OctaneRender™ 2018.1 for Houdini™ beta build 2018.1.0.6 RC6 Tweet

[juanjgon]

Hi,

This a new beta release of the OctaneRender™ 2018.1 for Houdini™ plugin compiled with the Octane 2018.1 RC6 core. This 2018.1.0.6 release is available for the Houdini 16.0/16.5/17.0 latest production builds on Windows x64, Linux gcc6.3.1 and OSX 10.12. This plugin is also compatible with Houdini Indie (While working inside the Indie version, the plugin will have a 4k limited resolution while rendering sequences and the scene export and cloud rendering features disabled)

As with all experimental releases, please do not use this for production purposes. 2018.1 RC6 will expire in 60 days


New features
To learn more about the new features and improvements of OctaneRender 2018.1, please check out the 2018.1 release post, but this a quick list of the main new features that have been added:

• NV Link support on RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti
• Cryptomatte. Currently, in the Houdini plugin the Instance ID is used also as Object ID due to its internal scene graph architecture.
• Vertex Attributes in the mesh objects. New options in the Octane OBJ spare parameters to configure the attributes to be extracted.
• New "Color Vertex Attribute" and "Float Vertex Attribute" VOP nodes to retrieve the vertex attributes in the shaders.
• Deep render passes.
• Way less Volume Render Noise. New option in the kernels to disable this feature if the matching of the Octane v4 volumes is needed.
• Direct Levelset surface rendering. New option in the Octane OBJ spare parameters to configure the volumes and OpenVDB rendering to work with SDFs.
• Scatter depth limiting (i.e. fast fog rendering)
• Overall 5% faster than V4 stable (about 315 OB vs 298 OB in our tests)
• GPU compressed textures are now cached (big time saver for many - based on your V4 feedback )

Release 2018.1.0.6 regular license
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _Win64.zip
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _Linux.zip
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... ni_OSX.zip

Release 2018.1.0.6 subscription license
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... n64_vr.zip
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... nux_vr.zip
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... OSX_vr.zip

Standalone 2018.1 RC6 version for the network rendering nodes
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... C6_win.zip
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _linux.zip
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _macos.dmg


Release Notes
=============================================
RELEASE 2018.1.0.6
=============================================

* PLUGIN FEATURES AND FIXES:
- Full support of the OSL nodes, exposing all the OSL shader GUI parmeter and VOP node inputs.
- New "Octane ORBX SOP" node used to render .orbx files as proxy objects, including some basic viewports bouding box or points preview (the placement node transformations are not supported by the preview system yet).
- Fixed a critical issue related to the multiple steps transformations motion blur.
- Raised the allowed transformations motion blur steps in the ROP node.
- New hscript command "Octane_releaseLicense" that can be used to release the license enabled in the system. This command will close Houdini/hython.

* OCTANE FEATURES AND BUGS FIXED:
- Fixed crash when trying to save cryptomatte object layer passes.
- Fixed emission with mix material.
- Fixed incorrect render when the same VDB is loaded as SDF and as fog volume.
- Fixed subdivision with vertex attributes (fixes several ABC loading issues).
- Fixed LiveDB downloads sometimes failing and OctaneLive getting disconnected.
- Fixed incorrectly exported 16 bit and 32 bit HDR images
- Fixed network rendering with deep images.
- Fixed some incorrect behaviour in the universal material when using IOR=1 / transmission=1 and caustic blur.
- Fixed tonemap failure if over-under stereo is being used on small resolutions and with the eyes swapped.
- Fixed render failure when rendering a vectron node with an OSL texture input.
- Fixed render failure when trying to use vertex attributes with displacement. This is not yet supported, but planned.
- Fixed using greyscale images as opacity maps.
- Fixed normals for spheres with motion blur.
- Fixed "affects alpha" option of specular materials when "keep environment" is enabled (fixed the refraction pass being included in the environment in this case).
- Fixed caustic blur for clearcoat.
- Added sheen and coating bump and normal texture inputs.
- Renamed artistic IOR mode from "Default" to "Artistic".
- Implemented sheen and coating bump/normal mapping.
- Fixed visible on specular for universal material.
- Fixed specular material rendering incorrectly when given 0 roughness and Octane BRDF.
- Fixed vertex attributes causing a render failure when used with SSS.
- Fixed float vertex attributes causing render failure with displacement.
- Fixed planes sometimes getting rendered black if there are more than one.
- Fixed crash when opening import preferences for unsupported VDBs.
- Fixed log message when using Cryptomatte with disconnected material pins.


Happy rendering,
Your OTOY Team

[mlmcgoogan]

Does this plugin build include Vectron support? Having trouble finding it

[juanjgon]

Does this plugin build include Vectron support? Having trouble finding it

Not yet. Now that the OSL VOP nodes are ready (something needed by the vectron feature), we are ready to add this feature for the next build.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[tobywe]

I think I read somewhere that the OSL features might allow for true world space noise displacement - is this something that is likely to be possible at some stage as this seems one of the big things absent from GPU rendering, or is it an inherent limitation of the memory restrictions of GPUs? Thanks

[blobbybarack]

- New hscript command "Octane_releaseLicense" that can be used to release the license enabled in the system. This command will close Houdini/hython.

Nice. Looks super handy. Mooving a lot those days and my release license allowed count dropped dangerously.

So you see anyway to put some kind of time bomb script with this. Something like : logoff after x hours ?

[juanjgon]

I think I read somewhere that the OSL features might allow for true world space noise displacement - is this something that is likely to be possible at some stage as this seems one of the big things absent from GPU rendering, or is it an inherent limitation of the memory restrictions of GPUs? Thanks

This is a core limitation. Currently, the displacement in Octane only can be done over UV mapped objects and from raster data.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[rohandalvi]

Vertex based displacement is being added in the next version. 2019.1 . The developers mentioned that on the development build forum.

Currently the octane displacement is voxel based, which is why you get all the issues. Most other render engines do rendertime subdivisions for displacement. The developers said that with the addition of standard subdivision based displacement you’ll be able to use any map or a combination of maps to do displacement.

And Juanjgon thanks for the OSL implementation

[tobywe]

Thanks both for your answers!

[Angelos]

v17.5?

[juanjgon]

v17.5?

We'll include a proper plugin build for the just-released Houdini 17.5 version in the next Octane 2018.1 plugin build that will be available later this week, including also the final 2018.1 core.

Thanks!
-Juanjo