Hi,

OctaneRender for Houdini 2.2 beta is now available for all Houdini users at reduced price. The plugin will be updated on regular basis until reach the first stable production release.
http://home.otoy.com/render/octane-render/purchase/ [home.otoy.com]

The plugin supports all the Octane 2.2 features inside Houdini, and a lot of the Houdini tools, like instancing, fur, tessellated primitives, any kind of polygonal surfaces from simulations, like fluids, etc. And this is only the beginning, more features are planned for the next 2.x beta releases.

The plugin is currently available for Houdini and Houdini FX 14.0 for Windows x64 and Linux gcc4.8. OctaneRender for Houdini currently doesn’t work in Houdini Apprentice and Houdini Indie because they do not support third party renderers. We can provide the plugin for Houdini 13.0 by request if there is a studio working with this version.

This is the plugin online documentation:
http://render.otoy.com/manuals/Houdini/ [render.otoy.com]

And a brief tutorial with the first steps with the plugin:
http://render.otoy.com/manuals/Houdini/?page_id=696 [render.otoy.com]

The registered users have access to the plugin support forum to post all the bugs, the feature request and the amazing images and animations made with OctaneRender:
http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=101 [render.otoy.com]


Thanks to all the closed beta testers and to SideFX for their support in this project !!!
-Juanjo

Great work and thank you! Looking forward to 3.0 ;-)

Huge news for the little guys. If it could be used with Indie then it would be a game changer.

The OctaneRender for Houdini beta plugin is now available in demo version. http://home.otoy.com/render/octane-render/demo/ [home.otoy.com]

-Juanjo

cool…
just a little error on the downloads page:
http://home.otoy.com/render/octane-render/demo/ [home.otoy.com]
if you select the list of Fully Integrated Plugins
and select Houdini
you'll see this at the bottom:

Note that this demo version does not require the standalone edition, however the licensed version requires both an OctaneRender Standalone edition license and an OctaneRender for Autodesk® Softimage® Plugin license.

Thanks, I just reported this mistake to the Otoy team

-Juanjo

There is a new beta build of the Octane plugin, that this time is also available in DEMO version to test all the latest features

https://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=50520 [render.otoy.com]

-Juanjo

Hi!
Just to say that i am not finding anymore the houdini 15.0.179 version, which is required to test the octane demo.
I must download houdini 14.0.444 to be able to test octane with houdini, sadly.

kergues
Hi!
Just to say that i am not finding anymore the houdini 15.0.179 version, which is required to test the octane demo.
I must download houdini 14.0.444 to be able to test octane with houdini, sadly.

Are you working in Windows? … I will try to update the demo version for the last production builds ASAP.

-Juanjo

This is the Octane DEMO for the last H14/H15 production builds for Windows. If you need it for other platform, please let me know.

https://render.otoy.com/plugindownloads/47/fd/32/6e/Octane_2.24.2.0_Houdini_Windows_DEMO.zip [render.otoy.com]

Thanks,
-Juanjo

juanjgon
This is the Octane DEMO for the last H14/H15 production builds for Windows. If you need it for other platform, please let me know.

https://render.otoy.com/plugindownloads/47/fd/32/6e/Octane_2.24.2.0_Houdini_Windows_DEMO.zip [render.otoy.com]

Thanks,
-Juanjo

WOW, you really don't have to end your message with “thanks”, I'm the one grateful here, really!!
And it was so fast!
Thanks a lot Juanjo.

Hi, yesterday I wanted to try Octane for Houdini demo, co I downloaded the latest demo from Otoy web. Because Mac OS X install has no installation info (just for win and linux) I placed whole unpacked folder in Apps and set variables to that folder in houdini.env (HOUDINI_PATH = /Applications/Octane_2.24.2.0_Houdini_15.0.179.25_OSX;&). Now Houdini see the Octane but when I try to create an Octane render node from menu it fails with this error. Can anyone help me please? Thanks a lot.

What version of Houdini are you using?

