OctaneRender™ Standalone 3.00 alpha 4

[abstrax]

Hi all,

This is the 4th alpha release of v3 providing mostly bug fixes and improving the overall behaviour of Octane.

We split the v3 alpha release notes into two posts: This one, which provides the download links and information specific to this particular release and a features post describing and discussing the new features and changes of 3.00. The features post will be continuously updated until we reach the stable version 3.00.


Alpha and beta version disclaimer

In contrast to v2 we want to do the alpha and beta testing publicly, to get more feedback earlier and to have changes tested more thoroughly. The plan is to let all users with a valid v2 license use the v3 alpha and beta versions until we decide that the beta period has ended and we release the first stable v3. After that you will have to upgrade to v3 or will not be able to use any v3 versions (including alpha and beta versions) anymore. We don't know yet, when that will be, but we will give you a warning a few weeks in advance so you can prepare.

Since there is a higher likelihood of severe bugs in alpha and beta versions you shouldn't use them for production work. It would be nice if you could test some production scenes with the alpha and beta versions, but you should definitely not rely on the stability of those versions to finish your projects.

In the Standalone you should be able to load v3 scenes in v2, losing only features provided in v3 and maybe some converted settings (like the new "mid level" in displacement nodes). With the plugins this isn't necessarily the case, which means that you should not create any plugin projects with v3 alpha/beta if you are not 100% sure that you want to upgrade to v3 or that you don't mind losing these projects when the beta period ends.

Offline authentication is disabled in alpha and beta versions.


Manual

We don't have an updated manual for v3 yet. That's partially due to the fact that we are currently overhauling the documentation web site, which needs to be finished until we can publish an updated manual for v3. We will let you know when the v3 manual is available until then, please refer to the v3 new features thread and its discussion.


CUDA requirements

We switched to CUDA 7, which means on Windows and Linux you may need to update your NVIDIA graphics driver to a current version which supports at least CUDA 7.0. On Mac OSX you may have to update the CUDA driver for Mac to a current version supporting at least CUDA 7.0.


Changes since 3.00 alpha 3

• Added support for displacement textures when using the baking camera.
• Hopefully improved the handling of scenes with many material/texture/geometry nodes (>100,000).
• Working around some weird CUDA driver issue by keeping buffers page-locked for longer. Hopefully this improves the refresh rate when many GPUs are used.
• Allowing a zero AO distance, with which you can emulate the old GI mode "Sample environment" which got removed with version 3.00.
• Added display of grid resolution to volume node UI.
• Added the possibility to render volumes without absorption or scattering but with emission.
• Fixed multiple volume intersections having emission artifacts.
• Fixed shadow artifacts on surfaces when rendering nested meshes with volumetric media (fully transparent specular material with IOR=1 and "fake shadows" enabled) and daylight environment.
• Fixed missing shadows if render layers are enabled and "visibility only" is ticked.
• Fixed cosine mix texture (see end of viewtopic.php?p=262485#p262485).
• Fixed issue with noise in some info channels when using the baking camera (see viewtopic.php?p=261413#p261413).
• Fixed wireframe render when using the baking camera.
• Fixed a bug where switching between texture/material items with preview enabled wasn't updating the preview.
• Fixed missing update of node inspector when the switch to a node type requiring a file selection (i.e. RGB image) is cancelled.
• Made error message from octane.gui.createSettingsComponent() more specific.

For more details about the new features please read the separate new features thread.


Known issues

Region rendering is still broken and we are working to bring it back as soon as possible. Unfortunately it requires a total rewrite due to the film buffer changes.

Also render priority is currently not implemented due to the kernel overhaul. Actually, since we are now launching much smaller kernels more often, we don't see the need for this functionality anymore and want to remove it, but aren't sure if there are still cases where we would need a throttling of the kernel calls. Please let us know, in case you run into issues like a blocked/laggy UI.


