From a podcast: posted elsewhere.
Octane Roadmap:
3.08: Major update is OSL (Open Shading Language) shaders, final test build should be ready by next week (Week 7)
3.09: Mostly about AI denoiser, can reduce 20,000 samples to just 200 samples in a best-case scenario; beta in users' hands by February. The denoiser has access to Octane buffers even before going out to the render passes; can check for material roughness, subpixel arrangement, etc., to incorporate all the relevant data into the denoising algorithm
3.10: Minor release, mainly bug fixes
V4 = Octane merged with Brigade (game engine API) scene graph, "load times just go away", preview/announcement at GTC. "I don't want Octane to be anything but unbiased -- -- but if we were to look at biased rendering at all, it's all about real-time, 120 FPS in VR. With V4, you do have the ability to do RT dynamic stuff."
Just wanted to confirm that the conversation in this thread and the above is a firm commitment that we’ll have a native PBR workflow that doesn’t involve sophisticated workarounds before V4?
Sorry, I know it’s a crappy question; and Im not discrediting all the other work done: ‘easy’ PBR is just really important (for me, at least) in terms for enjoyment of the product & will likely be critical for engagement of some segments.