Modo material Smoothing Angle in Octane Tweet

[ChrisKesler]

Hi there!

I was browsing the forum for an answer but unfortunately couldn't find anything, so I figured I'd quickly make a new thread
When I apply a Modo material to my mesh and then add an Octane material override, the material smoothing angle seems to get a bit wonky.
Basically I normally play with the smoothing angle until I like something and then set it in a vertex map for certain areas, so I use that quite a lot.

I noticed that when I change the smoothing angle in the material nothing changes in the Octane render viewport, unless I reload the entire scene OR strangely enough re-assign the material to the geometry.
Is there a way to set it so that it updates on the fly?


Thank you very much,
Chris

[face_off]

How are you changing the smoothing angle in the Octane Override pls?

Paul

[ChrisKesler]

Good morning Paul,

I'm trying to change the smoothing angle in the Modo material itself. I couldn't find an Octane option for smoothing angle in say the 'Car Paint' shader and Octane does register the Modo material smoothing angle change, but only after I reload the scene or reassign the material. In the Car Paint shader itself I can only see a checkbox 'smooth'.

Thanks,
Chris

[face_off]

My understanding is that the Modo Material Smoothing Angle is for setting the vertex normals. Once the vertex normals are set, if you open the Octane Viewport, AND the Smooth checkbox is ticked, that Octane material will use the Modo vertex normals to smooth the material. Does that answer your question?

Paul

[ChrisKesler]

Hi Paul,

No, because that's exactly the problem.
Modo material smoothing angle is for setting the vertex normals, correct.
I want to adjust the smoothing angle to find the best value and then add it to a vertex map, but Octane doesn't register any changes to that parameter unless I reload the entire scene.
So the bottom line is: I'm trying to find the best smoothing angle for a given material, but reloading the entire scene for every little value tweak is not practical.

I suppose the answer to my original question is that there is no way to see this updating in realtime in the Octane render viewport?

[face_off]

I want to adjust the smoothing angle to find the best value and then add it to a vertex map, but Octane doesn't register any changes to that parameter unless I reload the entire scene.

In normal circumstances, Modo does not signal to plugins when the geometry normals for a mesh have changed - so there is no way for a plugin such as OctaneRender for Modo to know the mesh has changed. However, if the Render Cache is enabled in the Modo Octane Preferences, the mesh may reload (you will need to check - make sure you tick Live Geometry Update for the mesh in question). Be warned that the Render Cache is still WIP for TheFoundry, and is therefor not stable - so I would only use it for tweaking the normals - and restart after you turn off the Render Cache.

You can also control the smoothing angle in the Mesh itself - turn on Live Geometry Update and Load Cage, then adjust the smoothing angle. This only works if there is no vertex map would for the mesh.

Paul