Hi everyone. I'm on C4D 2025.2, and Octane 1.5.1.1, and I am having no luck getting ACES to work correctly. I am using the following guide: https://help.otoy.com/hc/en-us/articles/12818430938651-Octane-ACES-OCIO-User-Guide-for-Cinema-4D
I have followed this guide to the letter, multiple times, and it never ever results in the live viewer showing the same image as the picture viewer when rendering. Also, my renders suddenly jump from 50 minutes to 17 hours. Is that normal???
Whenever I go to test render, I'm using embedded/raw, and the colours in the render are completely blown out. I've tried this probably ten times and it's the same result every time. The Live viewer image looks fine
I've tried to set up ACES multiple times using the linked method, and it never works.
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Perfect example is here.
On the section in project settings, it asks you to select the location of the ocio.config file, and then once selected, to set the render spaces to ACES2065-1. The problem is, that's only selectable BEFORE you enter the config location. Once you enter the config location, the option to select it disappears, and it defaults to ACESsg "New Render space: (sRGB linear workflow")
I'd really appreciate some help with this, because it feels like something is missing from the guide that doesn't account for changes made in 2025
On the section in project settings, it asks you to select the location of the ocio.config file, and then once selected, to set the render spaces to ACES2065-1. The problem is, that's only selectable BEFORE you enter the config location. Once you enter the config location, the option to select it disappears, and it defaults to ACESsg "New Render space: (sRGB linear workflow")
I'd really appreciate some help with this, because it feels like something is missing from the guide that doesn't account for changes made in 2025
Before going through the hassle of setting it up, is ACES an absolute necessity?
No contextual information were given.
In general and for most, it isn't necessary and in fact, problematic. It's quintessentially an abiding debacle.
Absolutely fair if the reason is, as often the case, an obligation (imposed by hierarchy in a studio / pipeline cross studios, for instance).
Bits of ACES are natively implemented in Octane (as well as AgX), but in some cases the OCIO config-file is necessary.
The way ACES "works" in Octane is detailed here as it slightly differs from "regular" renderers.
In Standalone preferences, once loaded the options are greyed-out under an "Automatic" checkbox which if unchecked, gives the possibility to alter the default choice (unrecommended).
Which ACES version?
No contextual information were given.
In general and for most, it isn't necessary and in fact, problematic. It's quintessentially an abiding debacle.
Absolutely fair if the reason is, as often the case, an obligation (imposed by hierarchy in a studio / pipeline cross studios, for instance).
Bits of ACES are natively implemented in Octane (as well as AgX), but in some cases the OCIO config-file is necessary.
The way ACES "works" in Octane is detailed here as it slightly differs from "regular" renderers.
Screen grab missing?Perfect example is here.
In Standalone preferences, once loaded the options are greyed-out under an "Automatic" checkbox which if unchecked, gives the possibility to alter the default choice (unrecommended).
Which ACES version?
Octane resources
OCTANE POSTS (URLs have changed, which will break some links but all content remains available).
OCTANE POSTS (URLs have changed, which will break some links but all content remains available).
There is still a possibility for the Guide page to be out-dated if there was any consequential changes to Octane-C4D (plugin version).
Confirming this would require the consultation of the latest release notes of the plugin version.
The ACES 1.3 OCIO config-file is seemingly working as expected in Standalone 2025.
Was the same config-file tested in Standalone? At least to rule it out as part as trouble-solving the issue.
Confirming this would require the consultation of the latest release notes of the plugin version.
The ACES 1.3 OCIO config-file is seemingly working as expected in Standalone 2025.
Was the same config-file tested in Standalone? At least to rule it out as part as trouble-solving the issue.
Octane resources
OCTANE POSTS (URLs have changed, which will break some links but all content remains available).
OCTANE POSTS (URLs have changed, which will break some links but all content remains available).
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jayroth2020
- Posts: 485
- Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 7:30 pm
The guide does need an update, as many changes in Cinema 4D have occured since it was last released. For most users, if you need ACES output, it is simplest to enable the ACES Tonemapping option in Octane Camera > Imager > ACES Tone Mapping. No other settings are necessary, as Octane will automatically tonemap the image to conform to ACES output via standard sRGB.
Puget Systems / Intel Core Z790 ATX / RTX 4090 / Cinema 4D
As @jayroth2020 wrote, most users are solely looking for a simple (yet sophisticated) signal processing solution to handle the massive chunk of "image data" the renderer is capable of encoding out. This option is the ACES RRT + sRGB ODT as pointed out, and limited to (hence the use of the config-file for other cases).jayroth2020 wrote: Tue Jun 03, 2025 12:07 am For most users, if you need ACES output, it is simplest to enable the ACES Tonemapping option in Octane Camera > Imager > ACES Tone Mapping. No other settings are necessary, as Octane will automatically tonemap the image to conform to ACES output via standard sRGB.
If the output is not OpenEXR*, this is a viable option (yet still flawed due to ACES nature, not Octane's) since ACES will be baked (not suitable for any post work, it's the "finish line" if applied). For a less defective signal processing, AgX is natively implemented as well. The choice is in the user's hands.
*for any other export type, that are not EXR specifications (composited "beauty" render as 16-bit, linearly encoded and floating point "HDR").
Octane resources
OCTANE POSTS (URLs have changed, which will break some links but all content remains available).
OCTANE POSTS (URLs have changed, which will break some links but all content remains available).