OctaneRender® for Poser (Windows) - build 1.29 [OBSOLETE]

[helgeras]

The Creators of Suzy Q have already given me a fixed version. Apparently Lightwave can leave some 1 or 2 point vertices if you aren't careful. Anyway, that problem is now fixed.

Question: Is there a way to turn on (or off) smooth for a whole figure without having to open each material in turn and turn it on/off?

Helge

[face_off]

Question: Is there a way to turn on (or off) smooth for a whole figure without having to open each material in turn and turn it on/off?

This is on the "todo" list - hope to do it in the next 2 wks. In the meantime, you can change the default smooth setting in the configuration, and then reconvert the materials for that prop.

Paul

[helgeras]

Ah, nice trick. I will use that until you get it implemented.

Helge

[Ken1171]

Would it be possible to have an option to "paste material to nodes that share the same texture maps"? That would be a great time-saver. ^^

[face_off]

Would it be possible to have an option to "paste material to nodes that share the same texture maps"? That would be a great time-saver. ^^

Potentially not so easy due to some "greyness" in the rules. For example, if one material has ken.jpg in the diffuse and another only has ken.jpg in the bump - is that a match?

Paul

[pumeco]

Hi,

I'm considering this plugin and I'm curious, are there any plans to make the Octane Viewport dockable in the Poser interface and to do the same with the control and parameter windows so that we get standard Poser-stlye dials?

That would be be fantastic and would sell me on this plugin in an instant! I'm currently running an early beta of this plugin and even that has been rock solid. Standard Poser dials and dockability would be the icing on the cake if it happened

[face_off]

I'm considering this plugin and I'm curious, are there any plans to make the Octane Viewport dockable in the Poser interface and to do the same with the control and parameter windows so that we get standard Poser-stlye dials?

I have not had this enhancement request before, so took some time to think it over....At the moment the plugin is written in python, so uses wx.python for the window management and dials. That is Smith Micro's preferred way to add additional functionality to Poser - and there is no way to add actual Poser windows (with the exact Poser dial style). You can however dock wx.python windows (with their slightly different style) into the Poser UI, but I have deliberately removed this ability from the plugin. This is because once you are able to resize the Setup window beyond a certain amount, the formatting becomes unuseable. So I found that the dockable windows "want" to dock every chance they get, and then you loose the ability to see all the info. For example, the node edit box is below the settings and material trees, but if the window is too short when docked, it disappears off the bottom of the page. So for me, docking setup panel made it un-useable.

For the Viewport - docking presents less of a formatting issue - so I will investigate if it can be done.

Paul

[pumeco]

Hi Paul,

Big-time thanks for the heads-up and for looking into this, and as you took the time to explain all that, let me explain my reasons for the request.

I've been looking at the various options out there, trying to find out what would be the 'nicest' workflow I could get. I've been looking into Blender/Carrara/DS/Poser, and the various plugin options available for those programs, be it Lux or Octane.

And the thing is, every time I look at your plugin, and at Poser, I can't help but imagine how fantastic it would be if we could have the Octane viewport where the Poser viewport is currently docked and to dock the 3D Poser viewport as a small preview in the top corner above the navigation controls (think how Bryce and the nano preview is arranged).

If only we could dock the viewport and dock the controls and have the controls from your plugin appear where the standard pose parameters do right now, we'd literally have a modern-day Bryce workflow with built-in Poser and Octane abilities, if that makes any sense?

If you could see what's in my head you would totally love it

I bought the Reality plugin for Poser, but I hate it because there are three windows involved: Poser, the plugin, and Lux. It just feels messy and infuriating to me. One thing I discovered when looking into Reality was that the author was impressed at the fact that Smith Micro listened to him and granted his requests as a plugin developer, they added code to the program to allow him to write his plugin in the way he wanted.

Whatever it is you need from Poser in order to give you the dockable windows and the standard Poser controls, please consider speaking to Smith Micro. The author of Reality got his wishes granted, I see no reason why the author of such a fantastic Octane plugin would bear any different - I think they'd welcome your requests with open arms - it would benefit Octane integration with Poser after all - and that in turn will benefit them.

Anyway, thanks again, it really would be amazing, so perfect, to have that sort of inegration

[face_off]

The addition of the "plugin" system for Poser was key in making the Octane plugin viable - so I am most grateful to Paolo.

I hear your desired for a deeper level of integration into the Poser UI. Developing a plugin like this is a mix of getting the highest level of integration, without the constraints of the host app, whilst making it absolutely 100% robust. Docking windows introduces not only UI challenges (do to limitations in the Poser addin system), but also workflow challenges, because the Setup window goes from "semi-modal" to "modeless". You'll notice at the moment when you close, open or revert a Poser scene, the plugin Setup window and Viewport both close. And this is important to clear out the Octane info. If the Setup window was open all the time, a lot of extra logic would need to go into handling when scenes are loaded - to refresh to figure/prop list in the Materials tab, and to setup the whole scene again in your video card. The system implemented at the moment is definitely the most robust way to implement Octane into Poser. Whilst you do need to put up with floating windows, you don't need to put up with the plugin crashing But I will see what is possible....

Paul

[pumeco]

Well, I've not had a single crash with your plugin, not one, so I hear you on that one and a big thumbs up to you for it. This sounds like something you'd do if you could do it in a stable fashion and the code allowed it, and that's what counts so I can't complain if it doesn't happen (there's nothing worse than crashes).

I've purchased all three incarnations of Reality and I'm thankfull it even exists (and I love Paolo's enthusiasm for photography done in 3D), but what irritates me the most about the plugin is that I have to manually refresh it and there's a 3 second minimum refresh rate in Lux for it to catch up. Not Paolo's fault, just a limitation of the system and no doubt you face the same brick wall when you want to do stuff.

Anyway, thanks again, and with or without the requested features it looks like I'll be going for your Poser plugin. I've just got to decide whether I prefer the benefit of using Poser's easy interface without a dockable Octane, or whether I prefer Blender's deep interface with the benefit of a dockable Octane.

You can laugh, but such a major decision can take months with me