We are very excited to bring you the second alpha of Octane 2027. This version includes a preview of new features as well as improved support for features already included in the first alpha build.
Octane 2027.1 Alpha 2 Highlights
- Physical optics material.
- Improved MaterialX PBR Support.
- Retro-reflectivity support.
- Environment map visibility cache.
- Initial glTF 2.0 support, including import of Gaussian splats.
- Real-time neural rendering updates.
- New MetalFX upsampler for macOS.
As with all experimental builds, we advise to not use this release for production purposes. All features included in this build are still under active development, so we can't guarantee that scenes saved with this version will be compatible in future releases.
Important notes:
- The minimum NVIDIA driver version required is 572.
- Supported versions of macOS currently are macOS15 and macOS26.
This version adds a new Physical Optics material for rendering wave-optics surface effects such as diffraction, thin-film interference, and birefringent iridescence.
The material can model surfaces with regular microscopic structure, such as gratings, together with random roughness. Light is scattered into diffraction orders, which can appear as sharp spectral peaks or broader diffuse halos depending on the surface parameters and coherence settings.
The material also supports thin-film interference for layered dielectric coatings, allowing effects similar to soap bubbles, oil films, coated optics, and other wavelength-dependent iridescent surfaces. Birefringent uniaxial coatings are supported as part of this model.
This image showcases several physical optics materials: a compact disc with conductor-based diffraction grooves, a birefringent dielectric cube demonstrating double refraction, a paperclip case with a thin birefringent film producing stress-like interference, gift box paper with texture-modulated grating height and rotation, a transparent coated sphere showing thin-film interference, and a phone screen with a sawtooth diffraction profile reproducing the classic LCD diffraction pattern.
Physical optics material examples rendered on spheres: sawtooth diffraction on a conductor, texture-driven grating rotation on conductors, diffraction through a transparent dielectric profile, double refraction in a birefringent dielectric, birefringent thin-film interference, soap-bubble interference, and thin-film interference over a conductor.
Spectral diffraction from a conductor grating, showing wavelength-separated light transport and coloured caustic
A compact disc material using conductor-based diffraction grooves, reproducing the familiar chromatic reflections of optical discs.
Download a scene with physical optics material samples here.
Improved MaterialX PBR Support
This release broadens MaterialX native support to include PBR nodes for creating custom layered materials in addition to EDF nodes introduced by the first 2027.1 alpha. Layers can be freely mixed, layered and additively blended in any order to form complex materials. In addition, BSDF results can also be modulated by upstream texture graphs.
MaterialX PBR node graphs can be imported from external MaterialX and USD files.
This version introduces the following nodes in the spec:
- PBR Shader Nodes:
surface. - Utility Nodes:
mix(Link),layer(Link),add(Link),multiply(Link). - BSDF:
translucent_bsdf(Link),subsurface_bsdf(Link). - VDF:
absorption_vdf(Link),anisotropic_vdf(Link)
Retro-reflectivity
We have added support for a retro-reflective microfacet model, which is currently exposed in specular and metallic layers and materials. This simulates the optical property where a surface reflects light rays directly back to the original source, rather than scattering them. This is common in traffic signs, road marking and safety gear and other garments.
This is an initial implementation and further integration in other material nodes is planned in for the stable release.
Environment map visibility cache
This is a method to improve HDRI environment sampling which helps especially under low light conditions and specially suited to render indoor environments where most of the light contribution is provided by an external source. The visibility cache can be enabled on texture environment and daylight environment nodes.
The image below shows the same interior scene, where the main light contribution comes from an external HDRI environment, rendered in Octane with and without using the new environment map visibility cache system. The reduction in noise is clearly noticeable, especially in those areas where there’s the least light contribution.
Even at one sample the difference is still clearly noticeable:
The cache is disabled by default due to increased VRAM usage and potential performance trade-offs, and requires importance sampling to be enabled for activation. Limitations in this alpha version include: only supporting image textures as environment maps; disabling network rendering when active; not being compatible with the PMC kernel; and is currently available only on Windows and Linux.
glTF 2.0
This version introduces initial support for glTF 2.0, including support for the glTF Gaussial splatting extension (
KHR_gaussian_splatting(Link)).Current limitations:
- Mapping of glTF 2.0 materials to Octane Universal Materials is still work in progress, so some assets might need adjustment
- Mesh-compressed glTF 2.0 assets are not supported, and assets relying on single-sided materials/back-face culling may not yield the expected results.
- glTF 1.0 support covers basic materials only.
