Octane for DAZ Studio or Poser?
Pschelfh
Posts: 261
Finally going to take the plunge and buy Octane (also ordered a GTX780 6Gb)!
Does someone use the 2 plugin versions, for DAZ and Poser?
I mostly like to work in DAZ Studio (I like content browsing/navigation more + of course Genesis figures), but I see it's still a beta plugin for Studio. Does this have all the functionality of the Poser plugin?
Thanks,
Peter.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I've worked with both, but I prefer t he Daz version of the plugin. It's more intuitive, I think. But when it comes to software updates, the poser version beats Daz. The poser version of the plugin is using version 2.0 of Octane while the Daz version of the plugin is still at version 1.2 of Octane, and the developer of the Daz Plugin has a habit of disappearing for weeks at a time...
I personally don't have a choice, I work only with genesis figures, so Poser Plugin is just collecting dust at the moment.
NIck
I use the Daz plugin. The OcDS dev posted yesterday on the otoy forums that he (or she) doesn't think an update is more than a month away.
Thanks for the info!
Is there a manual somewhere (other than the installation guide)? Or tutorials for the DAZ Studio plugin?
I've been looking at basic videos of Octane and it seems that all materials have to be converted to Octane.
So, it actually doesn't matter in which program you use the plugin, DAZ Studio, Poser or even C4D or 3DS, the result should be the same, no?
Peter.
Like you, I've just picked up all the info I couldn't figure out myself from videos and forums. Not to say there isn't a tutorial out there somewhere.
The plugins are entirely optional. You can export from Daz Studio as an obj then load it as a mesh in the standalone version of Octane and go from there (probably the best way if you use multiple programs). Although If you favor a particular program, then the plugin you opt for is a useful personal preference that will streamline your workflow. It's really just what you're most comfortable with.
I will point out that as the Daz plugin's still in beta it's currently available at the discounted price of €99.
Thanks, my GTX780 should arrive this week so I can test the Octane demo! ;)
Peter.
I highly recommend the Octane Stand-alone manual. Very much worth the time to read. It explains a lot of the terms and concepts used in the OcDS plugin. I have used both the Poser (via demo) and the DS plugin (bought). I like the functionality of the DS plugin better. However, currently the Pose plugin has a better history of being up to date. I also use the stand-alone directly with exported .obj. This also works well.You can even export separate .objs and then assemble the scene in Octane. I did the image below using that approach. The character and the room were separate .obj files. Oh, and the GTX 780 is a great card for octane. I have the ASUS Direct CUII version with 3GB as my rendering card (in addition to a GTX 670 that drives the displays, I highly recommend a second card to run your display) and it runs great.
Ciao
TD
edited and removed by user
Regarding the SDK you can find the following statement in the DS release notes:
"The DAZ Studio 4.5 SDK has not changed in any way that causes it to be binary incompatible with the current release, which means that any plugins created for a previous version of DAZ Studio 4.5 (i.e. 4.5.0.100+) should continue to load and function in this version. That said, as with any new release, there is always the possibility that a plugin has had bugs fixed or features added, so the latest versions should be downloaded and installed if they are provided."
I recall that the current policy of only updating the SDK if it is needed, is the result of much complaining when previously every time Studio was updated all plug-ins "broke" due to the SDK change even if it was not really needed. So it is a two-sided sword for DAZ. It seems likely that one of the latest updates introduced some unintended change that causes issues for some plug-ins (including OcDS)
Ciao
TD
Thanks for all the information. I was about ready to purchase the Octane plugin for Daz and the single user, but still have some basic questions, if you guys wouldn't mind answering, actual users of Octane, I mean.
1- With the Daz Octane plugin- can you work in the Daz window, move lights around, cameras, objects, etc, as you normally do, and see it updated in real time in the Octane window? Or do you have to work in Octane once its loaded? Is it actually imported into Octane with the plugin or is it simply recognized? I ask this because in the demo I can import it in, obviously, but I read somewhere that the load is 'transparent' (no real import as in the standalone version.)
2- If the plugin reacts in real time to what is happening in the Daz view window, does the standalone version do the same? I tried this and as I recall I could get it to update right away from the imported file, but I wasn't able to move the window to open it up enough for 2 screens. I assume you can work on one screen with Daz, and have a big preview window up in the other screen for Octane, but I couldn't figure out how to detach the panes. Maybe this is just a hinderance in the demo...?
