OctaneRender for Modo (Windows) 1.52 [STABLE]

[cakeller98]

Hmm, it seems to me like there's two different goals here. 1) Convert MODO materials to Octane ones while keeping the look as close as possible to the original and 2) taking advtange of Octane's more physically accurate materials to achieve a better looking result than MODO.

So, is it still necessary to color the specular value of an Octane material like I often needed to in MODO?

Yes. Color the specular. I use it frequently to achieve non-physically accurate effects. Never mind that if the color is white then it can be grayscale instead of rgb.

I dont get it... If the modo specular color is white, use the grayscale color if its a color use the color.

I dont use instancing because I'm not an animator. I won't argue whether its necessary or not. Not quite the same level of importance I know... but scale it back and it's the same point... you don't use it, you deem it unnecessary, but someone else (me) does and it doesn't hurt your workflow to have it.

The octane renderer should look as much as possible like the modo render out of the box.
If you want physically accurate shaders that don't match modo, then you should override those shaders anyway.

Assets are often already shaded... Why should i want to override all those shaders that are already set up?!

I dont expect a perfect match. But i do hope for the closest match possible.

[face_off]

There is an interim/partial release available for those wanting to see the latest material conversion rules in action.

1.52.0.58
- Fixed issue where if a Modo Material was above an Octane Override in the Shader tree (but they are in the same group), disabling the Modo Material would also disable the Octane Override
- Texture Locators connected to Octane Image nodes now apply a scale to the Octane Projection from the
- Rotating a texture in a Texture Locators via the UV Rotation will now apply that texture rotation to the Octane scene. The works for most projection types and axis, however combinations like rotating a texture with Cylindrical proejction in the Y axis is not working correctly at the moment.
- Fixed crash resulting from changing the Modo focus distance when the Octane Viewport was open and Use Modo Focus Distance was checked
- Fixed issue where if Kernel->Load All Frames Into Octane was NOT ticked, the camera info was not being updated correctly when changing the Modo time
- Kernel panel size increased in height
- If a Modo Material Specular Color is B&W (ie. Red=Green=Blue) the specular pin will be an Octane Greyscale Color inside the Octane Material, otherwise it will be an RGB Color Node external to the Material.

http://render.otoy.com/customerdownload ... _64bit.exe

I will migrate this to the top of this thread as the current version if there are no issues found.

Paul

[funk]

Hmm, it seems to me like there's two different goals here. 1) Convert MODO materials to Octane ones while keeping the look as close as possible to the original and 2) taking advtange of Octane's more physically accurate materials to achieve a better looking result than MODO.

I don't think there are 2 different goals. The goal is to convert whatever we can from modo to octane. The 2 materials systems are quite different so you can't always get a match. The rules can also get really complex once you get into the details, so Paul has to simply say "this is good enough" at some point.

So, is it still necessary to color the specular value of an Octane material like I often needed to in MODO?

I'm not completely sure what you mean. You say "necessary to color the specular" as if there is some fault in modo that requires you to color the specular?

Colored specular/reflection is generally used for metals. Metals have a high reflectivity, therefore a low diffuse, so their color comes from reflection/specular color. eg. For gold, I would use a yellowish specular color and my diffuse (amount) would be close to zero (black). The same general rule applies to both octane and modo.


FURTHER NOTES:
In a physically accurate material system, you dont actually "need" to lower the diffuse for metals. This is done automatically as you raise reflectivity/specular (the vray docs call this energy preservation). eg. the higher you raise specular/reflection, the less of your diffuse color you will see.

Modo does this when you enable "conserve energy" and Octane does this by default in glossy materials. In this case, even though both are set up to be physically accurate, you can get different results because they use different energy preservation methods.

You will notice this most when your diffuse is white and your spec/reflection is colored. eg. If diffuse is white, and specular/reflection color is green, octane will render the reflection color with a magenta tint, while modo will render it as green.

You can actually avoid this difference by setting your diffuse to 0/black. Then both renderers will render reflection with a green tint.


MORE NOTES:
When creating metals in modo, I tend to set my diffuse amount to 0 (same as setting diffuse color to black) because:
1. It renders faster when GI is on, because no diffuse calculations need to be done.
2. Having a diffuse color (especially close to white) gives the metal an "ashy" look which I dont like. (it all depends on the look I'm going for though)
BONUS: The modo and octane renders will match more closely

[Talleman]

Funk and Paul,

You guys are doing a great job with this plugin... I'm loving it!

I really enjoy reading all the more technical posts... I'm learning a lot.

A couple questions...

Is it possible to have the background color not black when "alpha channel" is checked? This makes it a little difficult to see the shadow quality.

Also, as a short term fix for the modo procedureal textures. Is it possible for Octane to automatically convert the modo noise texture into the octane turbulence texture? there are a couple others that are similar like the checkers pattern that this could be done with as well.

I'll probably have a few more as time goes.

[face_off]

Is it possible to have the background color not black when "alpha channel" is checked? This makes it a little difficult to see the shadow quality.

Yes - planning to render the background as checkerboard like in Standalone.

Also, as a short term fix for the modo procedureal textures. Is it possible for Octane to automatically convert the modo noise texture into the octane turbulence texture? there are a couple others that are similar like the checkers pattern that this could be done with as well.

Yes - I'll be looking at this soon. Would love any feedback you have on which Modo procedurals convert to Octane nodes.

Paul

[funk]

Paul,

In the standalone, if you have alpha channel enabled, you can also check "keep environment" and it shows your background color/texture. This doesnt seem to work in the plugin

[Talleman]

Yes - I'll be looking at this soon. Would love any feedback you have on which Modo procedurals convert to Octane nodes.

off the top of my head...

turbulence = noise
checks = checkers
dirt texture = occlusion (maybe)
falloff map = gradient and/or fresnel (maybe)
Marble = marble noise ??


turbulence can convert to a few of the e modo noise texture (or all) and that would give a starting point at least.


Please take this suggestions with a grain of salt I'm a fairly new user to both modo and octane.

[Talleman]

Might be a bug...

When the render window is paused, making an adjustment to the frame width and height makes the render update and start up again. Should stay paused.

[cakeller98]

There is an interim/partial release available for those wanting to see the latest material conversion rules in action.

Thanks Paul!!

[face_off]

When the render window is paused, making an adjustment to the frame width and height makes the render update and start up again. Should stay paused.

Thomas - I was unable to reproduce this. Could you pls double-check this was happening, and that there was not something else causing the restart?

Thanks

Paul