DAZ Studio Pro BETA - version 4.8.0.4! IRAY

[t_3]

DS Octane plugin is in big, big trouble. At least on my boxes

why do you think so

it's pretty much no wonder that the devs that actually develop studio itself are able to build sthg. tighter fitting with their hands on their own host source code, than anyone else that needs to use a crippled widely undocumented and _3_ years old sdk, which has never seen any trace of proper geo graft support, instances documentation, blah blah.

apart from that, since i don't need to make a living out of this stunt, at least i'm not going to be in trouble. that said, everyone that has invested in the octane plugin is still going to get a next & better version _when its done_ in line with new features that octane is bringing, and other things that i just add on my own to make work easier and faster.

since the 2.2 plugin version is now for some 2 weeks in testing it may happen every other day (this time it's also going to be an update notice in the plugin and is going to be added to the account download section); it fixes animations, instances, and geo grafting as well ... was only a 3 weeks work btw, mean only for this particular last one; with the above mentioned uber supported super-fresh ds skd ... and it comes with tons of other fixes of course (best stability from all versions so far - quoting testers). has of course render passes and out-of-core memory features and some other unique workflow enhancements.

in a short: ocds wasn't, isn't and won't be abandoned as long i can still see the types on the screen in front of me. from my pov iray is going to draw ds users attention to unbiased rendering, what can be a good thing in terms of general knowledge how to handle gpu-based rendering and material building, and i will of course go on to make the octane plugin superior to iray (for those who care).

if you have any questions: this/today is the time to ask, since i'm going to get back to work quite soon. and as long i'm devotedly working i unfortunately have no time for chatter (i think i have mentioned that before)...

[larsmidnatt]

thanks asennov and Squirtle (and everyone else) for sharing what you like about it.

While I don't need some of the super advanced stuff there are a few things I am very excited about.

For example I didn't even think about geografting...I can finally make a awesome looking monster girl using all those bits I bought like 2 years ago...

And I didn't think about using my second computer to render stuff for me......Holy cow. I have a spare 760 sitting around and a spare computer(my former lux slave), so I can really get some serious rendering done if I take advantage of that....

OMG, that is very nice.

[larsmidnatt]

it fixes animations, instances, and geo grafting as well ... and it comes with tons of other fixes of course (best stability from all versions so far - quoting testers). has of course render passes and out-of-core memory features and some other unique workflow enhancements.

That does sound promising. Can't wait.

[bmosalt]

t_3, thanks for the update.

I don't have a question. Just a request. Stop by to post a quick update on the progress of the plugin on a more regular basis. Surely 15 minutes every fortnight is manageable. You don't need to stick around to "chat". Just a quick paragraph update would go a long way. Silence on your part leads to speculation, and I'd assume this is something you'd want to avoid.

In my opinion, it shouldn't take the release of an alternative rendering solution for you to show up with an update.

[t_3]

In my opinion, it shouldn't take the release of an alternative rendering solution for you to show up with an update.

i already thought about to create a build ticker or sthg. like that, there were >8.5k builds since the last update, so it would tick quite a couple of times a day. sounds strange? from my pov a simple line like "working on it" won't do, and to write a blog about what i'm doing i have no energy at the end of a (very) long coding day, not even 15mins. and at least after a couple of weeks in another update round there _will_ be questions raised like "when will it come", when, when, when, and since i'm a rather optimistic person, it might happen that i write sthg. (again) that doesn't work out, thus i better let it be. i.e. i had not expected that i would need to create an own patch to the freeimage c++ library (to include the latest open-exr libs) to fix a particular crash. that's not the most easy thing to do, and boom there are another 3 days X xx hrs gone for sthg. barely visible - and that's only a fraction of all the things i had not expected a 3 months back.

oh, and btw, as some of the users here already know (since they were testing v2.2 for a while now), it's just coincidence that the looong awaited update is nearing just now that daz comes up with iray. on the other hand i'm _only_ posting this a couple days ahead of the other post with the download file included because i can't let lines like "now it is killed" or the like unanswered.

apart from that: everyone who had contacted me by pm has got an answer right away or after a few days, depending on the problem, so i guess that those who like to speculate, or who do feel that there must be an update every few weeks or the project is to be called "abandoned" can't be persuaded to believe anything else.

working on that stuff is causing much frustration - i swear its more than a hundred ppl together can get from the "endless" wait for an update. if i then also need to argue why there is still no update (and this is always going to be forced at some point), i get much much closer to a nervous breakdown than even daz releasing iray for free is going to. and this would of course also not help to get work done.

last but not least: if you look at my profile, i'm still good for 1.5% of _all_ post in the whole otoy forum ever since, means i'm usually not short of words or taking time to post ... if there is time and enough and mental energy. both what is sucked away in no time by trying to get things done that sometimes seem to be undo-able. so, sorry to say, as long i need to devote _all_ my time an energy into gtd (apart from a tiny bit of private live) there won't be regular updates. maybe i can find someone that is doing that on my behalf..

[Hubby72]

From my point of view :
I am also now testing a bit with Iray for sure. And the results are quite good until. Even when i am still struggling with light controls. Lots to change but often not the result i expect. But i am sure it will do it.
For me i was not using the surface, light tabs of DAZ since long time. Or the Shadermixer or whatever.
That makes it feel "unnatural" in my workflow for now.

But and that is what i really been glad about is that there is now an option. Everyone can decide which render to use.
I mean even when i liked 3DDelight it was almost no option to octane. Or for a mixing layer.
Now or better with 4.8 you can decide because it is packed with DAZ and built in.
AND what is important for me it will mostly be state of the art at the feature site and more stable.
So if for whatever reason we were lacking again an sign of progress and an unstable as hell OCDS the users can now choice.
And this choice we had not before.

As i said i bought a new render machine like for sure many others also only for use octane. The the development get stuck and promises were done and broken - so i was really fed up.
But now even when t_3 will end his work or fall from a tree i have an option to create my visual on the same quality level afterwards.

Btw. here is a small testrender made in iray - just for the topic

[Elele]

"maybe i can find someone that is doing that on my behalf.."

Why don't you have one of the beta tester post a little update once in a while.
Nobody here is asking to be facebook buddies, just a sign that the plugin is still being worked on.

[gaazsi]

nice news, you also took the network render thingie on the list?

[Tugpsx]

"maybe i can find someone that is doing that on my behalf.."

Why don't you have one of the beta tester post a little update once in a while.
Nobody here is asking to be facebook buddies, just a sign that the plugin is still being worked on.

NDA prevents beta testers from posting info. Stay tuned for more to come.

[t_3]

nice news, you also took the network render thingie on the list?

i'm just now rendering a test animation with network render thingie.

Why don't you have one of the beta tester post a little update once in a while.
Nobody here is asking to be facebook buddies, just a sign that the plugin is still being worked on.

what would you expect from a little update? beta tester is problematic as Tugpsx mentioned, and afair we had that already. somebody that knew by sure did post sthg. like "i know he's working..." and it wasn't good: "but why is he not showing", "why we don't get a schedule" "where is the update" "don't you have some milestones set"... from my pov there is always somebody that isn't satisfied until there is a dl-link. and as we all know, it is always too much time until the next update is ready. thus i need to pass on it. if you like to know if i'm active, you can check my profile. a login at least every other day since i'm of course also active in the dev forum. this here is still mostly a user forum, support is going via pm/email/bug-report, and apart from that, if not otherwise stated, i'm working on the plugin, believe it or not...