Enable Disable Material Group in Schematic not Working Tweet

[rob2576]

I ran into a strange problem that I hope someone has come across before.

I have meshes that have a material mask. In that material mask I have three material groups each with a modo based material and image maps. I then use the schematic view and a user channel to toggle between four different materials for rendering the mesh. I am using the "Enable" channel for the material groups (sub groups of the material mask) and then keyframing the material change. For some reason, Octane does not recognize that the material group is enabled and will always and only show whatever group and material is on top. The strange thing is that if I manually toggle the group using the eyeball icon, Octane will see the change and act correctly by switching to render the next visible material group in the list. Once I use the Schematic view to toggle it, it stops working as it should.

Does this behavior sound right or am I missing something? Is there a workaround if this is the behavior that is expected?

[face_off]

What version of the plugin are you running please?

Paul

[rob2576]

Enterprise 2020.1 on Modo 13.2V1

[face_off]

Can you let me know the exact plugin release number please. And also provide a sample scene which demonstrates the problem you are having.

Thanks

Paul

[rob2576]

When I look at the log window it says "OctaneRender Enterprise 2020.1 (8010000)". When I downloaded the file from OTOY is only says 2020.1 in the list. When the file is downloaded it is named "OctaneRender_for_Modo_2020_1_0_161_ENTERPRISE.exe" Does this tell you what you need to know?

I have posted a simplified file. Click the locator to toggle from 1 to 2 which enable/disable Group1 and 2. If you unhook the schematic and toggle the eyeballs, the box will switch from blue to red in Octane. Once you hook up the schematic, this stops working. If you change to a the Modo preview render, the toggle works from the schematic.

[rob2576]

File didn't upload in the last post.

[face_off]

The plugin version number is contained in the filename of the installer, is in the render status window when Octane is not rendering, and is in the System->Kit Toggle Enable menu.

Paul

[face_off]

Thanks for providing the scene. The Shader Tree "enabled" status of shader tree items is determined at frame 0, and cannot be animated. Instead, you can use an Octane Override, and have a Mix Material and animate the Amount pin.

Thanks

Paul

[rob2576]

I have added 4 keyframes to this file now. If you look at frames 1 and 2, I keyframed the enable channel of Group 1. When viewed in the Octane live viewer, the cube changes from red to blue when you go from frame 1 to 2. So when I animate the enable channel directly for the material group Octane sees this just fine.

Moving to frame 3 and 4, I keyframe the "LocatorToChangeMaterial" user channel "BoxMaterial". Group 1 is disabled through the schematic in this case. Octane does not see this second keyframed change but it does see the first. The Modo preview render sees the second change but not the first. I would expect the second outcome from Modo as channel values are locked out of direct keyframing once they are being driven by a schematic.

I would think this is a Modo bug except that the Modo Preview is acting like I would expect and Octane does respect the directly keyframed enable channel. It does not seem to get the change

I can see how your solution would work, however, there is a lot of power, for us, in the Octane plugin translating Modo materials so directly and we use this extensively in our workflow. We only make overrides when we enter into more specialized materials. If we must make an override for every material to make these setups work, it will defeat the usefulness of the plugin translating.

[face_off]

I have added 4 keyframes to this file now. If you look at frames 1 and 2, I keyframed the enable channel of Group 1. When viewed in the Octane live viewer, the cube changes from red to blue when you go from frame 1 to 2. So when I animate the enable channel directly for the material group Octane sees this just fine.

Moving to frame 3 and 4, I keyframe the "LocatorToChangeMaterial" user channel "BoxMaterial". Group 1 is disabled through the schematic in this case. Octane does not see this second keyframed change but it does see the first. The Modo preview render sees the second change but not the first. I would expect the second outcome from Modo as channel values are locked out of direct keyframing once they are being driven by a schematic.

I would think this is a Modo bug except that the Modo Preview is acting like I would expect and Octane does respect the directly keyframed enable channel. It does not seem to get the change

I can see how your solution would work, however, there is a lot of power, for us, in the Octane plugin translating Modo materials so directly and we use this extensively in our workflow. We only make overrides when we enter into more specialized materials. If we must make an override for every material to make these setups work, it will defeat the usefulness of the plugin translating.

Thanks for providing the second scene. I think the issue is that the enabled state of the Group is being taken by the "value" of the enabled channel at that frame, rather than evaluating the inputs to the channel. I don't think this is a trivial fix, so I suggest working around the issue.

Thanks

Paul