OTOY Forums

Hi,

I have searched the forums for light linking in Octane and read some of the responses.

I am wondering, however, if it will ever be possible in Octane to do light linking (and the developers just haven't had time to implement), or will it forever be an impossibility based on the way Octane is built/designed?

Thanks,

Jason

It should be possible in compositing using light passes and layer masks. I didn't have time to try it yet though.
To be honest in the past 16 years I never had a good enough reason to use light linking, ever.

What's the best use for it?

Regards
Milan

It is possible using light passes and layer masks, but that is tedious and unnecessary when light linking is available.

Light linking is used to isolate lights to affect an object, or not have lights affect an object in a scene. It's a standard across 3D platform renderers like C4D, Maya and the like.

I use it quite often.

Jason

caldreemn wrote:It is possible using light passes and layer masks, but that is tedious and unnecessary when light linking is available.

Light linking is used to isolate lights to affect an object, or not have lights affect an object in a scene. It's a standard across 3D platform renderers like C4D, Maya and the like.

I use it quite often.

Jason

I know what it is. I was asking for a good practical example.
To me, personally, using light linking at all is tedious. But that's just me. Convince me in the oposite!

Yes I agree it would be easier to have it integrated. Functionality exists so I guess there is a chance for that to happen.

It's best if you ask for that in the Standalone forum, since it's out of reach of plugin developers. They can only work with what is already there in the Octane SDK.

Regards
Milan

Hey Milan,

Not sure I have a practical example at my finger tips... I will say that not everything that we do as designers is built around a physically based render, and therefore, sometimes I want to create a shot, scene, or image that is stylistic and that sometimes requires the inclusion, or non-inclusion of lights affecting objects. I hope that makes sense. Clearly the option of light linking exists in applications for a reason and it is there to be utilized by the artist.

I agree it would be best if I posted in the Standalone forum, so I will do that as well.

Thanks,

Jason

This must be my lack of knowledge, but how different is this "light linking" from "light passes" connected to layer masks in Octane?
Isn't the idea the same?

Thanks in advance for explanation.

slepy8 wrote:This must be my lack of knowledge, but how different is this "light linking" from "light passes" connected to layer masks in Octane?
Isn't the idea the same?

Thanks in advance for explanation.

Yup, result is the same. I guess Jason is just asking to have it baked in the beauty render and to be able to use the include exclude options in C4D for that.
IMHO passes are more practical when it comes to client changes but hey, what if you're 100% certain about what you need and clients confirmed it?
(Jason, correct me if I'm wrong)

@Jason, I come from graphic design background so I get what you're saying.
With standard render, It used to be that when we render we always get something that looks awful and "CG" and we cheat and spend a lot of time in post to get it to look realistic and nice. What I like about Octane is that it gives you the opposite of that. Right away you get something that looks photoreal and then it's a pain to make it less real. I didn't like this at first but I got to appreciate it more over time after a few completed projects. It's more analogue to a real photography workflow and results are much better looking. Don't be afraid to check out the passes if you didn't already, you'll find them very powerful. Also Fusion is now available on the Mac and free so..

Regards
Milan