OTOY Forums

Ok, as some of you know, when external renderers and plugins are in question, it can be overwhelming to a beginner. If you could, please clearly answer some very basic compatibility questions for me.

1. If I buy the standalone octane renderer, and since it uses .obj file format. Does this mean, that I can save my mesh in Blender as a .obj and bring it into octane standalone to render?

2. Ok, this question complements the 1st. I'm a beginner. From what I understand, scene file formats are different from object file formats. Can I move a camera and lights around and move several .obj imported objects around in octane standalone, to setup a scene to be rendered?

3. What does all this mean for animation. Since .obj files are not scenes, how can I render an animation if at all possible?

4. How "official" is a Blender plugin? I see plugins for major commercial packages, and since they cost money, they are obviously supported and useful. Is purchasing Octane standalone a RISK for Blender users? I mean, what is the guarantee of the plugin being extended and so on. This is actually the most important question for me. Blender is great software and Octane looks absolutely incredible, but if you are not a high end user and a professional, you don't want to be left out to hang and dry if you will.

5. This is not so much a question. Anyone can answer. If you could, please - sell me Octane - I mean convince me, that it's something even beginners can learn to live up to. I'm blown away by the great renders I see here on the site, but at this time, I can't imagine myself being at that level. What can you guys tell me about how I can make it useful for me. Any tips or comments as far as animation is concerned is important to me, so anything you can talk about would be great!

Glad you dropped by dpixel.

So far your 5th question seems the hardest as Octane does have a learning curve and it is really up to you to imagine yourself up to that level and get there. Remember, the tools are only as good as the carpenter. If you're really open to get sold to Octane, try the demos and let Octane speak for itself .

As for the plugins, don't get confused as there are two kinds:

1) export script plugins - these are user-contributed scripts which are free and help export a scene from the main modeling application and fire up octane standalone to render the scene. There are environment and export settings (material, camera) you can load into Octane standalone through the export script. The scripts will also help with exporting an animation frame by frame and get each frame rendered in Octane. Development and Continuity of these export scripts is a prerogative of their respective contributors.

2) integrated plugins - these run octane through a viewport from inside your modeling application and these need a separate license (you must already own an activated standalone edition to use the integrated plugin) like an add-on if the user wants to eliminate switching between two applications (Octane standalone<>modeling application). Each plugin have its advantage, but most important concepts of rendering with Octane are all learned through the standalone edition. The integrated plugins are products of Otoy and developement is ongoing.

Hope that helps.

Hi dpixel, here is the latest video from JimStar the developer of the integrated addon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... UxIbjb9PmI

Here is the thread about:

http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=27350

Cheers, mib.

I can give you the answers from my perspective. I am a Lightwave user.

1. If I buy the standalone octane renderer, and since it uses .obj file format. Does this mean, that I can save my mesh in Blender as a .obj and bring it into octane standalone to render?

For lightwave the answer to this is yes. However, if there are textures applied they may need some tweaking as the texturing is completely different. But models, for sure.

2. Ok, this question complements the 1st. I'm a beginner. From what I understand, scene file formats are different from object file formats. Can I move a camera and lights around and move several .obj imported objects around in octane standalone, to setup a scene to be rendered?

Yes, but it's not as easy as a normal 3d app (as far as I've found). Far better to create your objects in 3D space where their going to be unless I'm missing something about standalone (which I don't use much - I use the plugin) Isn't there a plugin for blender?

3. What does all this mean for animation. Since .obj files are not scenes, how can I render an animation if at all possible?

I don't know about this one.

4. How "official" is a Blender plugin? I see plugins for major commercial packages, and since they cost money, they are obviously supported and useful. Is purchasing Octane standalone a RISK for Blender users? I mean, what is the guarantee of the plugin being extended and so on. This is actually the most important question for me. Blender is great software and Octane looks absolutely incredible, but if you are not a high end user and a professional, you don't want to be left out to hang and dry if you will.

Dunno, but I think the plugins are official - I hope they are as I have the lightwave one.

5. This is not so much a question. Anyone can answer. If you could, please - sell me Octane - I mean convince me, that it's something even beginners can learn to live up to. I'm blown away by the great renders I see here on the site, but at this time, I can't imagine myself being at that level. What can you guys tell me about how I can make it useful for me. Any tips or comments as far as animation is concerned is important to me, so anything you can talk about would be great!

Let me sell you octane in this way. I have done a lot of work on texturing and lighting in LW, and have found it possible to get genuinely photorealistic results. However, it takes a lot of time and experience and the render times can be horrendous. With Octane, it can be as simple as set the lighting (environment or daylight), set the camera and rendering (can be default). Drag a material from Live DB (could be glass, metal, stone or one of many physically accurate materials), and watch probably the most photorealistic renders you have ever created appear in front of your eyes. Sometimes in seconds.

I am a Blender user and use the unofficial script for exporting. It works perfectly for me.

Octane is very intuitive and easy to use. I've tried cycles, but after a long time, couldnt get anything close to what I could get in Octane. Plus, the speed of Octane is amazing.

Jimstar is working on an official plugin for Blender which would incorporate it directly into Blender similar to how Cycles is right now.

Have you tried the demo for Octane to see if you like it?