Learning Iray and OctaneRender
linvanchene
Posts: 1,386
2018-11-23: Updated links because this thread was reactivated.
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What is the intention of this thread?
Many OctaneRender users have switched to GPU rendering a long time before Iray was released.
Since Iray was added to DAZ Studio there have been many updates.
Currently it seems it is not anymore a case of using just Iray or OctaneRender but it becomes more a question of:
- For which projects should I use Iray?
- For which projects should I use OctaneRender?
Both render engines have their advantages and disadvantages.
The point of this thread is to give users who are interested in learning both render engines a place to ask questions.
Why is this thread started on the DAZ3D forums?
In the last months there have been quite a lot of posts on the Otoy forums that show Iray features and ask how to achieve the same in OctaneRender.
Otoy and the forum staff have not moderated those posts as long as they still were relevant to discussing OctaneRender options.
Nevertheless, the main disadvantage of disscussing Iray on the OctaneRender forum was that there are not enough users who actually have a deep understanding of Iray.
The hope is that some users who are experienced with Iray may be interested to jump in and help out providing answers.
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Where can I get started with Iray?
The official DAZ3D thread collection about Iray is posted here
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/56788/iray-start-here#latest
Iray Dev Blog
Where can I get started with OctaneRender?
https://docs.otoy.com/Portal/Home.htm
Manual for OctaneRender standalone version
https://docs.otoy.com/StandaloneH_STA/StandaloneManual.htm
Manual for OctaneRender plugin for DAZ Studio
https://docs.otoy.com/DAZStudioH/DAZPluginManual.htm
OctaneRender for DAZ Studio - FAQ link collection
https://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=54999
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Who should post in this thread?
- Anyone who is interested in either learning Iray and OctaneRender can ask questions.
- Anyone who is interested in helping out to explain either IRay and OctaneRender specific workflows.
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Comments
How can you make the Iray preview viewport to update as quickly as the OctaneRender viewport?
Many OctaneRender users are used to leave the OctaneRender viewport open and adjusting materials and geometry and seeing the results update in real time in the viewport.
When trying out Iray for the first time users may have been puzzled by the Iray preview viewport switching to a default shaded gray mode when changing values. With some delays the changes would then be displayed.
As far as I was able to figure out this behavior can be adjusted in the "Draw Settings" tab of DAZ Studio .
It seems adjusting the "Response Threshold" to a higher value has the effect that settings can be adjusted without the live preview fading out into a gray shaded mode.
With the "Response Threshold" up at 5000 I was able to have two Iray preview viewports active at the same time and updating the light situation wihout fading out into the gray shaded default mode. I was even able to add an OctaneRender live window open at the same time.
I experimented a bit further with all the "Blending" settings but I was not able to figure out what exactly all those different settings do.
1) Can someone explain all the "Blending" settings in the "Draw Settings" tab?
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The OctaneRender viewport is different in a way that it is not a preview mode but shows the final image exactly the same way as the final render will be.
It seems that the Iray preview viewports have addtional settings that may influence the quality of the live preview viewport.
2) To which settings do you have to adjust all the "Draw Settings in both "Blending" and "Drawing" to get the best quality preview?
Is a high max sample value giving the best results?
For best quality should min updates samples be low or high?
What is the benefit of a higher update interval?
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Thank you for helping out.
Feel free to ask your own questions!!!
Interesting. I don't have much to add as I am very new to Studio and Iray, I have been using Poser with the Octane plug in.
Coming from Octane, some things with Iray I find more confusing, like with the different PBR shaders (mainly have used PBR Metallicity/Roughness & PBR Specular/Glossiness). Early impression is that some things are harder to do in Iray, for example need a metal? Simple, just crank up specularity. Need a mirror? The same, basic values of specularity & surface smoothness. Of course to be more accurate there is IOR involved, but basic shader properties seem more complicated.
Wow! Setting "Response Threshold" to 5000 is amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, I tried it out and I'm really liking having the Response Threshold set to 5000 too, thanks for the info!
Click on All in that tab and you can find Response Threshold near the bottom, I am using DS 4.8
It does work well, what is the draw back of using the setting at 5000 rather than the default settings of 100ms?
In addition to what Havos said, make sure you're in the Draw Settings tab, not the Render Settings tab.
I'm noticing a downside that it refreshes a little slower when making a change at the 5000ms setting than the 100ms setting. But I like that it doesn't flip me out of the render and into the gray version everytime I move something. Definitely digging it.
Maybe it's not in 4.9. Clicked on all, looked through it twice and still don't see it.
Hihi sorry for the late reply. I found it under "Window -> Panes (Tabs) -> Draw Settings", for me it opened a small box in the center of the screen that I had to enlarge by dragging the lower right corner. Once you have it open set your "Draw Style" to Nvidia Iray and you'll find "Response Threshold" under "Blending".
I am using 4.9 public version as well so it should be there, hidden somwhere hehe.
And I was thinking that my graphic card was outdated. Response Threshold is really helpful. Thanks a lot!
That was a really nice tip - I have increased Respond Threshold to 1000 ms on my old Win 7 computer with GTX 1080,
and get also almost instant iray preview of the scenes.