OTOY Forums

pumeco wrote:Hi,

I'm trying to check-out this plugin but I'm having a problem getting an image from it:

- I start the Octane Server
- I start Blender
- I have the Octane plugin active in the Addon Preferences
- I have only a cube in the scene and it has an Octane Material applied to it
- I set the mode to Rendered mode and ...

Nothing!

I just get an error, I look at the log and all it tells me is that "this is not meant to happen!"
Any tips on this would be appreciated.

Could you please give some more info? Perhaps the screenshot of error in viewport and of Blender console...

Well, I have done my first animation trials with alembic exports from Blender, and I encounter a problem :

I get a big jitter in the exported camera. First I thought that it was due to the fact that the camera whas moving while tracking an object (an Empty which is not moving) with a constraint. I thought : maybe alembic doesn't know how to use constraints. So I deleted the constraints and keyframed the camera without using constraints : still shaky camera and random motion blur due to the jitter.
So, I tried again with a completely static camera without any animation, and this time it was steady. I also rendered directly Inside Blender with the plugin, and the camera movement is smooth.

So, is there something specific to know for camera setting when using alembic export ?

1: Octane interpolates linearly between the keyframes stored in the Alembic file. It depends on what gets written in the Alembic file if the camera in Octane moves smoothly or not. Usually an exporter just writes the camera position for every frame so Octane doesn't do any interpolation. If you are using the Octane for Blender plugin you should ask on the Blender forum how it works.
--
Roeland

This plugin writes the camera position and other camera properties every frame.
So, at first - you can just look if there are some difference in camera position setting the same current frames in Blender and in Octane standalone... At least it will give some info to start deduce the reason...

Cheers Jim!

I've attached two screenshots, one before and one after the error. The only difference between the two is that I switched the mode to 'Rendered' mode, and although it's not visible in the screenshots, I did start the Octane Server before starting Blender.

It's weird though, I never got that message before because last time, it was a repeating list of 'this is not meant to happen!'

I wonder if I'm missing something here because I'm assuming "Activated" is just another way of saying "Started" the Octane Server. I haven't activated anything with a serial number because I'm assuming this is a demo version, but like I said, I did 'Start' the Octane Server.

pumeco wrote:I haven't activated anything with a serial number because I'm assuming this is a demo version

And where have you seen that demo version is available for this plugin?
You need license key to work with it.

Ah, that explains it then, I just thought it would have the Octane watermark over it and a limited render resolution unless I purchased it, kinda like the Poser Octane plugin does, sorry about that

So there's no way to test it without buying it?

Just a quick not for Jimstar
When you place an update please also mention the blender build.
Thank you

Synthercat wrote:Just a quick not for Jimstar
When you place an update please also mention the blender build.
Thank you

This Blender build number is incorporated in each name of this plugin (you see it in parentheses on every version of Blender installator of this plugin: "Blender Octane Edition - 1.33 - 4.0 beta (2.69)"), and it is shown during installation on the big splash screen, and it is seen in the Blender itself after you start it...
Or do you mean something else?..

For some reason Blender fails at frame 2 export in Movable Proxy mode. There is a number of movable and deformable proxies in the scene. The aembic_export.abc file stays locked by the OctaneServer.exe process after the Blender crash.



The same scene is being exported fine in Full mode.

And one more thing: maybe this question isn't for this topic but I noticed that there's no any motion blur except camera motion blur — is this the issue of the exporter or Octane Standalone itself?

And one more thing about the Aembic export: my material names are lost after export:

• names in Blender
• names in Octane