Scatter Groups in 2.8?

[pegot]

Where are the Scatter Groups in 2.8? They used to be in Data tab / Octane properties in 2.78.

[linograndiotoy]

What do you need to achieve exactly?

[pegot]

I'm not trying to accomplish anything specific yet. I'm just learning about Blender instancing and how it works with Octane - as well as how instanced scenes in Octane Blender translate into stand alone via ORBX. It seems instancing for linked and duplicate objects in Octane Blender is completely reversed between older 2.79 and current 2.8 implementations. I have also found an issue in 2.8 where the application of random nodes do not fully work and also some exporting issue to ORBX, which I will clarify below.

In Octane Blender 7.9 one could manually create instances using Duplicate Object (SHIFT D). In order to get color variations using a Gradient and Instance Range Texture nodes, it was necessary to set individual instance IDs for each duplicated object via the Data / Octane Properties tab (this could even be applied to completely different geometries that were not duplicated but simply used the same random instance texture – as long as their instance ID’s were set). In 2.79 only the Instance Range Texture node works with such manually (not particle system based) duplicated objects; the Random Color Texture node does not work. Also in 2.79 the only way to create such instancing is with duplicated objects, since linked duplicates would always use the same instance ID (as set in the Data / Octane Properties tab).

Now in 2.8 the situation is completely reversed! duplicated objects do not work with instancing at all since there is nowhere to set their Instance ID’s. Instead, Linked Object (ALT D) now works. And linked objects just work seamlessly so I assume their instance ID’’s are automatically generated behind the scenes?

While this is much easier overall, it does prevent the flexibility of using a single material with instancing nodes and color variations across non linked and different geometries (as is possible in 2.79 by manually creating instance IDs).

Another reversal between the two versions is that 2.79 only works with the Instance Range Texture node (on duplicated objects with manually set Instance IDs) while 2.8 only works with the Random Color Texture node (and linked objects). 2.8 seems NOT to work with the Instance Range Texture node on linked objects.

I also see an issue in 2.8 where a scene exported to ORBX that uses linked duplicates and a material with Gradient and Random Color Texture nodes does not work in stand alone.

[linograndiotoy]

You definitely have found an issue with ORBX export and Random Color.
What happens is that the exported result is different than the network we can see using the "Show Octane Node Graph" option.

Needs to be fixed for sure. Thanks!