OctaneRender® for ArchiCAD beta - build 1.13a [OBSOLETE]

[face_off]

This is the recommended thread for downloading, and posting any questions, suggestions or support queries for OctaneRender for ArchiCAD, build 1.13a (TEST RELEASE). This version is compiled against Octane 1.13, so see the requirements for that build regarding compatibility with your video card.

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
- ArchiCAD version (ArchiCAD -> Help -> License Information -> Version and Build Number
- OctaneRender for ArchiCAD version (ie. 1.02a)
- In the unlikely event of a crash, pls provide the dump report from the C:\Users\[username]\Graphisoft\BugReporting-[version] folder (on Win 7). Either post or email (to "paul at physicalc-consulting.com") the "ArchiCAD-XXXXXX-FATAL.RPT" file from this folder.

Change Log from release 1.11c
- Compiled against Octane 1.13 (see 1.13 changes in the general Octane forums)
- The sky color in new daylight system can be customized
- The sun radius can now be controlled in the daylight environment
- Render priority can now be set in the "Devices" tab. Useful for people using the one graphics card as their Windows display adapter and CUDA rendering device.

For more information...
- Read the manual
- Read the FAQ
- Watch the Introductory Tutorial Video
- 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 ... 87368.aspx. 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
- materials selection (to auto-populate the "Select from Selection" combo box on the Materials tab of the plug, does not work unless you are viewing a 3d perspective window.
- Changing an element's material will not automatically select the new material in the Materials tab of the plugin. You will need to select another element, and then re-select the original element to get the "Select from Selection" combo box to populate the new material
- To use the material picker (Materials Tab -> "Select from Selection") on Curtain Wall objects, put the Curtain Wall in edit mode
- The ArchiCAD Perspective camera roll angle is not transposed to the Octane thinlens "up" pin. If you need to rotate the render, manually adjust the "up" vector.
- Image map rotation is not current supported by OctaneRender, so any rotation of texturemaps in ArchiCAD materials is ignored in the texture conversion to Octane.
- GDL materials of the same name, for different objects, are merged to be one Octane material
- On ArchiCAD 14, selecting from the "Select from Selection" popup is disabled (ie. you cannot choose from the materials of the currently selected scene element). Instead, you will need to select materials in the plugin Materials tab via the "Select from Materials" popup.
- On ArchiCAD 14, when doing a photorender, sun study or flythrough, the render viewport may not display the render as it progresses. This is a GUI display issue, and the render is working as per normal

Download Links
Download the plugin from the following links:
- OctaneRender for ArchiCAD 14 1.11c beta (32 & 64 bit)
- OctaneRender for ArchiCAD 15 1.11c beta (32 & 64 bit)
- OctaneRender for ArchiCAD 16 1.11c beta (32 & 64 bit)

Paul

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New build posted.

1.13a-2
- In the rare case where the rendertarget is replaced by a material (should never occur after 1.11a2), if the scene was saved, then you can reload the scene and a "Ignoring rendertarget found with incorrect node type." message will be displayed and the default rendertarget will correctly be recreated
- ArchiCAD materials with Alpha Channel Effects setting ticked will apply the texturemap from that material to an Octane alphaimage node. Specular, Bump Mapping and Transparency being ticked will result in the alphaimage node being pluged into the "specular", "bump" and "opacity" pins respectively. Surface, Ambient and Diffuse are ignored.
- The warning message "Texture not found" has been replaced with "No Octane material matches ArchiCAD material [materialname]". This appears to generally be caused by GDL object which ArchiCAD cannot locate
- GDL materials are now unique for each GDL object.

AC16 link only at the moment. Once it has been confirmed that there no issues with the above changes, I will post the other builds.
- OctaneRender for ArchiCAD 16 1.13a-2 beta (32 & 64 bit)

Paul

[BfPuVAK]

Hi Paul,

the ID-thing is the solution, looks good generally - but unfortunately it's further a quite tricky thing with these materials.

