DATA REPAIRING
- the previous versions had several issues causing scenes to not load any longer, often resulting in a crash on load. this update will clean out almost all issues, thus it should be possible to load such scenes again; it is recommended to keep a backup copy of the crashing scene though, in case further repair is needed.
- this version should also revert changes especially done to daz lights – which are in fact also some sort of camera and thus where (mistakenly) altered by the plugin. also some changes to standard cameras will be reverted (as several octane parameter are now no longer tied to specific daz camera parameter with a similar meaning – see below in the camera handling section).
- fixed a problem synchronizing the camera aspect because of different AR settings in the daz render settings dialog – in general it is recommended to not use these settings when rendering with the plugin; since daz cameras and octane cameras use a different axis for the field of view, the plugin needs to synchronize the aspect ratio in the daz render settings to the octane AR, in order to keep the daz viewport and the octane viewport congruent.
note: the fix in question unticks the “constrain proportions” checkbox in the daz render settings, otherwise it is not possible to set the needed numbers. since this setting is not covered by the daz studio sdk (needed a tricky workaround), it is not guaranteed to work under all circumstances – please make sure this checkbox is not ticked when rendering with the plugin. - fixed several problems with animation rendering, amongst others causing animations not to render past a few frames.
- fixed various problems in the NGE; amongst others the root node position, problems with copy & paste, crashes when changing node types, …
- fixed a problem causing the environment setting to not load back to the saved state.
- fixed the Z value for float3 nodes which was connected to the X value (thus it was not possible to actually change it).
- fixed problems when loading materials which contain no nodes.
- very long file names could cause the node inspector panes (in the “materials” tab and in the NGE), to become wider as the tab extents (thus probably get inoperable).
- fixed a problem that caused the material conversion progress bar to stay visible, when an object using only a single mat was added to the scene (i.e. adding a daz primitive).
- plus countless small fixes here and there...
- when connecting pins, it is now possible to drag the connection onto a pin label to connect it.
- when changing pin connections the previous pin stays filled until the connection is finally changed, thus it is possible to control where a connection was taken from.
- pins will be “highlighted” when dragging a connection over them; this highlighting will only happen, if a connection is actually possible.
- dragging connections (new or esp. existing) can now be cancelled by pressing ESC (thus reverting them to the previous state).
- the right hand “node inspector” pane will show the target node while dragging connections to new nodes, thus it is easier to control what is about to be changed.
- improved / more logical updates to the node inspector when selecting nodes.
- it is now possible to select multiple nodes using CTRL + click and (for a start) delete them all at once.
- the DEL key is captured and triggers node deletions (after prompting); this means the DEL key will no longer delete scene content when pressed (if the NGE is the active pane).
note: it is not possible to keep studio from reacting to the DEL key in its usual way by standard/internal methods, thus it is intercepted on system level – means it cannot be guaranteed to work under all circumstances.
- it is now possible to reload applied texture maps from disk (using a new button next to the image menu button).
- there is another new button allowing to open the current map into an (external) image editor;
- the executable for the external image editor can be set up in the “preferences” tab.
- if the edit button is clicked and no editor was set up, it will first ask for an editor.
- ALT + click allows to change the editor directly from the editor button (instead using the “preferences” tab).
- CTRL + click will create a new copy of the current image file, set it as (new) current map, and afterwards open it in the image editor.
- auto map reload on changes – whenever a map was once opened in an external image editor, it is watched for subsequent changes; thus whenever it is saved in the image editor, the rendering will update automatically.
- the image preview in the image menu is now showing up next to the entry in the list, and also staying within screen extents.
- for convenience any map used within a session is kept in this menu; there is a new option to remove all unused maps, in addition previously unused maps will be cleared on load.
- added another new option to the menu, to open the folder of the current image.
- an additional image preview window is shown when hovering over the image menu button in the node inspector.
- the additional octane properties added to daz cameras are now independent from any of the daz properties – this also includes the focal distance.
- In addition to the various focus options it is (therefore) possible to take the current focal distance from the daz camera using the respective option in the focus menu (in the viewport button bar at the bottom).
- an additional f/stop slider (still) allows to control the octane camera aperture by using f/stop numbers – this means f/stop and aperture affect each other (the daz camera f/stop setting is no longer used and/or changed).
- daz light cameras will no longer be used as octane cameras and won’t be altered by the plugin.
- all octane camera options now have a prefix to allow to easier identify them when using higher level property views; in addition they are sorted more logical.
note: the new sorting is only applied to newly created cameras. - the aperture of the default “perspective view” camera is lowered (since this camera has no own control properties).
- automatic control of the smoothing “interactive” switch; when using smoothing this needs to be set to “on”, to allow the plugin to wait for the smoothing iterations to end until collecting the geometry – this is now done automatically whenever needed, and afterwards reverted to the previous state.
