Octane Render - Interactive Unbiased GPU renderer

This scene is a benchmark scene from the Octane render forums. 1024x512 this image was rendered on a nvidia GTX260 in about 16mins.

But to give you an idea of the speed. This is what it looks like after 20secs.

This image is 1920x1080 using direct lighting algorithm. Render time = 1min30secs.

Octane Render is very new GPU based interactive unbiased renderer from Refractive Software. It is currently in an open beta testing phase in which you can join for a discounted price (currently 99 euros). Not only do you get early access to all versions but you are also licensed to use all final v1.x point release versions.

I'm currently testing my own copy atm. I will post a review here later in the year when it is close to or soon after release.

CTRL_Ghost 2011 and mrHiddenOptions shaders expose MR Progressive Rendering in Softimage 2011

CTRL_Ghost is a custom shader by CTRL (have made many "hack" style MR shaders in the past.) The recently updated one for 3ds max 2011 works with Softimage and exposes the progressive rendering feature. You can download it from here and here.

The plugin also unlocks Image Based Lighting, Importions, FG Contrast, Irradiance Particles/Environment but most of this is unnecessary as the render manager exposes most of it. However, it may also expose Combined Final Gather + Irradiance Particles and Importons but I've not tested it yet.

Also in the running (and currently nicer to use) is mrHiddenOptions - the thread and downloads are here.

Both can be installed in your SI2011 User folder:
DLL file - "*\User\*\Softimage2011\Application\bin\nt-x86-64"
mi file - "*\User\*\Softimage2011\Application\mi" (without the "phenolib"folder already presented in the program directory.)


EDIT: (Now I know what it is...) Progressive rendering, rather than offering a fast preview like many new interactive renderers appearing now, it starts at the settings you set and then continues to refine the image over time. You set a limit to how many iterations you want it to process.


(mrHiddenOptions tested) It seems that with PR you can set your AA setting very low like Min -2 Max -1 which would normally look like this (scene is a group of reflective phong spheres - total 1,920,800 tris 0:00:10.02 for rendering):-

With PR switched on (wallclock  0:00:30.85 for rendering) and max_time =1 (one render iteration):-

From here PR continues to smooth AA, add bounces, reflection depth, etc. But I still don't think it has the same value as a feature as say, GPU acceleration or interactive rendering which starts extremely low and acts as an extremely useful way to quickly preview the scene. Bit like Octane.


I really don't think it will be long before a renderman-compliant GPU-based reyes renderer becomes commercially available.

ICEy Goodness!

Bradley Gabe has recently posted two tutorials regarding creating bezier interpolation in ICE. He's posted some exquisite videos over the past year. Check out his vimeo channel here.


Tutorial: Build your own Bézier Curve Interpolation in Softimage ICE from Bradley Gabe on Vimeo.


Tutorial: Animation tricks using Bézier Nodes in ICE from Bradley Gabe on Vimeo.


ICE flesh - Production Example - Chick Fil-A from Bradley Gabe on Vimeo.

Another major force in recent ICE video mastery is Ahmidou Lyazidi. He's really showing off the potential of ICE kinematics.


ICE kinematics toon limb from Ahmidou Lyazidi on Vimeo.


ICE arc interpolation from Ahmidou Lyazidi on Vimeo.

He's recently released his arc interpolation node in this video to the community and you can get it here.

Sunposition and dxfimport plugins for 2011

As the title suggests, I've compiled these plugins for Softimage v2011.

Available for download from the usual locations:-

dxfImporter2011
Sunposition2011

Post there or here if you have any problems using/installing/etc.

EDIT: I've also updated the Architectural Shader Compound to use the new version of the mia_x material. Get it here.

Architectural Shader (framebuffer) Compound

EDIT2: Also updated the measure tool to show feet and inches. You can get it here.

Building1 Closeup composite

A bit of remodelling to an old scene and using a new pass based image creation technique. This is a low res compositing test image.

A selection of passes below:

'Original render size:1920x1080 (render times for passes)

'Albedo
'wallclock 0:00:56.54 for rendering
'AO <- may try baking this with higher settings (using second unique UVs projection for animation)
'wallclock 0:07:09.58 for rendering
'FG
'wallclock 0:02:31.26 for computing finalgather points <- (will be pregenerated for animation)
'wallclock 0:04:08.25 for rendering
'metal
'wallclock 0:02:21.31 for rendering
'highlight
'0:03:27.49 for rendering
'Depth
'wallclock 0:00:28.69 for rendering
'background
'wallclock 0:00:16.28 for rendering
'white matte
'wallclock 0:00:37.99 for rendering
'glass <- The main bottleneck!
'wallclock 0:26:03.71 for rendering
'with bump res increased wallclock 0:50:34.96 for rendering (probably should lower)