OctaneRender for Carrara 3.08.03.42[Stable and Test]

[protovu]

Hi Gents,
Not sure if this is helpful, but
I encountered this a while back in the version 3.03.02.19. Upon checking the Optimize Mesh selection under Effects> Octane Object, the problem rectified.
Rick

[rashadcarter]

Hi Gents,
Not sure if this is helpful, but
I encountered this a while back in the version 3.03.02.19. Upon checking the Optimize Mesh selection under Effects> Octane Object, the problem rectified.
Rick

Thanks for that insight. I've never used the Optimize Mesh option before. I tried enabling the option earlier today on a Genesis model and it basically went into a processing loop. I had to abort the session. I tried it a second time and found the same occurred. I'm going to test it on a more simplified mesh compared to a Genesis. But ideally, we need a solution that doesn't require Octane Optimization of the mesh to operate reliably since it doesn't seem to like high poly meshes.

[Sighman]

Optimize mesh is primarily ment for primitives that are not sealed. For example, a cube in Carrara is actually made up of six individual meshes, one for each of the faces. These faces are not welded together, that is to say each face has its own set of vertices. What optimize mesh does is it looks for vertices that share the same location in 3D space and welds them, creating a single mesh for the model. I would never turn it on for a complex model like genesis, it would take forever to find common vertices and the result is likely not what you would want.

The reason Carrara uses separate meshes for each face is for the hard edges that you want for a cube or cilinder. It is an Open GL thing. However, if you want to use rounded edges in Octane then the cube must use a single mesh, hence the reason for the 'Optimize Mesh' flag.

[Sighman]

Here an example file. Thanks, Sighman.

The reason that the smoothing is not working is because you have non-zero edge rounding in your first material. You only want to use edge rounding when you have hard edges. I checked and it is stored in your Carrara shader file as a non-zero value. It looks like you are going to have to fix your shaders to zero out edge rounding.

[rashadcarter]

Here an example file. Thanks, Sighman.

The reason that the smoothing is not working is because you have non-zero edge rounding in your first material. You only want to use edge rounding when you have hard edges. I checked and it is stored in your Carrara shader file as a non-zero value. It looks like you are going to have to fix your shaders to zero out edge rounding.

Oh my, not sure how that happened, I don't remember doing that purposefully. Okay, I will go back and fix that now. So very helpful Sighman, you're an indispensable resource!!

[Sighman]

New update posted to this thread...

[PhilW]

Don't know how I missed these latest developments - but catching up now!

P.S. After a little fiddling, I have the hair gradient working - looks good! I noticed in the notes that you can now use both bump and normal maps at the same time - has this been implemented in the Carrara plugin yet?

[Sighman]

Don't know how I missed these latest developments - but catching up now!

P.S. After a little fiddling, I have the hair gradient working - looks good! I noticed in the notes that you can now use both bump and normal maps at the same time - has this been implemented in the Carrara plugin yet?

Yes. You could always assign both bump and normal maps in the plugin so there was nothing for me to do except include the latest Octane engine.

[PhilW]

Cool - I have some characters that use both, and it used to be that one overrode the other. Good to be able to combine them.

[rashadcarter]

Sighman,
I am still observing the smoothing bug, but it only arises at certain viewing angles. I have as instructed set the Rounded Edge value to 0 for all materials in the Mix. In the example image below, in the areas facing toward and away fro the sun the smoothing seems fine but along the terminator it gets strange. This problems does seem to go away if I disable fake shadows. Thanks for your help. FYI I havent installed the very newest update, but I figured I fill you in i=on this now. I'll be installing the new one (.26) soon.