OctaneRender for DAZ Studio 2021.1.6 - 83 [OBSOLETE] Tweet

[rajib]

Hi Rajib -

Welcome back to Octane for DS .

Issues :
Can you fix this long standing bug - If the image file path has an & character, Daz can load the image, but the Octane plugin cannot. That is actually a valid character for Windows file path.

This bug should be fixed as of 2021.1.5 - 70 (viewtopic.php?f=44&t=80166)

Can you confirm you're still having this issue when you save and load a new scene?

Hi Huakiami,

Thank you for the welcome back ,

Looks like this is resolved. I think I went from version 63 to version 83 straight and though I tried to skim through the release notes of all the releases I probably missed the notes stating this was fixed. I did as you suggested - saved the scene with the path set. I verified the path was still set after reopening the scene.

I will go through all the release notes thoroughly over this coming weekend to see what all was fixed and added.

Great to see this is also resolve !

Best regards,
Rajib

[rajib]

Thank you for taking the time to document these issues, I really appreciate it!

You are most welcome Toby. Please do reach out if you need anything tested at the Alpha / Beta phase. I am a programmer myself (C++) so running unstable builds to find issues is not a problem.

That's definitely a bug, possibly related to the issues of the names in the deletion list not matching exactly the names in the selection list.

Highlighting the current environment is a great idea, I'll add that to my list of improvements.


The problem with these duplicate No Environment entries is that they are classified as "Factory Presets". I fixed the problem that was causing them to be created in the first place, but allowing their deletion is potentially tricky. I'll have a look into it.

Thanks. That will be really helpful.

As huakiami said, I thought that issue was fixed in build 70. Does fixing the texture then re-saving the scene make the problem go away?

Confirmed this is working. Thank you !

I recently removed the merging behavior of "Smart Unfold" because it was buggy and I think it was overly enthusiastic about what it was merging. Can you say a bit more about your workflow to help me understand what you want the merging for? For example, how do you end up with duplicates in the first place?

As for why the Falloff map is not being expanded, I think it's falling afoul of the logic used to determine whether it's worth expanding. In this case, the Falloff map fails the test because all of its inputs are "values" (enums and ints). I guess that it would make sense to always expand nodes with a texture output.

Can all nodes be expanded ? Take for example a simple RGB Color node that was in the color correction node (e.g. Input) which now I want to link to other color correction nodes or to the material node pins, etc. directly. In the very old version of this plugin before the smart unfold function was removed and then partially enabled, I could expand the color correction node, get the RGB Color node and then drag to link it up with anything I wanted to. But now, with the RGB Color Node / Falloff node (etc.) not being expanded, to reuse the node, I will first have to select the node from the Node list, drag it to the NGE edit area, manually copy the color value from the RGB Color Node inside the color correction node (etc.) and paste it on the new RGB Color node I just dragged on to the edit area. Then connect the new RGB Color node back to the Color Correction node as well as other nodes I want to be affect with the change in the color value in that RGB Color node. So lot of extra manual work needed just to re-use the color node / falloff node which are not being expanded under smart unfold.

Another example - 2D / 3D transformation node / Mesh UV Projection nodes, etc. where one node can be linked to all the textures that have the same values and changing that common node value will have the affect on all the linked texture nodes. If the UV / Transform nodes are not expanded to a common entry, we will need to make the same change to all the texture nodes individually or again drag the UV / Projection node into the edit area, manually assign the values and then link the node to all the texture node pins. Same thing for other nodes. It just adds a lot of manual work when working with complex matrials.

Hence I would request a full smart unfold. Maybe a smart fold option can also be added so that if we want to reduce clutter, we could select a node and select Smart fold from the right click menu and collapse that node. That will give us users the most flexibility.

I will have a read through that, thanks.

Instead of going through that thread if you would like me to list down the issues in this thread, I can. That thread probably has some open as well as some closed issues. I can directly point to the open issue post.

Thanks again for taking the time to do this.

Cheers,
Toby.

Thank you Toby. I will get back to you on what I find. Let me run through my list of open items I had to see what got already resolved. Will highlight the ones that I am still facing.

Best regards,
Rajib

[huakiami]

You are most welcome Toby. Please do reach out if you need anything tested at the Alpha / Beta phase. I am a programmer myself (C++) so running unstable builds to find issues is not a problem.

If you're interested, feel free to join the fan discord: https://discord.gg/PgFREVbzsd

There's a small group of us there that actively discuss the state of the plugin and share Octane material tips, etc. Toby and BK are also there so it helps with communication, and Toby occasionally posts more unstable preview builds if he needs feedback on a change or new feature.

[toby_a]

I recently removed the merging behavior of "Smart Unfold" because it was buggy and I think it was overly enthusiastic about what it was merging. Can you say a bit more about your workflow to help me understand what you want the merging for? For example, how do you end up with duplicates in the first place?

As for why the Falloff map is not being expanded, I think it's falling afoul of the logic used to determine whether it's worth expanding. In this case, the Falloff map fails the test because all of its inputs are "values" (enums and ints). I guess that it would make sense to always expand nodes with a texture output.

