This is the 1st beta release of v3. With the addition of the save and resume feature we are now more or less feature complete and will focus on fixing bugs and polishing things where needed.
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
Unfortunately we are still experiencing issues with updating the manual for v3 on the server. I will update the release post when it is finished. Until then, please refer to the v3 new features thread and its discussion.
CUDA requirements
Due to a CUDA compiler bug we had switch to CUDA 7.5, which means on Windows and Linux you may need to update your NVIDIA graphics driver to a current version which supports at least CUDA 7.5. On Mac OSX you may have to update the CUDA driver for Mac to a current version supporting at least CUDA 7.5.
Changes since 3.00 alpha 10
- Added two new menu items to the Standalone file menu: "Load render state" and "Save render state". A render state file stores a all samples that have been calculated so far and a reference to the project that is currently being rendered. Saving of render films with deep pixel information is not supported yet and will be added as soon as possible. I will add a detailed description in the new features thread as soon as possible.
- Added export preference (in File -> Preferences -> Export) to save an OCS string of the current render target node tree as meta data in saved images.
- Added linker nodes for the animation settings pin type.
- The baking ID selection in the baking camera node has now the same range as in the object layer node.
- Fixed various issues with tracking the number of current authentications of the same license.
- Fixed bug where secondary intersections in alpha shadow rays used bogus motion blur vectors.
- Fixed some volumes being ignored for shadow rays when alpha shadows are disabled.
- Fixed motion blur for secondary volumes when calculating black shadows.
- Fixed wrong absorption channel being used for occlusion rays.
- Fixed loading of VDBs created by FumeFX.
- Fixed crash when trying to load a VDB using velocity components that reference to the same grid.
- Fixed crash wile loading animated sphere primitives from Alembic files (see viewtopic.php?p=271704#p271704).
- Fixed baking camera when no UV geometry is available (see viewtopic.php?p=271915#p271915).
- Fixed black triangles if a mesh contains very small UV coordinates.
- Fixed render artifacts on some meshes with nearly constant UV coordinates (see viewtopic.php?p=272374#p272374).
- Fixed render artifacts at the rims when normal or bump maps are used (see viewtopic.php?p=264212#p264212).
- Made the texture evaluation more robust, allowing deeper texture node trees.
- Fixed incorrect initialization of render threads (see viewtopic.php?p=272350#p272350).
- Fixed incorrect loading of toolbars that were saved in Standalone layouts.
- Fixed time slider if the first frame doesn't start at zero.
- Making sure the time slider and the batch render script display the same range.
- Fixed sub-frame rendering in the batch render script.
- Fixed the batch render script to properly save and load the sub-frame counts.
- Added property
staticPinCount
to the property tableoctane.node.PROPS_NODE_ITEM
.
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 (version 1.0.1) 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