OTOY Forums

Hi!

I've recently tried the Poser Plugin and have several questions regarding the Plugin and it's use, especially regarding the difference between the Demo and the Full version.
Since I'm not allowed to post in the Poser Plugin subforum, my questions have to go here.
I've noticed that the Demo version does not use the latest Octane version, so it might be that the Full version might not have some limitations I've experienced with the Demo. I'm asking all these questions, as I don't want to pay 400 bucks for the License and the Plugin, only to find out that I won't be happy with it afterwards.


1) The Demo-Version is not the latest Octane/Poser Plugin version:
Is it possible to get a Demo with the latest version? Demo states Version 2 for Octane (Copyright 2014) and the Plugin says 2.16, whereas forum states 2.24 as current stable.
Right now I can only assume that the current version might work better.


2) Camera control, especially Poser Dolly camera:
I've read in the documentation (and experienced it myself) that the Dolly camera doesn't work so well in Octane, especially regarding the FOV.
I've tried to set the Poser preview window size to match the Octane demo render size, as stated on the forums regarding this problem.
Basically, I use the Dolly camera lot in Poser, as it gives me the best control, as I can actually move/rotate it based on my POV and not rotating it around something. This helps a lot when finding a camera spot in a (indoor) scene.
However, the greater the FOV (smaller Focal in Poser), the more out-of-sync the image in Octane gets. Basically, with a Focal of 20 in Poser, I have to "move" the camera somewhere like 2-3 Poser units forward to get the scene view I want in Octane.
Now I've searched for this on the forums, and also stumbled upon patch notes stating "improvements", so the question is: does the Dolly camera is still rather unusable with the Poser Plugin in the latest version, or did it get any better than in the Demo?


3) Using Poser scene in Octane without running Poser:
This question is somewhat related to the previous. For one, a big scene in Poser eats a lot of system memory. Using the Poser Plugin for Octane almost doubled the usage in my tests, so the question is: Can I convert a Poser scene for Octane, then close Poser and render the same scene within Octane alone?
Also, if that would be possible, do I get free control over the Camera in that case? (since the Camera is locked to the Poser camera controls while using the Plugin)


4) Material conversion:
During my tests I've noticed that almost all materials are converted as "Glossy"; Default Specular value is 0.05 and Bump Map Power is also 0.05.
Taking simple test renders, the Specular level seems a lot higher than in Poser, while the Bump Maps seem rather low, compared to a "Default Poser render", using a single Infinite light (Daylight) as source.
I know you can't simply compare the rendering systems like that, but it appears I might have to do a lot of reworking/changes in the Plugins Material section to get a similar look?
Did these things change/improve between the Demo version and the current stable?


5) Limitations in Polygon-Count:
I tried to use an older scene of mine, with a lot of figures in it. Trying to get the Scene in the plugin failed to work, as the plugin told me that the scene is using more than 4.3 million polygons does not work.
Mind you, that scene was created with Poser 2014; With Poser 11 Pro and the ability to reduce polygon counts on objects during runtime, I might lower the count now, but the question remains, does such a limit exist in the latest Octane/Plugin version as well?


6) LiveDB:
This feature is disabled in the Demo, and I can't seem to find much information about how it works at all.
From what I get it's a library with (user) preset materials, that I can assign to meshes from my scene, for example a water plane/box; as I've tried to use one from a Poser scene, which is made of several filters within the Poser material system, and of course does not work like that at all converted to Octane. And since I don't have much experience with Octane yet, I was unable to produce any "good" looking water. But on the forums here I found several people asking about water as well, and being pointed to the LiveDB for reference. So I was unable to produce any good looking water in my testing renders.
And the LiveDB itself doesn't seem to be documented anywhere, at least I don't find it, so I could look if it's any good. Not that I could try with the Demo anyway, but is there a (web) interface or some screenshots at least?



I hope the full/licensed version of Octane in combination with the Poser plugin scatters my problems, but for now I'm looking forward to the answers on my questions.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my questions and answering them!

Hi

1) The Demo-Version is not the latest Octane/Poser Plugin version:
Is it possible to get a Demo with the latest version? Demo states Version 2 for Octane (Copyright 2014) and the Plugin says 2.16, whereas forum states 2.24 as current stable.
Right now I can only assume that the current version might work better.

Yes, the current demo is compiled with Octane 2.16. The latest STABLE release of the plugin is built with Octane 2.24, and the latest TEST release is built with Octane 3.0 alpha 2. I will update the demo in the future to a more current version of Octane, however I cannot do that for a week or two due to Octane 3 commitments.

: does the Dolly camera is still rather unusable with the Poser Plugin in the latest version, or did it get any better than in the Demo?

The Dolly camera issues are fixed in the latest version of the plugin.

Can I convert a Poser scene for Octane, then close Poser and render the same scene within Octane alone?
Also, if that would be possible, do I get free control over the Camera in that case? (since the Camera is locked to the Poser camera controls while using the Plugin)

Yes, you can open the Viewport in Poser and then export to OCS or ORBX format and then open that scene in Octane Standalone, and yes you can edit any control in Octane Standalone.

I know you can't simply compare the rendering systems like that, but it appears I might have to do a lot of reworking/changes in the Plugins Material section to get a similar look?
Did these things change/improve between the Demo version and the current stable?

You can set the defaults for material conversion in the OctaneDefaults.py file. https://docs.otoy.com/Poser/?page_id=32. You can also save an Octane Material back into the Poser Material and then save that figure/prop, so the materials will already be setup when you next use that material/prop.

I tried to use an older scene of mine, with a lot of figures in it. Trying to get the Scene in the plugin failed to work, as the plugin told me that the scene is using more than 4.3 million polygons does not work.
Mind you, that scene was created with Poser 2014; With Poser 11 Pro and the ability to reduce polygon counts on objects during runtime, I might lower the count now, but the question remains, does such a limit exist in the latest Octane/Plugin version as well?

You can change the limit in OctaneDefaults.py. Whilst Octane 2 can handle up to 19 million triangles (and Octane 3 potentially more than this), because the Poser plugin uses python, 19 million triangle would have a very long load time, so the default limit is set quite small.

From what I get it's a library with (user) preset materials, that I can assign to meshes from my scene, for example a water plane/box; as I've tried to use one from a Poser scene, which is made of several filters within the Poser material system, and of course does not work like that at all converted to Octane. And since I don't have much experience with Octane yet, I was unable to produce any "good" looking water. But on the forums here I found several people asking about water as well, and being pointed to the LiveDB for reference. So I was unable to produce any good looking water in my testing renders.
And the LiveDB itself doesn't seem to be documented anywhere, at least I don't find it, so I could look if it's any good. Not that I could try with the Demo anyway, but is there a (web) interface or some screenshots at least?

Yes, you can load any LiveDb material directly into the Octane Material of a Poser figure/prop. For water, it will depend if you want to use SSS or not - so there will be a few difference ways to implement a water material.

Paul

Thank you for your detailled answers, Paul! They're very helpful.

It sounds like I won't be disappointed with the product then. The overall promises of the Demo have been very good already, and your answers seem to obliterate my concers.
Guess now I have to scrape together the money!

Thanks again!