See below for the problem. The fix is to add the following code at line 127 in "fs_OctaneExporter.py"
lx.eval('poly.convert face subpatch true')
Just before this line:
lx.eval('!!scene.saveAs "%s" wf_OBJ true' %obj_export_path)
I think the transform scale is wonking the normals, and this wil re-smooth the normals so the mesh looks good in Octane. Note that you may get an "unexpected indent" msg--just make sure the indent is spaces not tabs when you add the code above. Also, now if you uncheck "smooth" in a material in Octane, you will see facetes, as you'd expect.
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So, I can't seem to get to the bottom of this, but there seems to be a smoothing bug when exporting a model form Modo to Octane...
If I export a model (e.g. a sphere or any mesh--I tried lots!) from modo as an .obj, then bring it in to Octane & set the smoothing bool to "true", all is good. But when I export the exact same model using the modo to octane script, the resulting model in Octane is faceted. Even if I try to, by hand, emulate the steps that the export script is doing, e.g. "poly.freeze false false 2 false true" to freeze the mesh, then export that as an OBJ, it comes in fine, with smoothing into Octane. But when I use the plugin, all meshes come in faceted.
Likewise, if instead of hitting the "render" button in the octane->modo script I hit the "export OBJ" as a test, then bring that OBJ into Octane, it's fine--it's not faceted. But if I hit the "render" button in the octane/modo script, the mesh comes in faceted. Weird.
The fix seems to be to re-import the meshes that were exported via the script BACK into modo, hit the "tab" key, export as an OBJ. This basically just smoothes the vetex normals in the OBJ file. Then the meshes look fine in Octane, e.g. smooth, not faceted! But that, of course, defeats the entire purpose of an automated export form modo to octane!
Likewise another fix is to edit the .ocs file and set 'useSuppliedVertexNormals' value to "false" instead of the default value of "true". Then the meshes come in smooth. But again, this defeats the purpose of a script...
(And just to be clear, I know all about subd's & the difference between modo's subd meshes vs. octane which uses only the actual polygons themselves.)
To summarize, in general, if you import an OBJ into octane & uncheck the "smooth" bool button in the material, you will get faceted faces. ALL models are coming in this way into Octane via the modo export script, and checking & unchecking the "smooth" button has no effect.
Am I missing a workflow thing???