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I've not used Octane in over 2 months now. There are several reasons for this.

Version 2 is out and I really can't see the justification is paying to jump.
Version 2 isn't Blender friendly anyway. Will we ever see a integrated version?
The integrated Octane inside Blender is way too clunky anyway. It still feels like an alpha product.
Cycles really does everything that I want it to do. Most of the new Octane features are either already in Cycles or are coming soon.

I was wondering what other Blender users thought? Is anyone sticking with Octane, anyone else thinking that Otoy has left us behind?

Octane vs Blender

Octane
- Slow updates for Blender version......I was expecting a release by end of July myself and nothing yet.
- A team of devs focusing only on making it better.
- Not free
- Easier to setup and use.
- Better realism
- I agree on bad integration with blender. Many things seem clumsy.

Cycles
- Devs will focus on CPU optimizations mostly from now on due to Gooseberry. So forget about cycles GPU getting much better in the near future.
- Forget about SSS making an appearance too soon. They have big memory usage issues with it and unless you compile a build yourself and live with it you're doomed.
- Terminator issue. You get weird artifacts and devs don't seem to be willing to fix too soon.
- Slower even compared to Octane 2.0. Speed does not scale 100% with the number of GPU's you have.
- You do get some nice things that you don't have yet in Octane such as render passes/layers and more procedurals.
- Ability to switch to CPU at will.
- No PMC like kernel yet. Maybe it will come this year.....maybe.
- FREE

Maybe I missed some stuff. But I will stick to Octane for quite a while in the near future as well.

The 2.0 Blender plug-in is coming along as fast as possible. As in the past, it takes more time than other plug-ins to develop, as it requires a completely different framework to integrate to link to Blender over a network connection. We also have to post the source of the changes we make to Blender, etc..

Basically, there is a lot more under the hood that needs to happen to integrate and support Blender+Octane than with under plug-ins.

Ok. Then what is the stage of development. How far of from a release(approx of course)?

I think we'll be be better able to answer that in a few weeks. Thanks for your patience.

Cycles has had SSS since 2.67

CPU only. GPU version kinda unstable,buggy and memory hungry and you have to make your own build to use it.

Hmm, I've just had an email telling me that the special upgrade price for Octane is coming to an end. I can't see any point upgrading until the blender integrated is available and that might be months. It sounds like my decision as to whether I should stick with Octane or concentrate more on Cycles has been made for me.

steveps3 wrote:Hmm, I've just had an email telling me that the special upgrade price for Octane is coming to an end. I can't see any point upgrading until the blender integrated is available and that might be months. It sounds like my decision as to whether I should stick with Octane or concentrate more on Cycles has been made for me.

Of course it is your choice. But remember that you won't get any major GPU advancements until Gooseberry is done. They said that focus will be on CPU. However waiting 1-2 months for the blender plugin that will come with more optimizations is a clear choice for me at least.

Ditching the 2.0 upgrade in favour of cycles is a perfectly legitimate decision.

Today I bought the upgrade even though I was waiting for the Blender Plugin to be released before. My first thought was that it is a questionable business method of trying to get more purchases before the product (at least the one I want: the Blender plugin) is finished.

But then again, Octane is not about Blender only. I think it's more likely this decision is more about an upcoming change/release, that will also change the pricing model. Remember, SIGGRAPH is just around the corner and I think that's no coincidence.

So maybe this is just a fair signal to existing customers to use the special upgrade. We'll know more within 1-2 weeks.

my 2 cents.