The trees: as you can see in the screenshots they're mainly white (I've added here the alphaimage manually) and some of them have still a texture (just no transparency there, I didn't edited them).
In both cases the node parameters are missing. Here 2 different projects:



A funny thing is with the cars - they're build up similar like these trees (with GDL-materials): some of them have completely empty node parameters but some work normally!
By opening the project/viewport there are some "No Octane material matches ArchiCAD material [materialname]", also indicating some GDL materials, but they don't necesserily show up the "white trees" (I compared the IDs).

Then I've discovered some materials which show up the "No Octane material matches ArchiCAD material [materialname]" but work properly then in rendering - even bump mapping e.g. is also activated
In one case this massage is shows up at the material "Beton - Platten Grau Vektor Schraffur" - when I shorten it down to "Beton - Platten Grau Vekt" the massage dissapeares ! However, in both cases the rendering looks as-it-should and there're also no differences !
I can exclude that it has to do with special characters, especially the german ones (ä, ö, ü, ß), and the "-" is also not the problem...it's further the lenght (only on my computer ?!?)
I'll upload you a project with some of them.


In the project I uploaded you yesterday the rendertarget problem is solved. As it is originally a quite big project the number of materials seems to be a problem now.
Just at starting opening the project the critical error "Too many materials. This plugin has capacity for scenes with up to 1000 materials." comes up. Not only once but perhaps about 200 times.
Then at initialising Octane the same game again And at opening the viewport again 200 times - an "OK-to-all" button would be nice !


But finally the rendering appeares - apart from the mentioned GDL-problems all is fine and even surprisingly fast


I'm asking myself how the 1000-material-frontier is reached. In Archicad there are exactly 260 materials in use, 166 with textures I count (LDR shows 155/144, I'm going to reduce them).
So that amount is apparently produced by the "separation" of the GDl-materials with the IDs...is that 1000-material-limit fix ?
By the way...what happens with the materials above this limit ? Get they white, too ?


Some other things I noticed:
- camera has only "thinlens", "panorama" or "cylindrical" is missing/not selectable
- would't it be reasonable to set the default smoothing of all materials to "Enabled" ? I think the faceted-look is used less often.
- maxsamples-setting (any kernel) has no effect, the renders (in all projects) runs always up to 100 (I've definded that once so @ the earlier plugin)
- at animating a sequence the renderer does always use another FOV setting ("Zoom-In") than defined in the Archicad-cameras. After stopping the animation the normal
viewport window is "infeced"; it doesn't update anymore according to the Archicad-3D-View. The picture seems frozen but is re-rendered when the Archicad-View is changed.

Refreshing geometry reanimates the viewport again

Sorry for that much text but I'm sure we're on the right way...

Nice greetings,
Artur

PS
Almost in every project, when loading the full geometry, I get the Render Failure massage "Cuda devices need to be reset. Closing viewport."
The reset function (devices) doesn't really help. What helps is loading only a small part of the whloe geometry, then a bigger one. If the
massage comes again then the reset function may have an effect and even the whole geometry succeeds sometimes to be loaded up then.

PS2
There are 2 kinds of GDL-materials. Those, which have the material(s) defined in their script (like my trees, selectable for the 4 seasons) - and those which pick their materials
from the main Archicad-list (like my cars; carpaint, glass, rim, lamps,...). The last ones could theoretically be left without the added ID...

PS3
A project where I set the camera to "spherical" (@last plugin-version) has now only "cylindrical" as alternative

[face_off]

The trees: as you can see in the screenshots they're mainly white (I've added here the alphaimage manually) and some of them have still a texture (just no transparency there, I didn't edited them).
In both cases the node parameters are missing. Here 2 different projects:

You are right - the link between the materials appears broken for the new GDL system. I will fix this.

By opening the project/viewport there are some "No Octane material matches ArchiCAD material [materialname]", also indicating some GDL materials, but they don't necesserily show up the "white trees" (I compared the IDs).

