OTOY Forums

There are no start / reload render buttons on my Octane ToolBar even after installing the demo version twice ? I'm curious if this is the cause of my renders looking horrible !

Is this the Maya demo?
Did you follow the install instructions here: http://render.otoy.com/manuals/Maya/?page_id=22

I followed the instructions word by word, piece by piece !

Ahh, I think I know what you are seeing in the manual that is missing.
These buttons are no longer needed, just use the refresh and pause buttons in the IPR.

Why does a cube look as if it's created in Illustrator, when everything from CUDA devices to the plugin are working ? I add Octane Lights, the render that Octane process looks, well, like crap !

You will need to learn how to setup octane materials and lighting.
Just setup a few objects with diffuse, glossy and specular materials and start playing with their setting to see how they respond to the lighting.
Also play with the lights settings, power, temperature for blackbody emitters etc.
Also try the daylight environment as opposed to a uniform environment etc.

This is what I do, create a sphere, add a Octane specular material, change the render to Octane render, toggle on IPR and render. I just add an Octane Light, hoping there will be improvement with the sphere, instead it continues to look a horrible, flat, matte render.

Then it sounds like the light is just far too bright.
Change the power of the light or move it away from the sphere.

This is a simple scene with a sphere which using (Octane) IPR renders horrible.
[http://www.divshare.com/download/26424821-403]

try to spend more effort to see people what does. Learn octane how react to a environment. Put a plane to floor at least. It will not take so much time as posting these messages.