Roadmap for the maya plugin

[haffy]

I am with you mverta on that comment, I woild love the interghration with maya and the option do to it in standalone style.

[Jolbertoquini]

but it's nicer to know, when we can expect the first alpha? Maybe without the volumetric stuff for now, because it's not so important, as ivankio said. The actual plugin (V 2.24.2 - 7.24) is a horrible peace of software, which is quite useless.

I have to second that and what ivankio wrote. Adding to that it bugs me, that I'm still bound to a geometry limitation for rendering and with Octane 3 this can be fixed. Also I don't need to say, how unstable maya gets, when the octane plugin is activated. Features like focus on a object doesn't work with an octane light - you will find the camera at the other end of the workspace.
What I want to point out: if the plugin uses the maya node system and therefore has less bugs, it would help me much more, than to know, that I can use volumetric stuff.
Since at least Version 2 the plugin was lacking behind all other plugins and on top of that, let maya crash repeatingly or let the grafic card driver crash - situations where debugging is a big pain and is not easy to reproduce. I was even surprised, that using GMH2 (http://www.thundercloud-studio.com/shops/gmh2/ - it only uses maya nodes/painteffects) while octane plugin is loaded, maya crashes.
About 20% of my time went just for debugging and workarounds regarding the octane plugin. There is even a workaround in the plugin (unique names) which shouldn't be necessary - none of other renderers need such a workaround and are much better integrated into maya. I'm aware that Jimstar was overloaded with different tasks and I guess he had his reasons, that the plugin had to end up how it is today. I'm much more positive, that at least now there is Kai, who is 100% working only for the plugin and it is to say, that we need a solid base, which works with maya, before the fancy stuff gets implemented.

I love octane for the speed, quality and the node based approach, but what I still miss, that octane render plugin should support:

1. concave polygons (no need for triangulation)
2. Smooth mesh (Button "3" in maya)
3. Subdivision creasing
4. Xgen integration (scattering, hair, aso)
5. hair plugin (http://peregrinelabs.com/yeti/, http://www.ephere.com/plugins/autodesk/maya/ornatrix/)
6. combining Maya texture nodes with octane texture nodes (ex. ramp texture, fractal noises, ..) or better/advanced octane texture nodes for example with ramp attributes
7. stackable displacement map or combination of maps
8. maya lights (like mentalray has additional attributes in maya standard light, octane can use own attributes in light, but the light position are the same, so it would be possible to combine different renderers) - also a suggestion about lighting: http://brograph.com/luminous
9. Spot Lights (there are workarounds at the moment, but are a pain with IES Light profile)
10. Viewport (sometimes materials in Viewport are visible, sometimes not)
11. Substances textures
12. All render passes, which are supported by the Version 3 Render core (ex. albedo)
13. Remove limit of 19Mio. Polygons (workarounds where necessary in certain cases, like with fluid meshes)

I'm looking forward to a successful development.
cheers
Cyrill

All +++++

Sadly I already try to get Ornatrix work with maya and no answer from developer The guys from Ephere are trying to contact Otoy for a while now and nothing.
such shame they support Redshift/Arnold/Vray/renderman and Maxwell they all contact then back Only otoy doesn't. and I'm part of the testers from the begging of the plug and nothing from Otoy.

Sounds like plugs would like to make work with Octane but is looking like Otoy don't want help I'm wrong??? Maybe only maya plugs.

[RickToxik]

Yes this sounds like the plugin will no longer be working in Maya's native environment, like Maya does. If so, I personally find this disappointing. I find plug-ins which seem to seamlessly be a native part of the host program are, by definition, instantly more user friendly and intuitive.

Totally agree, this is why, even though I was there from the start (octane maya beta), I ended up stopping using octane - this and the fact that it crashed some critical scenes that were not even using octane, but anyway...

V-Ray and Arnold are perfectly integrated in maya, and you feel like working in maya when you are using them. Also, in big vfx houses like the one I work at, scripting and being pipeline-friendly is very important, we need to be able to script on the fly and we need to rely on different technologies in our scenes, some in-house and some commercial.

Not having interation between maya nodes (file nodes, bump2d, etc) and octane nodes is a major obstacle for me to use octane, or any other renderer that does not integrate seemlessly in maya. I understand that this is not the road taken by otoy and the new dev team. Even though I find it disappointing too, I understand that there might be some technological reasons behind this, that I hope go beyond the need to integrate faster new features. But in my opinion, you will not be able to knock at the door of big maya houses if you don't integrate more seamlessly and 360 degree in maya.

I could be wrong though! Fabric engine does exactly that (follow its own logic outside of the maya env) and is used more and more at MPC if I'm not mistaken.

I am happy though that the octane maya plugin is still taken seriously and that things are moving forward. I stopped using the plugin at early 2.0, and I bought 3.0 just to keep track of things, but I do not really plan to use it in my work except for concept stuff. As a lead artist in my everyday work though, I could not recommend the studio to adopt octane in maya if it does not support anything but octane nodes though... I also had to restrain my previous employer to switch full throttle to octane for maya because it was too unstable and I was not wrong as time has proven - and I was one of the biggest fans of octane in maya at that time. I still love it, I think the image quality is at least as good as arnold that we use, and more fun to "play" with. I was really happy to see that space station 76 was all rendered with octane and loved the image. If Otoy want mass maya users, they should target the vfx studios before it's too late (i.e. before arnold goes gpu too) and this is what tight seamless maya integration is all about!! Ok ok I'm done!... Can't wait to try the new plugin, even though I am not a big fan of octane standalone : )

EDIT: Sorry I've read just after that that the plugin will use the node editor. Cool! I really wished though that we could connect maya nodes with octane's nodes, like remapHSV, reverse, file, etc.

[itsallgoode9]

OTOY, can you please provide us with an update on release for the Maya plugin. The original timeline has come and gone yet we've not received an updated release estimate.

Due to to the plugin rewrite we have not received a plugin update of any sort in over two months. This coupled with the fact that we get zero updates or forum responses is just plain unacceptable.

[Goldorak]

I believe Kai has been providing the community regular updates on the progress being made, and also why we are taking the time to refactor the node system for V3. It is on us to keep you all informed and we will make sure to do that as often as needed.

[calus]

I believe Kai has been providing the community regular updates on the progress being made, and also why we are taking the time to refactor the node system for V3. It is on us to keep you all informed and we will make sure to do that as often as needed.

hey Goldorak,
Maya users are not asking for an update about the progress made, but an update of the road-map !

Kai was hoping to have a V2 release with new nodes approach followed by V3 release, during last month. (also a "finger crossed" was telling us that this estimation may change.)

However, we are now out of the road-map there's no time indication at all about a release.
It can take one day, or one month or one year, nobody Knows !

So it would be benefic for everybody if Kay could update the obsolete Road-map now with a new optimistic estimation,
even if he have to update this estimation later again .

[itsallgoode9]

I believe Kai has been providing the community regular updates on the progress being made, and also why we are taking the time to refactor the node system for V3. It is on us to keep you all informed and we will make sure to do that as often as needed.

As Calus mentioned, the latest update in terms of hopeful release date that was given over a month ago has come and gone without any new estimate of release date. For the most part everybody waited patiently for the month and now that the release estimate has passed, we're hoping for an updated estimate on release date. Will it take a few days, a few weeks, a few months?

Personally, when a release date estimate comes and goes, I would consider that a time that is "needed" in terms of informing us.

[kommando_2k]

release v3 plz


pleeeease

[renmaxhb]

release v3 plz !!!!

[nedan]

I'm checking on the forum every day for v3.