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octane render plugin for FZ?


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Fully behind increased rendering options within FormZ for v9. The Lightworks based Renderzone engine is most definitely lacking by modern day standards and a GPU option to go alongside Maxwell would be welcomed by many I'm sure.

 

The Modo engine is used in Bentley and Solidworks and is a class above too; so if AutoDesSys were able to move to another engine this would also be a great option.

 

Renderman should be considered too (and is my most favoured option) as it's the only third party render engine I know of that renders NURBS directly (without first tessellating them). To quote from the Renderman for Maya docs - "Tessellation settings are never an issue with RenderMan when rendering NURBS and subdivision surfaces. Since RenderMan renders true curved surfaces, NURBS and subdivision surfaces will never have faceting artifacts. Maya's tessellation mode settings are simply ignored and the benefits of RenderMan are immediately realized.". This seems a perfect fit for FormZ. And with Disney making Renderman far more affordable (approx $500 per render node) it's great value too (not forgetting they make an unrestricted PLE version available as a free download too, for non-commercial use).

 

I'd also like to see the IO plugins get a complete overall as they are less than satisfactory at the moment (as has been well documented here on the forum). FormZ is never going to be able to compete with the specialist digital content creation packages for animation purposes so error free exports world be gratefully received. At the moment, a combination of STEP and the Power Translators plugins seems to be the best way to get error free geometry into DCC packages but it creates a lot of extra work as you're at ground zero when it comes to materials and such like.

 

 

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Hi Gentlemen,

 

Thanks for your suggestions, we will consider these for the future.  With regards to the Smooth Shading artifacts that can occur with certain shapes when exporting, we have added a new option for High Quality Smoothing to the next beta -- that should solve this issue.  Stay tuned for an announcement (coming soon) for when this is available. ;)

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Hi Gentlemen,

 

Thanks for your suggestions, we will consider these for the future.  With regards to the Smooth Shading artifacts that can occur with certain shapes when exporting, we have added a new option for High Quality Smoothing to the next beta -- that should solve this issue.  Stay tuned for an announcement (coming soon) for when this is available. ;)

 

This is the news I've been waiting upon for a very long time - as Tech knows from many a PM shared over the last 18 month or so!

 

Can't wait to see it in action. :)

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Something with CUDA + CPU rendering, like Octane would take FormZ to the next level.  Right now, the aging Lightworks engine is struggling to remain relevant, as it can not even efficiently scale up to render more quickly on our 12+ core machines.   If it could do that, I would accept it in the short term, but we all know that GPU rendering is the future, heck, even Maxwell is tipping in...http://blog.digitaltutors.com/dt-exclusive-maxwells-head-render-technology-explains-gpu-prototype/

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Something with CUDA + CPU rendering, like Octane would take FormZ to the next level.  Right now, the aging Lightworks engine is struggling to remain relevant, as it can not even efficiently scale up to render more quickly on our 12+ core machines.   If it could do that, I would accept it in the short term, but we all know that GPU rendering is the future, heck, even Maxwell is tipping in...http://blog.digitaltutors.com/dt-exclusive-maxwells-head-render-technology-explains-gpu-prototype/

 

Justin, you should take a look at Modo. The render engine in 901 is of Vray quality and super fast. And the big secret that not many people realise is that you can use Modo Indie on renders up to 4k for $299 (very few restrictions compared to the full $1799 license too but its node locked to a single workstation via Steam). Check out the full Modo 30 day demo first and see if it clicks but now that FormZ is finally getting on top of the smoothing issues you used to get when exporting geometry it's definitely worth exploring.

 

Cityscape in London no longer use Vray and use Modo exclusively

 

http://www.cityscapedigital.co.uk/

 

With regards to Octane it's great for some projects (exhibition stands and such like) but falls down on the memory requirements that are often required for larger ArchViz projects. We ran some benchmarks and well optimised Vray or Modo CPU renders can still best it. And the visual quality of a good Vray or Modo render surpasses Octane every time.

 

Vray Indie is still on 801 but is due to be updated to 901 in the coming weeks. As I say, definitely worth exploring whilst FormZ is limited in it's rendering options. You can even rent it for $25 a month before making a full commitment if you so choose.

