OctaneRender for Carrara 2.06.0047 [Stable]

[SciFiFunk]

Hi,

I don't see how to output an animation as JPG. Could this be added to the list please? (Unless I've missed it somewhere). Would also be good to output an individual frame to JPG.

Many thanks.

[orion_uk]

Removed/edited my post, as I misread yours Sci Fi Funk!

Sigham got the reply in while I was cleaning the coffee off my keyboard

look out for lots of posts with mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm or llllllllllll (etc) until i clean/replace it..

[Sighman]

Hi,

I don't see how to output an animation as JPG. Could this be added to the list please? (Unless I've missed it somewhere). Would also be good to output an individual frame to JPG.

Many thanks.

The images are saved as PNG, this preserves the Alpha Channel. There is no built in support (in the Octane API) for saving images as JPG and I would have to do the conversion myself.

[SciFiFunk]

Ok Thanks Sighman.

I guess that is the better format then. If we can't have JPG looks like it's time to get a new hard drive.

[SciFiFunk]

Sighman,

On the Render Target Tab, the MAX SAMPLES value is not saved with the Carrara scene. This is causing some pain between sessions for animation. I often render at a much lower sample value, as Octane 2.0 cleans up pretty quick.

Perhaps other values are not saved as well. It would be great to have them all saved with the scene. To reduce render time and get the right "look" for the scene I amend many of these values. If they are not saved this will leave me in the same position as the DAZ plugin - writing down the settings and re-applying them each time. That gets old quick.

Additionally I've found a bug with animating. Have a booth prop with a door that opens. The door itself is a separate model within the booth group. The frist time I rendered out the animation the door wouldn't open (in the rendering), works fine If I preview in the editor. Works fine with Carrara native renderer.

I wondered if it was the result of a long render. (It was frame 470 so had been rendering a while) a long shot I know. So I saved the scene, exited and reloaded. This time it hung on "updating" after rendering the first frame. I left it for 30 mins. Still hung.

I am going to reduce the scene to try to isolate the problem.

UPDATE.

With the bulk of the scene removed. The animation didn't hang in updating. First test it got stuck (i.e. kept rendering the same frame) on rendering frame 2 (frame 472). Then I reduced from 200 max samples to 20 and it rendered fine. I then went back to 200 and it rendered fine.

so atm it looks "intermittent". There definitely was a problem on the initial 570 frame rendering. I have the "stuck" frames to prove it. Incidentally the camera moves were still happening, just the rotation of this door was not.

I am now going to retest the full scene playing around with max samples to see if changing the value frees up the animation.

- It might help. I'm not sure. Perhaps just re-tying solves the issue. Either way this is pretty high priority for me as I never know if I'm going to get an animation out or not as things stand.

I am producing an advert atm for the "DynoFlush 3000". It's a simple animation mainly with camera moves and things opening and turning. I'll report back if other objects cause a problem.


Cheers

Steve

[Sighman]

On the Render Target Tab, the MAX SAMPLES value is not saved with the Carrara scene. This is causing some pain between sessions for animation. I often render at a much lower sample value, as Octane 2.0 cleans up pretty quick.

Perhaps other values are not saved as well. It would be great to have them all saved with the scene. To reduce render time and get the right "look" for the scene I amend many of these values. If they are not saved this will leave me in the same position as the DAZ plugin - writing down the settings and re-applying them each time. That gets old quick.

Render Target Settings (Imager/Kernel/Post) are not saved with the scene ATM. They are saved and loaded separately using the Save and Load Render Target buttons on the ORVP. (The first two buttons.) Yes it's a bit of a pain right now but at least you can share settings between projects this way.

Additionally I've found a bug with animating. Have a booth prop with a door that opens. The door itself is a separate model within the booth group. The frist time I rendered out the animation the door wouldn't open (in the rendering), works fine If I preview in the editor. Works fine with Carrara native renderer.

I have an optimization routine that examines each object/instance in a scene to see if it has a keyframe attached. If there is no keyframe then it is not considered. This seems to fail for some unknown reason or perhaps it is my difference engine. In any case I am going to remove it and see if that cleans up the problem. I'll see if I can get this done for tomorrow.

[SciFiFunk]

The 'blue' RT setting issue is one a few of the original testers experienced in the early days but the one with the image file browser (see the video posted above) has only been something I have had so far!

Not any more!

I got it by changing from PMC to Direct Kernel, (I think with the option drop down open). This is the first time it's happened today. Been working on this pretty much solid now since late monday. I don't notice any other side effects though, so to me this is low priority.

[SciFiFunk]

I have an optimization routine that examines each object/instance in a scene to see if it has a keyframe attached. If there is no keyframe then it is not considered. This seems to fail for some unknown reason or perhaps it is my difference engine. In any case I am going to remove it and see if that cleans up the problem. I'll see if I can get this done for tomorrow.

That would be awesome! Thanks.

Yeah - this is a long sweep with an eased in/out linear tweener, so for the most part - no keyframes, just a starting and ending keyframe. Perhaps that helps?

Re: the saving of settings. I had read and forgot that, sorry to waste time on that one.

[PhilW]

Just to let you know, when the closed beta started, many more things needed to be saved and loaded with the Render Target settings - camera, environment, etc. and Sighman has done a great job of integrating these into the Carrara interface so that they save and load with the project, leaving only a handful of settings which are saved with the Render Target. We have come a long way already, and I have no doubt that Sighman will continue to work on this and make it even better!

[SciFiFunk]

Just to let you know, when the closed beta started, many more things needed to be saved and loaded with the Render Target settings - camera, environment, etc. and Sighman has done a great job of integrating these into the Carrara interface so that they save and load with the project, leaving only a handful of settings which are saved with the Render Target. We have come a long way already, and I have no doubt that Sighman will continue to work on this and make it even better!

Oh yes! For a first Public Beta, this is a TERRIFIC product! It's already way more reliable than the DAZ interface.

For the record I am very grateful that we are this far at this point in time. I hope you all realise that I'm putting it though it's paces now so that come version 1.0 we have something that not only benefits the Carrara community, sells well for Sighman, but puts Carrara back on the map.

At the end of the day, it's results that count, and I *think* when people see what can be done with this poser compatible software, they might take another look.