Is it possible to blur the environment (or any texture)?

[atnreg]

Hi!

In 3D-Coat it is possible to blur any environment map in realtime and that gives great results. So I am wondering, is it possible to do the same in OctaneLW? I think that if there is way to blur any image texture, then it works for EXR maps too but I could not find any solution to that in forum or manual

Is there some trick to do that? Maybe using DOF but it slows down too much and is overkill for normal renders so if just the environment map was blurred, it would give great lighting possibilities. And I mean adjustable blur, not some blur made outside Octane/LW.

Anyone any ideas?

Thank you very much in advance!

Antti

[Terryvfx]

Sadly no, there is no blur node the only way to deal with this in a good way is to do the blurring before hand in something like Photoshop

[juanjgon]

Sorry, currently Octane doesn't have a texture map blur tool. You need to blur your texture using a external tool.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[atnreg]

Ok, that's what I was afraid of but thank you for confirming that so I don't think I've missed something

Possible future feature idea?
It would be great to be able to blur the textures on the fly, it would provide great effects for various needs.

Antti

[OlaHaldor]

Just an idea for a workaround. Not tested, so don't take my word for it whether it works.
Make a globe with a blurred version of the BG image.. Won't that work ?

[atnreg]

Just an idea for a workaround. Not tested, so don't take my word for it whether it works.
Make a globe with a blurred version of the BG image.. Won't that work ?

Hmm...I'm not sure if I got your idea, of course I could blur the env map in Photoshop and use that (what is the difference for making globe separately?) but I would like to have adjustable blur.

Your idea may be something great but please can you explain more?

Thanks!

Antti

[OlaHaldor]

I forgot to deactivate Octane at work, and unlocking through the License panel doesn't work (damn you new V3 licensing!!...) so I cannot test it during the weekend.
The idea was: if the image you use to light the scene have some specific details that adds some detail to the lighting you're going to lose that if you blur the image.
So using an untouched, rich with details, to light the scene - and use the blurred image as the image that will be seen in the background.

Might not make sense, but it's the only thing I can imagine possible in a simple render.

If you're up for some extra work, you could render the background and geometry separate and comp after and blur as much as you like. Render layers or passes, and you're good to go.

[atnreg]

I forgot to deactivate Octane at work, and unlocking through the License panel doesn't work (damn you new V3 licensing!!...) so I cannot test it during the weekend.
The idea was: if the image you use to light the scene have some specific details that adds some detail to the lighting you're going to lose that if you blur the image.
So using an untouched, rich with details, to light the scene - and use the blurred image as the image that will be seen in the background.

Might not make sense, but it's the only thing I can imagine possible in a simple render.

If you're up for some extra work, you could render the background and geometry separate and comp after and blur as much as you like. Render layers or passes, and you're good to go.

Thank you yes now I got it
The idea probably works but I would like the blur to be adjustable so only way would be to make several blur amounts versions of the original and then use those. But with that work, I can make the normal env map like that

But your idea is great (and actually how 3D-Coat does it) as the reflections will be sharp but the background still blurred

So thank you very much!

Antti

[Lewis]

Have you tried to use Full precision Blur in Image editor ? Maybe that will make Octane see blurry version of HDRI also ?

[atnreg]

Have you tried to use Full precision Blur in Image editor ? Maybe that will make Octane see blurry version of HDRI also ?

Sadly Octane does not care a bit about Image Editor settings, it reads the images directly so this does not work either
Thanks for the tip anyway

Antti