My (potentially wrong) understanding, is that if there is a GDL component missing from your system, but still referenced in the project, you will get this error. You can suppress this warning in the config - but it would be good to confirm that the material it couldn't find wasn't actually being used in the scene.

Just at starting opening the project the critical error "Too many materials. This plugin has capacity for scenes with up to 1000 materials." comes up. Not only once but perhaps about 200 times.
Then at initialising Octane the same game again And at opening the viewport again 200 times - an "OK-to-all" button would be nice !

I will fix this. The material limit is set to 1000 - so there is some funny counting goin on in the plugin

So that amount is apparently produced by the "separation" of the GDl-materials with the IDs...is that 1000-material-limit fix ?

I think it is probably a bug Artur. If oyu have a scene where this happens, pls send it to me and it will be fixed.

By the way...what happens with the materials above this limit ? Get they white, too ?

Any material over the limit will have scene geometry, but no Octane material node plugged into the material pins (so will probably render black).

- camera has only "thinlens", "panorama" or "cylindrical" is missing/not selectable

Yes - this is a bug - I will fix this in the next 24hrs

- would't it be reasonable to set the default smoothing of all materials to "Enabled" ? I think the faceted-look is used less often

Unfortunately walls (which are low-poly) can look particularly poor which smoothing ON. So it's defaulted to off.

- maxsamples-setting (any kernel) has no effect, the renders (in all projects) runs always up to 100 (I've definded that once so @ the earlier plugin)

This is not the case for me. Let me investigate.

- at animating a sequence the renderer does always use another FOV setting ("Zoom-In") than defined in the Archicad-cameras. After stopping the animation the normal
viewport window is "infeced"; it doesn't update anymore according to the Archicad-3D-View. The picture seems frozen but is re-rendered when the Archicad-View is changed.

I know what this is - and will fit it.

Almost in every project, when loading the full geometry, I get the Render Failure massage "Cuda devices need to be reset. Closing viewport."
The reset function (devices) doesn't really help. What helps is loading only a small part of the whloe geometry, then a bigger one. If the
massage comes again then the reset function may have an effect and even the whole geometry succeeds sometimes to be loaded up then.

I believe this is an Octane API bug - and Otoy have already fixed it - so the fix will be in the next release.

There are 2 kinds of GDL-materials. Those, which have the material(s) defined in their script (like my trees, selectable for the 4 seasons) - and those which pick their materials
from the main Archicad-list (like my cars; carpaint, glass, rim, lamps,...). The last ones could theoretically be left without the added ID...

That is a good point. I need to consider the ramifications of this.

A project where I set the camera to "spherical" (@last plugin-version) has now only "cylindrical" as alternative

Yes - that will be fixed when I fix the other camera problem.

Thanks so much for all the feedback. I will rectify all these issues tomorrow and post another release.

Paul

[BfPuVAK]

Hi Paul,

thanks for your detailed answers...I'm looking forward to get the new Plugin

However, the smoothing default-On/Off still bothers me.
I made a little test with some walls and GDL-objects. On the left all materials with smoothing OFF, on the right side all ON.



The tube on the left is build up from two bows, so the smoothing ON does what it should, i would say. Same thing with the spheres. The other walls are made of segments (and are connected of course), and the smoothing doesn't affect the edges between them, not at 90°, not at 120° and even not at 1°.
When rendered with Archicad itself or Maxwell Render, the smoothing is also on by default and the results are exactly the same as in the above named right picture.
Of course in Octane itself/LiveDB all materials are with smoothing on by default, too.

Unfortunately walls (which are low-poly) can look particularly poor which smoothing ON. So it's defaulted to off.

I'm really courious about what case could that be. I admit that my little test does not cover up all possible cases and I could have overseen something...
But up to now - I have 4 projects where I use Octane more or less extensively - I've found no disatvantages/problems with all smoothings on on !
So on walls it's generally without difference if it's on or off, but smoothing on you need on door-knobs, handrails, cars, furniture, washbasins,...

