OTOY Forums

As said by many users here, the Lightwave manual for Octane is pretty old and in need of upgrading. Like many users, I often go to the C4D manual for more information.

Having more examples and deeper explanations about Octane in the Lightwave manual would be very helpful.

I realize that it takes time to upgrade the manual, so I thought that it might be useful to have a version of the Lightwave manual that USERS can edit/add to. Reading through various posts, I start thinking "I wish that information was in the manual", maybe it can be.

Find a few trustworthy Octane users and give them access to an editable version of the manual. Then other users can post their tips and tricks on a thread about what they discovered. If their discovery is deemed useful by the moderator, then it gets added to the user edited version of the manual.

The existing information in the actual manual is good but quite minimal as well.

I like the idea of a user-edited wiki for OctaneRender (and that's basically what you're describing--a wiki), but in an ideal world Otoy would step up and make a commitment to keeping the documentation inline with the releases. This is a problem across the board for all of the plugins, but at 2-1/2 years of age and two major release versions out of date, the LightWave plugin doc is one of the most obsolete of the bunch.

It's gotten to the point where I don't look at the manual first anymore; I search the forums to find answers. And the problem with that approach is

• not all answers are here
• sometimes the advice is conflicting or out-of-date, depending on how old the discussion thread is
• when the answers are here they're sometimes hard to find or you have to read through pages of discussion to catch all the nuances, and (most importantly)
• relying on the forums is taking pressure off of Otoy to properly support their customers.

I would not be surprised if Otoy's reaction to this would be hey, be glad that we are still supporting LightWave at all! but I sincerely hope not. By day I'm a software architect for a SaaS (software as a service) vendor where 100% of our customers subscribe for the use of our software. (Sounds familiar, eh?) Thorough and up-to-date documentation is an integral component of every release--period, full stop. It would be unheard of to release a new version without updated documentation. Our customers would not riot in the streets; they would show their displeasure by not renewing their contracts.

And that, unfortunately, may be our only recourse. The cold fact of the matter is that LightWave is barely hanging on by a thread right now, and OctaneRender is the platform's only major third-party renderer still standing. I do not have any insight into Otoy's strategic planning, but it's not unreasonable to assume that continued support depends on whether there's a substantive 2020 update to LightWave. The 2019 release was developed and published under the old regime before Vizrt acquired NewTek in April. If LightWave's new masters publish an update next year, then maybe Otoy will bother with an update to the plugin documentation. But if LightWave 2019 is the last release for what used to be the industry's leading content creation platform, not only will the May 2017 documentation be the last version, we probably won't see any further updates of OctaneRender, either.

Hi,

Updating the LightWave documentation is something planned for the near future, and it is going to be done by a technical writer that will help me with this task.

At Otoy we are fully committed with the LightWave plugin development, so don't worry. We are going to continue updating and supporting it for a long time

Thanks,
-Juanjo

That's good to hear juanjo, thankyou for the reassurance.

Unfortunately, Scooternva is correct about Lightwave's future, its hard to know whats happening. Lightwave was once big stuff 10-20 years ago, now it certainly does feel like it's choking. Even now, with a few goodies in 2019, it's quite buggy and not stable enough for me to use. Don't get me started on the Hub. 2015 is a rock in comparison. Plus, Newtek made it difficult for the average user, not tech guru, to move from 2015 to 2019, talk about a snails pace trial and error method to figure things out. Ultimately, is was USERS sharing their discoveries that helped me understand a bit more on how to use 2019 in a full scene, and not just a sphere with an hdri. Lightwaves manual is great to show you how to make a really cool jade dragon, either that or how to activate the xp-express threshhold that fixed the b-9 bellsight problem, because everyone knows what that is.

A Wiki link for extra user shared info on Octane for Lightwave sounds great!, even if it says that it's not supported by Otoy.

While learning basic technical things in the manual like what is: Diffuse, Glossy or Specular Material is a good starting point, there are a lot of things that could use a little further explanation, as well as an accompanied visual example. Something like the Ray Epsilon explanation was hard to understand and difficult to visualize in my head. I read it... "um okay", and continued reading. If there was a link to a simple graphic that shows what happens, it would help tremendously.

scooternva wrote:....... But if LightWave 2019 is the last release for what used to be the industry's leading content creation platform, not only will the May 2017 documentation be the last version, we probably won't see any further updates of OctaneRender, either.

Hi,

I don't know where do you pull out such info that Lw2019 is last one but i 100% that's just pure speculation and not true at all so don't worry abbut LW2019--->2020
Well as a matter of fact we already got 8th FREE upgrade to LW 2019 this year. (2019.0.1, 2019.0.2, 2019.0.3, 2019.1, 2019.1.1, 2019.1.2, 2019.1.3, 2019.1.4).

