Otoy has released the first public preview of Octane Render 2024.1, the next major version of the GPU production renderer.
The release introduces a new geometry pipeline, improving ray tracing performance and finally making it possible to mix Macs with Windows and Linux machines in render networks.
Other changes include new options for post-processing AOVs and new denoising nodes based on the Open Image Denoise framework.
Multi-platform network rendering was finally made possible by a new geometry pipeline
The key change in OctaneRender 2024.1 is the new geometry pipeline – which, among other things, makes it possible to mix Windows, Linux, and macOS machines in a render network.
Currently, Otoy supports CUDA in the Windows and Linux versions of OctaneRender, and Metal in Octane X, the edition for Apple devices.
The firm previously used different memory layouts for geometry data on CUDA and Metal, making it impossible to use both Windows/Linux machines and Macs in the same network.
OctaneRender 2024.1 unifies the geometry data layouts, making it possible to do mixed-platform network rendering.
Otoy has temporarily enabled network rendering in the free Prime edition of Octane X to make it easier for subscribers to test the new functionality.
Improved ray tracing performance on all platforms
In addition, with the new geometry pipeline, Otoy has “commit[ted] fully to hardware ray tracing”.
OctaneRender 2024.1 uses the RT cores in NVIDIA GPUs for all mesh primitives, including hair, spheres, and displacement triangles, improving rendering performance.
In the case of the standard test scene shown in this forum post, render time is reduced by around 20% when compared to the previous release, although Otoy says that in “extreme” cases with heavy motion blur, the reduction can be as high as 80%.
The software is also being optimized for the ray tracing hardware in Apple’s new M3 processors, resulting in “2x to 12x(!) speed gains in heavily instanced scenes”.
Find out more on the Otoy official website.
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