Octane 2027.1 Alpha 1 introduced the first preview of the new real-time mode in Octane, it was limited only to standalone. This release introduces now also native support for plugin integration into DCC applications.
This is also the first version to support the new real-time mode on macOS (macOS26 or higher is required).
MetalFX upsampler
A new MetalFX up-sampling method is now supported in macOS builds. This is configurable in the Upsampler sub-section of the Octane imager node similar to the previously existing up-sampling methods.
Current limitations:
- Some ghosting artifacts might be seen on objects' edges when the camera moves.
- Visual artifacts on the edges between render tiles can happen at times, more prominently when the camera is moving.
- Not all up-sampling percentages are supported, falling back to the linear up-scale.
All Changes Since Version 2027.1 Alpha 1
New features
- MaterialX PBR Additions
- Added native support for MaterialX Surface material node.
- Added native support for MaterialX BSDF Layer and Mix nodes.
- MaterialX
oren_nayar_diffuse_bsdfnow imports as Octane's Diffuse material layer. - MaterialX
dielectric_bsdfnow imports as Octane's Specular material layer. - MaterialX
conductor_bsdfnow imports as Octane's Metallic material layer. - MaterialX
sheen_bsdfnow imports as Octane's Sheen material layer. - Improved import quality by incorporating MaterialX
roughness_anisotropyandartistic_iornodes into imported content. - Added support for MaterialX BSDF Add node.
- Added support for MaterialX BSDF Multiply node.
- Added support for MaterialX PBR Subsurface BSDF node.
- Added support for MaterialX PBR Translucent BSDF node.
- Added MaterialX Absorption VDF medium node.
- Added MaterialX Anisotropic VDF medium node.
- USD Support Additions
- Added support for importing float and color
primvarsfrom USD curves in the USD importer. - Added support for importing named UV sets from USD files.
- Added support for named UV sets in USD points and curves.
- Added support for overriding point instancer geometries with external geometry files in USD importer.
- Added support for importing float and color
- Added new MetalFX up-sampler to macOS.
- Added neural real-time mode support to macOS.
- Added a new Physical Optics material for rendering wave-optics effects such as diffraction, thin-film interference, and birefringent iridescence.
- Added visibility cache to texture and daylight environment nodes.
- Added support for importing and exporting planar UV mapping information to FBX material data.
- Added support for importing glTF 2.0 assets.
- Added support for SPZv4 Gaussian splats.
- Enabled neural radiance cache support for macOS.
- Added network rendering support when using neural radiance cache.
- Added command line argument
--prevent-sleepwhich enforces the compute does not enter sleep mode while running a script.
- Gaussian Splat Support
- Added transform pin to the Gaussian splat node.
- Removed "Flip axes" pin from the Gaussian splat node; orientation adjustments are now handled via import settings and rotation on the transform pin.
- Optimized GPU memory usage for Gaussian splats.
- FBX Import/Export
- Improved accuracy of complex node graphs during FBX imports that include embedded Octane OCS material data.
- Improved UV import by using FBX material data for vertex attribute names when Octane material data is absent.
- Updated mesh UV set 1 to use the name "default" in FBX files, aligning with the format's documented default value.
- Added a prompt to select images when source files for tiles and UV maps are missing.
- Added an option to clamp high-quality displacement values at UV edges.
- Added Layer Weight parameters to all Material Layer nodes to adjust the influence of each material layer during blending processes.
- Added retro-reflectivity controls to specular and metallic layer nodes for more accurate material behavior.
- Added tooltips to input parameters of Volumetric Spotlight nodes for improved usability.
- Applied trace set visibility rules to shadow catchers.
- Changed the UV vertex attribute node to return UV1 when an empty string is used as the attribute name, and (0, 0) when a non-empty name is provided but the attribute does not exist.
- Fixed the limitation on named UV sets during USD import, now supporting up to 10 UV sets.
- Improved material previews to show UV data from UV vertex attribute nodes. Previews now display this information independently of whether the actual 3D model includes the referenced UV attribute.
- Improved performance by reducing startup delays for render nodes in scenes with a large number of images.
- Improved rendering speed for complex volumetric scenes.
- Improved the MaterialX Blackbody node to support a broader temperature range and produce more accurate color outputs based on physical principles.
- Removed occasional unnecessary messages caused by specific NVIDIA driver versions.
- USD Import
- Fixed potential application crash when loading some USD scenes.
- Fixed an issue where USD geometry was not correctly connected with its material.
- Fixed an issue where USDZ assets inside an ORBX package were not properly updated when resaving the package.
- Fixed motion blur rendering for USD curves.
