OctaneRender® for Poser beta - build 1.11t [OBSOLETE] Tweet

[face_off]

This is the recommended thread for downloading, and posting any questions, suggestions or support queries for OctaneRender for Poser, build 1.11t (TEST RELEASE). This version is compiled against Octane 1.11, so see the requirements for that build regarding compatibility with your video card.

There has been a substantial change in the way material exports are saved, which will require your attention - pls read changelog below.


*** WARNING *** An issue has been identified with this version of the plugin relating to the saving of node types, so do not save scenes using 1.11t of the plugin (since the wrong node types will be saved). And loading scenes (and importing materials) saved with the previous version of the plugin will potentially crash the plugin.


If you have a support issue, pls provide the following information:
- Operating System (ie. Win XP, Vista, 7, 8)
- 32 or 64 bit
- Amount of RAM
- Graphics Card(s) - model (ie. GTX 580, 3GB)
- Nvidia driver version
- Poser version (Poser -> Help -> About Poser) - list the build number (eg. 9.0.3.23027)
- OctaneRender for Plugin version (ie. X.XXa)
- Also have ready a copy of the octaneplugin.log and cuda.log file from your Poser temp direction (Poser -> Edit -> General Preferences -> Misc tab to find the temp directory)

Change Log from release 1.02s
- This is a very important release, and contains a critical change in where material export files are stored, where LiveDB texturemaps are stored, and where you OctaneLive username/password is stored. All these items now default to the Poser Preferences folder (On Win 7 this is C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Poser Pro\9). This change was required to fix an issue where the Windows clean-up process was deleting all the files in the Poser Temp directory. To find out where you Poser Prefs file is, Poser->Scripts->Python Shell->poser.PrefsLocation(). You can still overrider this location int he OctaneDefault.py file.

The above change will mean that you will either need to re-activate the plugin when you first run 1.11t, OR you can copy the access.orp file from your Poser Temp folder to the Poser Preferences folder.

- New Panoramic camera (spherical and cylindrical). NOTE: The panoramic camera fovx and fovy pins are not converted from the Poser fov. Manually adjust these sliders to get the required fov.
- New dirt texture
- Enhanced daylight model
- Post-processing spectral sliders
- Volumetric fog (looking forward to someone showing me how this works)
- Loading the scene now displays the load progress.
- There is now a "Pick Focus" toggle button on the Viewport, which needs to be enabled prior to being able to click focus pick on the Viewport (will help stop accidental render restarts due to setting a new focus)

Known Issues
- 1.11 seems to have introduced a bug where Octane is no longer reporting the number of meshes or triangles. Waiting to a fix from Otoy on this.

If you have questions....
- Read the manual
- Read the FAQ
- Watch the Features Video
- Read the Features Blog Posting
- Watch the Introductory Tutorial
- Check the Facebook Page
- Post your question on this forum thread

Troubleshooting
- GUI issues (lock-up/crash) on large scenes (ie. 4million polys) - potentially due to the Windows Vista/7 "Timeout Detection and Recovery" http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg487368.aspx[url][/url]. Settings can be changed using Regedit. The recommended setting for Octane are registry setting HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers, TdrLevel = 3, TdrDelay =10 (if these settings are not already there, rightclick the right panel -> New -> DWORD). You will need to reboot after changing these settings.

Limitations
- Loading a Poser scene by double-clicking a pz3 file in the Windows file explorer, or selecting from your "Recent Files" will not load the previously saved Octane scene data for that file when Poser starts. This is due to a Poser bug which has been reported to Smith Micro. Instead, use the Poser menu File -> Open to open any pz3 files which contain Octane scene data.
- Material Picking (by clicking on a material in the Poser Material Room) does not select that material in the OctaneRender material tab if you have a camera selected in the Parameter Dials window.
- If you delete a duplicated figure in Poser, when next reloading the scene, the figures may have been renamed, in which case the plugin will not have loaded the materials for the rename figure correctly. This has been reported as a big to Smith Micro and will be fixed.

Download the plugin HERE

Paul

[wimvdb]

Fog turned out to be pretty easy
Load a box, set it to specular. Now turn off reflection, set medium to scattering.
Next part depends on how thick you want the fog.
Increase the scattering power a bit (not too much)
Lower the scale to taste

In the attached picture I used a gradient to control the fog thickness. Main reason is that I wanted the transition between clear and fog to be smoother
The gradient is from white (top) to black (bottom). Scale 1. Then I set the scattering scale to 0.25.
In the picture I used daylight and set the tubidity to 3.2 to lower the light intensity a bit.

[elenacalderas]

Basically, what wimvdb said, except that I found it to work best with reflection 1 and scattering 1, adjusting scale to taste.

I posted a screenshot of my settings for volumetric shadows. Important pathtracer settings were maxdepth 16 and caustic blur 1. Environment is daylight, turbidity 2. This makes the fake shadows more pronounced. For the screenshot image, I also increased exposure and lowered gamma to increase contrast.

The camera must be outside of the box prop that has the specular material.

[elenacalderas]

Also, Paul, thank you thank you thank you for this update! I've been longing to be able to use volumetrics and dirt directly in Poser. And your update came just at the beginning of my vacation, too. (Drat. So much for being outside in the fresh air, lol.)

[face_off]

Awesome - thank you! Looks easy.

Camera needs to be OUTSIDE the box.

Very very small scattering/small figures seem to works best. And absorption at 0 gave me the best result. Index = 0 and camera->aperture=0.1 helped too.

[Esper8]

I keep getting this whenever I make adjustments to a scene in Poser and refresh the plug-in

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Program Files\Smith Micro\Poser Pro 2012\Runtime\Python\addons\OctaneRender for Poser\OctanePlugin.py", line 10421, in ShowOctaneOptionsWindow
File "C:\Program Files\Smith Micro\Poser Pro 2012\Runtime\Python\addons\OctaneRender for Poser\OctanePlugin.py", line 7473, in Init
File "C:\Program Files\Smith Micro\Poser Pro 2012\Runtime\Python\addons\OctaneRender for Poser\OctanePlugin.py", line 8795, in refreshScene
File "C:\Program Files\Smith Micro\Poser Pro 2012\Runtime\Python\addons\OctaneRender for Poser\OctanePlugin.py", line 9764, in copyMeshToOctane
WindowsError: exception: access violation writing 0x0000000000000000

I have to save the scene, close it then re-load it to get the plug-in to work.

My set up is:
Windows 8 Pro
AMD 8150 3.6 GHz
16 Gig RAM
2x gtx 680

[face_off]

I keep getting this whenever I make adjustments to a scene in Poser and refresh the plug-in

Could you post or email me the octaneplugin.log file pls - copy the file just after the error happens. Then I'll try to see what's happening.

I assume that's with 1.11t?

Paul

[Esper8]

Hello Paul
Thanks for the fast reply.
I will have to email you the log file as forum software won't allow me attach the log file, can you pm me your email addy?

Regards
Stuart

[face_off]

Stuart - it's paul at physicalc-software.com.

[face_off]

I have been getting quite a few error reports coming through and I believe they are related to loading scenes/materials saved with the previous version of the API. The node type ordering has changed in the Octane API, and whilst my initial testing indicated that the Poser plugin was not effected by it - it seems that there are in fact issues.

So until further notice....pls do not save scenes using 1.11t of the plugin (since the wrong node types will be saved). And loading scenes (and importing materials) saved with the previous version of the plugin will potentially crash the plugin.

This will hopefully be rectified next week.

Paul