OctaneRender™ 3.0 for Houdini™ - production build 3.03

[juanjgon]

Hi! This is the latest production build of OctaneRender™ 3.0 for Houdini™. This 3.03.2.0 release is available for the Houdini 13.0/14.0/15.0/15.5 last production builds for Windows x64, Linux gcc4.8 and OSX 10.10. This plugin is also compatible with Houdini 15.5 Indie. In this case the plugin will have a 1080p limited resolution while rendering sequence, and the scene export and cloud rendering features disabled.


Release 3.03.2.0
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _Win64.zip
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... ni_OSX.zip
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _Linux.zip

Standalone version for the network rendering nodes
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... 2b_win.exe
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _macos.dmg
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _linux.zip


CUDA requirements
Due to a CUDA compiler bug we had to 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.

New features
A list of all the new features is provided here: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=51679
The plugin manual is going to be updated in the next weeks to cover most of the changes. https://docs.otoy.com/manuals/products/houdini/v3/


=============================================
RELEASE 3.03.2.0
=============================================

* NEW PLUGIN FEATURES:
- New option in the particle rendering to pack a color and alpha attributes into the particle UV map. In the plugin there is a new folder "tex" that has the two maps that can be used to unpack this information using the texture image node.
- Support the new H15.5.523 production build.
- Support of rendering multiple ROP nodes frame by frame.
- Support of parameters promotion in the Octane VOP nodes.
- Support of the Houdini internal VDB primitives.
- Swithing among tabs no longer updates the IPR.
- Support of OTLs with multiple subnet levels.

* NEW OCTANE FEATURES:
- Experimental Pascal GPU support. We haven't done any specific Pascal tweaks/optimizations yet and the performance isn't where we would expect it to be.
- Added far clip plane to thin-lens/panoramic camera nodes.
- Added option to the thin-lens/panoramic camera nodes to swap eyes when stereo rendering is used. This option is used during tone-mapping, i.e. doesn't restart rendering, with the exception of anaglyphic stereo rendering which requires a render restart.
- Only one Octane process can now authenticate with the SSO server at the same time. Other processes will wait until the authentication is finished.
- Empty volume nodes are allowed now. This should help with aligning VDB sequences with the rest of an animation. Empty volumes will be excluded from the compiled scene geometry.
- Daemon scan networks are now identified via sub-net address and adapter address, which allows us to distinguish between multiple adapters connected to the same sub-net.
- Added volume step length to the absorption and scattering medium nodes. This parameter will only be used by volume nodes.
- Fixed degradation of direct light calculation of transparent light sources.
- Fixed the diffuse render pass which wasn't rendered correctly for glossy materials.
- Various other small tweaks to the rendering.

* PLUGIN BUGS FIXED:
- The RGB and Float texture nodes output type is unknown. Fixed.
- Fixed the tab level problem adding the Octane object spare parameters to nodes with other spare parameters tabs.
- Fixed some issues with the volume object space transformations.

* OCTANE BUGS FIXED:
- Fixed bug causing the baking camera to render regions of the output with a lower number of samples when network rendering is being used.
- Fixed incorrect rendering of sphere primitives.
- Fixed artifacts when an emitter is rendered inside a mesh with a medium (which was the root cause for viewtopic.php?f=30&t=54763 ).
- Fixed incorrect rendering of absorption medium used in the environment.
- Fixed incorrect rendering of media with a black absorption channel and with enabled "invert absorption".
- Fixed shadow passes for volumes.
- Fixed crash when baking the 2nd or 3rd UV channel amd it contains invalid numbers (NaNs).
- Fixed "invert absorption" option of the scattering and volume medium nodes.
- Fixed baking camera if a negative scale is used for a baked instance.
- Fixed version number display in daemon list of the net render configuration dialog.


Thanks,
-Juanjo

[WhyGee]

Thanks!

[Nebucadnezar]

Thank you Juanjgon! It is really nice to have updates coming that fast!

[Techie]

Very nice, thanks!

[fabiodamico]

Sorry LiveDB pannel in Houdini does not work?

[juanjgon]

Sorry LiveDB pannel in Houdini does not work?

Here it seems to work. What problem do you have with it? Can't be opened?

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[fabiodamico]

Hi, yes indeed I can open it but I cant set the shader with the geometry of houdini..

Thanks for suggestions that you may give to me to solve the problem.

Fabio

[juanjgon]

Well, from the LiveDB window you can import any material, that is added to the scene as a new SHOP node that you can use in any object.

-Juanjo

[fabiodamico]

I'm sorry not controlling shop node
thank you so much to the support...

[fellowla]

Hey Juanjo,

We have the plugin running with Houdini 15.5.480, Standalone Version 3.03.2. The Houdini plugin can't see any of our machines for network rendering however the standalone on the same machine can. We have checked the ports and subnet settings to make sure the settings are identical. Can you think of anything that would cause this or do you have any idea of how to fix it?

-Nathan