OTOY Forums

I am invested in an Octane build with 5 GPUs and I love the C4D plugin but I like working in Maya more, and most of my collaborators work in Maya. I have continued using C4D on all of my projects because of the dependable forum support, better integration and consistent plugin updates. I am ready to start working in Maya full time and the only thing keeping me from doing so is this lackluster plugin.

With V-Ray RT, I can still utilize my machine and work similar to how I work with Octane then do my final render on CPU. I am ready to make that purchase, especially seeing that the Maya Octane 2.42 build is STILL a test version.

This is a last ditch effort for some piece of mind that Octane will commit resources and attention to this plugin with the release of 3.0. Can anyone give me info on this?

There are promises. But we do not know how this will turn out.

Otoy have choosen a different path than Chaos Group, Solid Angle and Redshift (also gpu renderer btw but biased).
Since they have focused on very few platforms.
Redshift only focused on Maya until recently, same with Solid Angle.
Chaos Group focused primarily on 3DSmax.
The isolation of platforms leads to less sales, but it also leads to stability and function implementations on that specific platform.
Regarding sales of a software or a version of software is normally set per version.
Vray 2 was released end of 2009 updated until 2014. Thats almost 5 years of free upgrades.
The major difference between Vray 2 and Vray 3 (current) is that they are implementing Cuda.
Same with Solid Angles Arnold.
Another news is that Nextlimit (Maxwell) are also developing a GPU based renderer..and that renderer is unbiased just as Octane.
So it's most probable that maya users want to wait for the upgrade of the maya plugin before buying v3 because of the lack of support.
Time will tell.

blackshore wrote:There are promises. But we do not know how this will turn out.

Otoy have choosen a different path than Chaos Group, Solid Angle and Redshift (also gpu renderer btw but biased).
Since they have focused on very few platforms.
Redshift only focused on Maya until recently, same with Solid Angle.
Chaos Group focused primarily on 3DSmax.
The isolation of platforms leads to less sales, but it also leads to stability and function implementations on that specific platform.
Regarding sales of a software or a version of software is normally set per version.
Vray 2 was released end of 2009 updated until 2014. Thats almost 5 years of free upgrades.
The major difference between Vray 2 and Vray 3 (current) is that they are implementing Cuda.
Same with Solid Angles Arnold.
Another news is that Nextlimit (Maxwell) are also developing a GPU based renderer..and that renderer is unbiased just as Octane.
So it's most probable that maya users want to wait for the upgrade of the maya plugin before buying v3 because of the lack of support.
Time will tell.

Thanks for the info! I will probably avoid getting my hopes up. I already own the plugin but almost never use it. :/

Agree with comments.

Like you say, there's been talk of more support for the Maya plugin, which I am looking forward to.

At a bare minimum, I would like to see 1 developer to 1 plugin, and in an ideal world, either several developers, or at least multiple developers who cross over plugins.
It must be almost impossible (and I think this is where all of the issues on support come from), to answer a Maya forum post when your mind is deep in to writing code for the Max plugin, or the Blender plugin, and then what happens if you're the only developer and you go on holiday or you're ill. Crazy, really.

The most important thing for me is to mimic the kind of support seen in the C4D forum - replies to ALL posts, no matter how small or silly

There's talk of new developments to include the ability to use any procedural input, which would be a good start to catching up with C4D and Lightwave's functionality.
On the functionality front, Octane 3 for C4D and Lightwave are already rendering fluids directly (using TurbulenceFD etc.), so I am hoping the Maya plugin can keep up with this too, perhaps rendering Maya's fluid effects directly. Like you say, time will tell as to how much resource is put in to the Maya plugin...and any new support should be easy to spot in the forums.

I have been a part of the Next Limit Maxwell testing team since its alpha days; I supervised the first iterations of the Maya plug-in, and was present for a lot of the early-days growing pains the company and product suffered - some of which nearly killed it.

I see Otoy making many of the same mistakes, and I hope they recognize it, as NL did. Many renderers have come and gone over the years, and it would be a shame to see Octane falter; I think it's a great player. Plugin parity is extremely important; second only to news, contact, and engagement from developers.

_Mike

mverta wrote:I have been a part of the Next Limit Maxwell testing team since its alpha days; I supervised the first iterations of the Maya plug-in, and was present for a lot of the early-days growing pains the company and product suffered - some of which nearly killed it.

I see Otoy making many of the same mistakes, and I hope they recognize it, as NL did. Many renderers have come and gone over the years, and it would be a shame to see Octane falter; I think it's a great player. Plugin parity is extremely important; second only to news, contact, and engagement from developers.

_Mike

Yes

Honestly the Maya-Plugin that is there is already a good foundation. It is about the small features and support what is missing.
I am sure Otoy will work on finding additional developers who are answering user posts, listenening to feature requests and update the docs.
I have to use the Maya Plugin since I don't want to invest in a 2nd Animation tool.
Things like the missing ORBX import possibility slow down the productions a lot.
A big company should need to invest in the developement of a Plugin for a high end tool like Maya to keep users satisfied and to gain more customers. Since Softimage is no longer used in the future, more studios are switching to Maya.
So it is the right time to focus on the plugin with more then one developer if necessary.

I have found over the years that honesty is the best policy, especially when it comes from inside a testing circle of users who are both non-partial, and yet totally supportive of the company. We want Otoy to succeed, and we're willing to help however we can, and we must also be able to call it like we see it. It's just a crucial balance. Surrounding oneself with sycophants is just the recipe for failure. I agree that the Maya plug-in works with caveats. We just need parity, and for it to feel native. I know everybody knows this.