Houdini plugin improvements

[vurt]

Hi @ricky_otoy @juanjgon @PDivision1 and the rest of Octane developers!

We use Octane for Houdini quite a lot, and while it is a very powerful engine, the Houdini integration feels a bit lagging behind.
We've done a digital double of real Sharon Stone using 4D technology,

https://vimeo.com/751398918

and Octane was really great, Juanjo has fixed a few bugs almost instantly (with hair, etc) but we still have some essentials missing.

1. Proper matte workflow.
The layers workflow (at least as in all the forums messages combined through the years) makes render out (not IPR) render each layer separately, so every matte starts from the beginning.
Please, provide the solution including all the steps, not only where to look for. Why do we need to search through 7-year-old messages to get a clue what to do? In IPR we can switch through layers and it all works, but not while rendering to disk. It's not production ready for this kind of work.

I wonder if the new compositing nodes can help here to create mattes? That will not double the render time

2. Rest position - I really hope it's finally coming (2024.1?)

3. Updates come too slow, also the Solaris plugin is quite separated, but it also includes the main Houdini plugin - we wish to be intact and to be updated more frequently for the actual versions.

4. Volume shader - I don't know if it has something to do with the Houdini plugin, but hope you could bring it closer to Karma.

5. Zdepth pass - ability to switch between white/black BG. When rendering with Alpha it can make issues. Or in the compositing nodes can we invert the result?

Overall, with all the latest advancements to Octane and announced 2024 features, it is an incredible engine, and the work can be done in Houdini, the new IPR is great. We just really hope you could invest some love to Houdini users, as it becomes more and more widespread. And in the 2024 announcements it feels like the main focus is C4D, Unreal and Blender.. Don't leave Houdini behind, you will only benefit from it, as well as all the users!

Thanks
Daniel

[ricky_otoy]

Hi Daniel,

1) Does Cryptomatte not help with getting you your mattes? Yes you can do more with Composite nodes inside the Render Target node.

2) For 'Rest Position', do you have a few examples to PM me? Thanks!

3) Although I am not really at liberty to comment about timing, we do try our very best and apologize for any delays.

4) What issues are you having with the volume shader in Octane?

5) Do you just need to invert the AOV? You can use the Composite nodes in the RT and invert with a Color Correction. It will be called Output AOV (See Attached)

Render Target (Unlocked)

[vurt]

Hi Ricky, thanks for your reply

For the matte workflow, there are a lot of usecases we want to use alpha channel; sometimes unmpremultiplied. In a case, where we need an occluding object not to be visible in camera (shadow catcher), we can't really do it. If we want it not to be present in alpha - we can't.

Simple example - particle/smoke simulation inside an object, some particles in front, some behind the geometry. So if we add the geo, it will be always present in alpha. Not always the add/screen is the way to comp it, and crypto is not always the way too, sometimes a soft alpha is what we want.
There are cases we can create a Custom AOV, but not always it's usable as well.

What we need is kinda basic matte options - turn on matte, alpha scale (show in alpha), reflection scale, shadow scale, etc.

It's sort of possible to do it with the layers workflow, but it only works in IPR, in ROP it will render from the beginning each layer.

It's kinda the same for the Zdepth - if we enable alpha channel, the BG becomes black, obviously. But also the Front is black, so it's kinda useless, or the edges are very jaggy. So the option to make a switch so the front is while would be beneficial.


Thanks,
Daniel

[ricky_otoy]

Hi Vurt,

Please PM me a scene or two (maybe supplementary images) to showcase the issues that I can test for you. (Including the ROP issue)

For some things you may need to use render layers, to have masks of occluded geometry etc. Don't forget you can split your Custom AOV into different color channels too.
You can also probably use the Output AOV composite feature. It isn't ready to use in Houdini yet, but please have a look in Standalone and see if some of your workflow issues can use that feature. Otherwise, it needs to be a feature request to be added for Standalone first.

Attached is a basic Output AOV to explore in Standalone:

Output AOVs.ocs

(93.93 KiB) Downloaded 138 times

As for Zdepth, the image I showed is an inverted Zdepth so not exactly clear on what you need there, could you add it to the scene file / screenshot?

[seesharpstudio]

Hello
Some quality of life maybe with some core things

-Textures like roughness,etc, to preview as solo
-IPR to be able to digital zoom – The scale it’s very useful also – but there are moments when I fight with placing it from one monitor to the other
-Placing a light not needing to reload the IPR and the whole scene
-Auto attributes extraction for sure
-The discussion regarding maximum number of Cd attrb and all that – I know it’s a long shot this one hehe
-Moving all render settings in the ROP context in one node – Also a long shot – I know I know
-Rest – mandatory hehe
-Octane Light – I think it’s a little of a hussle to work with textures right now – also maybe having the option to have also the texture and also the color on top
-Octane Light – I find that I do this sometimes but having to go inside the light – Having a color ramp mode outside – if you want to make a gradient light
-Taking all the hate for this – A proxy format or something that you can work with.
-Maybe changing the name or introducing new nodes – Color and Float Attrb
-A dome light – Thou I can live with putting a texture in the render context but it would be easier for what I’ve been used to
-IPR – Having an option to change the camera from there

I’ll think further and update the list.
If Brigade means no little things – I don’t want Brigade

All the best,
Cosmin

[vurt]

Hey,
adding on top of the previously requested list,

can we have a SOP/OBJ node to load ORBX file?
e.g., I want to export an object with materials from other hipfile and place it in another scene file, and I couldn't find an option to do so.
RS have the tab in OBJ params to load a proxy file, and a proxy SOP, with few options for visualisation, like bounding box, points, mesh, with a percentage of complexity to keep for viewport.

Thanks

[vurt]

Hi dear devs, thanks for all the work you do for the plugin!
May we ask to add a feature to the new IPR window, to set the resolution to Fit mode. Currently only Full res and Fill options are available, and Fill mode changes the aspect ratio. Would be very helpful