OctaneRender™ Standalone 1.28

[stratified]

Hmm, unfortunately I don't understand the problem. You can still just export a material into package (which replaces old .ocm files) and then import it into some other project. You can now also export/pack an arbitrary selection of node items into a package (although due to a bug the connections are not restored correctly). You can even now import a whole project into another project. So I don't see how older versions are better in that regard?

So could you please explain the problem a bit more?

Thanks,
Marcus

Thanks for your answer.
At first i want to say i just had just a quick look to these new version so i don't represent an advanced user with the new standalone logic: but, as far as i can remember, it was before a very simple way to load/save/replace by importing directy a saved material and plug it or load it ( with a small in/out drive iconjust under the material icon, which would be placed just under the spherical material one, see picture attached ).
You know, i like to work with fast and simple (but powerfull) tools and , as newbie i am with this new packing logic, i'm lost ( and i don't talk about the scripting one, which is totaly SCI-FI for me )... but i see what you mean when you explain the process , thanks a lot
Cheers
Vincent

Hi Vincent,

These buttons are still there. They change or reload an image texture (same buttons are used for geometry). Of course, you don't have to use the packaging stuff at all. Your old workflow will still work.

cheers,
Thomas

[vipvip]

These buttons are still there. They change or reload an image texture (same buttons are used for geometry). Of course, you don't have to use the packaging stuff at all. Your old workflow will still work.

cheers,
Thomas

Hi thomas,

i think there is a confusion - my fault - because i wanted to talk about materials buttons, and not bitmap one ( which we can indeed se on the screen capture )

thanks

[abstrax]

These buttons are still there. They change or reload an image texture (same buttons are used for geometry). Of course, you don't have to use the packaging stuff at all. Your old workflow will still work.

cheers,
Thomas

Hi thomas,

i think there is a confusion - my fault - because i wanted to talk about materials buttons, and not bitmap one ( which we can indeed se on the screen capture )

thanks

There was never buttons to magically export materials. The way how you did it in the past was to create a "material macro" node or a "texture macro node". Those could be saved or uploaded to the LiveDB via the context menu or via the node menu. You can still do that, but if you have a complex node spaghetti, you would use a node graph with a material or texture output node.

So it's pretty much the same, with the exception that in the past material/texture macros automatically came with the corresponding output linker and you now have to create that one manually. We can create some additional entries in the node creation menu that create a node graph with a material or a texture output linker. Other than that I can't think of anything else that was easier to do in older versions.

[vipvip]

yes, that's it.
And even the old method was not so intuitive ( macros, connections etc...).
The idea of a 'basic' load/save button for the materials menus ( with automatic node creation and connection ) is not compatible with the octane logic ?
Is it so 'magic' ?
Because it would be much lighter in a creation process, for basically applying/trying simply and quickly different presets of materials...
Just a question...

[grimm]

I'm having fun with the new functionality. Thanks Guys!

I did have a problem with the script editor. My scripts were running fine and then I tried out the new inspect menu. I selected my script in the menu and it loaded into the edit window. I then tried to run it and Octane crashed with this error:

Code: Select all

jason@gemong OctaneRender_1_28_linux$ ./octane 
ERROR: Program executed illegal instruction.. terminating

Now when I try to run my scripts, even if I load it from the load button in the editor it crashes. This also happens when I try to run the scripts from the scripts menu. It's like an environment variable has been written now and my script no longer runs because of it. I tried the included scripts (turntable) and it works!?! There must be something different between my script and the included one? Every time I try to run my script now it crashes Octane, so it's very repeatable.

Also the random crashes have gotten much worse now with this version, same error as above.

Hi Jason,

I can't reproduce it here on my Linux machine but we'll investigate it next week.

cheers,
Thomas

Hi Thomas,

I figured out what was causing the crash. I have been playing with the GUI bind function on the sliders and that is what is causing the crash.

Code: Select all

degSlider              = ui.createSlider("degree", 360, -360 , 360, 1, 400, 20)
degSlider:bind("value", defaultsTable, "degSlider")

The defaultsTable variable is just a normal LUA table so it was crashing Octane. I forgot that I had moved some of the code back to what I had before and didn't fix these. The bind variable doesn't appear to work yet, it doesn't populate the table with values from the sliders. I only get an empty table back. Sorry for causing a ruckus.

Jason

[pixelrush]

When closing the in-built Daylight Animation and Turntable scripts I am getting this 'stop' error, below.

Edit1: also I notice that Daylight >North Offset in the Node Inspector is -1 to +1, wouldn't it be better to have it -180 to +180 ? degrees is a more useful reference I think.

Edit2: I notice when you drag a LiveDB material across into the render window you no longer see the wee icon to drop although it does actually load the material. It does show as you drag across other UI to the NI or GE and drop it.

