OctaneRender® 2026.5 [current 2026]

Sun Sep 13, 2026 8:31 pm

Hi all,

We are excited to bring you OctaneRender 2026.5. Thanks again to all those who sent us feedback and continuously help us improve Octane.

This version includes native support for the upcoming NVIDIA RTX Spark™ as well as a number of stability improvements and some small features.

Important notes:

The minimum NVIDIA driver version required is R555 (R572 for GeForce RTX50 series, R615 for RTX Spark).
The minimum version of macOS required is 14.5.

Changes since 2026.4

New features

Added native support for NVIDIA RTX Spark™ device binaries (NVIDIA CC 12.1 - Windows only).
Added --prevent-sleep command-line option to prevent the computer from entering sleep mode until a running script completes.
Added support for OpenColorIO 2.5 configurations.

Improvements

Increased the maximum count of mesh instances that can be loaded into a scene, provided there is enough VRAM available.
Added support for preventing entering sleep mode during rendering on Linux when the system is set up to allow this.
Added support importing USD containing MaterialX image nodes that use relative file paths.
Improved neural radiance cache controls in direct light, path tracing, and photon tracing kernels:
- Added NRC samples pin to control how many samples are used to prepare the neural radiance cache. Higher values increase initial sample accuracy but extend preparation time, while lower values reduce preparation time at the cost of initial accuracy. Recommended for complex or dark scenes (higher count) and open/well-lit scenes (lower count).
- Added NRC online training pin which enables continuous online training for neural radiance cache.

Resolved issues

MaterialX
- Fixed issues with MaterialX Bump and HeightToNormal nodes, which could produce incorrect results.
- Fixed MaterialX HeightToNormal for non-UV-based use cases.
- Fixed MaterialX Image nodes to no longer display a warning message when the file input is set to an empty string.
- Fixed MaterialX Bump node to ensure consistent results with Bump material/layer inputs.
- Corrected world space normal handling in materials and layers when MaterialX NormalMap is not used.
USD
- Fixed an issue where USD materials in ORBX could not be saved or loaded when originating from referenced .mtlx files.
- Fixed USD import errors for unconnected displacement in MaterialX materials.
- Fixed USD importer issues when loading point instancers with time-varying instance counts.
General stability improvements when using neural radiance cache.
Fixed issue causing renders to stall when using photon mapping with network rendering or subsampling.
Fixed dark artifacts in caustics when accurate colour is enabled and dispersion is active on objects casting caustics.
Fixed inconsistent image quality between different parts of large renders when using photon mapping across multiple GPUs or network render nodes.
Fixed incorrect contribution of indirect emitter hits if some light IDs are excluded.
Fixed a memory leak that occurred when using Gaussian splats on Windows and Linux.
Fixed a render engine error on macOS when using the linear upsampler set to 66%.
Fixed an error when launching the install-daemon.sh script from a folder with spaces in its path.
Fixed an issue where toggling the denoiser during rendering of scenes using meshlet-based geometry caused unexpected resets, corrupting level-of-detail (LOD) data and resulting in render engine errors.
Fixed an issue where using the upsampler with 4x4 viewport subsampling could cause black tiles to appear in the render.
Fixed application crash when enabling neural radiance cache on unsupported GPUs.
Fixed output texture value typing of Float Image and Alpha Image texture nodes.
Fixed Power pin in image texture node to support RGB values again.
Fixed the default orientation of anisotropic effects in OpenPBR materials when the tangent input is not connected.
Fixed unnecessary reloading of mesh and image nodes when making copies.
Fixed issue with octane.file.fopen preventing from saving when opening currently open packages.

Mon Sep 14, 2026 5:47 am

"Fixed Power pin in image texture node to support RGB values again."

Works only for RGB Image but not for Grayscale Image.

Mon Sep 14, 2026 7:31 am

Thanks for new release, sadly that bug "visibility on specular" is not fixed in this release :/.

viewtopic.php?p=444230#p444230

Mon Sep 14, 2026 7:34 am

Lewis wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 7:31 am Thanks for new release, sadly that bug "visibility on specular" is not fixed in this release :/.

viewtopic.php?p=444230#p444230

Yes sorry, this fix did not make it in time for this release. We will aim to address it in the next one. Thanks for the heads up.

Mon Sep 14, 2026 8:29 am

Zay wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 5:47 am "Fixed Power pin in image texture node to support RGB values again."

Works only for RGB Image but not for Grayscale Image.

Thanks for reporting @Zay
The power pin should now accept either a float or RGB value node, for both greyscale and color image nodes, as was the behavior for versions prior to 2026.1.
That fix applies to both grey scale and RGB image node.
But there is also a fix for when loading scenes saved from versions 2026.1->2026.4 into this Octane version 2026.5 of this release, where it should automatically replace any RGB value node in the Power pin into a Float texture value node, in order to make the image node behave as expected. That specific backwards fix was indeed implemented only for the RGB image nodes.

Could you please confirm that:
A) That is what you are referring to when you say that Grayscale images are not fixed for the Power pin, and
B) What is the use you expect for using a chromatic Power for a Grayscale image?
Maybe you could provide a test scene or a fuller description of the issue you are experiencing?

Mon Sep 14, 2026 9:31 am

arnon.marcus wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 8:29 am Thanks for reporting @Zay
The power pin should now accept either a float or RGB value node, for both greyscale and color image nodes, as was the behavior for versions prior to 2026.1.
That fix applies to both grey scale and RGB image node.
But there is also a fix for when loading scenes saved from versions 2026.1->2026.4 into this Octane version 2026.5 of this release, where it should automatically replace any RGB value node in the Power pin into a Float texture value node, in order to make the image node behave as expected. That specific backwards fix was indeed implemented only for the RGB image nodes.

Could you please confirm that:
A) That is what you are referring to when you say that Grayscale images are not fixed for the Power pin, and
B) What is the use you expect for using a chromatic Power for a Grayscale image?
Maybe you could provide a test scene or a fuller description of the issue you are experiencing?

I've made an example file for the Grayscale Image.
The use are for any colored textures to have a base black and white. Then you can adjust the color for the texture the way you want it. Like a sofa. You have a great texture for it - but it's pink. You want another color. So the easiest way is to load the texture as a Grayscale Image, and change the Power Pin to a RGB color.

The example is made in 2025.6. But doesn't work in 2026.5. Well, the pin is there now, but it can't change the color.