Octane Render for Carrara (OR4C) Public Beta now released..

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Comments

  • DustRiderDustRider Posts: 2,691
    edited December 1969

    dustrider said:
    Sighman

    Thanks. I am sort of getting there. Here is a screen shot of my current issue.

    In this case it is a scene created fully in Carrara 8.5. The screen shot shows the Carrara render on the left and the Octane render on the right. There are a few issues of concern for me.
    1. The Carrara render has haze, the Octane render does not.
    2. The Carrara render has softened shadows, the Octane Render does not.
    3. Also, the Infinite Plane isn't infinite in Octane.

    This is especially vexing because it looks like it works for Phil W's test of Harpwood. What am I doing wrong?

    Again, any feedback you can offer is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

    Evilproducer,

    Thanks for that link. I'll certainly end up giving it a whirl to see what comes of it in Octane!

    Edit: Sorry, forgot to upload the actual image. Here it goes. Thanks again.


    Hi Rashad,
    Just some quit answers - hope they help.
    1. For haze you can use a volumetric shader in Octane. Use something like a box primative to enclose your shader, just make sure you have the camera setbup outside your enclosure (do a google search for Octane volumetrics and you should be able to find out how to set it up - sorry I'm on a small tablet right now).
    2. To soften shadows, if your using the octane sunlight, increase the sun size, with mesh lights, increase the mesh size.
    3. Sorry, not at the computer to give it a try.

    Hope this helps a little.

    Dustrider,

    Thanks a huge bunch! Okay, I increased the sun size up from 1 to 10 and indeed the shadows are now soft as expected. That's one hurdle fully overcome.

    For my tastes, the OR4C Plug-in is AMAZING!!!!!! It still has some distance to go however, and I think it still too soon to say with any confidence that this plug in is fully integrated.

    What this plug in needs to do is to leave the user needing to make as few adjustments from within Octane as possible. I shouldn't need any understanding of Octane to use this plug-in, I should find my Carrara knowledge is what I'll need most.

    If this thread is being observed by any of the developers or people who are in contact with the developers here are a couple of things I'd like to see.

    1. Fully Integrated Atmospherics via Sky / Realistic Sky
    A. If I soften the shadows in Carrara (Sun / Distant ), they should automatically be softened to the same degree in Octane. I do not
    see why these parameters are not already linked. What I suggest is to overlay Carrara renders of the sunspot with
    Octane renders of the same sun spot to determine the relationship between the scale settings applied in Carrara and the
    Sun Size settings in Octane. This should be more or less doable without too much effort from programming.
    B. Haze settings applied in Carrara need to be translated automatically to Octane somehow. If this means that an invisible
    box has to be created under the hood that will then allow itself to be affected by the haze settings in Carrara then so be it.
    Haze is an essential scene effect, without it everything looks small and close to the camera.

    That's it so far. Since I primarily render landscapes I really need the atmospheric parameters to be fully integrated as humanly possible. I have yet to experiment much with the materials and other lights. I will report my finding and questions.

    I don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight!!!!!


    Hope you had fun, it can be a bit addictive!

    The developer is definitely monitoring this thread - Sighman is the developer. ;-)
    I'm sure Sighman will answer your questions when he gets a chance. I know that certain things are quite difficult, or not possible, due to a number of reasons, but often because the Carrara SDK doesn't have the hooks to work with all of the features in Carrara via a plugin (like dynamic hair). Sighman has been great to work with and definitely listens to the users, so rest assured that your suggestions do not fall on deaf ears.

  • Akulla3DAkulla3D Posts: 131
    edited December 1969

    Got my full copy of the Carrara plugin and I am loving it. If I may ask here as I havent figured this one out yet.

    Has anyone else had the issue of not being able to save the render to .PNG unless it is completely finished? Or do I have to do something to tell the plugin that I am ready to save.

    Thanks

    Akulla

  • SighmanSighman Posts: 56
    edited December 1969

    akulla3D said:
    Got my full copy of the Carrara plugin and I am loving it. If I may ask here as I havent figured this one out yet.

    Has anyone else had the issue of not being able to save the render to .PNG unless it is completely finished? Or do I have to do something to tell the plugin that I am ready to save.

    Thanks

    Akulla


    You should be able to save at any time. You could try pausing first but you shouldn't need to. If you only have one GPU it may be a response issue if you have not enabled priority on the devices tab. For a single GPU setup I would recommend you set the priority of your device to medium so the you maintain some degree of UI responsiveness. For multiple GPUs deactivate the one your monitors are plugged into.
  • Rashad CarterRashad Carter Posts: 1,798
    edited December 1969

    I really love this plug-in. Did I say love; I meant to say LOVE!!!!

