New Release Candidate coming this week?...

[Daniel]

It can also be used for artistic reasons to place shadows without needing to put real geometry in the scene and frame it outside of the camera. It is also useful in matte paintings for projection mapping where rendering an animation with a huge scene is impractical, so separating the elements from their shadows and projecting them back on can save a huge amount of rendering time.

[jmfowler]

fingers crossed - primary visibility on/off is being worked on? 3D architecture really needs this - could you give us a clue please?
JF

No it's currently not worked on. There were enough other things on our plate the last months. I think we will have a look at it soon though.
May I ask why it's so important?

About 30% of my interior images will place the camera 'outside' of the actual room in order to maximize the view - developers etc want to have their marketing images convey the maximum amount of space in their advertising images.

opening up the FOV ( focal length ) is a big no no, because it creates distortion and architects hate strong vertical converging lines etc.

BUT I still need the wall that i'm hiding to be visible in reflections ( bathroom shots ) and to continue the shadowing effect on celings and floors so there is no obvious change.

So the object takes part in the render process for everything but is not primarily visible ( maya term ).

see images.

[abstrax]

fingers crossed - primary visibility on/off is being worked on? 3D architecture really needs this - could you give us a clue please?
JF

No it's currently not worked on. There were enough other things on our plate the last months. I think we will have a look at it soon though.
May I ask why it's so important?

About 30% of my interior images will place the camera 'outside' of the actual room in order to maximize the view - developers etc want to have their marketing images convey the maximum amount of space in their advertising images.

opening up the FOV ( focal length ) is a big no no, because it creates distortion and architects hate strong vertical converging lines etc.

BUT I still need the wall that i'm hiding to be visible in reflections ( bathroom shots ) and to continue the shadowing effect on celings and floors so there is no obvious change.

So the object takes part in the render process for everything but is not primarily visible ( maya term ).

see images.

You can solve this problem by setting the parameter "nearClipDepth" in the thinlens camera node. It clips geometry close to the camera.

[A2Zen]

Near clip plane is good but it's only 1 clipping plane and it's limit to a camera angle too

Most of my interior shot in vray have at least 2 invisible (to camera only) walls that cast shadow and shown in the reflection on every piece of furniture in side the room...

And I cant do the same thing with Octane camera Near Plane Clipping ....

[juanjgon]

Ray visibility options at object/surface level is really powerful and a feature that a renderer like Octane must have IMHO. There are a lot of projects that need this kind of visibility switches (for compositing, lighting, scene optimization, etc.)

We need a switch to enable/disable ray visbility at object level and/or at surface level. This visibility must be there for camera, shadows, reflected, refracted, diffuse and specular rays.

-Juanjo

[Lyubomir]

Talking about compositing features, how hard would it be to add the option to replace the 'checker' background with an image?
Makes even more sense now with the shadow catcher.

[archigrafix]

I will add my +1 for primary visibility.
Abstrax: it is all about compositing and POV, as already said. Say you want a very precise reflection effect on a window (say trees reflections) but youdont want those trees to appear on the final image or you dont want to bother with them for placing your camera. I often use that sort of options in Maxwell.
I know it is not exactly in the "unbiased" phylosophy in a certain way however it is a very common approach to achieve precise results in Archviz.

[krzychuc4d]

here is small to do list,
please check attachment.
Screengrab of compositing TAG in Cinema 4D.

Maxwell is unbiased and it has all that functions.
Compositing tools should be priority. It saves a lot of time.

[FrankPooleFloating]

25% of my work is rendering stuff into hi-res stock images... this very often requires making rough approximations
of objects/people in the image (props) - to produce shadows, reflections etc on new stuff that I am rendering... In LW,
I just tick Unseen by Camera... in Octane, I must make the props as big as I can, but no bigger than item in image (very time
consuming) because it needs to be completely covered in comp... because the props are in the render...

An example: client wants you to replace an old deck in a stock image (that a family is sitting around) with new vinyl deck
boards and vinyl railing... the deck boards and railing have just enough spec in them that they must pick up subtle reflections
and shadows of the people, or they are going to look wrong.. not real. I could not do this image without props.. props that
in octane are in the render...

Oh - and guess what - since there is no background image feature, I need to copy or save test renders and pop them into PS,
over and over, to see if stuff is jiving. BG image is like as important as Primary Visibility. Please, when you add this, if you can
make it part of Imager - with ability to toggle On/Off without disrupting render in progress, this would be incredible.

Please, just believe us.. we need these.

I'm starting to wonder if there are any artists among you at Otoy - who have real world 3d production under their belt... if you guys
are all techies, this would answer the question of why there are so many of us asking for features that, to us, seem preposterous
to not have in a 3D app.

But again - for the record: I love Octane... I love Otoy.

[gabrielefx]

@abstrax

please add "don't cast shadows" and "don't generate GI" option

I always use large curved billboards outside the windows in animations. These panels can intercept the sun and cast shadows.

We can use big domes with hemispherical sky textures that don't intercept the sun light.

I use this technique in vray.

Regards