3- The previews we see in videos demoing Octane show renderings happening within seconds, but the fact is the full render often takes several minutes. Not complaining, that's still really quick, but I've yet to see any scene rendered that has multiple figures in a heavy environment. Usually its just a car with a flat background or one half-clad character. This might be due to the limitation on the users cards, but I loaded in a few fairly intense scenes without downsizing mats or base for Gen 2 figures and still had room on my 2 gig 670 card. (I'll get a titan or other card for Octane at some point.) Has anyone tried loading a large file in via the plugin and does this slow down the render time considerably?
4- Octane's (Otoy's) site says you can do animations, but the samples they show are more stills. Has anyone tried animation in Octane? I assume it would work fine, but it would require a setup for stills and movie output and I didn't see any buttons like that on the demo. ( I did see one demo of this on you tube, but again, it was a single figure and background with a simple fighting aniblock that lasted all of 10 seconds.) Can Octane import or utilize mocap or aniblocks, or would I need to output the entire video sequence first, then import that into Octane just to do the final render? Is the paid version the same as the demo version? I assume it is, but after the previous discussion of the Daz Octane Render still at 1.2, I'm not sure what I am missing from what Poser or Max might have. 1.2 seems to be pretty stable and renders fine, but it would be nice to have the newer features implemented. (I don't want to work in Poser, I had nothing but problems with 2012, it crashed a lot and I got very little help tech help.)
I realize these are basic questions but after scouring the forums and elsewhere, then asking some of the 3d pros I know who build games, none of them had any answers. They don't really need speed for their lower res projects. It would really help me to know before I buy. I'm sure others looking into this have similar questions. At $517 (or $379 Euros) that's around half the price of a titan card. Which brings me to one more question - Does having more VRam on a single, or double, card help speed rendering time in Daz? I often use Reality but whenever I click the Use GPU button, all I ever get is a black screen. The developer told me to just turn it off, but I can't test the speed difference that way. Normally it wouldn't make that much difference, but as I get more into animations and try to stick with Daz, it would be nice to know the fastest route. Thanks!!!
Did some first tests with Octane in DAZ last night and for Q1 it's : yes, Octane is perfectly integrated in DAZ. There's an Octane viewport that updates the moves you do in the DAZ viewport, so you can see the changes in realtime. I'm fairly certain that the plugin is not linked to the standalone.
For Q2, I would only import a finished scene in the standalone version if I wanted to use some new features of Octane V2, since the plugin handles things well inside DAZ (and V2 of the plugin should be out soon).
Q3 depends on lots of factors I think. The render kernels you choose, render quality settings, lights,...+ it's the amount of CUDA cores that count for speed, VRAM only serves for the amount of textures you can fit in the video card. But this should also change in the future, when Octane will also make use of your normal system RAM. I hope to see somthing like Thea Render, making use of GPU + CPU at the same time!
No experience with animations yet.
One strange thing I had was that during install only my GTX 760 was recognized, the GTX 780 was listed as 'Unknown'. However, once in DAZ the GTX 780 is listed in the Device tab, so no problem.
Peter.
Thanks, Peter!
The fact that we can use it directly in Daz and not have to use their interface is great. I'm anxious to try it beyond the demo, so I'll be getting the plug in soon. I am hoping to get the standalone at a teacher's discount, not sure if I can, but someone in another thread said that was possible.
You mentioned the 780 card but I only see it available with 2 gigs, not 6 GB. I have the 670 now but want to get a second card specifically for Octane. I see new 4 GB cards advertised for between $100-250, but they show very low Cuda scores. Not sure what the difference is or even why my 670 is fairly high up on the cuda charts, yet has only 2 GB.
Anyway, thanks again for the nice reply. It's always best to get information from actual users as there is so much speculation out there.
Phil
I'm sure someone who's better at explaining will drop in and be able to provide a more in-depth answer, but until then i'll try and do my best.
The Octane plugin has it own pop-up display window within Daz that provides "real-time" feedback (the amount of lag can be adjusted) on any changes you make in the main Daz viewport. It simply restarts the render when a change is made allowing the user to see a preview. Daz lighting's ignored, so that's not an issue. Lights will need to be setup and controlled in the Octane panes and will only show up in the Octane viewport, not the main Daz stage. Same goes for Octane materials from the live database.
As for videos showing rendering in a matter of seconds; speed all depends on how much gpu you have. Yes it's fast, but some of the videos you see are running a ridiculous number of titans. Octane scales and adding more video cards to your motherboard increases the speed (e.g. rendering with two titans will be twice as fast as using a single one). I'm currently running the GTX 690, and a basic portrait takes like 10 seconds. Add complex hair, fancy lighting, a bunch of props, reflection/refraction, depth of field, higher res, etc... and the render time starts to ramp up. One thing I'll advise if you're going to be rendering for hours at a time, is to keep an eye on temperatures and set up a custom fan curve to pump air and keep the heat down using an overclocking app like Precision X or Afterburner so you down burn your card.
