Version 2.14.0 - TEST

[Techie]

Hi,

Thanks for making a great plug-in! I have some feedback/bug reports for version 2.14.0 (Win7 x64, GTX 460, driver v344.75). Some of it might come off as nitpicking but it's just me wanting to help you make the plug-in more polished. I'm not a developer or GUI expert myself so it's just my opinions but hopefully others will agree as well. I apologize in advance if some of it has already been discussed or is planned to be fixed.

Bugs:

1. The rendering of the custom value sliders is a bit buggy. For example, here is a part of the Octane render settings window:

Now try scrolling up and then back down again and it will look like this:

This happens in all places where these sliders are used (except maybe the Octane Settings window). It can be temporarily fixed by resizing the pane/window.
I'm curious, is it really necessary to use these custom sliders instead of the built-in C4D sliders? I know some use exponential values but it would look more consistent if you used the built-in ones.

2. When adding an Octane material/shader to an object, the object looks strange in the viewport (small dots are shown on the object):

3. When changing the color of a material using the sliders, the OpenGL view doesn't update with the correct color, it seems to be one "step" behind. How to reproduce:
Create a material and add it to an object.
Add an Octane Object tag to the object.
Open the Live Viewer and start the renderer.
Change the material color to yellow. The Live Viewer updates to the correct color but the OpenGL view stays the same.
Change the color to red. The Live Viewer updates to the correct color but the OpenGL view now shows the yellow color. Making another change now changes the OpenGL color to red. Etc.

4. When changing settings/values on an Octane Object tag, it doesn't always update the Live Viewer (similar to the issue mentioned above). How to reproduce:
Create an object and add an Octane Object tag to it.
Open the Live Viewer.
Uncheck the "Camera visibility" checkbox. The object will stay visible in the Live Viewer (it should be hidden).
Check the "Camera visibility" checkbox. The object will be hidden in the Live Viewer (it should be visible).

Suggestions:

5. The buttons for starting/pausing/stopping the rendering in the Live Viewer could be simplified. Wouldn't it be enough to just have:
"Reload" (which reloads all data from C4D and starts rendering)
"Restart" (which just restarts the renderer with the currently loaded data)
"Start/Pause" (on one button, so when you click Start [>] the button changes to Pause [||])
"Stop"

As it is now, I don't understand why it needs both of the buttons "Resend your scene and start new render" and "Stop and reset render data".

6. The buttons should be the same as those used in Octane standalone:

octane_buttons.png (9.77 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

7. Make it possible to revert settings to default by right-clicking on the input field arrows and also by opening the right-click menu and choosing "Reset to Default". It works on some settings though so it's a bit inconsistent.

8. There are some spelling/grammatical errors and inconsistencies in the GUI and documentation. Maybe ask someone at Otoy to proofread all the text? Otherwise it gives off an unprofessional look of an otherwise excellent plug-in.

9. Try to be consistent in how you name things. E.g. if you call something "Octane Camera Tag" (with spaces) in one place, don't call it "OctaneCameraTag" (without spaces) somewhere else.
Also, C4D always uses Upper Case Characters for each word in the GUI (except for prepositions like "of", "to" etc.) so try to type it the same way so it looks consistent.

10. In general, don't use abbreviations even if you think it looks better in the GUI. E.g. it's usually better to type "Direct Lighting" instead of "DL" because that makes it easier to understand, especially for new users.

11. The Octane tags:

octane_tags.png (4.42 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

Should be renamed to:
Octane Daylight
Octane Texture Environment (or just Octane Environment)
Octane Light
Octane Object
Octane Camera
(note the spaces)

12. "OctaneMaterial" should be renamed to "Octane Material" (with a space).

13. In C4D render settings, the drop down menu at the top should say "Octane Render" instead of "Octane Renderer".

octane_render_settings_menu.png (6.6 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

14. Showing the render status/statistics inside the menu-bar is a bit strange and non-standard and should be removed since it's already showing status/statistics on top of the image anyway and it's not always possible to see the whole line.

15. Make an option to show/hide the geometry statistics in the Live Viewer:

octane_geometry_statistics.png (5.79 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

16. The "Chn:" text in the Live Viewer should be removed but keep the drop down menu and type out the full channel/kernel names e.g. "Direct Lighting", "Path Tracing", "Geometric Normals", "Material ID" etc. instead of abbreviations. You could have a mouse-over text that says "Kernel/Channel".

octane_live_viewer_channel.png (888 Bytes) Viewed 4261 times

17. In the "Octane"-menu at the top of C4D:

octane_menu.png (3.72 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

Rename:
"Octane Dialog" to "Load Toolbar".
"Live Viewer Window" to "Live Viewer".
"Octane Settings" to "Settings".

18. The text in the bottom left corner in C4D needs a space after "Octane:":

octane_c4d_lower_left_corner.png (1.38 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

19. Having a "?" help-button in various places is nice but not really necessary. Users should just be able to right-click on a button/menu/slider and choose "Show Help..." as is possible for the rest of C4D.

20. When selecting "Save [...]" on the "File"-menu, it should show the possible file name extensions in the "Save" window under "Save as type" such as *.png and *.exr:

octane_file_menu.png (5.79 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

octane_save_window.png (1.48 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

21. On the Live Viewer "Options" menu:

octane_live_viewer_options_menu.png (3 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

"Check Geometries" should be renamed to "Check Objects". It makes more sense since the tag is called "Octane Object Tag".

22. Rename the plug-in folder to "Octane for Cinema 4D" instead of "c4doctane". It looks better in the GUI. (This can of course be done manually though.)

