OctaneRender for ArchiCAD plugin

[Anonymous]

An announcement was made today about the development of an integrated OctaneRender rendering plugin for ArchiCAD. Details here...render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=26793.

[Anonymous]

For the presentation - click the link above and view the YouTube video in the first msg of the thread. I erroneously posted a time 2hrs in, but just watch from the start - that video just contains the relevant info.

[Anonymous]

Jeroen Tapper from Tapperworks has put together 3 great tutorials on the process he used to render his ferrriswheel project. The 3 part series can be viewed here....

Tutorial 01: Setup Ferriswheel Scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFw7YA9Ow-g

Tutorial 02: Bloom and Glare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PV_IqzbF08

Tutorial 03: Sun Study Animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxK6XUMpMH8

[Anonymous]

This is very important. Thanks for pointing this out. Anyone considering using Octane Render for production, should definitely use it with a system that uses 2 video cards (one for display - the other for rendering). When I tried out the demo version, it does lock up other applications significantly while rendering.

Version 1.13a of the plugin contains a feature where you can throttle off rendering a little if you are using a single card for both rendering and as the Windows display adapter. So using the plugin with a single graphics card works much better now.

[Bricklyne Clarence]

paulk wrote:

This is very important. Thanks for pointing this out. Anyone considering using Octane Render for production, should definitely use it with a system that uses 2 video cards (one for display - the other for rendering). When I tried out the demo version, it does lock up other applications significantly while rendering.

Version 1.13a of the plugin contains a feature where you can throttle off rendering a little if you are using a single card for both rendering and as the Windows display adapter. So using the plugin with a single graphics card works much better now.

Hi Paul

I was wondering if you guys (Otoy) are affiliated with, or in any way connected to, this Brigade Real-time path-tracer renderer:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pXZ33YoKu9w


I read somewhere that it's development was under Otoy (you guys) but the developer himself (Samuel Lapere, I believe) seems to be working in a sort of independent way.

If not, I was curious as to your opinion on his engine and the method he uses (path-tracing) versus ray-tracing or ray-casting (I'm not sure which method Octane utilizes) and also which way is best suited for the direction that GPU's seem to be headed insofar as processing.

Also, do you see more real-time GPU rendering being utilized in next-gen video gaming consoles as the hardware (GPUs) catches up with the software side of things in terms of being able to efficiently (less noise) process complex scenes, real-time physics and geometry?

[Anonymous]

I was wondering if you guys (Otoy) are affiliated with, or in any way connected to, this Brigade Real-time path-tracer renderer
Yes, Octane and Brigade are both Otoy projects. And yes, Brigade is pretty amazing.

I read somewhere that it's development was under Otoy (you guys) but the developer himself (Samuel Lapere, I believe) seems to be working in a sort of independent way.

If not, I was curious as to your opinion on his engine and the method he uses (path-tracing) versus ray-tracing or ray-casting (I'm not sure which method Octane utilizes) and also which way is best suited for the direction that GPU's seem to be headed insofar as processing.

Sam is also a member of the Octane team. I'm not qualified to answer the path-tracing verses ray-tracing issue, but you can ask Sam via his blog at http://raytracey.blogspot.co.nz/.

Also, do you see more real-time GPU rendering being utilized in next-gen video gaming consoles as the hardware (GPUs) catches up with the software side of things in terms of being able to efficiently (less noise) process complex scenes, real-time physics and geometry?

I guess for the moment the PC platform has the jump on this technology, but I'm sure the consoles will follow at some point. The neat thing about using CUDA is that if you want a faster render, you just add more cores (via additional cards or upgrading the existing card), and that's not traditionally been the way consoles work.

Paul

[Anonymous]

There is now a DEMO version of the OctaneRender for ArchiCAD plugin now available. See render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=31345 for details. It is resolution limited to 1000x600, watermarked, and save is disabled, but other than that fully functional.

Paul

[TMA_80]

Thanks Paul!

The plugin is great ! the rendering quality is great!
Octane generates a quick real time rendering ( faster than the fire engine of Maxwell )


Btw, not the best machine but I've tested it in my laptop with an NVIDIA GT540M.... although there is a "device priority setting" but Octane definitely needs an extra Graphic card to work comfortably !

[Anonymous]

This is great stuff, so happy Octane Render is moving forward with the AC plugin and demos.

With regards to what TMA_80 confirmed, that there is a 'device priority setting'...

It was also mentioned by paulk:

paulk wrote:
Version 1.13a of the plugin contains a feature where you can throttle off rendering a little if you are using a single card for both rendering and as the Windows display adapter. So using the plugin with a single graphics card works much better now.

How much control do we get exactly? And is this feature available on the standalone version? Is this enough control to allow for working on other AC instances while Octane renders a job? I haven't had time to play much with Octane lately but attached is a practice render I did a few months back using the standalone version on a GT 630 which I let run for 2-3 minutes which pretty much locked up my computer during that time. I'm curious to use this throttling feature with the same scene and compare render times and computer usability while rendering. Will post update when I get to it:

[Anonymous]

Btw, not the best machine but I've tested it in my laptop with an NVIDIA GT540M.... although there is a "device priority setting but Octane definitely needs an extra Graphic card to work comfortably !

That video card is definitely at the very low end of the performance spectrum, so the trick I found was to change the ArchiCAD perspective camera to use the Internal Renderer rather than OpenGL - that improves responsiveness whilst rendering. Also, the plugin is not "remembering" the last used render priority, which I will fix (might not make it to the demo version for a week or so).

How much control do we get exactly? And is this feature available on the standalone version?

You can switch from Low, Medium and High priority. This is also in Standalone (not sure if it's in the latest Standalone demo version yet).

Is this enough control to allow for working on other AC instances while Octane renders a job?

With 2 video cards - absolutely. With one video card, use Low Render Priority and Internal Renderer (not OpenGL) and you are good. In all seriousness though, if you are going to use a high-end rendering tool like Octane, why not spend an extra $50 and get a second video card to use as your display adapter?

I did a few months back using the standalone version on a GT 630 which I let run for 2-3 minutes which pretty much locked up my computer during that time.

The throttling feature should fix this. But again....don't do yourself the disservice of spending your hard earned euro's on a great renderer, and running it on poor hardware.

Paul

[Anonymous]

Thanks for addressing all of these questions

Agreed, 2nd video card dedicated to this, as I've mentioned before, would be best. I do like the throttling ability though. Another question, are Octane Render output image sizes dependent on on-board video memory the same way a program like iray is? So the larger the image size, the more on-board video memory it demands..