Awkward... Maxon releases ProRender, essentially Octane

[dotcommer]

Supports both NVIDIA and AMD gpus...

[dzdiode]

I'm really curious about the performances with new Vega cards! On top of that, we finally can render true dome projection images. Octane have only 360 camera not domemaster.

[aggiechase37]

Interested to see if they get their heads on straight with Xparticles support, and support everything within ProRender. I might just be tempted to upgrade from R16 at that point.

[Terryvfx]

Octane was built on CUDA so the fact that Otoy will make an AMD compatible version whenever they do it it's still amazing, I personally have never care for this and always thought that spending that time on development of real features was a better use of resources but who am I to say.

I know for a fact that ProRender won't compare in quality to Octane you can see it clearly in the renders they have shown but this is a good time to say that with many GPU contenders (cycles, redshift and now in R19 prorender) the Octane C4D department needs to step up (I always thought that one guy although talented doing all the work was just too much c'mon! the dude even does support in the forum and Facebook group!), there are things that flat out don't work in the plugin (like the liveDB search) and other things that need improvements for ease of use, there is one that's REAL simple that really used to bother me when I first got to Octane in C4D and that is the UI, it doesn't get rid of unnecessary menus when you switch to the Octane Tab like other renderers do.

I could really go on and on on handy features I've seen implemented in others places but I don't want to turn this into something like a rant.

[dotcommer]

I've felt that way too Terry. However I will say I think Otoy is focusing more on real-time game engine rendering, with their announcement of being embedded into Unity. That feels like a better fit for them considering the work they've been doing on holographic rendering and Brigade. I could easily see them deprioritizing their 3D plugins and focusing on VR/MR stuff with Unity and Unreal. And if ProRender can pick up the slack from Octane, then I'm cool with that.

A little awkward for me though since I've recently convinced several new people to get Octane for C4D, and then suddenly the ProRender announcement happens... haha

[underworldtr]

Prorender comes with a lot of restrictions. Maybe in the c4d's r21 version it will reach Octane's current level.
As in the case of nitroblast&voronoi fracture...

[mikeadamwood]

That ProRender might aswell be a beta release within R19. There will be no support for XP off the bat, no volume rendering or VDB. No SSS or advanced material system, also seen no proof of multi-pass system yet, just people loading a scene up and hitting render as if that's all we need. No node graph, no sharing parameters within materials.. I'd say another 2 releases for it to even be considered as a viable production renderer.

Maxon even said it themselves (https://www.maxon.net/en/products/new-i ... /rendering) and I quote...

JUST THE BEGINNING
ProRender in Release 19 is a great option for product visualization and other stills, but of course this is just an early glimpse into the power ProRender will eventually provide as more features and deeper Cinema 4D integration are added in future releases.

Another year for an update cycle, meanwhile the Blender guys get a new render engine every five minutes with weekly feature updates.. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mxJzQ9Jquk&t=182s)

[Goldorak]

Some background on this:

AMD GPU CTO doesn't consider ProRender competitive or even comparable to Octane for real world use. His team started ProRender before Octane on AMD was a certainty, and I'd say he's as unbiased a source as you will find on the subject.

He does have a favorite GPU renderer, and he opened the AMD SIGGRAPH Vega launch event showcasing it:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/OctaneR ... 365903143/

[noisyboyuk]

Pretty neat for people who might not have the extra cash to cough up for a 3rd party engine I think that gap of experience Otoy have will always give them the edge though. What I'm more interested in is the new viewport, especially for using with Bodypaint. Could prove to be pretty awesome for painting in C4D and actually seeing a close representation of your finished model in real time. I really hope they can find a way to allow 3rd party engines like Octane to be able to utilise it as well as that would be super-awesome!

[noisyboyuk]

I could easily see them deprioritizing their 3D plugins and focusing on VR/MR stuff with Unity and Unreal. And if ProRender can pick up the slack from Octane, then I'm cool with that.

I don't see that ever happening if I'm honest as Octane and ORBX are still the backbone of all these projects and they will be the core creative tool that brings them all together.