3dsmax 2016 Octane Viewport Stops updating

[lwmotion]

I am test driving the demo version of Octane with 3ds max 2016.
I noticed that the download page had a message about the demo was only
compatible with Max 2012-2015. Is this still the case? I'm getting random Octane
viewport lockups when using the demo with Max 2016. I have to close and
relaunch the OctaneRender viewport for interactive rendering to start again.

When will a compatible demo be available for Max 2016? I just had a custom
workstation built in anticipation of possibly using Octane instead of Vray for
commercial animation production but I can't evaluate the renderer without a
properly functioning demo.

Here's some useful stats:

Dual XEON workstation
Dual GTX 980 Ti's (driver ver. 353.82)
3DSMAX 2016
OctaneRender plugin ver2.23.2 - 2.5 Demo
Running Windows 7 Prof. SP1 (64bit)

I was playing with the provided Octane sample scene "OctaneBenchmark" with an
HDRI Map. GPU memory never exceeded 0.25% of 5.245GB.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

[lwmotion]

Amazed that there are zero responses.

I took matters into my own hands and updated everything:

a new version of Max 2016 SP1,
the newest version of the Nvida Driver for my 2 GTX 980 Ti's 355.98
uninstalled Octane and reinstalled to a newer version 2.42.2 - 2.9.
After a fresh system restart, I launched Max and everything behaved
and was working fine.

That was yesterday, today after a system restart I relaunched max and now
the devices (2 - 980 Ti's) were missing. If that wasn't enough, I opened my
material editor and max locked up.

I have never been so frustrated with a demo render in my entire career.
Is this version 2.4 still in beta for Max 2016? What's with all these technical
problems? Whose bug testing this demo plugin? Is there no accountability?
Demo versions of Vray and Corona never gave me all this grief.
I don't understand, all these versions of Octane in development and yet Max
has these crippling issues.

Otoy, if there is a rock solid configuration setup that will allow Octane to
function properly for 3ds Max 2016, for god sake please make it public.

I'm starting to feel like this developer has bitten off more than they can chew.

[bepeg4d]

Hi,
apologize for the inconvenience, I have pointed yours issue to the team and I can confirm that currently there is a new demo v2.24-2.10 available on the forum and it is going to be published soon.
Here is the release note:

• New 2.24.2 engine.
  Fixed crash in some cases of using "pick" in Octane viewport.
  Fixed camera "target focusing" mode.
  Fixed "Lock camera" behavior in the case currently locked view was maximized.
  Fixed Forest Pack objects rendering issue where the material assigned to Forest Pack "Custom object" was used instead of one assigned to Forest Pack geometry.
  Octane viewport is now refreshed automatically if motion blur parameters change in render settings.
  Implemented the hack to clean up the GPU memory every time after rendering is finished.
  Minor fixes and improvements...

ciao beppe

[lwmotion]

I installed version v2.24-2.10 as suggested and it seemed to work for about 20 min.
I went to go review the Octane manual in a Chrome browser and when I switched
back to Max, I noticed Max had locked up and stopped responding. I force quite and
restarted Max but now the graphic card devices are missing again.

If anyone on this planet has a properly functioning demo of Octane for Max 2016,
could you please provide your setup specs? Here are my specs:

ASUS Motherboard Z10PE-D8 WS
2 - Intel Xeon E5-2630 v3 (8 Core) 2.40 GHz Processors
2 - EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (Nvidia Driver ver. 355.98)
64GB DDR4-2133 ECC Registered DIMMs
Samsung SM951 512GB M.2 boot drive
Windows 7 Professional SP1 64bit

3DSMAX 2016 SP1
OctaneRender plugin ver2.23.2 - 2.10 Demo


Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[bepeg4d]

Hi,
weird, I'm not a max user, but have you enabled the priority for the card with monitor attached?
Have you other applications running that are using CUDA?
The best setup for Octane is to have a Quadro, a low GTX or an iGPU for system and monitors and leave some GTX for Octane only. In this way the VRAM is not reduced by the system and other applications don't affect the rendering.
Have you tried with the Standalone version?
Do you have the same behavior?
ciao beppe

[lwmotion]

I have not tried using the stand alone demo to see if I experience the same problems. I'm needing a plugin render
solution. I typically don't use other apps while I'm using Max and Octane. Even if I were I should be experiencing
sluggish viewport performance, not a locked-up and unresponsive 3d app that I have to force quite.

I've tried 3 versions of the Octane demo plugin now:

2.24.2 - 2.5
2.24.2 - 2.9
2.24.2 - 2.10

and they all are consistently buggy. After they lockup Max, the devices are permanently missing even after a system
restart. The only way to get the graphic card devices to show up and get the Octane viewport working again is a plugin reinstall.

Not sure if the culprit is the Nvidia drivers or if Octane is definitely not supported for Max 2016.
I did reach out to their support department and they said Octane did support Max 2016 so I'm stumped.

[bepeg4d]

Please, could you try with the Standalone demo to see if you have a different behavior?
Since the Standalone is rock solid, if you still have issues, the culprit could be in the hw or in the system
ciao beppe

[oguzbir]

Do not know about the DEMO but
Licenced version of 2016 seems to work properly in my perspective.

Check your hardware about CPU and GPU temps .

[lwmotion]

I downloaded and tested the stand alone demo ver. 2.24.2 with the screws, hallway, and
benchmark demo scenes and seems to be solid and working fine. Can edit materials,
rotate camera, and both of my 980 Ti devices are identified and working properly.

If users are saying the full plugin version is working fine for Max 2016, than why am I having
a hard time with this demo plugin version? Doesn't make sense.

[lwmotion]

One additional little note, Vray RT 3.2 with cuda gpu viewport is working great in Max 2016.
No crashing, lock ups, or other issues.