NEW: Octane X - is finally here! [MEGA FAQ THREAD]

[brutesque]

@brutesque:
I'm following you via PM, the plugin was not installed correctly.

ciao,
Beppe

We'll see. I'll follow your instructions, but i'm not at all convinced i've been installing octane wrongly for all the years i've used it.

[brutesque]

Don't go for mac. The mac version is severely lacking. Network rendering is not working. They disabled liveDB for some reason (kept an unusable button in the interface tho). I need the liveviewer and also send my render to a windows render machine. Octane on mac crashing constantly. Not an hour goes by with crashes. This has been the trend since my classic mac pro using cuda and is still happening on my M1 Max. It is utterly unusable, as i'm trying to hit my deadline while having C4D crash every 15 to 20 minutes.
If you are about to invest in new machines, save yourself the pain trying to move to mac.

And btw. Octane doesn't render consistently between MacOS and Windows.

Image in nuke shows result of my windows based teamrender machine. Image on the right is live viewer on macos.

(edit: i need to retract this, because this was human error)

[brutesque]

@brutesque:
I'm following you via PM, the plugin was not installed correctly.

ciao,
Beppe

It wasn't installed incorrectly. I've followed instructions to move the plugins to a different directory and it had no effect on stability at all.

[james_conkle]

What’s the best version of macOS to be on now? And where should the plug-in be placed for best reliability? Im adding a MBP into my workflow and would like a consistent experience between PC & Mac using the C4D plugin.

[gowntn1]

hello,when I use emission material,there will be noise in the shadow layer of AOV

[bepeg4d]

What’s the best version of macOS to be on now? And where should the plug-in be placed for best reliability? Im adding a MBP into my workflow and would like a consistent experience between PC & Mac using the C4D plugin.

Hi James,

it depends from the GPU in the MBP.

if M1/M2, you need macOS 13.3.1.
If AMD GPU, you need mcOS 12.6

The installation path for Mac is:

- HD\Applications\Maxon Cinema 4D R2X\plugins\c4doctane (You have to create the plugins folder in lower case!)

ciao,
Beppe

[james_conkle]

Thanks Beppe, just snagged a M2 so I’ll make sure it’ll on that OS as I set it up this weekend. Thanks for the install tips- was curious about where it should go after the last few messages in this thread.

[james_conkle]

Just testing things out now and the responsiveness is very nice however I have to ask anyone else with a M1/2 MBP - when rendering does your laptop get super hot and loud? My wife in the same room complained of the noise and I couldn't blame her...

I know it's a very demanding task for any computer to do, but all I heard leading up to my purchase was that these computers stay cool and quiet under heavy workloads.

For reference I have an M2 Max 14in and I've been using the latest software versions: C4D 2023.2.1 & Octane 2022.1.1(r4) and macOS 13.3.1

[bepeg4d]

Hi James,
you are welcome

About M2 MBP noise, I have a Mac Mini M2 Pro, so it is not comparable, but I have no issues with noise/temperature while rendering here... are you working with the power cable connected, or via battery?

ciao,
Beppe

[nibbler]

About network nodes and incompatibilties/version issues and Realtime vs Offline Render:

1. PR 14 and 2021.1 ouput quality and transfering cross platform/versions:
The versions have massive different rendering quality outputs, even with exact same parameter settings. Our experience.
You cannot design a scene eg in Octane X PR14 /Intel Mac Pro and transfer the file to M1/M2 or PC 2021.1 without mayor, time intense adjustments.

2. Scene complexity: Mac vs PC/WIN.

Yes; Mac has an advantage: Using AMD w6800 (even non Apple but orignal AMD versions) which are deliverd with 32 GB Vram, or with M1 Max, we rendered high complex and dense Mesh/texture scenes - never possible by PCs with nvidia, due to 24 GB VRAM limit (yet).


3. Offline vs Realtime
On the other hand, Unreal 5.x handles even more complex scene in realtime via "Nanite", in "sufficient quality" on pc/nvidia.

4. Lost Support, Otoy:
Its a shame, that 2021.x does not support Intel Macs! Apple and Otoy disappointed again.


CONCLUSION

My advice to PROFESSIONAL customers, as an Apple guy: go for PC, its the more future oriented flexible system, either regarding realtime render as well as offline render technology perspective. In one decade (!) Apple changed 3 times GPU support radically - from nvidia, to amd exclusevily, to now Apples own. Maybe, M1, M2, Mx will bring continuity. Happy PC/WIN users, who can run their 1080ti in combination with 4090 without any issues in the same period of time. While hassling with this forced technology trashing game (very sustainable apple), and even be confronted with no lasting IntelMac support by otoy (!) as Apple user, every PC production company just scaled up hard- and software seamingless. Concentrating on their main task: creative output.

We are running both platforms, loved Mac for creative workflow in the past. But sadly these times come to an end, espacially with apples proprietery dev-policies - even to 3rd party vendors, which contradicts 3d performance and creation.

PROSPECT
We will continue editing on Mac for a while. But production workhorse is PC. Especially for our growing realtime rendering activities.

Realtime is the future, in next few years tecnhology will be aviable to deliver realtime in current offline render qaulity.

If Brigade as integral part of octane wont show up in about a year (Otoy talked about it 10 years), then other allready established platforms (unreal/unity) will do the job very well. I think, Otoy is aware of it and sales will tell the truth by then.