Solo Node in Octane Houdini

[matpr]

Hey,

Does anybody know if there is a good way of previewing procedural nodes like Noise, Falloff, Dirt etc. or Attributes in the Houdini Octane IPR?
When plugging those nodes directly into the Octane Material output the IPR only shows the pink "missing material" instead of what you plug in.
I am trying to find the C4D Octanes "Solo Node" equivalent in Houdini.

Would be great for debugging!
Thank you!

Cheers, M

[juanjgon]

Hmm, I need to check how C4D does that. As far as I know, Octane always needs a material node to render any other texture or procedural, so perhaps the C4D plugin has a workaround adding a diffuse material under the hood to preview the texture. I'll think about it.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[atticuslv]

I think we should check the debug option on node, redshift use it for solo node

[Ferdinand13]

Hi Juanjo,

A plus one on that one. Using the "Solo Node" feature in the Redshift plugin for Houdini is super useful and I've used it for Octane in Cinema 4D all the time. It's just super useful to be able to isolate a certain part of the shading process to check for errors (which is essentially Houdini's entire philosophy when working on SOP level). Would be great, if this could be implemented.

[EyasArraf]

Actually there is a way for this.
Here are the steps:
1- Use the "Capture to Custom" inside Octane Material Builder network.
2- Plug the input texture you want to SOLO to that node and select which Custom AOV# you want to use.
3- Enable the Custom AOV# in the "Render Target" node.
4- From the IPR "AOVs" menu select the Custom AOV#

*It's a bit harder than Cinema4D but it does the job until someone makes a faster solution.

[adrianr]

Hi Juanjo,

A plus one on that one. Using the "Solo Node" feature in the Redshift plugin for Houdini is super useful and I've used it for Octane in Cinema 4D all the time. It's just super useful to be able to isolate a certain part of the shading process to check for errors (which is essentially Houdini's entire philosophy when working on SOP level). Would be great, if this could be implemented.

Another plus one. This is exactly what the debug flag is for.

[ShivaMist]

It's been almost one year since the houdini plugin dev has acknowledge the problem. Solo-ing a node is like the most basic feature for procedural shading. How has this not been implemented? People are resorting to create custom AOVs to solo view a node... Is there any budget for the Houdini plugin? How many people are developing this plugin? I wish there was a real transparency in dev and feature roadmap.

[juanjgon]

We have this feature in our roadmap to be implemented in one of the upcoming builds.

Thanks for your patience,
-Juanjo

[cosminstanciuro]

Hello.

In the process of finding out if I should switch from another render engine.

+1 for this functionality.

Started a new project now and I plan to fully work in Octane.
It's very useful to be able to plug on the fly the noise/texture straight into the mat to see what you are doing - especially if you have a roughness map with a ramp on it.

All the best,
Cosmin

[cosminstanciuro]

Hello.

Until the ability to solo a specific node integrated by default - Arbi Kerimov made a wonderful script for this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Veg_KZnDY

You can find here the link and also instructions.

Many thanks Arbi.

All the best,
Cosmin