Octane Daylight System in Maya

[PhillieDFilms]

I've been slamming my brain against the keyboard trying to figure out what the problem is here. I just picked up the Octane Plugin for Maya. I am not new to Octane, I've been working with the standalone version for over a year and have had great results with the Maya to Octane exporter for both stills and animation. In an effort to more closely tie Maya and Octane I've gone ahead and purchased the plugin for Maya.

Besides being highly unstable - multiple crashes on relatively simple scenes that the standalone would handle without a hitch. Inconsistent shading on basic materials combined with slider values that don't correspond with native standalone values. Example; trying to rebuild a shader in Maya using Octane Materials based on values found on shaders in the standalone will render inaccurately in Maya. I could go on but that's for another thread.

This thread is about the Octane Daylight System in Maya.

Both scenes are rendered with PathTracing Using the Daylight System. From what I can tell the Values are identical across the board. Most of the Values where left as-is from creation. Besides values that are by default non-correlating such as OctFstop in Maya which by default is 1.2 and in standalone it's 2.8. Could use an explanation on that one btw. All other values should correspond to their standalone counterparts.

Why then does my Octane render look good in the sense that it doesn't look like the crap that Maya is rendering for me? Am I missing something? Did I get a faulty install of the Plugin? Does the Daylight System in Octane for Maya not work properly yet?

Please help!

[JimStar]

...multiple crashes on relatively simple scenes...

Strange to hear it, as this version is stable even on the complex scenes for most users... So, if you got some crashes on your scenes - you will get them further if you will not post the detail reports about these crashes and the .dmp and .log files which Maya creates after every crash (sometimes the scene itself is very useful to catch the problems).

About the images you posted - check what for objects size you have in both these cases, as it looks like the scaling mismatch. Check the scale factor you have set in Maya's Octane settings... I can only guess what you have set in all the settings, as these two images are all I see here...

[PhillieDFilms]

Hi JimStar, thanks for the reply. I am as amazed with the crashes as you are because I am under the impression that this plugin is basically standalone Octane in Maya. The next crash I will post a full report.

Could you please elaborate further on your scaling comment. I see the scaling option under the Octane Render Settings in Maya but changing that setting only introduces artifacts in my models. Currently - for the renders posted - the scaling is left at default of 0.0100. I have tested this scene with Mayas units set to both Centimeters and Meters. But still the lighting looks the same. I am at a loss for what is going on. I can tell you that at the most basic level all of the sliders have been left at default upon creation. If you need specifics I can give them, I just need to know what to look for.

Edit: Here are some new renders with a new scene, a fresh scene. All settings at default. Except for the sun long and lat whose values have been check in both Maya and Standalone and match. The only thing that is different could be the units. In Maya my units are set to Centimeters for the Octane Plugin Render. Using the Maya2Octane plugin for exporting my Maya scene directly to the standalone Octane, before exporting I need to switch my Maya units to Meters because that will translate the camera properties to Octane Standalone. Even though in my Standalone Octane Preferences the Obj Mesh Import Scale is set to centimeters.

I can also upload the scene files for both Maya and Octane for you to look at.

[PhillieDFilms]

I see people reading this thread. YET NO ONE COMMENTS! Am I the only one having this issue? The scene is a simple as it gets and can be re-created in 2 mins. Create Scene, create plane, create sphere, create octane camera, create octane daylight, create 2 octane diffuse textures - assign them, and render using PathTracing in the plugin. If this works for you please post and comment, add renders, DO SOMETHING! If it is just on my end then I can eliminate a lot of assumptions as to what the problem is. Could really use some help here people.

[icelaglace]

You're basically comparing the new daylight system (Maya picture) to the old one (Standalone) You can use the new daylight model in the standalone too.
+ Apply the same camera response on both, the default one on Maya is not the same than on the Standalone.

[PhillieDFilms]

Thank you soooo much for that response!! You are correct. Some values I took for granted under the assumption they were initially created identical in value to their Standalone counterparts. This turned out to be a bad assumption. In Maya the Camera Response and fStop had to be adjusted as well as the Daylight System Power also changed the RGB values of the Sphere Shader to .9 from .4 at which they were created. I now understand that the New Daylight Model which I was using in Maya has not been implemented yet with the Standalone version of Octane I am using. V1.0. I have turned off the new Daylight Model in Maya and re-rendered both. Posted Below

Thanks again for your help. Is there an idea of when the new Daylight System will be implemented in the Standalone? I guess for now I can use the Release Candidate for v1.03. Will that create issues with my plugin for Maya?

[icelaglace]

New daylight model is in the Stand-alone Release Candidate 1.03; It'll be in the final 1.1.