Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 27, 2018. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Otoy repeatedly brings exciting innovations to the GPU-based OctaneRender: most recently, alongside Octane for Nuke and AE, the launch of the Octane-Unity integration also took place at the end of last year. The next major 4.0 update has been under discussion for some time – Otoy has now released a preview version and roadmap for it.
Innovations in Octane 4.0
Brigade, AI tools and new pricing models lie behind the major 4.0 release, which has recently become available for Octane 3.x owners to test. Here is an overview of the most important features.
Realtime with Brigade
The long-developed realtime path-tracing Brigade engine is now included in the new version and enables realtime display including a scene graph for all existing DCC integrations. There is also an API for game engines such as Unity. Alongside scene loading times up to ten times faster, Otoy promises with Brigade in Octane 4 calculation that is a hundred times faster when scene content and objects are changed, and thus also more than 30-60 fps in the IPR/viewport. Further examples, alongside this older preview, can be found in the video attached above and on this page.
Out-of-Core Geometry
With the update, Octane supports “out-of-core geometry,” allowing parts of system memory to be used for geometry data as soon as the rendering of scenes becomes too large for VRAM memory. With the limit for GPU RAM usage, you can specify how much GPU VRAM and how much system memory you want to use for the geometry.
AI Tools
Whether AI Denoiser for renderers, automatic cutouts with Sensei, AI cloud renderings or speech animations: more and more tools are using deep learning to achieve impressive results. Otoy is also relying on the the 4.0 release for this:
- AI Light enables better sampling, particularly with multiple small point lights and spotlights. When used with Adaptive Sampling, AI Light recognizes which lights are more important for the scene and which pixels no longer need to be sampled.
- AI Scene provides significantly faster loading times and interactivity.
- AI Denoiser complements AI Light with subsequent denoising features. Trained models of different materials, ray behavior and scene information are used – denoisers for volumes, SSS and hair are still in development. An AI Denoiser test video for Octane 3.09 is attached:
License & Pricing Models
All pricing models come with all DCC and CAD integrations, so anyone who needs plug-ins for Houdini, Maya and Cinema 4D no longer has to pay extra. With the move to the next Octane version, the payment models change to the following three options:
- Enterprise (up to 200 GPUs)
- Pro Version (20 GPUs)
- Free Tier (2 GPUs)
Yes, that is not a typo: from 4.0, Octane includes a new free version that can use up to a maximum of two GPUs. This version has all functions, renders without watermarks and permits commercial use. The subscription model, called “Pro Version” from the 4.0 update, remains the same price ($20/month). However, instead of two, up to 20 GPUs can now be used. You can also install one additional slave and add further network nodes for $10/month. The Enterprise variant enables the use of 200 GPUs and Nvidia’s NVLink technology. Prices for this are not yet known.
Release & Availability
An exact date for Octane 4.0 is not yet available, but it is expected during the course of this year. Anyone with a current Octane license can download the preview here. With 3.09, however, another imminent update comes first, integrating Rounded Edge Shader and Random Walk SSS. After that, Otoy wants to move away from major updates to regular small updates: starting with Octance 2018.1 with features such as Light Linking, a new Matte/AOV system and more.
For further information & preview download: To the Otoy forum post
