Yes, you´re right, but for now i have also much work to update the internal plugin...
But maybe, when i have a kind of boredome, i will change something
The internal plugin would be much more powerfull if we were able to use the Octane tree at the same time.
Once the plugin is compatible with ICE particles I might consider purchasing it.
Regarding the converter, I think it is an important tool as the Octane standalone has a workflow that I now consider much faster than using and manipulating materials in the Softimage render tree, and I've been a Softimage user for 16 years.
I think this is a problem with Softimage itself.
Each time you change something, the renderer is stopped and some things would be evaluated.
This are the cameras, meshes, each shader and i don´t know what more...
Is found what is changed, the equivalent in the Octane "sandbox" will also changed and the renderer will begin to render.
That´s why you can´t never get the same fast feedback which you have in Octane.
ICE will be one of the next things i will implement, when the current integrated capabilities are working good.
Now i will implement the motion blur feature and then i will update all texture mappings.
This things are working in a testing manner.
This means, some values are hard coded without an UI, or some textures have the new mapping, but not all.
Also more a stupid work, to copy and paste code between the lines...