OTOY Forums

Posted: **Thu Aug 07, 2025 1:45 am**

This is a alpha release of the OctaneRender™ 2026.1.Alpha_3.1 for Houdini™ plugin compiled with the Octane 2026.1.Alpha 3 core. This 2026.1.Alpha_3.1 release is available for the latest Houdini production builds on Windows x64, Linux.

Houdini production builds supported by this release: 20.0.896, 20.5.584, 20.5.613, 20.5.654, 20.5.684.

If you are not sure if your Houdini version is compatible with the plugin - just run it and you will see an error message in case of incompatibility.

Linux Note
On Linux only default Houdini builds are supported.
This means that for Houdini 20.0 and 20.5, gcc11.2 builds are supported.

New features
To learn more about the new features and improvements of OctaneRender 2026.1.Alpha 3, please check out the 2026.1.Alpha 3 release post

Known bugs
On Linux, MPlay IPR may not be working. If you are having problems with it, please switch to QT5 IPR and disable "Render to MPlay" in ROP nodes.
Multiple issues with rendering sop volumes to be fixed later.

Downloads

Release 2026.1.Alpha_3.1 Studio+ license
Windows Houdini 20.0.896
Windows Houdini 20.5.584
Windows Houdini 20.5.613
Windows Houdini 20.5.654
Windows Houdini 20.5.684

Linux Houdini 20.0.896 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 20.5.584 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 20.5.613 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 20.5.654 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 20.5.684 (gcc11.2)
Release Notes
=============================================
RELEASE 2026.1.Alpha_3.1
=============================================
PLUGIN FEATURES AND FIXES:

Added Texture Layer Group and Texture Mask with layer group node
Fixed error after selecting ROP before rendering starts

IPR improvements

New IPR toolbar icons
Canvas zoom mode: zoom image like in an image viewer, and this is made the default mode with "Fit" zoom setting
Pick Object: select the obj node
Pick ROP: select the currently active ROP
Safe frame: show the framing of the camera when IPR is in "Fill Window" Resolution mode
Show the full path for ROPs under the ROP dropdown menu
Switch cameras: switch camera from IPR
Film region: Works like "Render Zone" but only renders the selected region to the current max samples setting
Snapshot Gallery: take snapshots of the current rendering, and supports comparing later rendering with the snapshots
Update IPR when camera resolution is changed
All pick options ignores invisible objects

Octane for Houdini - Object Parameters Deep Dive
The video covers the updated object parms, trace sets, meshlets, and gaussian splats (and more)

Octane for Houdini - IPR Update
The video covers the IPR updates listed above.

Note
From 2025.1.Beta_1.0, Octane plugin for Houdini uses Houdini package file. Each build ships a script (createPackageFileForOctane.bat for Windows, createPackageFileForOctane.sh for Linux and Mac) to help create the Octane.json file as below under C:\Users\<username>\Documents\houdiniXX.Y\packages on windows, ~/Library/Preferences/houdini/XX.Y/packages on Mac, or ~/houdiniXX.Y/packages on Linux.

Code: Select all

{
    "enable": true,
    "env": [
        {
            "OCTANE_AUTOSPAREPARAMS": {
                "value": 1
            }
        },
        {
            "OCTVERSION": "<path_to_plugin_directory>"
        },
        {
            "HOUDINI_PATH": {
                "value": "$OCTVERSION"
            },
            "HOUDINI_MENU_PATH": {
                "value": "$OCTVERSION/config/Menus"
            },
            "HOUDINI_SCRIPT_PATH": {
                "value": "$OCTVERSION/scripts"
            },
            "PATH": {
                "value": "$OCTVERSION/bin"
            },
            "PXR_PLUGINPATH_NAME": {
                "value": "$OCTVERSION/dso/usd_plugins"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Important Note
2024.1.0.2 fixed the problem that the layered material nodes cannot be loaded properly, however this fix affects all layered material nodes and OSL material nodes in existing saved .hip files. When loading a .hip file for the first time using this build, it's necessary to adjust the connections of these nodes. Once the file is saved with the updated connections, the issue will be resolved.

Common Issues and Solutions
- If the plugin doesn't work at all, set HOUDINI_DSO_ERROR = 2 in houdini.env and check for messages in the terminal.
- If you're missing libglut.so.3, install the freeglut package. On some Linux distributions, you may also need to manually create a libglut.so.3 symlink pointing to the current version in /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu.
- If you are having any issues with the Deadline - please submit a support ticket to the AWS.

Happy rendering,
Your OTOY Team

Posted: **Fri Aug 08, 2025 5:50 pm**

Thanks a lot for the great update!

Is it me or won't the lights get updated in the ipr when switching them off?

Posted: **Sun Aug 10, 2025 5:33 pm**

I haven't tried this build yet, but was the octane lights (not universal lights) crashing octane issue was addressed?
And yeah turning the flags off for lights doesn't seem to trigger the IPR!

Posted: **Mon Aug 11, 2025 6:26 am**

marcikola wrote: Fri Aug 08, 2025 5:50 pm Thanks a lot for the great update!

Is it me or won't the lights get updated in the ipr when switching them off?

Thanks for reporting this problem, hopefully, this will be fixed in the next release.

Posted: **Mon Aug 11, 2025 6:27 am**

lavrenovlad wrote: Sun Aug 10, 2025 5:33 pm I haven't tried this build yet, but was the octane lights (not universal lights) crashing octane issue was addressed?
And yeah turning the flags off for lights doesn't seem to trigger the IPR!

Sorry, lavrenovlad. We haven't reproduced the octane lights crashing problem yet, we will keep digging into it.

OTOY Forums

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