The OSX and Linux installation procedure is the same ( https://docs.otoy.com/Houdini/?page_id=39 [docs.otoy.com] ), so if you can see the plugin, all should work fine, but it seems that there is a problem, and Houdini doesn't want to load the plugin.

-Juanjo

My version of Houdini is in the picture - 15.0.244.16 - so the latest produciton build. My installation procedure was correct. So what is causing the error when trying to load the plugin? Am I alone with this problem? Is there anybody who is running Octane demo without issues?

Sorry, I had not seen the version in the picture. The problem is that you are trying to run a plugin built for H15.0.179.25 in your H15.0.244.16, and it doesn't work.

I will try to compile a new demo version for OSX as soon as possible. Anyway be aware that currently the plugin OSX version doesn't have the Octane IPR window function available, because Apple has dropped the support of some libraries used by the plugin to manage the IPR window, that is working in Windows and Linux without problems.

I am working to fix this issue, all the other plugin functions should work without problems.

-Juanjo

Hi Juanjo, I didn't know you are a developer of this Octane demo, that's great. The production build 15.0.244.16 is here for quite a long time. I have thought that any software designed for some version of other app should work in their future minor releases. So octane demo designed for 15.0.179 version should work in 15.0.244. I would understand it when it will not work with 15.1 or 16 version of Houdini. I have read somewhere that IPR is not working due to lack of X11. I think X11 is an old terrbile dinosaur so Octane should be written using current technologies and not depend on something ancient, what do you think? And by the way when I install on my El Capitan X11 - the IPR will work?
And the IPR render is the main feature what people from Octane on GPU expect and using the most for buliding scenes and fast preview. So the lack of it is quite bad. I tried the demo in Maya 2016, few times it restarted my computer, but the IPR is working and is a very nice feature.
I am looking forward to your new release, so I can try it myself in my loved Houdini. Thanks for an answer.

Francoise
Hi Juanjo, I didn't know you are a developer of this Octane demo, that's great. The production build 15.0.244.16 is here for quite a long time. I have thought that any software designed for some version of other app should work in their future minor releases. So octane demo designed for 15.0.179 version should work in 15.0.244. I would understand it when it will not work with 15.1 or 16 version of Houdini. I have read somewhere that IPR is not working due to lack of X11. I think X11 is an old terrbile dinosaur so Octane should be written using current technologies and not depend on something ancient, what do you think? And by the way when I install on my El Capitan X11 - the IPR will work?
And the IPR render is the main feature what people from Octane on GPU expect and using the most for buliding scenes and fast preview. So the lack of it is quite bad. I tried the demo in Maya 2016, few times it restarted my computer, but the IPR is working and is a very nice feature.
I am looking forward to your new release, so I can try it myself in my loved Houdini. Thanks for an answer.

Sure, the commercial version is compiled for 15.0.244.16 and it works fine (without the IPR window, as you know). It is only that I need to recompile the OSX “demo” versions to the last production builds, a matter of minutes

I am working in a new IPR for the OSX version using MPlay as viewer, that should be ready in few days, and a new IPR window for all the platforms using more portable libs that should be ready for Octane 3. The problem is that the IPR viewer is using the GLUT framework, that is no longer supported in OSX.

Anyway I will post a demo build for H15.0.244.16 OSX later today.

-Juanjo

Hi Juanjo, if it is a matter of minutes I will not leave my comp today until you post it ) Thanks a lot.
You missed my question about X11 - when I will install X11 on my El Cap, will the IPR work?
And second question now - when you finish your IPR version using Mplay (as you wrote in few days) - will this be available also in the demo version? Can you let us know here in this thread when it will be done?
I really like Houdini as I like Octane, I think combination of these two is a big deal for a lot of people without money for big renderfarm.

You don't need X11 at all to run the plugin (now or in the future). Of curse the Demo version will be also updated with the new MPlay viewer ASAP.

-Juanjo

This is the OSX plugin demo for the last H14 and H15 production builds
https://render.otoy.com/plugindownloads/05/60/a7/8e/Octane_2.24.2.0_Houdini_OSX_DEMO.zip [render.otoy.com]

-Juanjo