OctaneRender for Blender released!

[kaskudo]

Hello JimStar.
I would like to know the possibility of integrating this addon sun's position in the new version of the plugin for blender?
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Exten ... n_Position
Thank you ..

[JimStar]

Hello JimStar.
I would like to know the possibility of integrating this addon sun's position in the new version of the plugin for blender?
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Exten ... n_Position
Thank you ..

Thanks for pointing, will think about it later.

[pixelrush]

Btw is this currently based on blender 2.68 or 2.68a?

[mtmx]

Big thanks for the plugin release! I tried to find out about whether it will support Hair/Fur, I couldn't find info on that. Can anyone please tell?

[megacal]

JimStar,

now that the plugin is ready for sale, can you please list the advantages
of your plugin vs using yoyoz's free plugin?

My impression is that it:

1.Will make workflow much easier/faster.

2.The render process is faster (how much faster?)

And it has all the lighting, rendering features of Stand Alone (or more?)
and all the features of the other integrated plugins, e.g. for Maya?

The only con so far is no Live DB materials (but coming in the future?)

It would be good to say why this is such an improvement. I read through the
preview thread and this one, but still not totally sure what are the selling points.

There may be some advantages that I don't see, too.

I'm just a micron from pushing the "purchase" button....very, very close.

[FooZe]

Hi megacal,

Hope you don't mind me responding rather than JimStar,

I think the video in the first post shows more than could be easily explained.
You end up with the workflow of the standalone right inside blender, no need to export out to the standalone.

1. Yes - this is the main reason - updating geometry, creating/placing/generating instances is far easier etc.
2. Shear rendering speed (Megasamples per second) is not faster, but the workflow is.
3. Yes - it has all the core octane features of 1.20 (JimStar can correct me if this is not 100% true).
4. Yes - there is currently no LiveDB access from the plugin but it's planned before the final (non-beta) release.

5. This plugin will continue to be supported and provide new features as they become available in the octane core (as best we can).

Thanks
Chris.

[megacal]

Hi Chris,

thanks for the reply. Good to get your input, and hope to hear from others
as well (and JimStar).

Actually, I want to promote Octane Render for Blender, and thought it would help
others make a decision to buy if there were some written statements, instead of
just the video.....which is cool, don't get me wrong.

If it is a time saver, I can justify getting it, as it's more cost effective (for me) to get OR4B at $132 US (currently), than to upgrade my system.

Octane seems to offer many more render options than other renderers for Blender.

I'm only using Octane on a computer I built (just for Octane), and still like using Cycles and/or
Blender Internal for my 2 laptops.

Advanced users probably see the advantages of Octane much better than I would, so I welcome
your insights.

[Empire-Arts]

I would just like to know if anything in this version of blender (your version) has been disabled. Can I use all of my existing scripts and addons for example in your version?



A Few Other Questions:


1. If I instance something in blender will it automatically be instanced in Octane?

2. Can this version render hair, particles or grass?

3. Are there any problems with saving a blender scene with materials and then rendering it in octane? I have run into this problem with the exporter. A saved file won't always export into octane for render if materials have been added in the wrong way.

4. Can octane render subdivided geometry that has not been applied in the modifiers window? This is for displacements and animating low-poly characters.

5. Can we render a true ambient occlusion pass? This is very important for composting even in a near photo-realistic render engine like octane. ATM I have found workarounds on the internet that create a very similar effect, but an actual pass would be nice. As would a true shadow pass for that matter.




That's basically it. Thx for your time.

[JimStar]

I would just like to know if anything in this version of blender (your version) has been disabled. Can I use all of my existing scripts and addons for example in your version?

Blender has a ton of settings in compile-time configuration, so it's hard to say "what is disabled" or "what is enabled" as what to take as starting point? Every artist chooses the builds from graphicall.org where are all needed technologies enabled, or chooses the most compact build if they do not need them all...
It was the point of the wise decision Otoy made last days: starting from next version you will be not restricted to use only the special Otoy's Blender compilation. Now you will be able to use any Blender release from e.g. graphical.org (or compiled by yourself) if this release is patched by Octane module patch. So, taking into account above - your question I think is already not actual. You will be able to use any Blender release which will have Octane module compiled in. If Blender Foundation will include the Octane module into official trunk - it will be available in official releases too.

1. If I instance something in blender will it automatically be instanced in Octane?

It is not the "one word" answer. Read THIS MANUAL SECTION please - there is explained about mesh types. So, it depends on mesh type you choose.

2. Can this version render hair, particles or grass?

Yes, using standard particles. But if you look for the same special "Curves (hair) rendering" feature Cycles has - Octane engine does not support it (at least so far).

3. Are there any problems with saving a blender scene with materials and then rendering it in octane? I have run into this problem with the exporter. A saved file won't always export into octane for render if materials have been added in the wrong way.

As far as you save your scene only in Blender version which has Octane module - no problems. But in current beta versions - you can get troubles, if you will open the Octane scene in plain Blender version and save it there - in this case you will loose the file path info in Octane image textures (as the plain Blender knows nothing about Octane image texture nodes). In this case you will be forced to choose the files again in all Octane image textures.
I'm still working to improve this.

4. Can octane render subdivided geometry that has not been applied in the modifiers window? This is for displacements and animating low-poly characters.

Yes.

5. Can we render a true ambient occlusion pass? This is very important for composting even in a near photo-realistic render engine like octane. ATM I have found workarounds on the internet that create a very similar effect, but an actual pass would be nice. As would a true shadow pass for that matter.

You can render only the passes Octane engine has. You can look at Octane standalone manual - what for modes are available in Octane's "Info kernel" at this time.

[megacal]

Chris wrote:

2. Shear rendering speed (Megasamples per second) is not faster, but the workflow is.

Have you compared render times for the same scene using the Standalone/yoyoz plugin/StandAlone
combo vs OctaneRender for Blender?

JimStar wrote (in the Preview thread):

The integrated plugin eliminates the .obj file write-read disk operations, the digital-to-text and text-to-digital translations when writing-reading this file, and some other things which slowdown the export-import process very much.
But. The acceleration structure-building process (voxelizing other words) which Octane engine needs - can not be eliminated by any plugin. This process is a much time-consuming among other before-the-render scene preparations things - as it runs on CPU before the scene can be started to be rendered on GPU.
So, the before-the-render-will-be-started time will be less in the Octane ingetration than in export-script, but you should understand that it can not be "null", as anyway, after every scene is translated and loaded to the engine, the plugin should wait before all the meshes will be voxelized by the engine.
As I already wrote - the engine team did a really great job optimising this process, so you can see in the standalone how fast the meshes are voxelized in last Octane versions when you load .obj mesh into standalone... The same voxelizing time will be needed by the plugin when it loads the meshes to the engine...

So it sounds like renders should be faster using OctaneRender for Blender than with the Blender/yoyoz plugin/Octane StandAlone combo (?). A good selling point, btw.


JimStar, should we stop posting here, and move to the new "current" thread?