    I have a few questions for Sighman.

    1. How does one go about adding in effects such as a glow around the sun and lens flares via the plug-in?
    2. In the standalone version there is a Hotpixel removal slider. I do not see access to it via the plug-in, as well as several other options available in the stand alone. Is there a way to bring up all of the Octane Render Standalone controls while within the plug-in?
    3. Scaling is giving me a fit. Am I just dense, or is there no way to adjust the scaling of an object once it has been imported into the Standalone?

    Thanks again for any advice you can offer me.

  • laverdet_943f1f7da1laverdet_943f1f7da1 Posts: 252
    edited December 1969

    hello!! I apologize, I've seen the answer already, but can't find it now... How to get out of the DOF, in octane... getting sharp focus everywhere?

  • Orion_UkOrion_Uk Posts: 0
    edited September 2014

    I really love this plug-in. Did I say love; I meant to say LOVE!!!!

    I have a few questions for Sighman.

    1. How does one go about adding in effects such as a glow around the sun and lens flares via the plug-in?
    2. In the standalone version there is a Hotpixel removal slider. I do not see access to it via the plug-in, as well as several other options available in the stand alone. Is there a way to bring up all of the Octane Render Standalone controls while within the plug-in?
    3. Scaling is giving me a fit. Am I just dense, or is there no way to adjust the scaling of an object once it has been imported into the Standalone?

    Thanks again for any advice you can offer me.

    Hi Rashad, Here are a couple of hints for you while you await Sighmans reply ;)

    Hotpix removal can be found in Render Target settings under IMAGER and you can activate post effects such as bloom and glare in Render Target settings under Post Processing..

    post_effects2.PNG
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    Post edited by Orion_Uk on
  • SighmanSighman Posts: 56
    edited December 1969

    I really love this plug-in. Did I say love; I meant to say LOVE!!!!

    I have a few questions for Sighman.

    3. Scaling is giving me a fit. Am I just dense, or is there no way to adjust the scaling of an object once it has been imported into the Standalone?

    Thanks again for any advice you can offer me.

    To scale a mesh in the standalone, plug it into a position node and add a 3D or scale transform. You can then scale your mesh from there.

    If you are exporting from the Carrara Plugin then the position nodes are already there.

  • Orion_UkOrion_Uk Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    As Sighman explains, here is a visual of Standalone node setup for mesh resizing..

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  • Akulla3DAkulla3D Posts: 131
    edited December 1969

    Loving this plug in. Quick question about shadows. Is here a way to soften shadows, like you can do in Carrara like enable soft shadows on lights?

  • SighmanSighman Posts: 56
    edited December 1969

    akulla3D said:
    Loving this plug in. Quick question about shadows. Is here a way to soften shadows, like you can do in Carrara like enable soft shadows on lights?

    Not by a switch. One way to soften shadows is to make your light source bigger. You can also add additional lights to the side.
  • Rashad CarterRashad Carter Posts: 1,798
    edited December 1969

    Orion_Uk said:
    I really love this plug-in. Did I say love; I meant to say LOVE!!!!

    I have a few questions for Sighman.

    1. How does one go about adding in effects such as a glow around the sun and lens flares via the plug-in?
    2. In the standalone version there is a Hotpixel removal slider. I do not see access to it via the plug-in, as well as several other options available in the stand alone. Is there a way to bring up all of the Octane Render Standalone controls while within the plug-in?
    3. Scaling is giving me a fit. Am I just dense, or is there no way to adjust the scaling of an object once it has been imported into the Standalone?

    Thanks again for any advice you can offer me.

    Hi Rashad, Here are a couple of hints for you while you await Sighmans reply ;)

    Hotpix removal can be found in Render Target settings under IMAGER and you can activate post effects such as bloom and glare in Render Target settings under Post Processing..

    Orion UK,

    Thanks a ton. Major ball drop on my part The moment I saw the first screen shot I knew I had asked a silly question. Indeed all of the options are there, if only I would look.

    For someone like me I have to learn the concepts of the standalone, and then learn how those concepts are presented in the OR4C plug-in, but I'm probably going about learning it all in the wrong order.

    Without question this plug-in is one of the best purchases I've made in the better part of the last decade!!!

