In the following article we would like to discuss the use of the Octane renderer in Cinema 4D. The Octane renderer plays often an important role in 3D configurators projects. If you have never heard of Octane before or if you are curious to use Octane in Cinema 4D, you should definitely read this article.
There are definitely some terms that we will use in this post that will sound strange to you, so we will increasingly use links to previous content in this post if we classify terms as in need of explanation.
Short look into the past of Otoy.
Otoy is a relatively new company and was founded in 2008 by Jules Urbach (Founder & CEO), Alissa Grainger (Founder & CEO) and Malcolm Taylor (Founder & CTO). They now have over 60 employees and their render engine has been used to create incredible 3D artwork at the highest level.
And that’s it for their biography. Even on the Wikipedia page you won’t find an entry about the company.
What is OctaneRender?
Otoy writes: “OctaneRender® is the world’s first and fastest GPU-accelerated, unbiased, physically correct renderer.”
Put simply, Octane is a GPU render engine that uses a method to calculate the final rendered images that aim to be photorealistic. Similar to Arnold, but with GPU technology.
The advantages of using Octane in Cinema 4D.
These articles are designed to present facts so you can make an informed decision in your career. If you’re looking for a comparison and contrast of render engines, we’ll have one for you in the coming weeks.
Octane works pretty smart and fast.
One of the great features of GPU rendering technology is how fast you can render an image compared to CPU rendering. If you’re currently using standard or physical rendering in Cinema 4D, you know that sometimes a single image can take minutes to render for a simple scene. Octane cuts through simple scenes like butter and turns those minutes into seconds.
Octane increases your workflow speed with LiveViewer.
A big advantage when using a third-party rendering engine is the Interactive Preview Region (IPR). The LiveViewer is Octanes label for an IPR. It allows users to see a rendered scene in near real time. Especially since Octane uses GPUs to process the rendering. IPRs update in real-time when an object is changed, a light is added, or a texture element is changed. It’s fantastic.
You’ll soon be able to use Octane anywhere.
When Otoy announced Octane v.4, it became known that users would soon be able to switch between different 3D software on a single license. However, this feature is not currently available. We will discuss this further below.
The Octane community is huge.
At this time there are currently 25k members in the Octane Facebook main group. There are also many more places outside this group to find users and get help, from Reddit to the official Otoy forums.
The GPU seems to be where the rendering takes place.
Since Octane is a GPU engine, you’re working very forward-looking. Although there are still many reasons to use a CPU render engine, the speed increase you get from using a GPU is hard to ignore.
A GPU is also much easier to update than almost any other part in a computer. After a few years with a GPU and improved technology, you can open the side of a PC and replace your old card with a new model. You don’t have to build a completely new system, as is often the case when you want the fastest and newest CPU. Now you can save that money and spend it on things you really need.
The disadvantage of using Octane in Cinema 4D.
As we mentioned in previous articles, using engines from other vendors is something else you have to learn. You can’t avoid having everything you need to render images in Cinema 4D, so there are likely to be some drawbacks. In the following we would like to discuss some of Octane’s current features.
There are problems using render farms.
One of Octane’s biggest drawbacks is the fact that you’re stuck with really big jobs. You will need a small render farm in your office/house.
Octane offers ORC (Octane Render Cloud), a custom version of a render farm. However, this is quite expensive. There are other render farms you can use, but it breaks the EULA and if you get caught, you could lose your license. That would be very annoying, of course.
Octane licenses cover only one application.
As mentioned earlier, you can purchase an Octane license only for the 3D software included in your license. If you are a Cinema 4D user, but also use Houdini, Maya or other software, you currently need to purchase a license for each application. Otoy has announced that with Octane v.4 this will no longer be the case. At the time of this writing, however, this is a significant disadvantage compared to engines from other vendors.
How can I learn more about Octane?
If you would like to learn more about Octane, please feel free to contact our experts in our forum or contact us via Twitter.
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