Is Octane more photorealistic than Blender Cycles? Tweet

[Midphase]

I posted a similar thread in the Blender forums, but I was curious what the opinions would be here in the OTOY forums.

To my eyes, I am seeing considerably more believable photorealistic renders come out of Octane users than those using primarily Blender Cycles. What I am picking up from Octane is not only a more organic and tactile overall feel, but also a considerably more believable sense of large scale.

Don't get me wrong, both are remarkable render engines, but when it comes to photorealism, to shots that seem like they could be mistaken for something shot on a camera in the real world, I feel like Octane has a perceptible edge over Blender Cycles.

One of the most believable large scale renders that I have seen come out of Octane is for the World Creator video "I am" which looks to my eyes, at times indistinguishable from actual real-world footage.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/VwNaoD90UJo?si=PlCuw8-fLWv56ph2[/youtube]

I have yet to see anything even coming close to approaching the degree of realism from Blender Cycles, despite the fact that many incredibly talented artists use it as their primary render engine.

Perhaps a good example of what I am trying to convey are the short films by Paul Chadeisson.

His first one "Migrants", rendered with Octane, to my eyes conveys a grandiose sense of scale with tactile and physically realistic visuals.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/G2dGWH90aew?si=tDyOmXvGsaBG0V1m[/youtube]

However his more recent short film "Solstice 5" which was rendered in Blender Cycles, feels considerably more CG and the scale at times almost like I am looking at miniatures, despite being the superb work of an incredibly talented artist,.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/cntb3wcZdTw?si=wAl5RMoX-UwAcUNf[/youtube]

I am curious what Octane users thoughts are about this topic. Am I completely wrong, or is there something about Octane that just seems to yield inherently more photorealistic results?

I realize that this is a touchy topic so I hope that we can keep the conversation civil, but I am very interested in everyone's opinions on this, both in favor and against.