  • cyborgty_074ff6c243cyborgty_074ff6c243 Posts: 132
    edited December 1969

    Well, I purchased Octane and the Carrara plugin a week and a half ago wanted to see how I could use it with animations.

    This is a short keyframe animation I created after I started playing with the plugin. I was working on another entirely different project (to learn another 3d software package) when I decided to give myself 7 to 10 days of free time (I have a full-time job and other obligations) to create this little animated short movie and render it in Octane (animated and rendered in Carrara with a little post work). Enjoy.

    http://youtu.be/F_TBlXipSYM

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    That's awesome CyBoRgTy_ ! Really enjoyed that, it's amazing you were able to render this so quickly, there's quite a lot to it.

  • Orion_UkOrion_Uk Posts: 0
    edited September 2014

    No problem Rashad ;)

    Besides, there is NO right or wrong way.. We all learn using different methods/processes for different reasons and different goals ;)
    one day this world (not you) will learn that different is not only good, its VITAL to the success of the human race! ;) Some of 'mans' great discoveries were due to someone doing things differently :D

    Besides, I am the KING of calamity so fear not my brother, I can find hard stuff easy but completely balls up the easy stuff !
    :p

    Post edited by Orion_Uk on
  • Orion_UkOrion_Uk Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    CyBoRgTy_

    That video was a true testiment to you learning the fine art of animation, that was clearly NOT just thrown together and I take my hat off to you, I really enjoyed that...Thanks for sharing ;)

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,040
    edited December 1969

    CyBoRgTy_ said:
    Well, I purchased Octane and the Carrara plugin a week and a half ago wanted to see how I could use it with animations.

    This is a short keyframe animation I created after I started playing with the plugin. I was working on another entirely different project (to learn another 3d software package) when I decided to give myself 7 to 10 days of free time (I have a full-time job and other obligations) to create this little animated short movie and render it in Octane (animated and rendered in Carrara with a little post work). Enjoy.

    http://youtu.be/F_TBlXipSYM

    Really great job.

    How did the render times compare?

  • Akulla3DAkulla3D Posts: 131
    edited December 1969

    If I may ask another question from you all. What does count mean under render priority?

    Thanks again.

  • cyborgty_074ff6c243cyborgty_074ff6c243 Posts: 132
    edited December 1969

    CyBoRgTy_ said:
    Well, I purchased Octane and the Carrara plugin a week and a half ago wanted to see how I could use it with animations.

    This is a short keyframe animation I created after I started playing with the plugin. I was working on another entirely different project (to learn another 3d software package) when I decided to give myself 7 to 10 days of free time (I have a full-time job and other obligations) to create this little animated short movie and render it in Octane (animated and rendered in Carrara with a little post work). Enjoy.

    http://youtu.be/F_TBlXipSYM

    Really great job.

    How did the render times compare?

    Most of these frames rendered at an average of 25 seconds per frame (1280 x 720). For a chosen frame in this movie (indoor shot), I noticed the following render times when switching between lighting kernels at 1000 max samples:
    Direct lighting - 26 seconds
    PMC - 1 minute 42 seconds
    Path Tracing - 1 minute 40 seconds
    But what you get depends on several things like the scene objects, materials, lighting, etc. The outdoor scene in this movie rendered at 28 seconds per frame when using Path Tracing. For the indoor shots (and since this was mostly a test) I used the Direct Lighting kernel/model because I didn't see a big enough difference to justify the longer render times (and because I challenged myself to complete the movie in 10 days).

    Now comparing this to my home-based/small render farm, this might be difficult to compare to PMC/Path Tracing because it has been a while since I used Carrara's full GI / indirect lighting. But with direct lighting with my render farm (using high quality settings) I can easily get under a minute per frame and sometimes around 20 seconds per frame (or less). Obviously with busier and more complex scenes the times are higher. Also, I was use to rendering out passes and putting them together in post. Working with Octane forced me to consider how to get Octane to produce my final look (or close to it) before rendering. In some ways this has saved time on this project (as the usual level of post work was not required), especially with all of the depth of field shots in this movie. Since it would take almost forever to get Carrara to produce a frame containing depth of field, I would render out depth passes as rpf files to have in post close to the control I had with Octane.

    Also, what you don't get with the built in renderer is the realtime final render views you get from Octane's realtime viewport, which I really like and also saves time.

