Slow LiveDB

[kalain]

Getting materials from the LiveDB is taking ages - sometimes;

10-12 seconds for anything to happen after I click "load from LiveDB"

5 seconds for sub-categories to load, after I click on a main heading.

5 seconds to load the image preview of materials

10 seconds - 1min30 to load a chosen material;

And quite regularly, "Error loading LiveDB nodes for this material - potentially caused by a time-out."

As far as I know, I'm not doing anything stupid. And I can't see how this would be normal LiveDB performance.
If anyone else has had similar experiences, or could suggest a fix - I'd be interested to know what is going on.

Rhino SR8 64bit

Octane 1.20.1.29

[ SSD, 16Gb RAM , GT650M card, fast internet i.e. no problems loading videos / continuously scrolling down google image search results]

[face_off]

Getting materials from the LiveDB is taking ages - sometimes;

Yes - it seems the speed is up and down depending on traffic. The download speed of the plugin is identical to Octane Standalone, and you can see the Standalone progress bar moves slowly sometimes, specially where there are very big texturemaps to download. I will raise the bandwidth issue with Otoy again.

The latest TEST release of the Rhino plugin caches the LiveDb downloaded texturemaps, so once you have downloaded once, it is quick to reuse the material in the future.

Paul

[eric_clough]

First a compliment. The live data base materials are excellent for the most part and they render beautifully.

But ... a few won't load at all.
Sometimes materials attach to different objects than they are assigned to so two objects magically have the same material but it is easy to change to another material.
I like to attach materials to layers rather than objects and I find this difficult to do. I drag and drop them but about half of them will not stick.

As mentioned above in the previous post some materials do take a long time to load. Is there any way to save them into my own library?

I am not yet clear on saving materials I create or modify ... will I find that information in the manual?

cheers,
eric

[face_off]

There are a few factors at play here.....

1) Internet traffic - that's your issue

2) Otoy's LiveDb server and internet connection - hassle Fooze (Chris) if you think that's the issue

3) If there is a specific material that will not load, pls let me know what it is and I will try it here. It may be a plugin issue with that specific material, which I can fix

4) Have you deleted your LiveDb cache as recommended in the first msg of this thread?

5) There is an issue with the LiveDb window, where if you task-swap out of Rhino while it's open, it can get stuck under the Material panel, results in a locked. McNeel are looking into this at the moment

6) If you want a LiveDb material in a Layer, edit the layer material, and create a new Octane material and load the LiveDb material from there. I haven't testing dragging a material to set the layer material (is this possible?)

7) Can you save LiveDb materials? Yes, just load them into an Octane Material (in the Material panel), then "Save to File", and the you have a Rhino material file which is the Octane LiveDb material remember to set the LiveDb texturemap location in the Settings). Also, when you download a LiveDb material once, it is cached (by the Octane API) on your hard disk, so should be almost instantly accessed next time you need it. And I also have a "batch download all LiveDb materials" task on the Todo list (might take a while to get done though). I have just implemented this on the Modo plugin (takes all night to download the whole LiveDb), but the concept is sound, so I plan to implement this on the Rhino plugin.

I am not yet clear on saving materials I create or modify ... will I find that information in the manual?

The manual is for the "old material" system for the plugin. I have an urgent task to update it to the new material system (where materials are editing in the Material panel) now that most people are using the new version. So unfortunately the manual is less help than it should be in this area.

Paul

[eric_clough]

Hi Paul ..
Thanks for the explanations. That helps.

I am running into some, to me, strange behavior with materials. I built a simple model using arrangements of 10 blocks, each on a separate layer and assigned 10 different materials to these blocks. The results are great.

but ..

If I copy a block to another location the textural patterns stay the same. However if I modify these blocks with extrude or if I cut the block to a thinner slice with boolean difference, for example, the textures change (sometimes in direction, sometimes in pattern differences). There does not seem to be a simple way to correct this, like rotating the pattern back to its original direction. (This seems to be true with Rhino Render also ... probably something I just don't understand about handling material textures)

And though this is a simple model sometimes the mouse gets almost uncontrollable for fairly long periods of time.

Also, when I make a change in Rhino (like copy a block, for instance) I have to manually refresh the Octane window.

I could send you this model or make a screen grab to illustrate but don't see a way to attach a file here.

cheers,
eric

[face_off]

Hi Eric

If I copy a block to another location the textural patterns stay the same. However if I modify these blocks with extrude or if I cut the block to a thinner slice with boolean difference, for example, the textures change (sometimes in direction, sometimes in pattern differences). There does not seem to be a simple way to correct this, like rotating the pattern back to its original direction. (This seems to be true with Rhino Render also ... probably something I just don't understand about handling material textures)

By default Rhino is applying texturemaps to geometry with UV mapping. The general rule is that the mapping used by the plugin should exactly match that used by the Rhino renderer. If it doesn't, it's a plugin problem (but I haven't had any reports in this areas). If you have a scene where the texturemaps are applied differently between Rhino and Octane, pls send it to me.

The latest version of the plugin also allows you to use texturemap projections other than UV mapping - see http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic. ... on#p170422 for details.

And though this is a simple model sometimes the mouse gets almost uncontrollable for fairly long periods of time.

I fixed a lag issue in the next version - but I'd be interested to see this scene to see if that change resolves your issue.

Also, when I make a change in Rhino (like copy a block, for instance) I have to manually refresh the Octane window.

That is a limitation of the plugin at this stage. There is no live updating of block instances. I plan to address this in the future.

I could send you this model or make a screen grab to illustrate but don't see a way to attach a file here.

If the model is < 5Megs, email to paul at physicalc-software dot com.

Thanks

Paul

[kalain]

I also have a "batch download all LiveDb materials" task on the Todo list (might take a while to get done though). I have just implemented this on the Modo plugin (takes all night to download the whole LiveDb), but the concept is sound, so I plan to implement this on the Rhino plugin.

Yes please, that sounds brilliant. Can't wait

[kalain]

I also have a "batch download all LiveDb materials" task on the Todo list (might take a while to get done though). I have just implemented this on the Modo plugin (takes all night to download the whole LiveDb), but the concept is sound, so I plan to implement this on the Rhino plugin.

Yes please, that sounds brilliant. Can't wait

Hi, I've just upgraded my Octane licenses (standalone & rhino plugin) to 2.0 - is it possible for you to implement the batch download feature as discussed?
Thanks in advance, this feature would be extremely helpful.

[face_off]

Hi, I've just upgraded my Octane licenses (standalone & rhino plugin) to 2.0 - is it possible for you to implement the batch download feature as discussed?
Thanks in advance, this feature would be extremely helpful.

Hi - this is probably no longer required. Octane now caches all LiveDb materials - so once they have been downloaded once, they are stored on your hard disk, and will instantly load in Octane Standalone or any of the plugins. If you want to force the downloading of a bunch of LiveDb materials - start Octane Standalone, and drag the relevant LiveDb materials onto the node graph - that will force them to be downloaded and cached.

Paul