If I create an Octane light and put something like a barn door close to the light, it produces a sharp shadow even when the final throw is a great distance.
If instead I used a black body emitter on a diffuse surface I get the expected scattering at the edge of the barn door, increasing in softness with distance.
Given that Octane is an unbiased renderer I'm a little surprised by just how directional the Octane light is. It seems like an ultra-polarized light source. I had expected it to be a shortcut to creating a black body emitter with simple geometry...?