  • cyborgty_074ff6c243cyborgty_074ff6c243 Posts: 132
    edited December 1969

    Orion_Uk said:
    CyBoRgTy_

    That video was a true testiment to you learning the fine art of animation, that was clearly NOT just thrown together and I take my hat off to you, I really enjoyed that...Thanks for sharing ;)

    Thank you very much for the kind words (and noticing the effort / attention to detail).

    While I work to establish an efficient workflow, I have been giving a lot of focus to animating in the space; roughing out moves and going back to add detail in passes. I feel there is still a lot for me to learn through doing it. I love learning and that's one reasons I picked this hobby. There appears to be an endless amount of thing to learn about.

    I had been disappointed with how few movies I posted this year/ past 6 months (one reason is I am learning another 3D SW package). With this project, I purposely gave myself the 10 day limit to keep my head in the movie project every day (and to make sure I ended the drought ;-)).

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,139
    edited December 1969

    CyBoRgTy_ said:
    There appears to be an endless amount of things to learn about.

    You got it right there!! Awesome work one the video!
  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    Sighman said:
    I will answer that with a qualified no. No you cannot render Carrara volumetrics with the plugin (yet).

    The 'yet' part intrigues me :) It's answers like this that make me think the developer isn't just throwing out a quick and dirty plugin and going to walk away, but someone who actually enjoys using Carrara himself and really wants to make this plugin as complete as possible. It's actually very reassuring reading through not just the forum here but also the carrara forums over at otoy, you just get the feeling this plugin is not only very well fleshed out already, but that the developer is still working at getting it even better.

    Question for you guys though, today I was just about to purchase (weeks behind schedule but got the money to cover it and even a little time to play) but the warning says to make sure you have a NVIDIA driver version of 335.23 or higher. It took me quite a while even to figure out how to check this, but as far as I can tell pulling up my Nvidia control panel I'm running 327.02. I figure I should be able to just update, but I'm really bad with this stuff, and when I click on help and updates, I get an error: 'Failed to start Nvidia update. Try again later.'

    Any idea what I'm doing wrong here, for those of you guys that really understand how this stuff works?

  • DADA_universeDADA_universe Posts: 336
    edited December 1969

    CyBoRgTy_ said:
    Orion_Uk said:
    CyBoRgTy_

    That video was a true testiment to you learning the fine art of animation, that was clearly NOT just thrown together and I take my hat off to you, I really enjoyed that...Thanks for sharing ;)

    Thank you very much for the kind words (and noticing the effort / attention to detail).

    While I work to establish an efficient workflow, I have been giving a lot of focus to animating in the space; roughing out moves and going back to add detail in passes. I feel there is still a lot for me to learn through doing it. I love learning and that's one reasons I picked this hobby. There appears to be an endless amount of thing to learn about.

    I had been disappointed with how few movies I posted this year/ past 6 months (one reason is I am learning another 3D SW package). With this project, I purposely gave myself the 10 day limit to keep my head in the movie project every day (and to make sure I ended the drought ;-)).

    Loved the effort, and the way you went about it is inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

  • SighmanSighman Posts: 56
    edited December 1969

    akulla3D said:
    If I may ask another question from you all. What does count mean under render priority?

    Thanks again.


    I'm sorry, but I can't figure out what you are referring to. Where did you find something called 'render priority'?
  • SighmanSighman Posts: 56
    edited December 1969

    Jonstark said:

    Question for you guys though, today I was just about to purchase (weeks behind schedule but got the money to cover it and even a little time to play) but the warning says to make sure you have a NVIDIA driver version of 335.23 or higher. It took me quite a while even to figure out how to check this, but as far as I can tell pulling up my Nvidia control panel I'm running 327.02. I figure I should be able to just update, but I'm really bad with this stuff, and when I click on help and updates, I get an error: 'Failed to start Nvidia update. Try again later.'

    Any idea what I'm doing wrong here, for those of you guys that really understand how this stuff works?


    What I do is visit the NVIDIA drivers site http://www.geforce.com/drivers. I do a Manual Driver Search and enter the information for my card and OS. From there I pick the latest (non-beta) driver and download it. Run the installer and accept all the default options.

    As an alternative, you can install the GeForce Experience and let it do all the work for you including informing you of when new drivers become available. Some people, though, find it too intrusive.

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    Sighman said:
    Jonstark said:

    Question for you guys though, today I was just about to purchase (weeks behind schedule but got the money to cover it and even a little time to play) but the warning says to make sure you have a NVIDIA driver version of 335.23 or higher. It took me quite a while even to figure out how to check this, but as far as I can tell pulling up my Nvidia control panel I'm running 327.02. I figure I should be able to just update, but I'm really bad with this stuff, and when I click on help and updates, I get an error: 'Failed to start Nvidia update. Try again later.'