Can all nodes be expanded ? Take for example a simple RGB Color node that was in the color correction node (e.g. Input) which now I want to link to other color correction nodes or to the material node pins, etc. directly. In the very old version of this plugin before the smart unfold function was removed and then partially enabled, I could expand the color correction node, get the RGB Color node and then drag to link it up with anything I wanted to. But now, with the RGB Color Node / Falloff node (etc.) not being expanded, to reuse the node, I will first have to select the node from the Node list, drag it to the NGE edit area, manually copy the color value from the RGB Color Node inside the color correction node (etc.) and paste it on the new RGB Color node I just dragged on to the edit area. Then connect the new RGB Color node back to the Color Correction node as well as other nodes I want to be affect with the change in the color value in that RGB Color node. So lot of extra manual work needed just to re-use the color node / falloff node which are not being expanded under smart unfold.

Another example - 2D / 3D transformation node / Mesh UV Projection nodes, etc. where one node can be linked to all the textures that have the same values and changing that common node value will have the affect on all the linked texture nodes. If the UV / Transform nodes are not expanded to a common entry, we will need to make the same change to all the texture nodes individually or again drag the UV / Projection node into the edit area, manually assign the values and then link the node to all the texture node pins. Same thing for other nodes. It just adds a lot of manual work when working with complex matrials.

Sounds like you're not aware of Alt+Drag. You can expand any pin into its own node by holding down Alt and dragging the pin name out of the node:

alt-drag-expand.png (14.09 KiB) Viewed 1766 times

.

Hence I would request a full smart unfold. Maybe a smart fold option can also be added so that if we want to reduce clutter, we could select a node and select Smart fold from the right click menu and collapse that node. That will give us users the most flexibility.

The reason I don't want to expand every node is that it creates a lot of noise, particularly all the int, float, enum and bool nodes. I like your idea to have a collapse option - I don't think there's a way to do that currently.

I will have a read through that, thanks.

Instead of going through that thread if you would like me to list down the issues in this thread, I can. That thread probably has some open as well as some closed issues. I can directly point to the open issue post.

If you can highlight what is still an issue, that would be great. I don't necessarily know everything that was fixed before I took over earlier this year.

Cheers,
Toby.

[rajib]

If you're interested, feel free to join the fan discord: https://discord.gg/PgFREVbzsd

There's a small group of us there that actively discuss the state of the plugin and share Octane material tips, etc. Toby and BK are also there so it helps with communication, and Toby occasionally posts more unstable preview builds if he needs feedback on a change or new feature.

Thanks Huakiami. Will join over the weekend.

[rajib]

Sounds like you're not aware of Alt+Drag. You can expand any pin into its own node by holding down Alt and dragging the pin name out of the node:

alt-drag-expand.png

.

Thanks Toby for pointing that out to me. I did not know about that. I will head to the online Daz Plugin documentation to go through it fully to see what all I am not aware of. Also need to catch up on the forum postings to catch up on the latest happenings here (and a lot seems to have happened , since I disappeared from here).

The reason I don't want to expand every node is that it creates a lot of noise, particularly all the int, float, enum and bool nodes. I like your idea to have a collapse option - I don't think there's a way to do that currently.

You can take your time on the "Smart Fold". Though I am not familiar with how Octane is doing the nodes, I can write a program to simulate the nodes and come up with a smart fold / unfold logic. Will share if I am successful.

If you can highlight what is still an issue, that would be great. I don't necessarily know everything that was fixed before I took over earlier this year.

Cheers,
Toby.

Will do Toby.

Best regards,
Rajib

[toby_a]

Thanks Toby for pointing that out to me. I did not know about that. I will head to the online Daz Plugin documentation to go through it fully to see what all I am not aware of. Also need to catch up on the forum postings to catch up on the latest happenings here (and a lot seems to have happened , since I disappeared from here).

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll get anything out of the online documentation as it hasn't been updated for a long time.

You can take your time on the "Smart Fold". Though I am not familiar with how Octane is doing the nodes, I can write a program to simulate the nodes and come up with a smart fold / unfold logic. Will share if I am successful.

When I get to looking at this (after 2022.1 extra node support and material template improvements) I'll probably try the very simple rule: expand all nodes except simple values (int, float, enum, string), but if you come up with a better algorithm please let me know.

Cheers,
Toby.

[rajib]

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll get anything out of the online documentation as it hasn't been updated for a long time.

Oh well. Will check out the forums then for the new things added. I see what I can document.

When I get to looking at this (after 2022.1 extra node support and material template improvements) I'll probably try the very simple rule: expand all nodes except simple values (int, float, enum, string), but if you come up with a better algorithm please let me know.

Cheers,
Toby.

Thanks Toby.Yes, I will share if I come up with a logic.

Btw. I found a correlation between the Output being listed in the Environment deletion list popup and the number of No Environment appearing. If I have 3 No Environment, I see 3 Output listed, if 5 No Environment then 5 Output and so on and so forth. Maybe you can skip processing and listing the No Environments when building the environment deletion list .

Update: Some scenes I am seeing : N No Environment = N + 1 Output listed.



Best regards,
Rajib

[RGUS]

When importing "Render Settings" from a previously saved file, the dimensions of the Octane Viewport are not saved or loaded back in and always default to initial dimensions.
I have to manually key in the dimensions each time. I'm sure it never use to do this or am I missing something?
Thanks

[toby_a]

When importing "Render Settings" from a previously saved file, the dimensions of the Octane Viewport are not saved or loaded back in and always default to initial dimensions.
I have to manually key in the dimensions each time. I'm sure it never use to do this or am I missing something?
Thanks

Thanks for the report. Can you please clarify what you mean by "importing ... from a previously saved file"? Are you using the Import/Export buttons on the plugin's Rendersettings tab? Or are you merging a Daz scene using the File->Merge menu? Or something else?

Cheers,
Toby.