- image sequences are now updated in stills also.
note: to use an image sequence as texture map, the images needs to be named conforming to this template: *4-or-5-digit-number.ext - image sequences now work also for the hdri environment.
- the DEL key is also working in the “materials” tab to delete one or more materials (please refer to the notes in the DEL key description for the nge).
- the minimum height for the plugin main pane is lowered, to allow completely showing it on smaller screens.
- it is now possible to change “non-destructive” octane settings if octane is paused; this includes imager settings and post processing settings – means it is save to pause the rendering (to keep if from unwanted restarts) and edit theses settings before saving it.
- it is now possible to set up the way how the final button in the viewport works (in the “preferences” tab); following options can be controlled:
- using a combined mesh instead per-object meshes, usually rendering faster
- use of current subdivision levels or base mesh only
- GPU priority level (see below in the new octane features)
- which lock to apply; full, cameras or camera switch only
in addition the rendering will switch to “pause” when maxsamples are reached (when "final" is used) – this allows to still edit the non-destructive settings (as noted above), given the cameras or camera switch lock mode is used for final rendering. - when rendering with alpha activated, there are additional options to make the rendered image extents visible in the viewport (in the “preferences” tab); possible options: nothing, border, ps-style checkerboard background.
- most notably it is now possible to control the GPU prioritization. this is especially useful to reserve some GPU power for the system and daz studio itself when rendering (in the “system” tab). to use prioritization it is needed to activate it first for a particular GPU (even if there is only one) – please note that the “apply” button, which submits the GPU specific settings (“active” / “use prioritization”) is now right beneath the GPUs list. afterwards the priority can be controlled on the fly using the provided slider (without the need to click “apply”).
note: to control the final mode GPU priority, it needs to be activated here (in other words setting a priority level for final rendering has only some effect, if prioritization is activated for a specific GPU). - of course this update also includes all new 1.13 features like dirt map and sun settings (sun size and sky/sunset color).
- for further information about octane changes since 1.11 please refer to the standalone release announcements.
- this version was slightly tested with 4.6 and seems to work fine so far.
- also daz states that the 4.6 update should not break plugin compatibility.
- opening studio with a scene or opening a scene (or even adding content) quickly after starting daz studio might cause the plugin to fail finally; signs: empty mats trees, empty dropdown boxes for render- and environment settings. if that happens it is recommended to close studio and try it again, waiting a little longer after it has fully opened. from there on it should work fine.
- when ending animation rendering, the rendering might get stuck (no longer rendering updates). after closing studio and loading the scene again, everything should work again.
- if any of the material lists (octane material tree list, daz surfaces tree list) in the “materials” tab is filtered (by text or object), some operations that would tangle materials not in the current scope might fail; so if there are problems dragging something to somewhere, it is advised to check if there is a filter active on the top of the 2 columns.
- merging a saved scene (with octane data in it) with itself will result in missing octane materials and also missing surface links (basically the resulting scene is just messed up and it is not recommended to continue up from here).
- trying to download Live DB materials when offline will still silently fail.
- there is still the need to provide a mechanism, that allows to get octane/the plugin online manually (or at least allow it trying to do so).
- the octane 1.13 update also brought some major changes to some basic internal processes. this (of course) also resulted in some far-reaching changes in the plugin code, regarding multithreading and event handling; about 15% of the existing code was changed, another 10% were added (counting >40k lines so far) – so there is as always a chance for new problems to appear.
- even though, there should be much better reliability compared to the last version.
- if you had issues (maybe discussed via pm), probably not covered in this list - please write me a pm!
- please refer to this post: http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=30137
- please use this link to downlad a zip file containing the plugin dll's for 64 bit versions of daz studio:
http://render.otoy.com/customerdownload ... 05-x64.zip - or this link for 32 bit installs of daz studio (whether using on a 32 or 64 bit system):
http://render.otoy.com/customerdownload ... 05-x32.zip - intended to use ONLY with a previously done full install - WILL NOT WORK if used otherwise!
- the supported DS version is still 4.5.0.114 and up.
- please unpack the included files into your daz studio application directory – the zip file contents mimic the needed folder structure; please make sure, that you overwrite all 5 old files in the respective folders with the new ones included in the zip file, and that there are NO DUPES after updating. nemaly (given a standard install):
...\DAZ 3D\DAZ Studio4\octane.dat
...\DAZ 3D\DAZ Studio4\octane.dll
...\DAZ 3D\DAZ Studio4\OctaneACM.exe
...\DAZ 3D\DAZ Studio4\vcomp100.dll
...\DAZ 3D\DAZ Studio4\plugins\OctaneRender\plordazs.dll - if you have troubles getting that done, please post here or write me a pm!
