This is the second alpha release of v3.
We split the v3 alpha release notes into two posts: This one, which provides the download links and information specific to this particular release and a features post describing and discussing the new features and changes of 3.00. The features post will be continuously updated until we reach the stable version 3.00. But first let's go through some important things first:
Alpha and beta version disclaimer
In contrast to v2 we want to do the alpha and beta testing publicly, to get more feedback earlier and to have changes tested more thoroughly. The plan is to let all users with a valid v2 license use the v3 alpha and beta versions until we decide that the beta period has ended and we release the first stable v3. After that you will have to upgrade to v3 or will not be able to use any v3 versions (including alpha and beta versions) anymore. We don't know yet, when that will be, but we will give you a warning a few weeks in advance so you can prepare.
Since there is a higher likelihood of severe bugs in alpha and beta versions you shouldn't use them for production work. It would be nice if you could test some production scenes with the alpha and beta versions, but you should definitely not rely on the stability of those versions to finish your projects.
In the Standalone you should be able to load v3 scenes in v2, losing only features provided in v3 and maybe some converted settings (like the new "mid level" in displacement nodes). With the plugins this isn't necessarily the case, which means that you should not create any plugin projects with v3 alpha/beta if you are not 100% sure that you want to upgrade to v3 or that you don't mind losing these projects when the beta period ends.
Manual
We don't have an updated manual for v3 yet. That's partially due to the fact that we are currently overhauling the documentation web site, which needs to be finished until we can publish an updated manual for v3. We will let you know when the v3 manual is available until then, please refer to the v3 new features thread and its discussion.
CUDA requirements
We switched to CUDA 7, which means on Windows and Linux you may need to update your NVIDIA graphics driver to a current version which supports at least CUDA 7.0. On Mac OSX you may have to update the CUDA driver for Mac to a current version supporting at least CUDA 7.0.
Changes since 3.00 alpha 1
- Added texture and lighting baking by introducing a new baking camera. It bakes the geometry of the render target into an image. The UV map needs to be set up correctly and you usually need to partition the geometry using the baking layer ID in the object layer nodes. You can then select the partition you want to bake via the baking ID in the baking camera node.
- Volume temperature now affects blackbody temperature instead of just scaling the emission power. (You probably want to know: A more tweakable medium with gradients and stuff is currently in development)
- Added volume grid import scale settings to import preferences.
- Implemented basics of render layers for volumes.
- Dramatically improved memory usage during volume import.
- Volume grid selection in the Standalone is now done via combo boxes, showing grids available in a VDB.
- Implemented volume material mapping via the material map node.
- Greyscale render passes like Z depth occupy only 1 channel in the film buffer now. Saving the passes will also only save them as greyscale images, if possible.
- The alpha channel in OpenEXR files is only stored when necessary.
- Added material roughness and IOR info passes.
- Added diffuse, reflection, refraction and transmission filter info passes as well as material roughness and IOR. All these passes plus the opacity pass are grouped now in a new "material passes" group along with opacity, IOR and roughness. Please be aware that for the raw/filter workflow you need to use the beauty filter passes instead. The info material passes are mainly meant to be used for texture baking.
- Added "bump and normal mapping" option to the render passes node.
- Improved sampling of AO pass to clear up faster.
- Introduced the render passes configuration and a configuration UI in the standalone. We will add the ability to import/export those configurations as soon as possible.
- Tone mapping of some info passes doesn't apply a gamma correction anymore. This affects all info passes that store vectors or linear values like alpha or distance.
- Added deep image file saving to the batch rendering script.
- Added parameter to the LUA
octane.render.saveRenderPasses()to allow saving the compositing file. - Updated Photoshop workflow plugin to work with the changes in the render passes.
- Improved reporting of GPU failures.
- Improved sampling in PMC kernel.
- Replaced "alpha shadows" by "AO alpha shadows".
- Replaced "max. tile samples" of the PMC kernel node by "work chunk size".
- The range of the "max. tile samples" pin is now the same in the direct lighting / path tracing / info channel kernel nodes.
- Removed "info after beauty" and "tonemap" options from the render passes node, since they are not required anymore after the film refactoring.
- Fixed volume import attributes not being written to OCS.
- Fixed uninitialized data during volume shading in the direct lighting kernel (see viewtopic.php?p=257965#p257965).
- Fixed overlapping emissive volumes.
- Fixed grid import scale messing up the origin of a volume.
- Fixed bug that the import scale got ignored when a regular grid is imported.
- Fixed two cases where shadow rays ignored solid geometry within a volume.
- Fixed wrong renderings with environment medium involving sunlight (see viewtopic.php?p=258229#p258229).
- Fixed normal space mapping when using IES lights (see viewtopic.php?p=258174#p258174).
- Fixed bug that asynchronous tone mapping got blocked, if changes to the scene were made while rendering is paused.
- Fixed a bug that wiping the film didn't clear the blend stats causing negative Ms/s.
- Fixed the issue that the AO render pass ignored shadow/general and layer visibility.
- Fixed the camera rotation invert setting in the Standalone (was ignored). Inverted the default roll direction.
- Offline authentication is disabled for the alpha / beta period and this version will time out on March 1st 2016.
Known issues
Region rendering is still broken and we are working to bring it back as soon as possible. Unfortunately it requires a total rewrite due to the film buffer changes.
Also render priority is currently not implemented due to the kernel overhaul. Actually, since we are now launching much smaller kernels more often, we don't see the need for this functionality anymore and want to remove it, but aren't sure if there are still cases where we would need a throttling of the kernel calls. Please let us know, in case you run into issues like a blocked/laggy UI.
OctaneRender Standalone downloads
Windows
- 64-bit commercial version (installer)
- 64-bit commercial version (ZIP archive)
Mac OS X
- 64-bit commercial version (DMG image)
Linux
- 64-bit commercial version (ZIP archive)
Photoshop workflow plugin download
You can download and install the updated plugin either via the Adobe Exchange platform or you can download it from the link below and manually install it:
Windows and Mac OS X
- Photoshop extension(ZXP archive)
Happy rendering,
Your OTOY NZ Team
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