OTOY Forums

working with Octane for Max and Forest Pack Pro today it's a panic!

Itoo released an Octane compatible plugin version called 4.0

I tried to work with an old version of FPP and Octane (3.9.6) and with some tricks I was able to render 3d trees and billboards without problems.

Now It's almost impossible with the latest versions....

Now all my old scenes have empty trees and If I create a new tree area with the latest plugin I click render and all trees are gone...

Please Otoy, try to collaborate with Itoo Software.

Thank you.

I worked with 4.01 last week and all works fine. No matter if I use integrated hqplants or own ones. Will give the 4.02 a run tonight.
First beta was also very nice with lots of vegetation.

..also I couldn't assign any materials.. buggy - at least they implemented octane, karba is on it I guess

I just replied you in a (long) post here:

http://www.itoosoft.com/forum/index.php ... 46#msg5246

Basically, the billboards are not taked in account when using the new instancing mode of Forest 4. To solve it, just switch "Display->Render->Mode" from "Automatic" to "Meshes", to put back the old method (a single mesh generated by Forest).

I apologize by the problems, but please be patient. The Octane support is completely new in Forest, and must be tweaked progressively. We are working with Karba to improve it.

I just tested some old scenes and really had no problems with it. I pressed render and it runs fine.

I have burned hours on this, too. I am using 4.02. With Carlos from iToo and mbetke's help, I have the material work-around figured out.

My trees intermittently disappear also. I shut Max down, then restart to see my trees again. I will check out the support link for that issue.

I am glad that other users are sharing their challenging experiences!
Best,
Brian

I didn't change anything regarding Forest Pack in the plugin.
And yes, currently plugin can work only with materials assigned directly to objects. That is feature of current updating engine and allow to process material changing very fast for regular geometry. I am not going to change this engine soon.

I created a scene with Octane for Max 1.0 and Forest Pack Pro 4.0B, it's an isle filled with three different types of vegetation.

The scene is rendered without any problem but If I upgrade FPP to the 4.01 or 4.02 as soon as I hit render the trees are gone.

If I save the scene with another name and I try to render it none tree is rendered, the FPP preview disappear from the screen and Octane renders nothing.

I'm really desperate because I have to complete this work and I don't know how to continue.

Please, try this:

- In the Forest object, set General->Random Seed value to 9999.
- Render for some seconds and stop.
- You will find a debug log file at c:\forestDebug.log, upload it here.

Thanks,

Hi iToo

the bug is random!

I did set to 9999 and hit render...
...and the scene was rendered with trees. I was able to tweak parameters all this afternoon I worked on this scene evaluating the results.
Then I saved the scene, closed Max, reopened Max, reloaded the scene, I started render again and.....all trees were gone!

THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!!

To see again the trees in the viewport I have to click "manual update" in the display planel. I see the tree preview in the viewport, I hit render....no trees rendered...as soon as I hit render the trees are deleted from the preview.

Are there ghosts in Forest Pack Pro?