Export cam/target information to batchrender in ORStandalone Tweet

[rappet]

Will this be possible fromout Archicad: getting the camera/target information from a path (walkthrough) to use for animation rendered in Octane standalone?
As an example to explain, I did it this way using Sketchup.
Steps 1 and 2 should be replaced by obtaining a textfile with cam and target infomation from the Archicad walkthrough setup.

- 1. - In Sketchup (SU) I used trial version of SU animate to make a lot of scenes (one scene for every frame.. that is 25 scens for one second animation of 25 frames)
In SU I used a basic 3d-model for only making the camera seetings for animation
- 2. - I used the Octane Render Plugin (Thank you so much TIG.. that's great plugin!) with very low pixel sample (only want cam-settings)
- 3. - I changed the cmd file (with help of excel to make it easy) and added "-t <rendertargetname>" (thnx Sighman)
One line for a image looks like this: @"C:\Program Files\...\octane.exe" -e -q -t "rendertargetname" -o "D:\...\img00000.png" --cam-pos-x -0.17 --cam-pos-y 1.96 --cam-pos-z -5.73 --cam-target-x 2.34 --cam-target-y -4.13 --cam-target-z 17.35 --cam-up-x 0.029 --cam-up-y 0.96 --cam-up-z 0.25 --cam-fov 60.78 -g 1 -g 2 -g 3 "D:\...\try.ocs"
- 4. - my ocs file looks like the image attached. (as you can see I detached the Mesh Preview Camera)
In this cmd line and looking at the printscreen it "rendertargetname" should be the name "Tapper"
- 5. - I ran the cmd file and it made the images I needed for making animation (I stitched them in Adobe Premiere Elements)

Greetz, Jeroen

[face_off]

A Walkthrough in ArchiCAD is essentially a sequence of Photorenders. So when the Octane plugin is rendering a waklthrough frame, it doesn't actually know that it is part of a walkthrough. But certainly the camera position and target are known when rendering in a Photorender in Octane in ArchiCAD. So yes, in theory each time "Photorender" is called in ArchiCAD, the plugin could export the camera position/target to a file.

One question I have is, why wouldn't you render the walkthrough inside ArchiCAD rather than in Octane Standalone?

Paul

[rappet]

Hi Paul,
Probably in near future it is rarley needed to render an animation in standalone instead of archicad-plugin,
when it will be possible to link external obj's and in combination with scattering (using textfiles aswell?).

I'll describe my showcase from a project a few months ago that now, with the new plugin, I would have like to render animation in standalone if not possible in plugin.
I want to make an animation with camera path starting outside where I want to use a lot of xfrog trees (obj)
and when the camera path enters the building I have many many detailed racks with different steel wired and other wooden cases.
I got troubles working in Archicad (getting too slow) with this project as a whole because of the many detailed racks, so I had to seperate the project in
1) Outside (without trees)
2) Inside (without racks)
3) Racks
Now I can export them to seperate obj files and combine them in Octane standalone to a complete scene again.
In addition I can add the beautiful trees from my OBJ library and the scene is complete.
At this point I would like to export my animation renderpath from my Archicad scenecameras to a file to be able and run the renderings by cmd.

Ofcourse another solution might be in hand soon using the plugin when it will be possible to link to obj,
I know you are working on that. But still I need to figure out to make it work with many detailed elements in Archicad ( in my case the many detailed racks).
Right now I am using modules, but that does not make it easier on Archicad in polygons, only easy in workflow of adjusting a module instead of hundreds elements. A solution might be working with obj instead of modules.
Export one rack to an obj and link it again in Archicad.
In this workflow the export to obj should be perfect. i noticed when exporting to obj with the standarad "save as" in Archicad is not so good and sometimes deformes shapes. The plugin seems to do the exporting pretty well

Greetings, Jeroen

[face_off]

Hi Jeroen

I think the two most viable options are 1) export to Standalone to add the obj objects (and also be able to export camera animation coordinates), and 2) add the ability for the plugin to import OBJ into the OctaneRender viewport, positioned by a proxy object.

My preference is 2), since I think the workflow for 1) is going to be outside the ability of most ArchiCAD users. To implement 2), it is only a few days work, however because it involves having to edit the material of the OBJ and save it in the pln file, I need the plugin to be 100% robust before commencing this change. At the moment it is 99% , but I am still getting the occasional report of the plugin behavior needing to be fixed (for example I had a report today that clicking the Explore button in the ArchiCAD viewport is causing an issue). So once it has been stable for a few weeks, I will add the geometry proxy functionality.

Paul

[rappet]

Hi Paul,
I agree on 2) as preference because it will be so much easier to organise objects (proxy) in Archicad by placing and moving on the spot by using mouse instead of placing obj in OR standalone by xyz placement and rotation nodes.
Much much easier !
In addtion of workflow 2) it would be great though to export chosen elements from Archicad to a obj/mtl file for different purposes; one purpose is to keep Archicad workflow smooth by decreasing polygons and keep it low for gpuRAM (assuming using multiple proxy objects linking one obj calculates polygons as one obj?)
Second purpose is to build a nice Archicad/OR library with obj's (instead of modules or gsm) for different projects as well,
and also to use in standalone if wanted.

I understand the plugin needs to be 100% first before the proxy/ instancing/
No intention to pressure... "Rome ain't build in one day"
You are doing much more then a great job on the plugin. Thanx!

Greetings, Jeroen

[face_off]

I agree on 2) as preference because it will be so much easier to organise objects (proxy) in Archicad by placing and moving on the spot by using mouse instead of placing obj in OR standalone by xyz placement and rotation nodes.

My thinking on this is that you place a sphere (or any low poly object) in the scene, nominate it as a proxy element for "large tree.obj", then you replicate that proxy sphere object 50 times in the scene. Then when the Octane Viewport is open, the plugin will pickup that "large tree.obj" has been used 50 times, and it converts all the instances of the proxy geometry (scale, rotation and position) to an Octane "scatter" node with a transform for each of the 50 instances. That way the scene will still load quickly into Octane.

Looking forward to implementing this!

In addtion of workflow 2) it would be great though to export chosen elements from Archicad to a obj/mtl file for different purposes; one purpose is to keep Archicad workflow smooth by decreasing polygons and keep it low for gpuRAM (assuming using multiple proxy objects linking one obj calculates polygons as one obj?)
Second purpose is to build a nice Archicad/OR library with obj's (instead of modules or gsm) for different projects as well,
and also to use in standalone if wanted.

I /think/ that if Otoy implement the writing to OCS, you would be able to filter out all the geometry you don't want in ArchiCAD, then run the plugin, export to OCS, then you will get an OBJ with just the geometry in the ArchiCAD preview screen in the OBJ. But I am speculating at this point.

Paul

[rappet]

Yes Awsome.

[rappet]

Btw,
it is already possible to save Archicd to an OBJ,
but in the past thatn was not as steady export as the plugin/OCS will export to OBJ.