OctaneRender 2026.1.0.1 for Houdini Production (2026.1.0.1)

[bruce.chai]

This is a production release of the OctaneRender™ 2026.1.0.1 for Houdini™ plugin compiled with the Octane 2026.1 core. This 2026.1.0.1 release is available for the latest Houdini production builds on Windows x64, Linux.

Houdini production builds supported by this release: 20.0.896, 20.5.684, 21.0.440, 21.0.512 and 21.0.559.

If you are not sure if your Houdini version is compatible with the plugin - just run it and you will see an error message in case of incompatibility.

Linux Note
On Linux only default Houdini builds are supported.
This means that for Houdini 20.0, 20.5 and 21.0 gcc11.2 builds are supported.

New features
To learn more about the new features and improvements of OctaneRender 2026.1, please check out the 2026.1 release post

Known bugs
On Linux, MPlay IPR may not be working. If you are having problems with it, please switch to QT5 IPR and disable "Render to MPlay" in ROP nodes.

Downloads

Release 2026.1.0.1 Studio+ license
Windows Houdini 20.0.896
Windows Houdini 20.5.684
Windows Houdini 21.0.440
Windows Houdini 21.0.512
Windows Houdini 21.0.559
Windows Houdini 21.0.596

Linux Houdini 20.0.896 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 20.5.684 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 21.0.440 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 21.0.512 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 21.0.559 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 21.0.596 (gcc11.2)

Release 2026.1.0.1 macOS Prime license
MacOS Houdini 20.0.896
MacOS Houdini 20.5.684
MacOS Houdini 21.0.440
MacOS Houdini 21.0.512
MacOS Houdini 21.0.559
MacOS Houdini 21.0.596

Release 2026.1.0.1 Demo version
Windows Houdini 20.0.896
Windows Houdini 20.5.684
Windows Houdini 21.0.559

Linux Houdini 20.0.896 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 20.5.684 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 21.0.559 (gcc11.2)

Release Notes
=============================================
RELEASE 2026.1.0.1
=============================================
PLUGIN FEATURES AND FIXES:

IMPORTANT NOTE:
We updated the octane material node naming and tab menu structuring to align with Octane Standalone and other plugins, so many of the nodes will have slightly different naming or will be found in different submenus. Overall this should be an improvement from before!

Changes:

• QT IPR only draw image when it's needed now
• Fixed canvas zoom stops when zoom factor is 100%
• Added the Shelves tools in the Octane Menu
• Fixed no updating after material node connection changes
• Fixed light id manager UI for windows level UI scaling
• Fixed a typo in ROP and RenderSetup
• Fixed 32 bit image error for image node
• Batch Material Importer - Keep Capitalization based on file names
• Fixed Octane Install script to get Houdini version for solaris version as well
• QuickMaterial 1.2: Fixed Base color doesn't show the texture file picker
• Fixed some weird defaults
• Safely destroy snapshot widget to avoid crash on some mac

OctaneRender for Houdini tutorial
Still updating

Note
From 2025.1.Beta_1.0, Octane plugin for Houdini uses Houdini package file. Each build ships a script (createPackageFileForOctane.bat for Windows, createPackageFileForOctane.sh for Linux and Mac) to help create the Octane.json file as below under C:\Users\<username>\Documents\houdiniXX.Y\packages on windows, ~/Library/Preferences/houdini/XX.Y/packages on Mac, or ~/houdiniXX.Y/packages on Linux.

Code: Select all

{
    "enable": true,
    "env": [
        {
            "OCTANE_AUTOSPAREPARAMS": {
                "value": 1
            }
        },
        {
            "OCTVERSION": "<path_to_plugin_directory>"
        },
        {
            "HOUDINI_PATH": {
                "value": "$OCTVERSION"
            },
            "HOUDINI_MENU_PATH": {
                "value": "$OCTVERSION/config/Menus"
            },
            "HOUDINI_SCRIPT_PATH": {
                "value": "$OCTVERSION/scripts"
            },
            "PATH": {
                "value": "$OCTVERSION/bin"
            },
            "PXR_PLUGINPATH_NAME": {
                "value": "$OCTVERSION/dso/usd_plugins"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Important Note
2024.1.0.2 fixed the problem that the layered material nodes cannot be loaded properly, however this fix affects all layered material nodes and OSL material nodes in existing saved .hip files. When loading a .hip file for the first time using this build, it's necessary to adjust the connections of these nodes. Once the file is saved with the updated connections, the issue will be resolved.