23. In the Octane Settings window on the Kernel tab:

octane_settings_gi_mode.png (3.8 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

"GI_mode" should be renamed to "GI Mode" or "Global Illumination Mode" and the drop down items should be renamed to:
"None"
"Ambient"
"Sample Environment"
"Ambient Occlusion"
"Diffuse"
(since that's what they're called in Octane standalone)

Questions:

24. Why is the "Basic" tab removed on the tags?

25. What's the purpose of the "Gui" menu in the Live Viewer?

octane_live_viewer_gui_menu.png (1.23 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

[aoktar]

Hi Techie,
thanks for long list. I think you are trying to help to us. Let's check you requests.

1-Custom sliders.....
Two reason to keep them. One is to allow updates when you are dragging, this is not possible on default sliders. Second to use logaritmic ranges. Many parameters are sensible to low values but need also big values. I know of course this visual artifacts. But i have no succes to fix until now.
Btw, i can put a option to use default sliders but i'm not sure that will reflect some advantages of our's.

2-dots on opengl....
We are using octane renderer to get previews. It's a pathtracer and generates some noises and colored dots. It's on my list to check

3-Delay on opengl previews....
This should be fixed on version 2.14. It's well on me.

4- Also this should be more syncronised, i checked again. It updates without delay. But again i say that: things are much more complicated as you can imagine.

As it is now, I don't understand why it needs both of the buttons "Resend your scene and start new render" and "Stop and reset render data

"stop and reset..." restart current session without resending any data.

7. Make it possible to revert settings to default by right-clicking on the input field arrows and also by opening the right-click menu and choosing "Reset to Default". It works on some settings though so it's a bit inconsistent.

Someone and me don't agree on this

Also thanks for others. I'll keep some of them in todo list. You should be sure that's not easy or time issue if i cannot change some problems. Some issues are much more complicated then some people may think.

[Iceman9]

Would it be a mistake to buy a video card with only 3GB? (My scenes are rarely ultra-complex)

[aoktar]

Would it be a mistake to buy a video card with only 3GB? (My scenes are rarely ultra-complex)

20 millions polygons will no consumes too much vram. Textures will fill the most of ram. It depends how much the size and bit depths...
you can estimate easily.

[Iceman9]

Would it be a mistake to buy a video card with only 3GB? (My scenes are rarely ultra-complex)

20 millions polygons will no consumes too much vram. Textures will fill the most of ram. It depends how much the size and bit depths...
you can estimate easily.

So 4GB might be a sweet spot for most users? (I know each user is different, but for most users)

[aoktar]

Would it be a mistake to buy a video card with only 3GB? (My scenes are rarely ultra-complex)

20 millions polygons will no consumes too much vram. Textures will fill the most of ram. It depends how much the size and bit depths...
you can estimate easily.

So 4GB might be a sweet spot for most users? (I know each user is different, but for most users)

sure 4gb is better

[albehany]

hi aoktar thank you for your hard work.
for some reason if i drag materials from Content Browser crash c4d
take look to the attach video
thank you

[garytyler]

There is one issue with 2.14 that is very frustrating for me. If I send a scene to PV then need to adjust a kernel setting, it can take me up to 10 times changing the setting and restarting the render before the setting change takes effect. I change setting, save project, save preset, reinstate preset and this still often does not do it. Even saving then restarting C4d will sometimes not let that setting take affect. I have never experienced anything like that with my setup.

[aoktar]

There is one issue with 2.14 that is very frustrating for me. If I send a scene to PV then need to adjust a kernel setting, it can take me up to 10 times changing the setting and restarting the render before the setting change takes effect. I change setting, save project, save preset, reinstate preset and this still often does not do it. Even saving then restarting C4d will sometimes not let that setting take affect. I have never experienced anything like that with my setup.

i'm not sure what do you mean. Can you explain what settings? Btw, you can't change scene settings while a render is going on picture viewer

[garytyler]

I have no problem adjusting kernel settings while I have a render processing in the picture viewer. If you're telling me those settings will not effect the currently processing render, I know that of course. Either way, this is all besides the point. I will try to spell it out extremely clear.

1. I render a scene in the picture .
2. The scene finishes.
3. I decide I would like to adjust a setting or 2 in the kernel settings and do another . (does not matter what setting, they all exhibit the problem)
4. I adjust the settings.
5. I send the scene to the picture viewer again with the new settings.
6. The new render is rendering with the old settings instead of the new ones.
7. I cancel the render and resend to the picture viewer.
8. It is still rendering with the old settings instead of the new ones.
9. Because the system is not behaving as it should, I try each of the following, each time repeating Steps 7-8:
-Resave project
-Reset Live viewer
-Resent to Live Viewer
-Save, Close, Reopen C4D
-Change object and material settings
-Adjust render settings again
-Anything I can think of
10. The Picture viewer continues to render with the same old settings I started with.
11. I restart my computer and that has, so far, been the only solution I have found.

Whether you consider this an issue or not, I consider it extremely annoying and I have read other posts about the same thing and/or the same type of thing. If I use other renderers, including the stock C4D renderers or Vray Plugin, I have never experienced such a thing.

Also, there is an issue with the sliders not reflecting updated numerical values in the kernel settings window. The only solution I have found for this, which only works about 1 of every 5 attempts, is to save my new settings as a preset and reinstate that preset. The new values are usually not retained in the kernel settings window or the render.

Both of these issues existed in the previous version as well. These are not unique issues to 2.14. 3 versions ago did not have these problems. (I believe that was the last stable version)