So yeah LW is live and kicking and none of that really matters for OTOY product (Octane) manuals anyway. It should be updated/made regardless of if last LW is 2019 or 2059, also as mentioned Juan is gonna update it, it's just hard to "clone" that one guy to do all. Maybe Lino should chime in, he know show to use it so he could help with manuals too . But at the end that's for OTOY to decide/sort out.

I agree that the manuals for Lightwave's Octane plugin are out of date, but to put this in perspective, so are all the rest witht he exception of a short addendum in Cinema4D and the Unreal Docs. Here's a quick breakdown of the docs available through the website with the version and publish date on their title page and the current stable release of the plugin as per the forums for that plugin.

As you'll see, we, the Lightwave users, aren't alone in this. However, I feel Otoy's pain. The rapidity with which their code base is changing, the improvements and advancements they're making and the rate they're making them make up-to-date documentation on that many platforms almost impossible to maintain. Gettting *caught up* when you're that far behind, requiring almost a rewrite in some cases, can be an insurmountable task.

Bringing in professional tech writers who know 3D and can work with people inside and outside of Otoy who are experts on each platform to collect the vital information needed and determine how to present it is the critical first step. From the feedback I've received, that's definitely the plan.

In the mean time, if someone wants to spin up their own user-led initiative to craft a resource for LW/Octane users to go to and get/share/update information on how to use this tool with our chosen platform, then I really don't think anyone at Otoy or Newtek will stand in your way and I, and hopefully many others will be right there with you to lend a hand and a few brain cells (what we have left anyway) to the project.

Here's that list of doc versions, publication dates and stable current plugin versions mentioned above:

3dsmax - 2018 - 6/22/2019 / 2019.1.1
AE - 3.07R2a - 12/2017 / 3.08.1-r1
Archicad - 4.0 - 1/29/2019 / 2019.1.2.96
Autocad - 3.0 - 5/26/2017 / 2019.1.1.28
Blender - 4.0 - 11/16/2018 / 2019.1.1
Carrera - 3.06 - 5/27/2017 / 2019.1.1.3
Cinema4d - 4.0 - (no date*) / 2019.1.1-R3 (docs include a what's new in 2018.1/2019.1 section)
Daz3D - 3.0 - (no date) / 2019.1.1
Houdini - 4.0 - 1/10/2019 / 2019.1.1
Inventor - 4.0 - 2/15/2019 / 2019.1.1.26
Lightwave- 3.06 - 5/26/2017 / 2019.1.1
Maya - 2018 - 3/20/2019 / 2018.1.3-14.40
Modo - 3.08 - 6/27/2018 / 2019.1.1.153
Nuke - 4.0 - 2/2/2019 / 2019.1.1.38
Poser - 3.06 - 6/6/2017 / 2019.1.1.97
Revit - 4 - 1/29/2019 / 2019.1.1.63
Rhino - 4 - 1/29/2019 / 2019.1.1.114
Sketchup - 3.06 - 5/26/2017 / 2018.1.18
Softimage- 1.04 - 5/26/2017 / 3.00RC3
Unity - 1.1.1.1330?? - ??? / 2019.1.1
Unreal - 2019 - 09/19/2019 / 2019.1.1

Standalone:
Octane - 2019.1 - 7/28/2019
DevBuild - 4.0 - 11/16/2019


Scott

Well I suppose we're better off than Unity. I pity those users... stuck with a manual that hasn't been updated since the fourteenth century.

Lewis wrote:

scooternva wrote:....... But if LightWave 2019 is the last release for what used to be the industry's leading content creation platform, not only will the May 2017 documentation be the last version, we probably won't see any further updates of OctaneRender, either.

Hi,

I don't know where do you pull out such info that Lw2019 is last one but i 100% that's just pure speculation

Yes, it's 100% pure speculation. That's why I said if LightWave 2019 is the last release and I do not have any insight into Otoy's strategic planning. But on the other hand, I do have two eyes and can see what's going on in the content creation industry just like everyone else. But on the other other hand, I am cheered by Juanjo's comments, and I'm glad to hear Otoy has invested in a technical writer to help with the task. I hope this is a permanent addition to the team; I don't want Juanjo getting tied down constantly trying to keep the manual up-to-date!

"I do have two eyes and can see what's going on in the content creation industry"

FUCK THE INDUSTRY!

Who cares which software slaves use?

snip lwguru

I cannot tell whether you are being sarcastic or are agreeing with me.