Common Issues and Solutions
- If the plugin doesn't work at all, set HOUDINI_DSO_ERROR = 2 in houdini.env and check for messages in the terminal.
- If you're missing libglut.so.3, install the freeglut package.
- If you are having any issues with the Deadline - please submit a support ticket to the AWS.

Happy rendering,
Your OTOY Team

[lavrenovlad]

Hi Bruce,

The IPR issue I reported wasn't fully fixed.. Now the IPR doesn't consume CPU as much when rendering which is great, but the IPR responsiveness is still terrible compared to 2 releases ago. Why was the IPR performance damaged since the last release and still wasn't fixed in this one?

The Viewport and IPR both perform bad and slow when the IPR is running.

[dom_otoy]

Hey Vlad!

I would recommend disabling this if your worried about UI performance:

Screenshot 2026-01-14 093414.png (39.39 KiB) Viewed 1245 times

This way the IPR only updates whenever you release the mouse instead of continuously.
With this enabled (it usually is disabled by default) the IPR will redraw continuously when moving the camera causing a slowdown.

[lavrenovlad]

"If a feature isn't good no more, just don't use it anymore" - Dom - Octane Houdini Quality Assurance Engineer

[bruce.chai]

"If a feature isn't good no more, just don't use it anymore" - Dom - Octane Houdini Quality Assurance Engineer

Hi lavrenovlad,
As you know we are messaging each other for a potential IPR change solution for you.
I'm sure Dom was not suggesting you not to use the Houdini setting forever, he was just proposing a way to mitigate the problem you are experiencing before the final solution.

[lavrenovlad]

"If a feature isn't good no more, just don't use it anymore" - Dom - Octane Houdini Quality Assurance Engineer

Hi lavrenovlad,
As you know we are messaging each other for a potential IPR change solution for you.
I'm sure Dom was not suggesting you not to use the Houdini setting forever, he was just proposing a way to mitigate the problem you are experiencing before the final solution.

Still a bad suggestion from Dom. Render upon mouse release is a deprecated method of using an engine, it's literally as bad as using Arnold in Houdini which has the worst IPR in Houdini like ever. A GPU renderer is supposed to be fast and responsive.

[lavrenovlad]

Just found a weird behavior, not sure it's supposed to work like this?
I usually use "Priority Level" at high in "Options", I tried to set it to "Low" just now, and it seems to be affecting only 1x GPU and it's usually the one that has "Tonemap" checkbox on.
I think it's supposed to affect all GPUs and set them to low priority? It won't let me run "low priority" for 2x GPUs at the same time! Can't get them both to run at 70% load when rendering.

[Zunder]

Hi Bruce,

I can confirm what Vlad is saying, viewport is really sluggish, also for some reason ipr update is broken. I think it should not update when i change postfx, or exposure stuff like that.

But overall great overhaul of plugin, just need to fix these issues.

[dom_otoy]

Hi Bruce,

I can confirm what Vlad is saying, viewport is really sluggish, also for some reason ipr update is broken. I think it should not update when i change postfx, or exposure stuff like that.

But overall great overhaul of plugin, just need to fix these issues.

Thanks for the info!
Those things should be greatly improved in the next build!

[dom_otoy]

Just found a weird behavior, not sure it's supposed to work like this?
I usually use "Priority Level" at high in "Options", I tried to set it to "Low" just now, and it seems to be affecting only 1x GPU and it's usually the one that has "Tonemap" checkbox on.
I think it's supposed to affect all GPUs and set them to low priority? It won't let me run "low priority" for 2x GPUs at the same time! Can't get them both to run at 70% load when rendering.

Ah yes this is indeed confusing. Here from another post:

Yes, sorry for the documentation... In Octane you can specify the render priority as a project option, but only those devices that have use priority enabled, will apply this priority setting. All devices that have use priority disabled will ignore it and always render as fast as possible.

The idea behind that is that a lot of users use the option to throttle down the usage of the display GPU (i.e. the GPU that is used for the OS framebuffer, editor displays, etc.) but don't want to throttle down any other GPUs that are not connected with any displays and are not used for the OS framebuffer and editor displays, etc.

So really the checkbox should be called "use priority" not "priority".