Octane Volume VDB File Path Error

[PDFlo]

Hi everyone, I have been having this issue since C4d R26. Currently on Cinema 4d 2023 (Latest Version) and Octane C4d 2021.1 (Latest Version)
Whenever I close and re-open a C4d project with Octane Volume VDB's all the file paths to the original files are missing or changed to file paths of random files.
This happens regardless of where the files are. Tried different folder paths and hard-drives. I attached a screenshot after I open a file.
Everything works fine up until I close and re-open the project. I usually have to re-link all the files.

Thanks for the help, this is driving me crazy!

[bepeg4d]

Hi,
I have written you a Private Message.

ciao,
Beppe

[OFX]

I am having the same issue and contacted support but haven't heard back. Is there a workaround for this?

[bepeg4d]

I'm following you via Support ticket.

ciao,
Beppe

[BCres]

Just wanted to add that I had this problem around Christmas trying to do a fireplace fire. Random paths showing in the VDB loader. Didn't have time to report it. It was frustrating. Haven't used a vdb since.

[ShivaMist]

At the studio where i work we encountered this issue with VDB's that come from a Cinema 4D Asset DB. Fair to say it was a bit frustrating because it was right in the middle of a tight deadline, is there a workaround or fix for this ?

[aoktar]

At the studio where i work we encountered this issue with VDB's that come from a Cinema 4D Asset DB. Fair to say it was a bit frustrating because it was right in the middle of a tight deadline, is there a workaround or fix for this ?

Have you tried to use from HDD rather than asset DB?

[ShivaMist]

Have you tried to use from HDD rather than asset DB?

Yep that's what we ended doing, no problem this way, but in our workflow we try to use the Asset Database as much as possible to share Assets, shaders and such because it's a huge gain of time. Usually one artist will focus on generating a VDB pack for the project and will set up the Volume VDB and shaders once.

[aoktar]

Have you tried to use from HDD rather than asset DB?

Yep that's what we ended doing, no problem this way, but in our workflow we try to use the Asset Database as much as possible to share Assets, shaders and such because it's a huge gain of time. Usually one artist will focus on generating a VDB pack for the project and will set up the Volume VDB and shaders once.

AssetDB is not a file system. Octane needs to load their assets from external locations. We do copy for images before use these, same is possible for VDBs. But it will cause some garbage in your project location and also problems like update issues/performance penalty on read it.

[ShivaMist]

I'm sorry but the C4D Asset Database stores the elements as they are (images, scene, etc), and the metadata is wrapped over the elements to be able to be read from the database.

Image taken from : https://developers.maxon.net/docs/Cinem ... bases.html

We need feature to be supported, as it is an enormous time saver when sharing assets in a Team. We don't have XRef working 100% so at least give us a little bit of something to have some collaboration going on.
Maybe you could make a new Octane Volume Loader that support c4d Asset Database and that uses the new volume display and loader that have been introduced.


By the way, the copy of image before use is a big time sink when working on a network drive (we work on remote machines in a datacenter), if you want some feedback/infos on this particular situation i could give you some metrics or do some test to improve this.