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Thanks for the input John.  I've played with Modo, as I have a good friend who uses it professionally and was trying to get me to jump ship.  Its modeling is too slow, and the extreme levels of photorealism are unnecessary for our work, as it is very much meant to be conceptual for selling purposes.  It would be nice to be able to more accurately show modern lighting options (backlit/glowing graphics, LED light tape everywhere), which is why we have been playing with Maxwell.

 

We're mostly doing large exhibit design and interior architecture, but can get detail heavy when the client has the budget.  We need something that is LIVE and integrated directly in FormZ.  It doesn't do us any good to have to export, since we need to be able to do sample renderings while we are still designing.  Maxwell via Fire works OK in this regard, but is far too difficult to setup simple scenes.  I feel like Maxwell needs some default scenes you can pick from and adjust, something like simple mode, similar to Keyshot.  

 

But unless we can get another integrated option inside FormZ, we're kind of stuck.  Though there is a lot of talk now about Rhino, since that is what our CAD associates are using to import our design files with and then do the engineering work and detail drawings.  They have had no issues importing our FormZ files, but occasionally when we need to import their files into FormZ for rendering, it can be quite a task.  That said, I'm not giving up FormZ, it's still wonderfully fast to model with, it's just the mapping and rendering that is lacking these days.  Can't wait to see what the future holds.   :D

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Thanks for the input John.  I've played with Modo, as I have a good friend who uses it professionally and was trying to get me to jump ship.  Its modeling is too slow, and the extreme levels of photorealism are unnecessary for our work, as it is very much meant to be conceptual for selling purposes.  It would be nice to be able to more accurately show modern lighting options (backlit/glowing graphics, LED light tape everywhere), which is why we have been playing with Maxwell.

 

We're mostly doing large exhibit design and interior architecture, but can get detail heavy when the client has the budget.  We need something that is LIVE and integrated directly in FormZ.  It doesn't do us any good to have to export, since we need to be able to do sample renderings while we are still designing.  Maxwell via Fire works OK in this regard, but is far too difficult to setup simple scenes.  I feel like Maxwell needs some default scenes you can pick from and adjust, something like simple mode, similar to Keyshot.  

 

But unless we can get another integrated option inside FormZ, we're kind of stuck.  Though there is a lot of talk now about Rhino, since that is what our CAD associates are using to import our design files with and then do the engineering work and detail drawings.  They have had no issues importing our FormZ files, but occasionally when we need to import their files into FormZ for rendering, it can be quite a task.  That said, I'm not giving up FormZ, it's still wonderfully fast to model with, it's just the mapping and rendering that is lacking these days.  Can't wait to see what the future holds.   :D

 

All good. Just offering an option for now. And I was thinking of Modo strictly as a rendering technology.

 

I've been part of the Vray For Modo alpha/beta test team for the last 14 months so I'm well aware of how long it take to integrate a third party render engine at a deep level (Vray for Modo will finally be launched around August/September). Unless AutoDesSys already have something up their sleeve I can't see an integrated third party engine happening in the next 12 months, especially a GPU powered engine.

 

Fully agree that it's something that's desperately needed though (CPU, GPU or preferably both).

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Hi Justin,

 

Maxwell via Fire works OK in this regard, but is far too difficult to setup simple scenes.

 

 

Can you post a link to a project file you are having trouble with? Setting up lighting with Maxwell though formZ should be strait-forward and quick. That's one of Maxwell's strengths. LED strips, glowing monitors, etc. are not a problem.

 

We are working on some sample scenes for formZ, so if you get in touch with your project, we can address your needs. We have specifically looking for an exhibit design/trade show type model to work from.

 

-Maxwell for formZ Support

 

 

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Just to give a nod to the discussion above; more often these days my clients are wanting to see illumination effects such as LED strips, backlit displays and such. I would really like to see a workflow tutorial focused on this using Maxwell. FormZ is severely lacking in this area. It is time for other/better rendering options. I find myself adding these touches in photoshop but this really gets time consuming when managing multiple changes.

