we do a lot of product visualisation from dense CAD Data. In addition we create Low Poly Assets from these CAD Files for WebGL, AR and VR application. A great feature in Modo is to bake from the highpoly model to lowpoly to preserve all the small details. Maybe I'm the only one, but i didn't know a way to do this high to low baking in Octane. Therefore i need to rebuild all the Materials in Modo to use the Modo Render engine.
long story short: Heres the workflow i found usefull to bake high to low in octane:
1) Retopo the CAD Data and make UVs
1.5) Make a copy of your retopoed mesh
2) Set the General Visibility of the lopoly mesh to 0 and baking ID to 2
3) Use the EdgeSplit Command (don't use the procedural EdgeSplit since it will delete the UVs) edit: You can bypass this by using a polybevel at 0 and delete previous operation (in some cases there are artifacts though)
4) Use a procedural push. I start with 5mm and try and error to the best setting
5) Use a procedural Polygon Flip
6) Set the Camera to BakingCamera BakingID to 2 and check RevertBaking
7) Start to render
8) To Bake the Normals use the Moderenderer and combine the map in PS wiht the Octane TangentNormals (Layermode Screen)
You can bake all Passes but some are more usefull than others. It's also a good idea to "explode" the geometry first to minimize artifacts (there is a Pixelfonduevideo which explains how to do this)
Maybe this is nothing new to you, but i thought it's worth to share it. If you have improvements to this workflow please let me know (at the moment modo baking is much less prone to artifacts). Also maybe Greg is interested to look into this and make a nice video
Greetings!