I am a hobbiest just introducing myself.

Wed Mar 06, 2013 5:11 am

Well, I bought it. Since I am just a hobbiest I got an Alienware mx17 r4 with a GTX 660 video card. I hope that works well enough to do simple stills and animations. I know I'll be limited compared to most of these setups...but I plan to use it in a specialized, but limited way. I also bought the Poser Package with Standalone. Since I will only have 1 computer with an nvidia card....the laptop will be devoted to Octane renders. I'm looking forward to the results.

Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:22 am

Hi Pete - and welcome.

I wasn't clear if you were running Octane on a desktop or laptop. If the former, it is highly recommended that you use your on-board graphic adapter as your Windows display - that will free up the GTX card to just render, and your Window UI will remain smooth and responsive.

Paul

Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:14 am

Welcome to the forum. I am a fellow hobbyist and only really use Octane for fun rather than for any real commercial reasons.

Octane on a laptop will be fun. They don't tend to have the best graphics cards. Presumably it is not the 660 and you say that you only have 1 PC with an Nvidia card so you may be out of luck using the laptop at all.

Wed Mar 06, 2013 1:22 pm

Ouch!! So you are saying an nvidia GTX660 won't run Octane at all? I got it to run on an old GTX280 card so I thought an newer laptop with a better video card would be adequate. Oh well, too late now...I have already purchased my stuff. At least I'll have an updated laptop with Win7 before they start shoving Win8 down my throat. I also purchased the Octane/Poser package so that will be my biggest loss. I'm deeply disappointed....but I'll learn not to jump into something at this level in the future.

Wed Mar 06, 2013 3:29 pm

Pete. The 660 will run Octane fine. I think you confused us with the laptop comment, since it is a desktop card, not for laptops.

Wed Mar 06, 2013 3:55 pm

OK. I am a true n00b (but a sincere one). I just purchased an Alienware 17x r4 laptop with a GTX 660m card in it. I don't plan to make large complex scenes. I only do 720x480 animations. And stills around 900x900. So, will I be able to use Octane Render with the Poser plug-in on this new laptop? I hope this doesn't sound like I'm impatient or angry. I just want to be sure I'm on the same page with you. BTW Thank you for your rapid replies.

Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:34 pm

Hopefully, no answer means yes. Another question. Will I be able to put Octane/Poser plugin on my desktop and my laptop. Or am I restricted to only 1 installation?

Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:14 pm

Hi Pete

The 660m will be fine. Do you also have an on-board graphics card? Or is the 660m the "on-board" graphics card. (Sorry - I'm not a laptop person).

Hopefully, no answer means yes. Another question. Will I be able to put Octane/Poser plugin on my desktop and my laptop. Or am I restricted to only 1 installation?

I'm not sure on the Poser licensing for this situation - you'll need to check with Smith Micro. For Octane, you can install Octane Standalone and the Poser plugin on both machines, but it can only be activated on one at a time. I think there is a 30 min wait between de-activating on one machine and activating on the other. You can de-activate via render.otoy.com (log in to the accounts area) too (but there is still a wait).

Paul

Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:56 pm

The 660m IS the onboard card. Heh. Again, I was getting OK results with an old 280. My workaround was to pause the render when I make camera angle adjustments. Otherwise, the cursor just becomes uncontrollable. So I figured a more updated card is bound to be an improvement. That's good news on the Octane Eula. It's pretty common to not allow multiple versions to run simultaneously...although the switching activations sounds a bit cumbersome. I really don't plan to use it on my old computer much. It's just that I have already purchased Octane and the Poser plug in...but I don't want to activate them until I get my new laptop on the 20th of March. Thank you so much for your help.

Thu Mar 07, 2013 2:02 am

My workaround was to pause the render when I make camera angle adjustments. Otherwise, the cursor just becomes uncontrollable.

I did this for 6 months, and I still have a habit of stopping the render for no reason when adjusting the cameras (eventhough I'm using the on-board graphics card as the display adapter now)!

Make sure u install 1.02s of the Poser plugin - it's the latest stable version.

Paul