Hi!
This is the latest production build of OctaneRender™ 3.0 for Houdini™. This 3.04.0.0 release is available for the Houdini 13.0/14.0/15.0/15.5 latest production builds for Windows x64, Linux gcc4.8 and OSX 10.10. This plugin is also compatible with Houdini 15.5 Indie. In this case the plugin will have a 1080p limited resolution while rendering sequence, and the scene export and cloud rendering features disabled.
Release 3.04.0.0
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _Win64.zip
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _Linux.zip
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... ni_OSX.zip
Release 3.04.0.0 DEMO VERSION
https://render.otoy.com/plugindownloads ... 4_demo.zip
https://render.otoy.com/plugindownloads ... x_demo.zip
https://render.otoy.com/plugindownloads ... X_demo.zip
Standalone version for the network rendering nodes
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... 04_win.exe
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _linux.zip
https://render.otoy.com/customerdownloa ... _macos.dmg
New features
A list of all the new features is provided here: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=51679
The plugin manual is being updated to cover most of the changes. https://docs.otoy.com/manuals/products/houdini/v3/
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RELEASE 3.04.0.0
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* NEW PLUGIN FEATURES:
- Multithread scene extraction at object level. Experimental feature that can be enabled in the ROP node. If enabled, the plugin extracts the meshes, hair objects, particles and volumes using multithread code, improving the scene extraction times in scenes with at least two or more objects.
* NEW OCTANE FEATURES:
- Added support for gradients along hair segments / hair strands.
- New "Hair gradient interpolation" parameter in the Octane OBJ spare parameters to control the hair gradient shading.
- New "Tool W Coordinate" node, used to shade the hair along it's length with the new hair gradient feature.
- Added new pin "aoTexture" to direct lighting kernel. When connected this texture will be used for ambient occlusion instead of the environment. This is useful to remove the blue tint of interior walls when direct lighting is used.
- New option in the render target HDA to control the AO ambient texture feature.
- New render layers modes: "Normal", "Hide inactive layers" and "Only side effects"
- Bump and normal maps can now be rendered together.
- New mode to the falloff texture node which calculates the angle between the shading normal and a direction vector which you can also specify in the falloff node. This is very useful for creating effects like dust or snow.
- Improved import and export speed of OpenVDB files.
- If the second or third UV set are not specified the first UV set will be used as a fallback.
* PLUGIN BUGS FIXED:
- Fixed a critical problem related to the EXR and PNG image files saving functions.
- The IPR doesn't update the objects transformations from OBJ subnets or hierarchies. Fixed.
* OCTANE BUGS FIXED:
- Fixed gaussian spectrum textures on medium scatter pin.
- Fixed medium absorption not giving zero absorption when there is no node attached to the absorption pin.
- Fixed incorrect UV mapping when displacement triangles are rendered with the baking camera.
- Fixed black pixels in displacement triangles rendered in info passes.
- Added filtering of NaNs from info film buffer.
- Fixed rounded edges of mix materials.
- Fixed non-smooth rendering of triangles without a connected material node.
- Fixed darkening by 30% of emitters with an unconnected distribution pin .
- Fixed shadow catcher materials not being rendered when render layers are enabled.
- Fixed too dark rendering when a daylight environment with power 0 is being used.
- Fixed broken dirt texture in bump channel.
- Improved resilience of the net render master against out of order messages.
- Fixed a bug where the net render master "loses" work assignments when sub-sampling is enabled and a change is made that does NOT wipe the film buffer (e.g. changing the tonemapping settings or max. samples). As a result rendering never reaches the specified max. samples i.e. never finishes.
- Fixed incorrect tonemap type when PNG-16 are saved via the "Save current render to disk." button.
- Fixed rendering with the PMC kernel and the baking camera.
- Fixed picking in scenes where volumes and surface geometry overlap.
- Fixed kernel crash when "over-under stereo" is used and the "swap eyes" option is enabled.
Thanks,
-Juanjo
OctaneRender™ 3.0 for Houdini™ - production build 3.04.0.0
Moderator: juanjgon
'Added support for gradients along hair segments / hair strands.' 
Cheers for adding that man!
Thanks for the attention to detail as always!
-Nathan
Cheers for adding that man!Thanks for the attention to detail as always!
-Nathan
In regards to bump/normal/displacement maps, is it still that displacement mixing doesn't work? For example, shader1 has displacement, shader2 has displacement, mixing the two shaders results in no displacement, or displacement from just one of the sources? I also tried this with texture mixing and only 1 shader and had the same problem, it appears that displacement can only take a direct texture read or noise source, and can't deal with any mixing or modification to it in between the texture read in node and the displacement node. I noticed this issue has been brought up before but I was curious if this is simply a current drawback to octane and out of your control or if its a bug that can be fixed on your end?
Thanks!
-Nathan
Thanks!
-Nathan