OctaneRender™ Standalone 3.00 beta 4 Tweet

[abstrax]

Hi all,

This is the last beta release of 3.00 which fixes a couple more bugs.

We split the v3 alpha/beta 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. v3 alpha/beta versions will stop working on 1st June 2016.

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.


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.


Known issues

We noticed that deep pixel rendering crashes the render kernels on Maxwell GPUs (compute model 5.x) if the scene contains volumes. We are still investigating, but it looks like a CUDA compiler bug. If it's a compiler issue, we will try to work around it, but it might take a while until we have found a solution for the issue.


Changes since 3.00 beta 3

• Fixed crash of net render slave during startup.
• Fixed handling of CTRL-C on net render slaves while entering the SSO credentials on the command line.
• Better handling of license files in user folders with non-ASCII characters.
• Improved handling expiration of SSO authentications. Due to this change you will have to reenter your credentials if you switch between previous beta versions and beta 4.

OctaneRender Standalone downloads

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

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

Linux
- 64-bit commercial version (ZIP archive)
- 64-bit demo version (ZIP archive)


Photoshop workflow plugin download

You can download and install the updated plugin either via the Adobe Exchange platform (version 1.0.3 hasn't been made visible by Adobe yet) or you can download it from the link below and manually install it.

Windows and Mac OS X
- Photoshop extension (v1.0.3) (ZXP archive)


Happy rendering,
Your OTOY NZ Team

[v-cube]

Hello,

when I read that octane had been provided with a new option (visible environment node) to control the influence of the background environment, I was very excited because I hoped it would (partly) resolve some issues I had on a daily basis with burn out areas and alike , see:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52842&p=265977#p265977

I have been playing with the new option and although it seems to give you some more control, there are still a few things I do not completely understand...

From the official description I would conclude, that the multiplier of "environment" node is only responsible for lightning the scene, whether the "visible environment" node should only affect reflections and the background image in the octane viewport.
I did some tests and it seems that when I increase the visible environment node while keeping the environment node multiplier constant, the scene lightning also is affected ( please look at the shadow of the building in the attached images )

first image:

as you can see all multipliers are set to 1


second image:

I lowered the visible environment multiplier to 0.001, as a result not only the reflections are affected but it also seems that the areas that would receive diffuse illumination from the sky are way darker...

third image:

I raised the environment multiplier to 3, as before not only reflections and background are affected but the whole picture is lit more. There seems to be considerably lower contrast between shadow areas and areas lit by sunlight.


can someone please explain in detail how the two node are interacting ?

thank you very much in advance

Andreas

[pegot]

+1
I too would appreciate some more info on the new visible environment node.

[coilbook]

please make two skycolor swatches. We use AO for animation and blue sky makes our models and shadows too blue. Would be nice one color is for shadow color and the other one is jsut for sky color. We usually have to make sky color white to get diffuse looking look since we cannot afford diffuse in animation but then our sky is white

[mikinik]

coilbook, right! it is much needed!

[doca]

I think that motion blur is not working correctly, similar to the earlier situations in some alpha (or beta, not sure witch version).

[abstrax]

I think that motion blur is not working correctly, similar to the earlier situations in some alpha (or beta, not sure witch version).

Could you post an example, because here it works:

(camera and object motion blur)

[stratified]

Hello,

when I read that octane had been provided with a new option (visible environment node) to control the influence of the background environment, I was very excited because I hoped it would (partly) resolve some issues I had on a daily basis with burn out areas and alike , see:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52842&p=265977#p265977

I have been playing with the new option and although it seems to give you some more control, there are still a few things I do not completely understand...

From the official description I would conclude, that the multiplier of "environment" node is only responsible for lightning the scene, whether the "visible environment" node should only affect reflections and the background image in the octane viewport.
I did some tests and it seems that when I increase the visible environment node while keeping the environment node multiplier constant, the scene lightning also is affected ( please look at the shadow of the building in the attached images )

first image:

01-Test-E1_VE1.JPG

as you can see all multipliers are set to 1


second image:

02-Test-E1_VE0.JPG

I lowered the visible environment multiplier to 0.001, as a result not only the reflections are affected but it also seems that the areas that would receive diffuse illumination from the sky are way darker...

third image:

03-Test-E1_VE3.JPG

I raised the environment multiplier to 3, as before not only reflections and background are affected but the whole picture is lit more. There seems to be considerably lower contrast between shadow areas and areas lit by sunlight.


can someone please explain in detail how the two node are interacting ?

thank you very much in advance

Andreas

hi Andreas,

The visible environment is used when a ray immediately hits the environment or hits the environment on path termination. For reflections and refractions we use the normal environment. For diffuse materials or rough materials, the situation is a bit more complex. When we hit one of those materials, we calculate direct light and trace a reflection ray, this direct light calculation uses the normal environment and the reflected ray uses the visible environment (if the reflected ray goes into the environment) hence the effect of both environments.

The idea is that you can use the visible environment to "hack" what is visible directly or for "clear" reflections/refractions of the background in materials (i.e. in a mirror or glass). We could tweak it for example that the visible environment is only seen when the ray directly hits the environment or used only for glossy/specular materials with low roughness. But we need to have a clear picture of what exactly is needed then.

cheers,
Thomas

[matrix2012]

Hi,

1: Octane Render 3 linux missing the button.

Srceenshot0.jpg (7.4 KiB) Viewed 4692 times

2: OnlineLive status and Activity does not appear.

What is the Status ?
Get no answer and it is not fixed ?



System: Centos 7.1 Gnome.

[stratified]

Hi,

1: Octane Render 3 linux missing the button.

Srceenshot0.jpg

2: OnlineLive status and Activity does not appear.

Srceenshot1.jpg

What is the Status ?
Get no answer and it is not fixed ?



System: Centos 7.1 Gnome.

We could reproduce this on a CentOS 7.1 installation. It might be the theme but I could not figure out how to change theme or it could be the user interface toolkit we use that has a bug and needs an upgrade. We're aware of this problem but we haven't figure out a solution yet.

cheers,
Thomas