OTOY Forums

Hi, I am having a hard time figuring out how to render vdb in octane blender.
I am doing this tutorial step by step : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq1mYH59UCM
I export some vdb flames from embergen, import, shade it etc...
The problems are :

1- I am importing a sequence file but octane doesn't seem to see it as such, while on the classic/not shaded viewport, the vdb sequence plays correctly. I can see only the vdb frame that was there when i switch to the octane viewport, and it stays still when i scrub through the timeline, while on the not shaded viewport the animation plays fine.

2- When I render, the flames doesnt show up in the render, while they are there in the octane viewport. Or they are shaded very differently to the point I can barely see them, I am not exactly sure.

Any help or advice would be great !

Can you please share a VDB file which doesn't work for you?

Also, please always specify the version you're using:

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=82311

Hi, Thank you for your reply,
I am using Blender_Octane_Edition_2023.1_28.5_stable for windows
Here is a few frames of the vdb file that doesnt work for me
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fold ... uW8EsOcITd
I tried on two computers and different builds and the problem remains the same.
I read from a c4d user who had a similar issue there was an "update volumes" somwhere but couldnt find it in blender...

Also, I have some vdb clouds in the scene wich makes the renders a lot slower, what can be a good way to optimize the volumes rendering without losing too much quality?

Hi!

I've downloaded one of the VDB files and it simply doesn't show up in Blender, so this doesn't seems to be an Octane issue but more a Blender one.

How did you generate the VDBs?

Hello, thank you for looking into this,

I generated them with embergen, and at first they didn't show up for me either until I selected a different grid (flames) in the data properties tab and applied a shader, scaling them up might also help.

I might have generated the vdb with some wrong settings \ attributes since I am quite a newbie, but they show up just fine in cycles and play the sequence as they should.

I am 99% sure the bug is "octane related", I suspect the some settings of my blender octane are off or broken because I just tried in a new project file with a jangaFX free vdb and the issue is the same.

Maybe some setting isn't activated or a link got broken sowhere, I tried to re-install octane for blender but the issue remains.

I am a bit desperate my project is due in 10 days and relies heavily on vdbs... I am in the process of re shading everything in cycles but I really wish I didn't had to, I really liked the look I had in Octane and I feel like my issue has a simple fix but I can't seem to find it...

I really appreciate the time you took to look into it, thanks a lot, let me know if you think about anything I could try to fix it.

Have a good day !

I've tried your examples in Cycles as well, with no success.
Could you please send me a Cycles scene and a VDB which is working for you?

Hi, I added two blend files, one from octane and one from cycles showing the issue over 7 frames

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fold ... uW8EsOcITd

I found a quick fix by adding a volume displace modifier, the animation now works and renders in octane but it isn't optimal as i loose the octane properties panel in the volume settings.

So, it works here, but we definitely need to fix the frame update.

Thanks!

Which is now fixed.