    Any idea what I'm doing wrong here, for those of you guys that really understand how this stuff works?


    What I do is visit the NVIDIA drivers site http://www.geforce.com/drivers. I do a Manual Driver Search and enter the information for my card and OS. From there I pick the latest (non-beta) driver and download it. Run the installer and accept all the default options.

    As an alternative, you can install the GeForce Experience and let it do all the work for you including informing you of when new drivers become available. Some people, though, find it too intrusive.

    Checking, I see that some of the drivers show as Beta and other show as WHQL, I've never seen the term WHQL before, but does that denote a non-beta?

  • DustRiderDustRider Posts: 2,691
    edited December 1969

    Jonstark said:
    Sighman said:
    Jonstark said:

    Question for you guys though, today I was just about to purchase (weeks behind schedule but got the money to cover it and even a little time to play) but the warning says to make sure you have a NVIDIA driver version of 335.23 or higher. It took me quite a while even to figure out how to check this, but as far as I can tell pulling up my Nvidia control panel I'm running 327.02. I figure I should be able to just update, but I'm really bad with this stuff, and when I click on help and updates, I get an error: 'Failed to start Nvidia update. Try again later.'

    Any idea what I'm doing wrong here, for those of you guys that really understand how this stuff works?


    What I do is visit the NVIDIA drivers site http://www.geforce.com/drivers. I do a Manual Driver Search and enter the information for my card and OS. From there I pick the latest (non-beta) driver and download it. Run the installer and accept all the default options.

    As an alternative, you can install the GeForce Experience and let it do all the work for you including informing you of when new drivers become available. Some people, though, find it too intrusive.

    Checking, I see that some of the drivers show as Beta and other show as WHQL, I've never seen the term WHQL before, but does that denote a non-beta?
    WHQL drivers are sent to Microsoft for verification,and comparability/Stability check.Once Microsoft is satisfied,they sign the drivers and send them back to nvidia to distribute them to end users.

    Hope this helps

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    I show nothing on the list for my card (GeForce 740M) that's not showing as either a WHQL or Beta... I'm assuming that WHQL is ok to use though, right? Just because Microsoft hasn't signed off on it, I'm still pretty good to use that, it's beyond beta per Nvidia at least right?

    Don't want to accidentally wreck my laptop :) Nvidia's site recommends going to the laptop manufacturer to download drivers, but when I go to Asus's homepage it doesn't even show what version each driver is, and the latest one is all the way back in March, whereas on Nvidia's page there's a WHQL for 344.11 that's on Sept 18, I'm thinking I should go with that, but kind of a bit nervous.

  • DustRiderDustRider Posts: 2,691
    edited September 2014

    Jonstark said:
    I show nothing on the list for my card (GeForce 740M) that's not showing as either a WHQL or Beta... I'm assuming that WHQL is ok to use though, right? Just because Microsoft hasn't signed off on it, I'm still pretty good to use that, it's beyond beta per Nvidia at least right?

    Don't want to accidentally wreck my laptop :) Nvidia's site recommends going to the laptop manufacturer to download drivers, but when I go to Asus's homepage it doesn't even show what version each driver is, and the latest one is all the way back in March, whereas on Nvidia's page there's a WHQL for 344.11 that's on Sept 18, I'm thinking I should go with that, but kind of a bit nervous.


    I forgot you are using a laptop. Upgrading drivers on a laptop can get a bit dicey. It's best to use the manufacturers drivers, because they sometimes put things together in a non-standard manner and the drivers directly from Nvidia don't work properly. On my last 2 laptops, the WHOL drivers have worked without any problems. Just make sure, you should set a restore point before upgrading in case the upgrade doesn't work, then you can easily restore your system back to it's original state.
    Post edited by DustRider on
  • Orion_UkOrion_Uk Posts: 0
    edited September 2014

    Sighman said:
    akulla3D said:
    If I may ask another question from you all. What does count mean under render priority?

    Thanks again.


    I'm sorry, but I can't figure out what you are referring to. Where did you find something called 'render priority'?

    Sighman, I think akulla3D was refering to COUNT Rendering Priority dropdown menu under CARD PRIORITY via Device settings through Render target settings..

    ..if your still with me! :P

    count.png
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