Houdini production builds supported by this release: 20.0.896, 20.5.684, 21.0.631, 21.0.671 and 21.0.700.
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, 20.5 and 21.0 gcc11.2 builds are supported.
New features
To learn more about the new features and improvements of OctaneRender 2026.3, please check out the 2026.3 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.
Downloads
Release 2026.3.0.0 Studio+ license
Windows Houdini 20.0.896
Windows Houdini 20.5.684
Windows Houdini 21.0.631
Windows Houdini 21.0.671
Windows Houdini 21.0.700
Linux Houdini 20.0.896 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 20.5.684 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 21.0.631 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 21.0.671 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 21.0.700 (gcc11.2)
Release 2026.3.0.0 macOS Prime license
MacOS Houdini 20.0.896
MacOS Houdini 20.5.684
MacOS Houdini 21.0.631
MacOS Houdini 21.0.671
MacOS Houdini 21.0.700
Release 2026.3.0.0 Demo version
Windows Houdini 20.0.896
Windows Houdini 20.5.684
Windows Houdini 21.0.700
Linux Houdini 20.0.896 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 20.5.684 (gcc11.2)
Linux Houdini 21.0.700 (gcc11.2)
Release Notes
=============================================
RELEASE 2026.3.0.0
=============================================
PLUGIN FEATURES AND FIXES:
Complete Packed Instancing Overhaul:
- Packed instances are now much faster to load in IPR
- Packed instances support all geometry types (Polygon, Fur, Particles, VDBs, Gaussian splats*) (*Gaussian Splat note: Houdini viewport doesn't seem to support gsplats inside packed instances yet - so while Octane will render them they don't show in the Houdini viewport)
- New variant attribute parameter under instance settings - A variant attribute (for example @name) is needed for packed primitive setups with multiple animated packed primitives for correct motionblur display
Octane VOPnet Overhaul:
- Octanes vopnet now behaves similar to mtlx vopnet
- where the material outs are directly connected to subnet out and the "octane_material" out node is no longer required (but previous setups are still supported)
- Octane vopnet now has subnet in and outputs
- Octane now supports native mtlx subnet (note that Octane might not support all MTLX nodes)
- You can now plug in an octane displacement node into "subnet out" along with mtlx material nodes to be able to use octanes specific displacement nodes
- Added support for promoting a pin to subnet via right click on pin and "promote subnet input"
- Added support for promoting a parameter to subnet via right click on pin and "promote parameter"
- Nulls and Houdini's "connector dot" are supported with Octane materials now
- Changed the octane out pin types to match Houdini's standard ("surface", "atmosphere", "displacement")
Other changes:
- Octane input pins now show proper name on hover - instead of just showing "input1..."
- Geo spotlight in universal light light source now stays in place when adjusting spotlight length
- Frame range parameter is now disabled whenever Frame range is set to current frame (on RenderSetup)
- Instance attributes now work with "instance IDs from" set to "id point attribute" -> necessary for stable motion blur when point numbers are unstable - for example particle emission
- Fixed reset perspective in IPR when using realistic lens
- Batch Material Importer: Added viewport preview & script now also recognizes if you launch it inside a local matnet
- Octane Quick Material: Fixed some small UI bugs for various texture projection tabs.
- Removed the function that automatically enabled the NoiseAOV when enabling adaptive sampling - as this confused many users.
- Changed meshlet id generation to guard against meshlet id 150 character limit - (could be triggered by long filepaths - or node names) (edited)
OctaneRender for Houdini tutorial
Still updating
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"
}
}
]
}
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.- If you are having any issues with the Deadline - please submit a support ticket to the AWS.
Happy rendering,
Your OTOY Team
