Octane project, on a non-cuda machine?

[MrFurious]

Juanjo I guess this ones directed at you but if anyone else can help then all the better.

If I open my Octane/LW project on a pc that doesn't support octane render (for example my HP laptop with at ATI card) after bypassing all the warnings from LW about un-found unsupported plugins, materials etc.. if I save the scene and any objects will the objects lose their octane materials? And will the Render Target be lost?

[juanjgon]

Yes, currently it is not possible load the Octane scenes without the Octane plugin, and the Octane plugin can't be enabled in a machine without an NVIDIA GPU because the Octane API doesn't work at all without CUDA.

For example all the LW Octane nodes can't be initialized without build the internal Octane API node. The same thing happens with the render target: it can't be built without the Octane API running.

I am going to think about it and review the plugin code, but with the current plugin architecture it is going to be hard support the Octane plugin in machines without CUDA support.

-Juanjo

[MrFurious]

Well that sucks.

My $3000.00 laptop is rendered useless even just for setting up scenes, previz etc. basically any work on existing scenes initiated with Octane.

Thinking about it, I guess if the LW plugin is so tightly linked to the Octane API it wouldn't work as Octane standalone was only made to run on Cuda machines, so any chance of getting this to work rests solely on the plugin developer. But surely it's possible for a non cuda machine running LW to at least open the scene without destroying the materials and target.

This is kindof a big deal because I can't work on my main PC until the current render is finished now that my laptop is rendered useless for LW stuff.

I'm guessing this is more of an anti piracy issue than anything else. Otoy needs to verify hardware/software to initialize octane APi. Would you say that's close to the mark? As the plugin dev you'd have to bypass the API check and Otoy wouldn't like that.

[juanjgon]

Let me think about it ... it is not only an Octane API issue, but also a plugin architecture problem. I don't know if the other plugins can load and save the Octane scenes in a non CUDA machine, but the problem is that at the beginning of the project I never though that the Octane scenes should be loaded by machines without CUDA support, so it uses Octane API functions in a lot of places in the code: while building the nodes, in the render target node editor, in the master plugin, etc.

I am going to review the code to know the chances of isolate all the Octane API functions out of rendering stage, but I can't promise you a good solution in short term.

-Juanjo

[MrFurious]

Thanks Juanjo I'm hopeful you'll come up with something.

p.s. was that a typo in your last sentence "...but I **can** promise you a good solution in short term.

[glimpse]

ghm,..the solution would be to have a simple eGPU - something like this:

https://twitter.com/tomglimps/status/55 ... 48/photo/1

simply put: get a GPU, & simple kit plugged via mPCI or PCIe card - however it's called..
You can even use Sonnets thunderbolt to PCIe card adapter..

& You laptop will have enough power not only to review but also render scenes out =)

[MrFurious]

Thanks Glimpse, I recall looking into en external GPU solution when I first purchased Octane but I remember reading something about issues with certain mobo incompatibilities, overloading etc.. but maybe your right, time to revisit this possibility.

Does your laptop need an eGPU socket? I don't believe mine does

[juanjgon]

p.s. was that a typo in your last sentence "...but I **can** promise you a good solution in short term.

Yes, sorry ... the word is "can't" ... I will tell you something as soon as possible.

-Juanjo

[MrFurious]

Damn., some wishful thinking there

[3dworks]

i'm interested into this topic because since i started working also with octane, i'm trying to setup and use 'universally' prepared assets (LWO's) in my scene, which can be used as well in octane as also under native rendering - or with maxwell, if needed. the problem until now was that if there is no octane plugin loaded, the node connection to the 'LW material' input - and finally the connection to the surface material - will get lost. maybe a kind of dummy node which can keep these connections and which are used only when octane is not loadable can solve the problem? as for the scene not being loadable/usable without octane, maybe instead of rewriting the plugin completely, also a scene conversion script could do the work?

my 2 eurocents (for what the euro is still worth)

markus