Bretchts New Blender Render Design Tweet

[3dementia]

I too thought it was interesting that Brecht came back with this new breakthrough, the first thought that jumped into my mind was the obvious one.

I don't know Ton personally, but I think we all look up to him and respect his judgement. There is no way that he will allow the code to be simply copied or stolen. I wouldn't worry about that. Brecht has definitely started this from scratch, and when it is released the whole world including RS will likely benefit from the code inside. And this thing is a long way off from being ready.

I love octane and suggest it to everyone I know in the industry. I think that cycles will give hobbyists a taste of what they can get from a real gpu renderer. Professionals are more likely to buy something than use FOSS, just so they can get support if they run into trouble if nothing else.

All that being said, if I was on the Octane team, I would probably be mad too.

[Grafixsuz]

This is the first time I have replied to this subject on any forum since it has come out, but I think everyone should sit back and keep cool heads about this subject until it is finally made public. Either way, one side is going to look rather foolish.

If the code was directly copied and pasted (which would be the most stupid thing to do knowing your code will be made open anyway... )then the BF will have to answer some strong criticism for a while, which it may never recover from. But if it is clear that the code is completely original, and that the developer in question has not broken any agreements other than he learned some new skills while working for RS, then RS will have to give some very humbling and public apologies to the developer in question and to the BF for false accusations, which are also suable in a court of law, it is called defamation. So just be careful what anyway says either way, as you could find yourself at the end of a very big stick if you go too far.

Just some advice.

That being said, I am an Octane user, and proud of it, as well as a Blender and Softimage user. So you can be sure that this user will still be around for a while, since even if blender has become a competing rival, I am sure that you can get proper Softimage support here, since it is proprietary software.

But to be honest, I have used Lux render and while I know Radiance was a head developer on that, and a very hard working one, it strikes me that so many concepts are shared between both programs themselves, still Lux is around with everyones blessings and are creating a rival to Octane. Mental ray are starting their own concepts of a similar renderer, and they were bought out by Nvidia if I am not mistaken, that being the case Octane has much bigger competition to be concerned about. I think it is clear that this is the direction all renders are heading. Exciting times ahead. But Radiance you will not have to close shop you can be confident about that. You started the ball rolling, now keep it on the move.

Keep your heads cool and render away.

[mib2berlin]

+1
Here is a statement from ton on http://code.blender.org.

Having a public & open project means we need to conduct the utmost ethical practices. That’s an intrinsic value. Everything we do is open, and anyone can read the code and techniques to verify if that’s original, not something copied from other sources.

Anyone who has ever met with or worked with Brecht knows that he’s a very modest, easy going and ethical person. He’s also a brilliant developer, who took a long experience and a lot of 3d coding competences to enthusiastically join Refractive Software. The fact this company let him go after a short while was a shock to me as well. Brecht then needed a while to sort out stuff, and luckily decided to join the Blender team again. We unfortunately can’t pay him what commercial 3d companies could afford, so his decision was based on choosing for working in a pleasant, encouraging and rewarding environment first.

What he worked on, and will work on, are common concepts and techniques where everyone in the industry is heading anyway. Check Modo, Lightwave, Max, Maya for example. It’s also well aligned with design proposals and discussions here in the studio and on our public developer mailing list from long before he joined RS. If it wasn’t Brecht, similar ideas would be in Blender sooner or later anyway.

-Ton-

Cheers mib

[abstrax]

This is the first time I have replied to this subject on any forum since it has come out, but I think everyone should sit back and keep cool heads about this subject until it is finally made public. Either way, one side is going to look rather foolish.

If the code was directly copied and pasted (which would be the most stupid thing to do knowing your code will be made open anyway... )then the BF will have to answer some strong criticism for a while, which it may never recover from. But if it is clear that the code is completely original, and that the developer in question has not broken any agreements other than he learned some new skills while working for RS, then RS will have to give some very humbling and public apologies to the developer in question and to the BF for false accusations, which are also suable in a court of law, it is called defamation. So just be careful what anyway says either way, as you could find yourself at the end of a very big stick if you go too far.

...

Just to make one thing clear: Nobody from Refractive Software has claimed that Brecht has copied and pasted code. It's not how software development works anyway.

But maybe try to define "completely original" in this context Then you may understand, where we come from.

Anyway, I don't think this discussion is going anywhere and personally, I don't think, we can do much here except continue working on Octane. So let's focus on Octane in this forum and on the new Blender render engine in the Blender forums.

Cheers,
Marcus

[Grafixsuz]

I totally agree. No harm intended just we should all be careful.

peace bro

[afecelis]

I agree with Abstrax in keeping things separate, but I also want to remark that Octane represents one of the biggest breakthroughs in CG rendering in a long time, and the hit they scored when they released the first versions will be difficult to surpass.
Being a blender user, I don't think new developments will drag blenderheads away from Octane but simply represent render engine alternatives as any other available right now for blender; i.e. yafaray, luxrender/slg, mitsuba, the freely available renderman engines, etc. Each one will keep on using what they feel more comfortable to work with but we've become so used to octane and its quick-updating features that it's very difficult to simply quit on it. It's an addiction that I see very difficult to leave behind. I think blender, and any other 3d package user appreciates the fact of having such a quality renderer in such a price range. Octane has gained a privileged position by proving that things can be achieved efficiently, and this attitude generates loyal users as we feel confident of what we're being offered. Octane promises and delivers. It's a feeling you don't get very often with the programs you use, even with expensive-fully-featured ones.
That's how I feel about it.
Cheers,
Alvaro

[danilius]

Just my tuppence worth. Blender is successful because it has an incredible community of developers and users. It has a major drawback, though, in that being a community effort, development tends not to focus tightly on any one issue, so everything progress at seemingly random tempos; i.e. some things happen very slowly, other almost overnight, and the rest somewhere in between.

Octane is focusing in one very specific area, with more than just one developer. Abstrax has demonstrated that he has excellent leadership and communication skills, and Radiance clearly has his head screwed on tight.

Provided that everyone maintains a level head and the team keep up the rate of progress they have managed so far, Octane will be streets ahead of Blender's internal and at the price it is selling at will be the market leader.

What this means is that people like me, who use Blender on Ubuntu, will still continue to buy into Octane, since the price is right, and the tech is superb. I personally urge everyone to remain calm, since flaming the BF or anyone working for them is pointless: the BF is way bigger than Refractive; and as Abstrax has essentially said: put up and shut up is the current Refractive policy anyway.

I would, in fact, try to woo more Blender users by letting them see how cheap a "professional" GPU-based render can be!

[radiant]

cycles has been released now. Radiance can now check the code and see if he needs to call the boys in blue

[Refracty]

If the code is identical or not is not important. It is all about the concept. Sometimes a unique concept is developed simultaniously but here it looks a little bit different.
You might say it is a great honour for RS that some are 'inspired' but the company still has to survive.
Allways think about the intension some people have when they start to work.
I really know that there is a need for Octane beside the blender community but this act of Brecht seems to be not fair and has nothing to do with the Open Source spirit anyway.
Nevertheless I just hope that RS will continue their work that is appreciated by many people.

[Quandtum]

... should have filed for patents, that's the only way to have protected the "concept". To be blunt, I don't think RS has anything to sweat. Stuff like this helps mature a company... call it growing pains.

Beyond that, I seriously doubt Brecht broke any laws or meant any harm to the RS people, he's simply not that kind of person.

Life will move on, it will work out in the end.