- Fixed USD importer to correctly load point instancers with varying instance counts over time.
- Gaussian Splat Support
- Fixed a CUDA-related render engine error when processing scenes with over 30 million Gaussian splat primitives.
- Fixed application crash when loading unsupported or invalid SPZ files.
- Fixed an issue where PLY files using spherical harmonics degree 4 would fail to load. Octane now correctly ignores data beyond supported spherical harmonics degree 3.
- FBX Import/Export
- Fixed an error log message when deleting a geometry archive containing an FBX file.
- Fixed cases where FBX vertex animations may have empty frames at the end.
- Fixed issues with exporting vertex animation data from OctaneRender to FBX files.
- Fixed issues with importing vertex attributes from FBX files into OctaneRender.
- Fixed UV vertex attribute names in exported FBX material data to ensure compatibility with 3D software and correct mapping during rendering.
- Virtual Texturing
- Fixed an application crash that occurred when starting rendering while virtual textures were being compiled and used in displacement mapping. Virtual textures are not supported for displacement. mapping.
- Fixed occasional crash when loading scenes with many meshlets or virtual textures.
- Fixed UV tile layout issues when using virtual texturing.
- Fixed application crashes and incorrect output when frequently queuing and cancelling virtual texture builds.
- Fixed a render engine error during render stop when using multiple devices for heavy denoising.
- Fixed an error that occurred when loading animated Alembic files containing materials stored as non-constant FaceSet objects.
- Fixed an issue that could cause RNDR uploads to fail.
- Fixed an issue where color vertex attributes on sphere primitives didn't update correctly during rendering.
- Fixed an issue where Octane temporarily took focus away from Lua scripts when loading new scenes.
- Fixed an issue where texture displacement at normal quality settings used excessive GPU memory.
- Fixed an issue where vertex displacement updates did not trigger render updates when connected to a vertex displacement mixer node.
- Fixed application crash when rendering with the PMC kernel at very small resolutions (e.g., 1x1, 1x2).
- Fixed artefacts in caustics rendering for objects using normal maps derived from height maps.
- Fixed baking texture nodes not updating when repeatedly copied.
- Fixed file locking behavior when copying nodes to the clipboard.
- Fixed inaccurate loading progress display when working with large scenes.
- Fixed inconsistency in the default color of USD objects between versions 2026 and 2027.
- Fixed incorrect loading of additional spherical harmonic data from .PLY files.
- Fixed incorrect log messages for invalid attribute IDs when selecting new files in texture filename inputs on OSL nodes.
- Fixed incorrect replacement of empty file name inputs with the containing OCS file's directory path; empty values now remain unchanged.
- Fixed issues with
setmessage("octane:throughput", ...)andgetattribute("color:wavelengths", ...)in camera OSL nodes. - Fixed issues with type, wrap, and width interpolation attributes in USD curves export.
- Fixed network rendering with Vectron nodes.
- Fixed potential application crash during initialization.
- Fixed render issues with light beam effects in scenes when resetting devices after changing GPU settings or in multi-GPU configurations.
- Fixed render errors when NRC was enabled on unsupported GPUs.
- Added
getAnimatorType()andgetAnimatorTypeIx()tooctane.nodeandoctane.nodegraphto query the data type of an animator for an attribute, allowing non-array attributes to use animators with different channel counts from the attribute type. - Added
getRawAnimator()andgetRawAnimatorIx()tooctane.nodeandoctane.nodegraphto retrieve animator data as a raw C array. - Added
octane.json.tryDecodeto the Lua API. Likeoctane.json.decode, this parses JSON data, but on failure it returns both any parsed data and the error message. - Updated
octane.node.setAnimator(),octane.node.setArrayAnimator(), andoctane.node.setAttribute()to accept raw C arrays.setRawArrayAttributeremains available as an alternative forsetAttribute()but only accepts raw C arrays.
- Removed support for macOS 14. Now supports macOS versions 15 and 26.
- Removed support for Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta NVIDIA architectures (compute capability 5.0–7.0). Now supports Turing, Ampere, Ada, and Blackwell (compute capability 7.5–12.x).
Downloads
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Alpha 2 Standalone for Windows (installer)
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Alpha 2 Standalone for Windows (ZIP archive)
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Alpha 2 Standalone for Linux
OctaneRender Prime 2027.1 Alpha 2 Standalone for macOS
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Alpha 2 Node for Windows (installer)
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Alpha 2 Node for Windows (ZIP archive)
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Alpha 2 Node for Linux
Happy rendering,
Your OTOY Team
"Physical optics material and "Retro-reflectivity support"!!