OctaneRender Standalone downloads

Windows
- 64-bit commercial version (installer)
- 64-bit commercial version (ZIP archive)

Mac OS X
- 64-bit commercial version (DMG image)

Linux
- 64-bit commercial version (ZIP archive)


Photoshop workflow plugin download

You can download and install the updated plugin either via the Adobe Exchange platform or you can download it from the link below and manually install it:

Windows and Mac OS X
- Photoshop extension (ZXP archive)


Happy rendering,
Your OTOY NZ Team

[DinoMuhic]

You can remove "Baking camera still doesn't work with meshes with displacement textures." from the known issues now, can't you?

[abstrax]

You can remove "Baking camera still doesn't work with meshes with displacement textures." from the known issues now, can't you?

Yes, indeed. Fixed.

[smicha]

Thanks guys. I'll test it asap.

[itou31]

Hi,

Just test with my system (8 GPU with some on 1X slow PCIe connection).
Still have a freeze but less often.
Try to play with "Max. tile samples" to reduce overhead to film buffer, but doesn't help.
I've read again the new features and try PMC as there's no tile sample. It's seems better, only one freeze during 1h of navigating and changing setting etc...
But as soon as I switch back to Pathtracing, playing 5 min and freeze again. But far better than alpha3 where It freeze very quickly.
Note also if I disable the GPU that is connected on the USB3 riser, it's more "stable". And no issue if I select only GPU that have 16 or 8X PCIe connection.

You have also talked about choosing GPU for tonemapping and that could affect my system. Is there an option to do that ?

Here some tests and comparison just for fun : (note that PMC on V3 has more noise)

[prehabitat]

Hi,

Just test with my system (8 GPU with some on 1X slow PCIe connection).
Still have a freeze but less often.
Try to play with "Max. tile samples" to reduce overhead to film buffer, but doesn't help.
I've read again the new features and try PMC as there's no tile sample. It's seems better, only one freeze during 1h of navigating and changing setting etc...
But as soon as I switch back to Pathtracing, playing 5 min and freeze again. But far better than alpha3 where It freeze very quickly.
Note also if I disable the GPU that is connected on the USB3 riser, it's more "stable". And no issue if I select only GPU that have 16 or 8X PCIe connection.

You have also talked about choosing GPU for tonemapping and that could affect my system. Is there an option to do that ?

Here some tests and comparison just for fun : (note that PMC on V3 has more noise)

téléchargement.jpg

Just out of interest, what if you only choose 1x gpu's

I wonder if it's difficult for it to resolve the different speed/latency transmissions?

[coilbook]

Hi,

Just test with my system (8 GPU with some on 1X slow PCIe connection).
Still have a freeze but less often.
Try to play with "Max. tile samples" to reduce overhead to film buffer, but doesn't help.
I've read again the new features and try PMC as there's no tile sample. It's seems better, only one freeze during 1h of navigating and changing setting etc...
But as soon as I switch back to Pathtracing, playing 5 min and freeze again. But far better than alpha3 where It freeze very quickly.
Note also if I disable the GPU that is connected on the USB3 riser, it's more "stable". And no issue if I select only GPU that have 16 or 8X PCIe connection.

You have also talked about choosing GPU for tonemapping and that could affect my system. Is there an option to do that ?

Here some tests and comparison just for fun : (note that PMC on V3 has more noise)

téléchargement.jpg

seems like DOF is now even more noisier than it was in 2 version .can we have nice smooth DOF

[Notiusweb]

Just want to report the 12 GPU lag thing (in my testing) is so much better.
Just awesome!

If pressed to compare, there still is a slight smoothness factor yet in favor of version 2, but it's inconsequential.
"Fixed" as they say...
***APPLAUSE***

[xcaseyx]

Awesome!

a few things Im curious about, how far off is OpenCL, or OSL? Will the SDK allow, in 3.0, the ability to use API's like x-particles in cinema 4d? meaning, will we be able to access particle postion, velocity, distance, weight, mass, life, time, etc?

one of the biggest things missing for me in octane is the ability to develop truly dynamic particle animations with intelligent shaders. Its something I've become increasingly asked to create, and Im currently using Arnold to do so.

[augdalmo]

Hi Abstrax,

I have installed some weeks ago the Photoshop plugin OR Compositing. Every few days Creative Cluod warns me of a new version to install, but on the last two days I was solicited many times in a day even if I confirm the installation and it was successfully installed.

Do you have released so much updates on so few days and lately on few hours?

Manu