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Just to give a nod to the discussion above; more often these days my clients are wanting to see illumination effects such as LED strips, backlit displays and such. I would really like to see a workflow tutorial focused on this using Maxwell. FormZ is severely lacking in this area. It is time for other/better rendering options. I find myself adding these touches in photoshop but this really gets time consuming when managing multiple changes.

 

I couldn't agree more.

 

We try to avoid having to do any post production work to renderings since there are almost always quick updates to be made from the clients.  Trying to use Photoshop to fix rendering shortcomings makes a bottleneck when those changes come around.  

 

Using advice from this forum and studying the FormZ manual, allowed me to come up with a simple lighting technique that provides the basis for all the exhibits and interiors I do now.   You only need to understand how to use the Sun light and the other options available to make a single light source do 95% of the work.  ;)

 

One of the biggest problems with RenderZone's lighting options is the poor implementation and control of GLOW lighting.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  If your glow is in space with only the background or distant object behind it, forget about it, it's not going to show up.  If it does have other objects around it, it's difficult to get it to show up without being overblown.  

 

Here's a couple of examples where I've 'cheated' using transparency maps to mimic glows, and another example where I used Area/Line glows, but neither really read entirely as intended.  

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Hi Justin,

 

 

Can you post a link to a project file you are having trouble with? Setting up lighting with Maxwell though formZ should be strait-forward and quick. That's one of Maxwell's strengths. LED strips, glowing monitors, etc. are not a problem.

 

We are working on some sample scenes for formZ, so if you get in touch with your project, we can address your needs. We have specifically looking for an exhibit design/trade show type model to work from.

 

-Maxwell for formZ Support

 

Hello-

 

If you take a look at those examples, we need a really basic scene.  Slightly glossy floor that fades to transparent, sometimes a simple background image like the RenderZone implementation, and an overall simple lighting that illuminates most everything, allowing for the detail lighting to be set.  I can send you an example of how I manage this simple lighting in RenderZone, but I'd rather not share it with the 'world' here.  Email?

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Justin and Envdesign-

 

Thank you very much for your examples. Based on your input, we hope to have a sample formZ/Maxwell project tailored for your industry soon.

 

-Maxwell for formZ Support

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sounds cool, everything, but maybe slightly off topic - there are some other threads with discussions for render engines in combination with FZ ;-) btw., i am using modo as well for rendering sometimes, and it *has* an excellent render engine, but a plugin is something different as it shortens the workflow by eliminating the model conversion/transfer process. currently the only option for FZ is the excellent maxwell plugin. but maxwell is simply too slow for some of my requirements, even with 48 cores + at my disposal. octane can handle high poly counts, provided you have at least a modern 3G VRAM nvidia card. it also supports out-of-core textures, so the geometry to be handled can be quite large. i'm using it here through lightwave with even the largest of my scenes without issues.

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If AutoDesSys do go down the GPU route in the long run it's definitely worthwhile looking at RedShift - we've found it superior to Octane in testing. I have a suspicion that iRay is the most likely candidate though seeing as it's also developed by Lightworks (not a fan for what it's worth).

 

Here's a short taster of RedShift in SoftImage but be sure to check out the more detailed videos on their site. They're a small independent company hungry for dev partners so they should at the very least be open to conversation (they recently reached out to dev partners in the C4D community).

 

Very high quality and super, super quick!

 

 

https://www.redshift3d.com/

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Hm… Redshift is Windows-only…

 

At this stage but they do plan to port it to OS X in the future. The sad truth with 3d tech right now, is that Wintel boxes outperform Mac's due to Apples fierce consumer focus in recent years. With luck Metal is the start of something new (in particular with regard to GPU rendering tech).

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never could test redshift because on mac only. btw octane will support also AMD cards and opencl as of version 3 (at least they announced it), so it will be truly platform independent.

 

what i like a lot is that octane - while being a GPU engine - has a very capable layer and passes rendering system, so for example a one file rendering in EXR or PSD format which contains ID layers, separate object layers and for example an occlusion layer is just a mouse click away. perfect for compositing and post production in general.

 

about redshifts image quality, i must say that i have not seen yet architectural images looking as good as rendered in octane. at least the company gallery page images don't show anything too thrilling to me.

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