Maya plugin instancing

[Snoopy]

Hello, sorry if this question has been asked before,
What's the normal workflow to do instances and render using the Maya plugin?

Do I have to use the stand alone version of Octane?

Is there any video tutorial for instancing using the plugin?

I like the stand alone version because creating textures using the nodes seems more intuitive,
but if I have to do animation I would prefer staying inside Maya.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Snoopy

[TBFX]

Hi Snoopy

The instancing workflow in Maya is the same as with any other renderer in Maya. You can simply "duplicate" your base object as an instance by using the duplicate special command with the instance option checked instead of copy, and place your instances manually or by script. Or you can use partical instances in the normal way.

The important thing is to have them transferred to the GPU as instances you need to set the Octane: Geometry type attribute (under extra attributes on the shape node of the geo) of your base mesh to either Scatter or Movable proxy.

Scatter will allow the instances to be sent to the GPU as instances but only once for an animation so if they are not animated themselves you will get faster load times for the animation render and Movable proxy will refresh them to the GPU for every frame allowing for animated instances.

T.

[Snoopy]

Thanks a lot TBX!
That really helped me.

I was creating some instances but I would get an "Export Mesh Error".

I have another question:If you had to model an eighteen wheeler truck.
Would it be better to build half a tire, then create an instance of the other half to complete one tire,
and then create 17 instances of that tire?
Just to save some memory on the video card?
Is that the way to go in general when you are building a heavy scene?

Thanks a lot again!!!

[TBFX]

Would it be better to build half a tire, then create an instance of the other half to complete one tire,
and then create 17 instances of that tire?

I guess you could do that though I think if you can fit the scene on your gpu by just instanching one complete tyre it will save a lot of setup time and scene complexity. Of course if you really need to make the scene as memory efficient as possible you only need to build as much of the tyre that has a unique tread pattern and then instance that around as many times as needed to get one complete tyre. You may run into shading issues where the instances join on the smooth parts of the tyre though.

Remember if you can fit the entire scene onto the gpu without instancing you get a performance gain in rendering speed but load times may be slower.

T.