In Octane core 2020, there is a section showcasing the new Spectron light primitives.
Are these exposed to the C4d plugin? at present I create lights using a plane and an emissive material. If I understand correctly, these new light primitives should be faster to render.
In Octane we have the Octane Area Light and the Octane Spot Light that are available via the LV Objects menu. I think the Octane Spot light uses Spectron to approximate spotlight volume fog but I do not know much about the Octane Arealight. I'm guessing it uses a mesh system behind the scenes? that is packaged like a C4D area light with controls etc. I can't tell whether it is using Octane 2020 Spectron.
The last time I used Octane Arealight instead of a mesh with an emissive texture, I noticed that the Octane Arealight was not effected by motion blur so I reverted to using mesh based emissive lights and haven't created lights any other way since.
The new Spectron lights look good but I'm not sure how to access them via the Octane plugin for C4D to test it out.
Octane 2020 Spectron light primitives in C4D
Moderators: ChrisHekman, aoktar
- leehenshall
- Posts: 184
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2015 5:44 pm
- Location: England
- Contact:
If I'm not mistaken I think you can enable Spectron primitives by simply toggling on "Use Primitives" under the Octane Light Tag once you've brought in an Octane Area Light. If you then switch to say a circle light (under the c4d light settings) I think it should use that as a primitive too. Not sure though 

Correct also activate AI light in kernelnejck wrote:If I'm not mistaken I think you can enable Spectron primitives by simply toggling on "Use Primitives" under the Octane Light Tag once you've brought in an Octane Area Light. If you then switch to say a circle light (under the c4d light settings) I think it should use that as a primitive too. Not sure though
Octane For Cinema 4D developer / 3d generalist
3930k / 16gb / 780ti + 1070/1080 / psu 1600w / numerous hw
3930k / 16gb / 780ti + 1070/1080 / psu 1600w / numerous hw
- leehenshall
- Posts: 184
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2015 5:44 pm
- Location: England
- Contact:
Cool thanks for the info guys 

Actually, I'm not sure that it works as I described it above? When you switch to say a circle or cube C4D light the primitive option disappears inside the Octane Light tag.


Does not it make sense that disappears why?nejck wrote:Actually, I'm not sure that it works as I described it above? When you switch to say a circle or cube C4D light the primitive option disappears inside the Octane Light tag.
Octane For Cinema 4D developer / 3d generalist
3930k / 16gb / 780ti + 1070/1080 / psu 1600w / numerous hw
3930k / 16gb / 780ti + 1070/1080 / psu 1600w / numerous hw
- leehenshall
- Posts: 184
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2015 5:44 pm
- Location: England
- Contact:
Does the use primitives checkbox disappear because octane core supports only plane and sphere as a spectron primitive?
Great job including support for the other object types btw....I didn't know octane could render c4d light primitives. I'm guessing these are using standard emissive materials as a light source behind the scenes?
Great job including support for the other object types btw....I didn't know octane could render c4d light primitives. I'm guessing these are using standard emissive materials as a light source behind the scenes?
Of course why it disappeared when you choose unsupported types. I did it for your comfort, not confusion.leehenshall wrote:Does the use primitives checkbox disappear because octane core supports only plane and sphere as a spectron primitive?
Great job including support for the other object types btw....I didn't know octane could render c4d light primitives. I'm guessing these are using standard emissive materials as a light source behind the scenes?
Octane For Cinema 4D developer / 3d generalist
3930k / 16gb / 780ti + 1070/1080 / psu 1600w / numerous hw
3930k / 16gb / 780ti + 1070/1080 / psu 1600w / numerous hw
I think my original message clearly stated that _I_ am not sure about it? Now I'm not sure how your comment is helpful at all.aoktar wrote:Does not it make sense that disappears why?nejck wrote:Actually, I'm not sure that it works as I described it above? When you switch to say a circle or cube C4D light the primitive option disappears inside the Octane Light tag.
It seems like I was under the wrong impression that Octane standalone now supports additional light primitives such as disc lights and such - I was going off of the roadmap and didn't check recheck things in the standalone.
Roadmaps change, thats perfectly fine but I did want to bring it up in a polite manner if in case its a bug. You know, discussing things and all that. Let's face it, software has bugs and nobody is a know it all.
I've now double checked that in the latest standalone version only Plane and Sphere light primitives are supported so its all working as intended indeed.