Octane Render Technology Demo version for Windows released Tweet

[radiance]

Hi everyone,

Refractive Software LTD is proud to announce the availability of our first technology demo release.
This release is for PC's running MS Windows, a linux demo version will be available next week.

We've included some HDRI maps and 2 demo scenes to play with.

Note that i'm locking this thread so it does'nt get too complicated.
Please post your questions in the support forums.

PLEASE read the README below BEFORE attempting to use it,
as it contains some vital information you should know to use this demo version,
we cannot help you by answering questions that are already answered in the README,
then download the release zip file here:

http://www.refractivesoftware.com/downl ... a_DEMO.zip (15.1 MB)

To use, extract the files to a directory on your hard drive, and start one of 2 executables for your GPU (see 'Which Version of Octane Render to use' in the README)

Code: Select all

Octane Render v0.7 alpha TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW DEMO Release Notes
--------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: This is a limited Technology Preview Demo version which does not contain all features planned
for the first beta/commercial versions of Octane Render and as such
does not reflect the complete product feature wise and stability wise.

Released on: Saturday 16 January 2010

Demo Features
-------------

- Only uniform or HDRI (.hdr or .exr) environment lighting (daylight sun/sky is disabled)
- Load any mesh object from Wavefront OBJ format, with MTL material conversion
- pathtracing kernel only (directlighting/ambient occlusion are disabled)
- 3 materials: diffuse, glossy and specular
- spectra or image textures
- full GPU based camera response tonemapping pipeline

Limitations
-----------

- Cannot load or save octane scene files.
- Renderings cannot be saved to image files. (you can take screenshots if you wish)
- No Import of RenderMan RIB files.
- No MLT Sampling, this means some scenes present 'fireflies' eg bright pixels/dots,
  which are a natural side effect of unbiased algorithms.
  The commercial versions of Octane Render will feature MLT and other options which take care of this issue.

System Requirements
-------------------

This release requires a PC with a Cuda capable video card
and the MS Windows Operating System (Windows 2000 or higher).

To check if you're GPU is Cuda capable, please refer to this list:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_learn_products.html

This release requires the any of the following Cuda/Video Drivers to be installed:

*** Geforce ***

http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_get.html

Geforce Desktop Cards:    NVIDIA Driver 190.38
Geforce Notebook Cards: Beta Notebook Driver for Developers (190.38)
***************


***************
*** Quadro  ***

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index5.aspx?lang=en-us

Quadro Desktop Cards:    NVIDIA Driver 191.78 WHQL
Quadro Notebook Cards:    NVIDIA Driver 195.62 WHQL
***************

We cannot guarantee that the software will function correctly with any other driver,
including newer beta drivers.

Users with low-end video cards, such as most low-end laptop GPU chipsets,
or cards like 8400, 8600, 9400, 9600 series should'nt expect any decent performance,
we suggest upgrading to a newer mid-range or high-end GPU in the GTX260 or higher class.


Which Version of Octane Render to use
-------------------------------------

This release comes with 2 executable versions of Octane Render.

octane9000.exe

This is the full featured release that requires a 9000 series or higher GPU.
We recommend all users with 9000 series or higher to use this version.

Should you experience poor performance when using a low-end card like the 9400 or 9600 series,
try using the octane8000.exe below:

octane8000.exe

This is a backwards compatibility release that runs on any Cuda enabled GPU.
At present this release does not support image filter reconstruction,
so users might see slight aliasing/jaggies in the resulting renderings produces with this version.
A solution to this problem is to render at a higher resolution,
then downscale your image in a 2D image editing application.

This release is also a bit faster than octane9000 so it can be used
by people who are experiencing poor performance with the latter.

Refractive Software is currently working to solves these issues and provide
a consistent executable and experience accross all Cuda enabled products.


Known Limitations and other issues
----------------------------------

Please note that this is an alpha version, there are still a few rough edges that we are ironing out.

- We recommend changing the render resolution before loading any mesh object/starting the engine.
  changing the resolution during rendering might cause problems with some cards.

- Keep an eye on your Device Manager's memory usage graph (File -> Device Manager),
  when working with large scenes or scenes with lots of textures.
  The engine will alert you when you're trying to load more data into your GPU than can fit.
  We are working on intuitive solution to automatically take care of these situations.

