We are very excited to bring you the first beta of Octane 2027. This version includes a preview of new features as well as improved support for features already included in previous alpha builds.
This is now almost feature complete. We do expect some new stuff still to arrive before the stable build as well as other improvements and stabilization of new and existing features.
Octane 2027.1 Beta 1 Highlights
- Faster Gaussian splats.
- Agentic MCP server.
- Real-time Neural Rendering updates.
- Thin wall refraction roughness.
- New denoiser and upsampler nodes.
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 580.
- Supported versions of macOS currently are macOS15 through to macOS27.
This version introduces new performance optimization that significantly improves Gaussian splat rendering performance across the board.
On Windows and Linux, our lab tests show render throughput has increased between 1.2x and 2.4x compared to the previous approach. On macOS the impact is even more significant, between 1.9x and 3.8x.
While slightly higher noise levels than before can be expected at equal sample counts, the perceptual error (FLIP) was reduced in all cases within the same time budget.
Agentic MCP server
Octane Standalone now includes a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. MCP-compatible AI agents, such as Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code, can connect to it and build, inspect and edit scenes, create and wire nodes, set up materials, lighting and cameras, render, and save the results.
Start the server from File > Preferences > Application > Agentic MCP server, enable Run on application startup, or launch Octane with --mcp. Use --mcp-port <port> to override the port for a session. Port 0 selects an available port.
The server uses the Streamable HTTP transport, accepts local connections only and has no authentication. Do not expose it to a network.
Enable detailed MCP logging with the mcpDetail log flag, in octane_log_flags.txt or with -D mcpDetail.
Available on Windows, Linux and macOS.
Real-time Neural Rendering updates
We have upgraded the real-time neural rendering to use DLSS 4.5, which provides better results when it comes to reflections and less ghosting. This involved raising driver requirements to version 580.
This version also introduces the ability to use the new visualization cache in conjunction with the real-time mode.
Support for Gaussian splats is currently being worked on and planned for the next build.
Thin wall refraction roughness.
This version implements a feature request to improve Thin Wall rough specular transmission to account for roughness and IOR .
New denoiser and upsampler nodes
The imager node used to own denoiser and upsampler settings, however over the time and as we have been gradually introduced new denoising and upsampling methods, this became increasingly convoluted, especially since not all methods can use the exact same settings.
To solve this issue we have introduced specific node types for each of the supported methods. This resulted in new nodes for OIDN and Octane AI denoisers and for DLSS, FSR, MetalFX, Legacy AI and Linear upsamplers.
When an upsampler is not available on your system, the fallback is to Linear.
All Changes Since Version 2027.1 Alpha 3
New features
- Added agentic MCP server. Standalone now includes a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server compatible with AI agents. Available in all platforms.
- Added specific node types for each supported denoiser type, which currently are Octane AI and Open Image denoisers.
- Added specific node types for each supported upsampler type, which currently are DLSS, FSR, MetalFX, Legacy AI and Linear. Octane falls back to linear mode if an upsampler is not available in the current system.
- Added support for USD import of DistantLight. Directional lights can now have angles up to 180 degrees when specified explicitly.
Improvements
- Improved MaterialX import settings to enable Fake Shadows by default, allowing direct light to pass through transmissive materials.
- Enabled use of the environment visibility cache with the PMC kernel.
- Improved how quickly the environment visibility cache updates when adjusting camera position, target, or orientation.
- Improved the Vectron Clip operator to allow clipping along multiple axes simultaneously, with the ability to select a reference direction for each axis.
- Improved the Vectron Mirror operator to allow mirroring along multiple axes simultaneously, transforming the mirror plane, and selecting the reference half-space for each axis.
- Improved performance of Gaussian splat rendering. This involved removing the 2026.1 compatibility mode, which replicated a bug affecting slightly transparent splats.
- Improved Thin Wall rough specular transmission to account for roughness and IOR across all nodes supporting this mode via the
Thin Wallpin. - Improved USD import by handling color spaces of textured light images.
Resolved issues
- Fixed an issue where untextured RectLight nodes failed to import correctly from USD files.
- Fixed unpacking of ORBX packages containing imported USD content by ensuring proper organization of files during packaging.
- Fixed a render engine error when rendering material previews with sheen layers.
- Fixed an issue causing render engine errors when updating meshes with high-quality texture displacement.
- Fixed an issue in the Bake SDF to Mesh workflow when importing scenes or adjusting the bounding box scale to zero or negative values, preventing unexpected render engine errors.
- Fixed an issue where adjusting texture displacement settings on skinned meshes could cause incorrect skinning deformation.
- Fixed application crash during USD export using the Geometry Exporter node when scene nodes contain illegal characters such as forward slashes or plusses.
- Fixed Clay and Irradiance modes for material layers with weights less than 1 in complex MaterialX surface setups.
- Fixed incorrect updates of importance sampling in the Daylight Environment Node when modifying Sky Texture Node inputs.
- Fixed missing animation of hair thickness, UV coordinates, and subdivision surface sharpness when loading scenes from Alembic files.
- Fixed render engine error when using vertex attributes to control the 'amount' parameter in mix materials.
- Fixed issue with network nodes when using multi-gpu when NRC was enabled dropping GPU activity to zero.
Other changes
- Changed how MaterialX BSDF layer nodes control opacity when layered above the base material, removing the dedicated Opacity pin and replacing it with Weight pin behavior for non-MaterialX nodes.
Downloads
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Beta 1 Standalone for Windows (installer)
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Beta 1 Standalone for Windows (ZIP archive)
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Beta 1 Standalone for Linux
OctaneRender Prime 2027.1 Beta 1 Standalone for macOS
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Beta 1 Node for Windows (installer)
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Beta 1 Node for Windows (ZIP archive)
OctaneRender Studio+ 2027.1 Beta 1 Node for Linux
Happy rendering,
Your OTOY Team