But Paul, I'm happy to be convinced otherwise

@ other Archicad'ers here: what experiences have you made with that up to now?

Greetings,
Artur

[face_off]

Quick update:

The trees: as you can see in the screenshots they're mainly white (I've added here the alphaimage manually) and some of them have still a texture (just no transparency there, I didn't edited them).
In both cases the node parameters are missing. Here 2 different projects:

AND

By opening the project/viewport there are some "No Octane material matches ArchiCAD material [materialname]", also indicating some GDL materials, but they don't necesserily show up the "white trees" (I compared the IDs).

Both these are actually an ArchiCAD, where it is calculating the GDL GUID hash tag incorrectly. I will have the plugin do the correct calculation, which will fix both these.

There are 2 kinds of GDL-materials. Those, which have the material(s) defined in their script (like my trees, selectable for the 4 seasons) - and those which pick their materials
from the main Archicad-list (like my cars; carpaint, glass, rim, lamps,...). The last ones could theoretically be left without the added ID...

The GDL object which pick there material are actually already being assigned these normal material name correctly by the plugin. Any material with a GDL.... name is a material defined inside a GDL script.

The tube on the left is build up from two bows, so the smoothing ON does what it should, i would say. Same thing with the spheres. The other walls are made of segments (and are connected of course), and the smoothing doesn't affect the edges between them, not at 90°, not at 120° and even not at 1°.
When rendered with Archicad itself or Maxwell Render, the smoothing is also on by default and the results are exactly the same as in the above named right picture.
Of course in Octane itself/LiveDB all materials are with smoothing on by default, too.

ArchiCAD generates more polys for curved surfaces. It is lowpoly surfaces (windows) that were the biggest problem. I retested all this, and it is indeed very rare that smoothing causes shadow artifacts (I couldn't find any!), and probably only on specular material (glass panes). Options are:

1) Turn Smoothing on when converting all materials
2) Turn Smoothing on when converting glossy and specular materials (since glass would rarely need smoothing on)
3) Keep converting with Smoothing OFF, but provide a menu option "Turn Smoothing ON for all materials"
4) Provide a configuration checkbox "Turn Smoothing ON with converting materials" (this would mean you would need to re-activate your plugin when you next ran the update)

Let me know your preference.

Paul

[rappet]

Hi Paul,
About smooth... I prefer option 3) or 4)
Can you explain a little more the difference between 3) and 4)
And what is or could be the downside of having all materials with smooth on?
Depending on the downside I would suggest to have all materials smooth ON as standard
Greetz, Jeroen

[face_off]

I think the easiest option is to change the plugin so that ALL material conversions are done with Smoothing ON. If you notice any issues, I can revert this in 1 min. I wonder if I originally turned them off because the extraction of Normals was not working so well - but now is all good.

Paul

[acc24ex]

- smoothing on square, low poly objects sometimes causes shading glitches, where half or part of the object appears completely black at angles - so you just need to pay attention when you notice those

- also, you cannot create round edges on walls or fancy stuff like that inside archicad - so here's another reason to request/introduce the feature like round edges at render time

- Question to octane team - is there a way to get a demo licence for archicad plugin or something since now I want to see the preview in archicad, since I started using it again - I already own two octane standalone licences, and a 3dmax licence - now I don't really need the archicad octane plugin, but I would really enjoy rendering previews in octane quality, or do some test renders
- I'm going to import it into max and finish up there, but until I do I end up looking at the ugly archicad preview window, thinking how great it's going to look after I export it.. and I'm curious on how it performs
- same thing with C4D - stopped using it, but I would like to compare that plugin version, I know the old exporter for c4d worked much better than the 3dmax one.. Octane team, rethink this, and at least offer some benefits to long term clients

[face_off]

I am building the demo version of the ArchiCAD plugin today or tomorrow, and looking for someone to test it! Email me (paul at physicalc-software.com) if you would like a beta test copy.

Paul