- Please report any major problems on our forums, situations where you can't get octane to work.
  With your help we can make sure these issues are solved as fast as possible.

- Note that we have not done extensive testing with various 3d modeling applications
  with regards to export/import of OBJ files.
  Please report any issues you might have on our forums.

Refractive Software Forums: http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum


USE
---

We will be supplying some documentation regardin the use of Octane Render,
and tutorial videos on the Refractive Software Website during the weeks following this release.

We would like to point you to the demo video on the website's videos page for a quick introduction on how to use the software,
and don't hesitate to ask questions about it's use on our forums.

Some quick tips to get you started:

To load and object, right click in the nodegraph editor window (bottom left),
and add -> object -> mesh.
You can fine tune your import settings with File -> OBJ Import Preferences.

To Access the preview configuration, and change the renderer configuration,
double click on the 'macro' node that's visible by default in the nodegraph editor,
which will open this macro and give access to the different nodes that make up the render preview configuration,
by clicking on these nodes, you can change the parameters in the node inspector panel on the right.

Use the material picker on your render to select materials. (little glass ball with pipette icon on top of render viewport)
Use the 3 buttons with small to large checkerboards to change the subsampling resolution, if the navigation gets too slow with a more complex model.


Disclaimer
----------

Refractive Software LTD cannot be held accountable for any financial loss,
hardware or software damage/loss or injury caused by use of this demo release.
Users who damage hardware by modifying, upgrading or overclocking CPU's or GPU's
or any other hardware do so at there own risk.

This software and included documentation, demo scenes, textures,
HDRI maps are the sole property of Refractive Software LTD,
and can not be redistributed, puclished, modified or sold by any 3rd party in any form,
unless with permission from Refractive Software LTD.



Yours,
The Refractive Software Team

[radiance]

Hi all,

I've typed up some getting started information regarding camera/viewport navigation and material/dof picking:

Code: Select all

Render Viewport Navigation Controls
-----------------------------------

Left Mouse Button + Drag   ->   Rotate the camera around center of interest
Middle Mouse Button + Drag   ->   Zoom in/out, eg move camer closer/farther to center of interest
Right Mouse Button + Drag   ->   Pan/Move the camera center of interest

Modifiers
---------

ALT   - 10x speed      - When holding down ALT, you rotate, zoom or pan/move at 10x the speed, handy to navigate large scenes

CTRL   - Move Render Image   - When holding down CTRL, you do not change the camera, but pan the render image instead


Subsampling
-----------

The last group of 3 icons with small to large checkerboards on the render viewport menubar allow you to use subsampling.

leftmost icon:    no subsampling
middle icon:    2x2 subsampling   - 4x speedup, pixel blocks of 2x2 pixels
right icon:    4x4 subsampling - 16x speedup, pixel blocks of 4x4 pixels

Subsampling gives a blocky image while navigating the scene, or changing materials and settings.
After a few passes it switches off and reverts to normal sampling.

These should be used to allow comfortable navigation of complex scenes.


Material and DOF picking
------------------------

These 2 icons are a little glass material ball and a 'AF' textlogo with a little pippette ontop,
available on the render viewport menubar.

* Material picking

When selecting the material picking icon,
you go into material picking mode, and the mouse cursor changes to a pipette with a little circle.

In this mode you can pick objects on the render image,
and you'll automatically select the material at the location where you click,
ready for editing in the node inspector pane on the right.

You can still hold down the mouse and drag to rotate the camera view.

Clicking on the material picking button again and you'll exit this mode, returning to the normal view navigation mode.

* DOF picking

This works exactly the same way as the material picking mode,
but it allows you to define the camera's depth of field focal point.
(the point where objects are in focus)

To get a more pronounced DOF effect, try raising the 'Lens Radius' parameter, in the camera node,
in the default preview configuration, which is inside a macro in your main nodegraph.
This macro is a node with 'macro' on it, and if you double click on it, you enter it's sub-nodegraph,
in this case you'll see the default preview configuration nodes.


Yours,
Radiance

[radiance]

Thanks to everyone's support and the widespread interest in Octane Render.
We've had 594 downloads in the first 3 hours of posting the demo release

Radiance