When it's high in the CUDA charts, it has to do with the number of CUDA cores, not with the RAM.
CUDA cores is for speed, RAM is for the amount of textures you can store on the card.
I have a MSI Twin Frozr GTX 780 6Gb, which is fairly new (http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6385/msi-geforce-gtx-780-6gb-twin-frozr-gaming-oced-video-card-review/index.html), coupled with a GTX 760 2Gb, just for viewing.
A GTX 770 with 4Gb would also be a nice choice for less money.
You should check specific Octane CUDA benchmarks, other CUDA programs might not be optimized for GTX 7xx series, showing a better score for 6xx or even 5xx series.
Peter.
Hello!
I have been using octane for some time now. Both the stand-alone and the DAZ plug in version. I can add a few things to what has been already said by the others:
Regarding your point 4: Animation rendering is quite easy with the OCDS plug-in. You do all the animation in DAZ Studio. Octane is just a render engine, it does not import (and does't need to) mocap or aniblocks. You set up your animation in Studio and then hop to the animation tab in the plugin. From there you can render out an image sequence of your animation. You then need to use an animation program (Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas Movie Studio or similar) to put the images in to a movie format. Here is a simple dance animation that I set up in DAZ Studio using aniblocks and the rendered in Octane. It was rendered at 1920*1080 and each frame took about 10 seconds using the Direct Lighting kernel. The complete 44 second animation was done in about 3 hours. It is on youtube channel: http://youtu.be/bc0lEmiX3Jg
Two remarks regarding your point 3: First, the render is very scene and setup dependent in addition to the card factor. Simple scenes using the Direct lighting Kernel can be completed in seconds or a few minutes, however, if you use one of the more sophisticated kernels, PMC or path tracing, your render time will go up significantly. A complex scene using subsurface scattering and lots of refractions and glossy materials can easily take many hours to render. You have to keep in mind that you are using an unbiased physically accurate render engine in that case. More comparable to something like Luxrender than the default DAZ Studio engine which is a biased render engine. Second, it sounds like you are trying to draw conclusions about your VRAM from loading a scene into studio and then checking the VRAM use. If so, this is not going to give you a good insight. Studio uses the card only for display via OpenGL. The memory use is very different from how Octane operates. You will need far more VRAM to render a specific scene in Octane than you need to load it into studio and display it. Personally, I love octane. It is a great tool but one one needs to understand its strengths and weaknesses.
Ciao
TD
TD, nice job with the 10 second render time per frame with the direct lighting kernel, especially in HD res!
Thanks. I should point out that this was carefully optimized for maximum speed. I minimized the use of glossy materials (just the floor) and the only reflective/refractive material is the mirror. The dancer has a simple diffuse material. I also optimized the number of total samples/pixel per frame (I ended up using 400 s/p in this case) and the Octane render parameters (number of bounces for refraction and reflection).
Ciao
TD
I've had OCDS since last November, and have been very happy with my purchase (not a minute of buyers remorse). My only complaint would be the slow pace of development, but the quality of the current plugin is, IMHO, very very good. I was having some stability issues with it, but "removing" the Reality 2.5 plugin solved the problem (I just move it to a different directory when using Octane, if I need/want Reality, I just move it back to where it is supposed to be, restart DS, and have it back).
I don't have a killer Nvidia card either (GTX 670M in a laptop), but am still very pleased with render times. As others have noted, increasing scene complexity (adding geometry), and having complex materials (SSS, specular, glossy, reflective, etc.) will also increase render times. But compared to other unbiased CPU only unbiased renderers, Octane is really really fast! Also, compared to using 3Delight with GI/IDL (i.e. UE2) at high quality settings, Octane is insanely fast!!
I use Poser as well as DS, but the two factors that made the DS plugin more attractive for me were:
1) It's still in Beta, so the cost of the plugin was half that of the Poser plugin.
2) I use DS a lot more than Poser, and like using Genesis/Genesis2, so the DS version was more "attractive" to me.
I'm really looking forward to the 2x version of the plugin. My GPU is Fermi based, which limits me to 64 color textures, with version 2.1, I no longer have limitations on the number of texture maps I can use (just the limitation of what I can fit into GPU ram) which is a HUGE improvement.