Block Instance Rendering Issue Tweet

[jitendra]

Hi Paul,

I have attached one .3dm file(zip version) and one screenshot. The scene has 4 gemstones and one simple plan. I tried to assign different materials to 4 gemstones but somehow they are displayed in Octane view port as default material. When, I render them with v-ray, there it seems to have no issue.

Can you please look into it?

Thanks Paul.

[face_off]

I will look into a fix for this.

EDIT: Block instances in Rhino translate to "instances" (which are scatter transforms) on Octane - which means each instance will have the same material. It's not currently possible in the plugin (and maybe not possible in Octane) to assign different materials to individual block instances. In this situation you would need to explode the block instances and assign separate materials to each geometry item. But I will look at the file you posted tomorrow to make a further assessment.

Paul

[face_off]

Hi, I've looked into this, and can confirm that the Octane material for the block instances is being sourced from the material set on the block definition (which is the default material). The plugin will not current use the material assigned to the block instance - the material used by Octane comes form the block definition. So in this case you need to explode the block instances for the plugin to pickup the individual material assignments.

If you want to investigate this further.....the above limitation is due to using the Octane Geometry Scatter node to "instance" the block instances - which means there is one material assigned to all instances. There is however a "Material Map" node which might address this - but I've never been able to get it to assign individual materials to instances. If you want to investigate this yourself, load the diamond scene in the plug, start rendering, export to OSC, load the file into Octane Standalone 1.33 and see if you can get the Material Map to do what you are looking for.

Paul

[jitendra]

Hi, I've looked into this, and can confirm that the Octane material for the block instances is being sourced from the material set on the block definition (which is the default material). The plugin will not current use the material assigned to the block instance - the material used by Octane comes form the block definition. So in this case you need to explode the block instances for the plugin to pickup the individual material assignments.

If you want to investigate this further.....the above limitation is due to using the Octane Geometry Scatter node to "instance" the block instances - which means there is one material assigned to all instances. There is however a "Material Map" node which might address this - but I've never been able to get it to assign individual materials to instances. If you want to investigate this yourself, load the diamond scene in the plug, start rendering, export to OSC, load the file into Octane Standalone 1.33 and see if you can get the Material Map to do what you are looking for.

Paul

Hi Paul,
Thank you for the in-depth reply.
I will do some tests, as you suggested and will get back.
Jeet

[jitendra]

Hi, I've looked into this, and can confirm that the Octane material for the block instances is being sourced from the material set on the block definition (which is the default material). The plugin will not current use the material assigned to the block instance - the material used by Octane comes form the block definition. So in this case you need to explode the block instances for the plugin to pickup the individual material assignments.

If you want to investigate this further.....the above limitation is due to using the Octane Geometry Scatter node to "instance" the block instances - which means there is one material assigned to all instances. There is however a "Material Map" node which might address this - but I've never been able to get it to assign individual materials to instances. If you want to investigate this yourself, load the diamond scene in the plug, start rendering, export to OSC, load the file into Octane Standalone 1.33 and see if you can get the Material Map to do what you are looking for.

Paul

Hi Paul,
I tried Material Map in Octane Standalone but it didn't work the way I wanted. The solution of exploding is definitely can work. I was just little curious about why this could be working in vray. May be because, the vray core can assign separate materials to each individual instance? Is that something, in near future Octane Standalone could also do? Thank you once again for your support. Its highly appreciated.

[face_off]

Is that something, in near future Octane Standalone could also do?

Let me investigate this further.

Paul

[face_off]

I tried Material Map in Octane Standalone but it didn't work the way I wanted. The solution of exploding is definitely can work. I was just little curious about why this could be working in vray. May be because, the vray core can assign separate materials to each individual instance? Is that something, in near future Octane Standalone could also do? Thank you once again for your support. Its highly appreciated.

The answer is....it is possible - but would require some re-jigging of the nodes. In summary, there would be Mesh Node with the diamond geometry, plugged into 4 separate Material Maps (each with their respective diamonds Octane material plugged in), and they would be plugged into four Scatter Nodes, each with one transform (to position the diamond according to the block instance position), and the scatter nodes would plugin to a geometry group.

This is quite different to how the plugin works now. In the long-term I will look if there is a way to automate this in the plugin, however given the ease with which you can get the same result now by exploding the instances, it will be a lower priority than a bunch of other mods I have planned.

Paul