Edit3: when I was looking at a mix material (LiveDB maple leaf) I notice that dragging the Transform Value slider of one of the maple's mats affects the other maple mat too. Diffuse=diffuse, bump=bump.. Should it be this way? I would have thought you would be allowed separate scaling, rotation etc of its components.

[stratified]

I'm having fun with the new functionality. Thanks Guys!

I did have a problem with the script editor. My scripts were running fine and then I tried out the new inspect menu. I selected my script in the menu and it loaded into the edit window. I then tried to run it and Octane crashed with this error:

Code: Select all

jason@gemong OctaneRender_1_28_linux$ ./octane 
ERROR: Program executed illegal instruction.. terminating

Now when I try to run my scripts, even if I load it from the load button in the editor it crashes. This also happens when I try to run the scripts from the scripts menu. It's like an environment variable has been written now and my script no longer runs because of it. I tried the included scripts (turntable) and it works!?! There must be something different between my script and the included one? Every time I try to run my script now it crashes Octane, so it's very repeatable.

Also the random crashes have gotten much worse now with this version, same error as above.

Hi Jason,

I can't reproduce it here on my Linux machine but we'll investigate it next week.

cheers,
Thomas

Hi Thomas,

I figured out what was causing the crash. I have been playing with the GUI bind function on the sliders and that is what is causing the crash.

Code: Select all

degSlider              = ui.createSlider("degree", 360, -360 , 360, 1, 400, 20)
degSlider:bind("value", defaultsTable, "degSlider")

The defaultsTable variable is just a normal LUA table so it was crashing Octane. I forgot that I had moved some of the code back to what I had before and didn't fix these. The bind variable doesn't appear to work yet, it doesn't populate the table with values from the sliders. I only get an empty table back. Sorry for causing a ruckus.

Jason

Hi Jason,

It shouldn't be crashing even if you try to bind a value in a regular lua table. We'll look into that.

You need to create your table with octane.gui.createPropertyTable(), this attaches a meta-table in the provided table.

I'll post a full example on the forum soon.

cheers,
Thomas

[pixelrush]

Other Octane user thoughts for today -

1.Now that we have IMPORT so prominently in the GE when RMB I wonder if it should also include meshes (.obj) just seems intuitive/neat...

2.If you just import a mesh and play with the materials etc a bit before rendering ie. you aren't a node nut, then its a wee bit of a hassle, or even puzzling for novices, to create a render target for the turntable and daylight scripts. If you don't presently, you get a big fat error message. So - dismiss the messages (we get 2 these days - the scripted error handling and a lua message), add a node, and then have to realign your view and redo whatever else you already carefully lined up, resolution etc... and rerun the script. If you are unlucky you forget to select the target first...Surely it can be set up to run like it did before the advent of scripting by default, this picked the NI target or the centre of mesh or something and was simple and direct, and then if you are an advanced user and want/need to, change to a special render target from inside the script. I know @grimms turntable script allows the saving of settings and selecting a render target but there is still this first hurdle and especially for the basic case.

3. Image resolution > Digital Broadcast settings might now include UHD TV of 4k/8k
ie 3840 x 2160 (2160p) and 7680 x 4320 (4320p)

4. the Anaglyphic stereo default distance might be changed to 0.065 if this is the eye separation distance? in metres

5. It might be handy to include a menu, like for Film Response, that has presets for some std camera lens's Field of View, for photo matching purposes.

6. For rendering turntable animations it might be helpful if autofocus could optionally be a matrix average or centre weighted rather than the spot? as now, because the transition around a scene can lead to sudden focus changes between render frames presently. The alternative is to turn autofocus off and pick one point for the whole animation but this is not helpful where the viewing distance varies substantially with the scene or say the path is a spiral.

7. Spherical camera. The v/h angle of view for preserving the geometry proportions in the image best, is related to the film resolution proportions. ie if the resolution w/h is a ratio of 3:1 then the view angles should be 3:1 as well. This could be linked/locked for convenience. If you want some other art effect then unlock it.

[arh-osa]

Dear developers! Please add a pause and continue functions to LUA API, that can be used as callbacks (e.g. octane.render.callbackPause). Script button that allows user to suspend/resume rendering is much needed.

[grimm]

I found some LUA issues:

It looks like there are some problems with how LUA is handling grouped nodes. When you pull the selected node (and a group node is selected) by using:

Code: Select all

octane.project.getSelection()[1]

You always get the same node of the type "NT_GEO_MESH = 1" which causes the isGraph() to fail because it doesn't match. The same issue happens if you do a findItemsByName and search for a node that is within the group. It again responds only with a node of type "NT_GEO_MESH = 1".

Although doing this works and finds all the nodes correctly:

Code: Select all

octane.nodegraph.getRootGraph():findNodes(octane.NT_RENDERTARGET, true)

Jason