OctaneRender® 1.025 beta 2.51 [OBSOLETE]

[abstrax]

Hi all,

Here comes the promised bug fix release beta 2.51, which fixes a few issues of beta 2.51, including the annoying slider problem for some float nodes. We plan to release this version in the commercial release forum. If you find any serious issues, please let us know.

One more important thing:
Some people have reported a major slow-down in rendering with HDRI images. Unfortunately we were not able to reproduce this issue, which means we need your help here. If someone experiences this problem with beta 2.51, please let us know, including:
- what the slow-down is, i.e. what the speed was and what it's now
- the version you are comparing with
- the operating system you are using
- which graphics cards you are using for rendering
- which graphics cards you are using for display
- which graphics driver you are using
- if you have Windows Aero and/or SLI enabled
- what happens if you disable Windows Aero, SLI and PhysX
It would be icing on the cake if you could then send us an example scene that creates this problem. Thanks a lot for your help in advance.

This release was built with CUDA 4.0, which means that you should install the latest graphics driver (http://www.nvidia.com/page/drivers.html).
For Linux and Mac OS you also need to install the CUDA Toolkit 4.0 (http://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-toolkit-40).
For Mac OS you also need the latest CUDA 4.0 driver (http://www.nvidia.com/object/mac-driver-archive.html).

Bug fixes:

• fixed incorrect step size on some float node sliders
• fixed a PMC kernel failure when the resolution is decreased rapidly (using resolution lock)
• added back missing command line option "-o"

Known issues:

• on Linux the PMC kernel doesn't work on pre-Fermi GPUs (i.e compute model 1.1 - 1.3) - we couldn't find the problem yet, which seems to be a compiler bug
• on Windows the latest NVIDIA GeForce driver 280.26 causes problems with the first initialisation of the alpha buffer, which we couldn't work around yet. for the time being please switch back to the previous stable driver release 275.33.

Here are the archives (to save time we haven't build installers yet):

Linux 64bit: http://www.refractivesoftware.com/rcdow ... ux_x64.tgz
MacOS 32bit: http://www.refractivesoftware.com/rcdow ... acos32.zip
Windows 64bit: http://www.refractivesoftware.com/rcdow ... in_x64.zip
Windows 32bit: http://www.refractivesoftware.com/rcdow ... _win32.zip

Yours,
The OctaneRender® Team.

[steveps3]

I'll give it a test now. It's a holiday in England so lots of Octane time

[necko77]

roger that captain

[pixelrush]

thanks guys looks good so far

I wonder if absorption color should be RGB spectrum by default?...

[steveps3]

What do the figures on the depth of absorption actually mean? I seem to get almost total absorption no matter what value I set it to. All I am doing to test is to add a sphere to the scene and then experiment with the sliders. My absorption colour is black and I end up with a black sphere no matter how high I set the absorption.

Oh hang on, things appear to be working a bit better now. I just needed to tinker a bit more.

[Jaberwocky]

Thanks for the fast update marcus

I'll give it a test

[face]

Bug fixes:

• ...
• added back missing command line option "-o"

...

Any hints how it should work?
So much i know, -o <filename> was used to specify the output image name. After 2.50, we have --output-png8 <filename>.
Or should this only back because compatibility with older plugins/scripts?

face

[abstrax]

Bug fixes:

• ...
• added back missing command line option "-o"

...

Any hints how it should work?
So much i know, -o <filename> was used to specify the output image name. After 2.50, we have --output-png8 <filename>.
Or should this only back because compatibility with older plugins/scripts?

face

That's correct. We put it back for compatibility reasons. "-o" is equivalent to "--output-png". "--output-png8" doesn't exist. "--output-png16", "--output-exr" and "--output-exr-tm" were added with beta 2.50.

Cheers,
Marcus

[face]

Bug fixes:

• ...
• added back missing command line option "-o"

...

Any hints how it should work?
So much i know, -o <filename> was used to specify the output image name. After 2.50, we have --output-png8 <filename>.
Or should this only back because compatibility with older plugins/scripts?

face

That's correct. We put it back for compatibility reasons. "-o" is equivalent to "--output-png". "--output-png8" doesn't exist. "--output-png16", "--output-exr" and "--output-exr-tm" were added with beta 2.50.

Cheers,
Marcus

Ah, thanks a lot

face

[abstrax]

What do the figures on the depth of absorption actually mean? I seem to get almost total absorption no matter what value I set it to. All I am doing to test is to add a sphere to the scene and then experiment with the sliders. My absorption colour is black and I end up with a black sphere no matter how high I set the absorption.

Oh hang on, things appear to be working a bit better now. I just needed to tinker a bit more.

The way absorption works, you will never get total black at any distance. The parameters basically consist of a colour and a distance at which the attenuation of white light reaches this colour. Imagine a white light ray entering a specular material with absorption enabled. At the distance specified in the node, the light will have the colour you specified. If it travels less than that distance it will be brighter, if it travels more than that distance in the material it will become darker. But it will never become fully black.

-> You can't use black als absorption colour.

Cheers,
Marcus