OctaneRender for Modo (Windows) 1.52 [STABLE]

[raybender]

Get the 1.33 veesion of Standalone from the Release Candidate forum. Then it should work.

[PAQUITO]

Paul, let me attach a screenshot about what I was talking about with the alpha channels:


Other thing that would be very nice to have is being able to manipulate the octane preview. I mean, as with the Modo preview, where you can rotate, zoom and pan the view into the preview itself.

[cakeller98]

Get the 1.33 veesion of Standalone from the Release Candidate forum. Then it should work.

Thanks that did it. I assumed I had the latest from the downloads page... now I have 1.33RC of standalone. Yay and thanks (so much better from 1.2, naming of nodes and etc vastly improved! etc)

So do I have the latest version of the plugin? was I supposed to find that in another forum post?

[face_off]

Paul, let me attach a screenshot about what I was talking about with the alpha channels:

There is no transparency Effect in your Shader Tree - so the alpha is coming from the BL02lef alpha channel - in which case you need to tweak the Octane Override for that material as per http://render.otoy.com/manuals/Modo/?page_id=169. I plan to automate using PNG's with alpha at some point.

Other thing that would be very nice to have is being able to manipulate the octane preview. I mean, as with the Modo preview, where you can rotate, zoom and pan the view into the preview itself.

I agree - this would be great. I have done this with some of the other Octane plugins, so it's doable - however I am waiting until the OSX version of the plugin is done so I can work out the best way to implement the functionality over both the Windows and OSX platforms.

So do I have the latest version of the plugin? was I supposed to find that in another forum post?

Yes, you have the latest. There will be an update in a few days, once I have got a fix for the problem closing scene that some people have reported. I will post in this thread when it is available.

Paul

[riggles]

Other thing that would be very nice to have is being able to manipulate the octane preview. I mean, as with the Modo preview, where you can rotate, zoom and pan the view into the preview itself.

I agree - this would be great. I have done this with some of the other Octane plugins, so it's doable - however I am waiting until the OSX version of the plugin is done so I can work out the best way to implement the functionality over both the Windows and OSX platforms.
Paul

MODO users are also used to the preview window respecting the aspect ratio of the final render, even if they're not rendering at full resolution. It might be nice if the Octane preview did that -- or had that option?

A function that's in Standalone but not in the plugin yet, is the ability to control the gamma of the texture environment. It inherits the MODO gamma setting, but considering the other controls don't (ie: power and rotation), it would be more consistent for the Octane environment to have it's own gamma control perhaps.

[riggles]

Probably not recommended, but I wanted to try and integrate Octane into the MODO interface a bit. I don't like moving windows around and I only have my one 27" display. Works ok, except that selecting or creating an Octane override opens a new Octane Setup window over the top of everything. I can deal with that; I just select materials in the Schematic View with the workspace dropdown. Saved this as a custom layout. The render viewport isn't docked. I just made a blank area for it to sit over.

[face_off]

MODO users are also used to the preview window respecting the aspect ratio of the final render, even if they're not rendering at full resolution. It might be nice if the Octane preview did that -- or had that option?

My understanding was that this was currently happening - can you pls give me more info on this?

A function that's in Standalone but not in the plugin yet, is the ability to control the gamma of the texture environment. It inherits the MODO gamma setting, but considering the other controls don't (ie: power and rotation), it would be more consistent for the Octane environment to have it's own gamma control perhaps.

This was discussed during the closed beta test, and the general feeling was that it should pickup the gamma from the Modo environment, since whe you load a new Preset, it will bring with it the appropriate gamma. Perhaps an option would be to add a "Use Modo Environment Gamma" checkbox (ON by default), and if unchecked it uses a new Octane Environment Gamma property. I'll add this to the list. Higher or lower priority than the OSX version?

Probably not recommended, but I wanted to try and integrate Octane into the MODO interface a bit. I don't like moving windows around and I only have my one 27" display. Works ok

I think I mentioned this before - there is an issue with Modo where if you open and close the Schematic panel while the OctaneRender Setup window is docked, the Schematic in the Octane window is no longer accessible to the Shading->Add layer->Octane Override button. I /think/ it's ok with all the buttons on the Setup window, because clicking those will re-enable the Schematic in that window. Hope I haven't confused you.....

Works ok, except that selecting or creating an Octane override opens a new Octane Setup window over the top of everything.

You can stop this behavior by de-selecting the "Open OctaneRender Setup Window....." in the preferences.

Paul

[riggles]

MODO users are also used to the preview window respecting the aspect ratio of the final render, even if they're not rendering at full resolution. It might be nice if the Octane preview did that -- or had that option?

My understanding was that this was currently happening - can you pls give me more info on this?

Here's comparison between a MODO preview render window (left) and the Octane preview (right) with the same outer size. You can see that the MODO window respects the aspect ratio of the final resolution while fitting the whole camera view in the window. The Octane window zooms in and crops off parts of the camera frame.

This was discussed during the closed beta test, and the general feeling was that it should pickup the gamma from the Modo environment, since whe you load a new Preset, it will bring with it the appropriate gamma. Perhaps an option would be to add a "Use Modo Environment Gamma" checkbox (ON by default), and if unchecked it uses a new Octane Environment Gamma property. I'll add this to the list. Higher or lower priority than the OSX version?

The preset consideration does make sense. For consistency sake, is there a reason why not link the rotation values as well then? It's not a huge deal, certainly not more important than on OSX version! (you know my weak spot)

I think I mentioned this before - there is an issue with Modo where if you open and close the Schematic panel while the OctaneRender Setup window is docked, the Schematic in the Octane window is no longer accessible to the Shading->Add layer->Octane Override button. I /think/ it's ok with all the buttons on the Setup window, because clicking those will re-enable the Schematic in that window. Hope I haven't confused you.....

Not any more confused than I was the first time you mentioned it, heh. When I add an Octane override, no, my docked schematic view does not update, and that doesn't bother me terribly right now. (I know it's MODO's API limitations)

You can stop this behavior by de-selecting the "Open OctaneRender Setup Window....." in the preferences.

Not sure why I didn't remember about the added Octane section in MODO preferences, but that's where it is, thanks! Also took care of the other thing that was bugging me -- where to set Live Geometry Updates as default to ON.

[face_off]

The preset consideration does make sense. For consistency sake, is there a reason why not link the rotation values as well then? It's not a huge deal, certainly not more important than on OSX version! (you know my weak spot)

Adding the transform from the Modo Environment automatically to the Octane gets problematic, because the Modo's rendering of the IBL is a mirror image to most other 3d apps (including Octane), and it also needs to be rotated 180 degrees to match. Depending on the axis order, adding the 180 degrees requires some solid maths, and then the scale needs to be set to -1 in the X axis to handle the mirroring. So, yes, in the fullness of time this could be done, but it's going to take some effort for minimal benefit, so drops below a lot of other enhancements that could be done.

Paul

[remon_v]

There is no transparency Effect in your Shader Tree - so the alpha is coming from the BL02lef alpha channel - in which case you need to tweak the Octane Override for that material as per http://render.otoy.com/manuals/Modo/?page_id=169. I plan to automate using PNG's with alpha at some point.

There is an transparency effect in the shader tree, the second image on the picture is set to 'stencil.'