Easy way to convert regular surfaces to Octane? Tweet

[jibbles10]

I disagree. Juan doesn't 'need' to create a big red button, and I assume if it was that easy, it would have been done. Octane's material/surfacing methodology is totally different from Lightwaves, that is whey there is no direct link. I assume there may be a way (eventually) to go back from standalone, to lightwave, but I doubt very much it will be clean.

Best bet, get used to setting up materials in the plugin.

Also, Jibbles10, there is no need to 'reapply UVs' to objects. If your objects have UVs, they will be right there in the plugin. The only difference is that, there can only be one UV per vertice.

I'm new to the plugin, so are you saying if my object already has UV's the Lightwave/Octane render plug in will automatically load them? Example: When I import a third party UV'ed model into Lightwave, and then bring it into the Octane plugin, all I can manage to get is white object with no UV's, which then usually requires that I have to manually reapply the existing UV maps to the object to get the UV's to show up and render.

It's a lot of work with characters that have 30+ UV maps to set them up manually, I'm just looking for an easier way.

Are you able to get the UV's to transfer automatically once the object is loaded into Octane? If so please share on how to do this.

[jibbles10]

This is why I have a good think before starting a new project. What are the requirements, timeframe etc, before lifting a finger to select the renderer. Luckily I have been using Kray for some time, which can really get you out of jail free at times (in conjunction with GarageFarm).

Maybe it would be more attractive if there was a happy medium with regards to the license and doubling up, some bundle offer. I was lucky enough to win the first Octane render contest a few years back and have a lifetime license. I only need to upgrade Juanjo's plugin.

Does the Kray plugin for Lightwave automatically transfer the UV's and or textures to the object to be rendered?

[gristle]

Kray is more integrated into LW, so yes, if you already have a LW object that is textured, then Kray will render it as such. Including procedural textures. Remember it does not (current version) use the GPU so it can use LW info directly, unlike Octane with its own nodes.

If you have 30+ UV maps that share the same verticies, then Octane only sees the first, as far as I understand.

[3Dimensional]

I disagree. Juan doesn't 'need' to create a big red button, and I assume if it was that easy, it would have been done. Octane's material/surfacing methodology is totally different from Lightwaves, that is whey there is no direct link. I assume there may be a way (eventually) to go back from standalone, to lightwave, but I doubt very much it will be clean.

At least there should be an easy way to apply the materials and textures available in the standalone, even if it's not linked on the fly, but a way to open the object in the standalone, surface it, save it and then open it again in Layout with all the changes applied. Otherwise, it seems like I bought the standalone just because it's a requirement, not because I need it.

[juanjgon]

At least there should be an easy way to apply the materials and textures available in the standalone, even if it's not linked on the fly, but a way to open the object in the standalone, surface it, save it and then open it again in Layout with all the changes applied. Otherwise, it seems like I bought the standalone just because it's a requirement, not because I need it.

You don't need standalone at all to work with Octane for Lightwave. All the features of the standalone are inside the plugin (the only thing not supported yet is LiveDB). You should think that with Standalone you pay the Octane render license, and with the plugin you pay for the Lightwave plugin development and support

-Juanjo

[3Dimensional]

And I'm happy to pay for the plugin development and support, but what I mean is that I feel I'm also paying for the standalone when I don't get to use any of its cool features, like the library of materials and textures.

For example, in Modo I have a similar library with lots of material and texture presets, which if I want I can use in Lightwave too, I just surface the object in Modo, save it as lwo and it opens perfect in Lightwave, except that with Octane I have to convert all that to Octane nodes. But I feel that since I paid for both the Octane standalone and the plugin, I should be able to use the Octane library with Lightwave objects, meaning to be able to use those cool textures and have them open in Lightwave. There is a "kind of" way by opening the cache folder and getting the downloaded textures from there, but then you have to copy manually all the material settings, which can take a while.

Of course this is just my opinion, please don't take this as harsh criticism, but rather as constructive input for future versions of Octane and the plugin.

[gordonrobb]

I'm new to the plugin, so are you saying if my object already has UV's the Lightwave/Octane render plug in will automatically load them? Example: When I import a third party UV'ed model into Lightwave, and then bring it into the Octane plugin, all I can manage to get is white object with no UV's, which then usually requires that I have to manually reapply the existing UV maps to the object to get the UV's to show up and render.

It's a lot of work with characters that have 30+ UV maps to set them up manually, I'm just looking for an easier way

Are you able to get the UV's to transfer automatically once the object is loaded into Octane? If so please share on how to do this.

I think you're using different terminology. To me, an object 'have a UV' means that it has had polygons maps to particular UV space. Item the UV ps are there to apply textures to. These UVs automatically are there in the plugin. Do you mean textures don't stranger? If so, then no they don't, and that is because the texturing methodology is COMPLETETY different. I can't see how any process could be automated that could transfer an original material setup in Lightwave and turn it into octane. But, your UVs are there for sure.

[gordonrobb]

And I'm happy to pay for the plugin development and support, but what I mean is that I feel I'm also paying for the standalone when I don't get to use any of its cool features, like the library of materials and textures.

The library is the only cool feature you're not getting.

You're paying for the licence to use the SDK from standalone, ie, the octane render engine. There re plenty of 'cool features' you get because your using the plugin that standalone doesn't have. SubD and render region for example.

And remember, you have the option of just exporting all your stuff from Lightwave and using standalone.

[3Dimensional]

And remember, you have the option of just exporting all your stuff from Lightwave and using standalone.

Sure, but not everything can be exported, right? I still have to learn to use the standalone, but things that use specific Lightwave plugins probably won't work, right?

[gordonrobb]

NOt sure. I never use Standalone