proper commercial studio space and teams of employees. They make well over $100k per year. They build render farms running into the 10's of thousands of dollars, often being able to outsource all their architecture and maintenance. Their clients are film and VFX studios, and large brands with large campaigns. Often this is where freelancers get work outsourced from or even end up gainfully employed at the studio following their formative period.


I'm in tier 2 and so are lots of my friends, they often come to me to find out what the latest news is because they don't have the time or energy to sift through the forum or facebook and find where this conversation is happening. I can't help but feel alienated by the current licensing system and I know my peers do too. I know you've changed it twice now to try to keep people happy but it really should go back to the drawing board to work out what the best strategy is going forward. Freelancers are not studios nor hobbyists, and it's unfair to force them into a tier that either limits their output or makes them compete with the best in the world.

I don't have any data that can explain what tier makes you the most profit, but I really don't believe the current system takes a holistic approach to the userbase or does the right thing for Octane's future. I hope reading this brings a bit of insight for what it means to be in this position.

[bagel]

In the case of us home-gamers trying our best to get into the freelance game, Octane has been a boon. But the licensing system is confusing at best and infuriating at worst. Creating tiers only separates the home-gamers, like me, trying to make something of myself from those already elite that can afford 4 RTX Titans or more. For me, I have a pile of computers with various nVidia GPUs in them. No, I'm not professional, but it's far from a hobby for me. I don't much care for the class system the subscription model is currently going into.

Dropping this again: https://render.otoy.com/requests/?qa=46 ... ense-slave

[coilbook]

Hi Anyway to make displacement of noise with baking seamless?

Thanks

[funk]

Ive run into a couple of issue with the Octane 4 release but Im linking to them from here since they are also in the 2018 release

Color correction node clamping lighting on HDR images used in environments: viewtopic.php?p=357909#p357909




Denoiser producing dark pixels in top left of the render: viewtopic.php?p=357363#p357363

[Despot]

Great news that coating now works correctly with bump and normal .

Now I really wish the bloom/glare threshold and tightener could be implemented. When that happens Octane will be perfection for me.