New to Blender/Octane: Suggestions and Questions

[Hesekiel2517]

Hello everyone,
First of all, I would like to say that the plugin is really great. However, I miss a few features from other plugins (Modo) or cannot find them:

1. Preview render in full resolution with unlimited samples
In Modo (as in Octane Standalone), there is no difference between the preview and the final render. It is possible to render in full resolution and let it run until the image is noise-free Also it's possible to increase the MaxSamples during or after rendering and Octane will continue rendering without having to start over. You can then save the final image.
Is this also possible in the Blender plugin?

2. Presets for all render settings including AOVs, cameras, and environments
In Modo, it is possible to create presets for all render settings or transfer them from one scene to another via copy and paste. In Blender, presets are only available for selected sections (e.g., kernel settings) and copy-pasting channels is not possible.
Is it possible to extend this to other areas? In addition how can I sync these settings between scenes?

3. Orbx export
The Orbx from Modo and C4d are much cleaner than from Blender. It is easy to find your way around and exchange and customize individual elements. Is it possible to improve this?

4. Solo Mode
The add-on that a user created works great. Nevertheless, it would be great if this feature were already integrated into the Octane add-on.

5. Blender output is not the same as Octane output.
I like working with AGX, which works great with Octane output. However, if you use the regular Blender renderwindow, color management does not work.

Thank you in advance for your help. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

[linograndiotoy]

Hello everyone,
First of all, I would like to say that the plugin is really great. However, I miss a few features from other plugins (Modo) or cannot find them:

1. Preview render in full resolution with unlimited samples
In Modo (as in Octane Standalone), there is no difference between the preview and the final render. It is possible to render in full resolution and let it run until the image is noise-free Also it's possible to increase the MaxSamples during or after rendering and Octane will continue rendering without having to start over. You can then save the final image.
Is this also possible in the Blender plugin?

In the custom builds, enabling Render Region can indeed trigger effectively infinite sampling.

In the addon versions this behavior is currently limited by the defined sampling settings. Render Region still works, but samples stop at the configured limit.

This is a known difference between the two implementations. We’re aware that the Standalone-like workflow (continuous refinement without restarting) is very convenient, and we’ll check whether this can be extended to the addon in the future.

About incresing the number of samples, that works in preview mode only. Rendering is a different process that ends once the defined amount of samples has been reached.

2. Presets for all render settings including AOVs, cameras, and environments
In Modo, it is possible to create presets for all render settings or transfer them from one scene to another via copy and paste. In Blender, presets are only available for selected sections (e.g., kernel settings) and copy-pasting channels is not possible.
Is it possible to extend this to other areas? In addition how can I sync these settings between scenes?

In Blender, AOVs and compositing setups are part of the scene’s node trees, not global presets.

You can already append AOV and compositing nodes from another scene — they live in the NodeTree datablock of the source scene.

That said, Blender’s preset system is currently limited to specific sections (e.g. kernel settings), and doesn’t support full cross-scene syncing or channel copy/paste yet.

We would like to implement missing presets as soon as possible, by the way.

3. Orbx export
The Orbx from Modo and C4d are much cleaner than from Blender. It is easy to find your way around and exchange and customize individual elements. Is it possible to improve this?

Could you share a concrete example of the same ORBX exported from MODO/C4D and from Blender?

That would help us understand exactly where the differences are — whether it’s related to material graph translation, node defaults, or scene scale / transforms.

ORBX export quality can vary depending on how the source DCC represents certain data, so having a direct comparison would be very useful.

4. Solo Mode
The add-on that a user created works great. Nevertheless, it would be great if this feature were already integrated into the Octane add-on.

The idea is to eventually implement a native “solo” preview mode, similar to what we have in Standalone.

It’s not trivial to integrate cleanly into Blender’s architecture, so it will take some time, but it’s definitely on the roadmap.

5. Blender output is not the same as Octane output.
I like working with AGX, which works great with Octane output. However, if you use the regular Blender renderwindow, color management does not work.

When working with Octane inside Blender, color management should generally be kept neutral in the Blender render view.

In practice, that means using settings like Raw / No View Transform, as shown above.

Octane manages color internally (or via Octane Compositing / Imager), and applying Blender view transforms on top of that can lead to unexpected results.

That said, AGX can absolutely be used with Octane as well. You just need to download and use the corresponding OCIO configuration, and let Octane handle the color transform through its own pipeline, rather than relying on Blender’s viewport color management.

This way you get a consistent AGX-based look while keeping Octane’s output predictable and physically correct.

Thank you in advance for your help. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks!

[Hesekiel2517]

Wow that was quick! Thank you for all the answers

[linograndiotoy]

Sure!