In defense of Radiance, he is under tremendous pressure to give everyone their "pet" feature whether its MLT, animation support, multi-GPU, normal smoothing etc. He's working 16 hour days programming, trying to implement as many features as possible for the widest audience. He is stressed, there is no doubt. But he is also blazing a trail where few have gone (GPU based, extremely parallel programed ray tracers.) Octane Render offers many great, unique features and I am confident that Octane Render will still be a strong choice for MOI users in the future. It just may not be high on the priority list to resolve this smoothing issue, currently.

I'm sorry for the way that Paq was treated as he is indeed a great artist and I've always enjoyed his contributions to the community. I also thank all the users who posted examples and files for us to try to resolve any issues and for Michael's contributions.

Sincerely:

Phil Beauchamp

Octane a beta program. It's intro price is low to encourage people to begin working with it. At the same time, users are invited to share feedback. I think everyone who has participated in this thread has done so because they want to see this fantastic program reach it's full potential.

As an owner of MoI and Octane, I hope both programs will become fully compatible. Radiance has done a lot of development in a very short time with new features coming out weekly and even daily. It's obvious he works long hours. I think to prevent burn-out, a developer has to realize you can't get everyone's pet feature in at once. Prioritize, let people know your priorities, and enjoy building your creation.

Hi Phil, there are definitely a lot of really cool things about Octane, no doubt about that!

I think the main reason why people keep pressuring to get the vertex normals straightened out is because they really like it and want to use it.

- Michael

Hello,

I'm all for well-implemented features, but in my mind now is the time to squash this bug. If someone gets up in arms about their own little feature let them. I can see there is a significant quality issue that needs to be addressed. Getting a fast result is for nothing if the end is not correct.

I hope Radiance is reading this. All it takes is a forum or web post to acknowledge the problem in your code, and kindly tell users that this is taking priority for good reason. You start well you end better. I think I see the stress of coding showing in the comments, you need to ask for assistance on the PR side of things to allow you to concentrate on the development tasks. I highly doubt you will lose any customers if you address this now. You have a greater chance of losing customers out of beta if you don't.

Hello there,

Michael I'm sorry this appends in our cool community, it's the last time I post about this.

Hi Phil,

I have full respect for you, but stress or not, this guy has a real communication skill problem :

http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=44663&page=6

So now the 'moi to octane' thread is locked, everyone requesting about vertex normal issue will extend the fix for one week.
( ... supposed he really has the skills to fix it, which is not proved so far :P ... sorry, I can also act like an a* )

I'm really sad for Son Kim, at least I was refound :/ (excpet the GT260 I just bought for Octane :P ... looks like thea is on his way too).

 


... I often turn my wife crazy, my boss from time to time, but it's the fist time I burn out a developper :)

Cheers guys, and thanks for your support.

I just got done reading the entire thread referenced above. All I can say is, "Wow".

I can understand beta status and bugs, but I can't begin to comprehend the response to the users.

I guess I'm lucky I'm only out $136.

That goes for me too, Wow! after reading the thread on luxology forum, this is very serious and the offensive language used by Radiance.....very unprofessional, with that attitude no ones a winner.

I started to look into Octane, but.................?

I'm recording my favorite TV show tonight, this is much better drama ;)

Cheers guys and good luck

~Danny~

Wow is right....having second thoughts about Octane....

Even I.....The KING of poor forum judgement, just spilled my coffee all over myself.

You got to love the net...reading that thread Radiance's FOUL language and attitude towards beta users...Oh well he just saved me some money and a lot of wasted time on testing his product :(

Wow, not good. I didnt buy a license, won it... but still.
Funny timing, this week in a course I am helping with,
we discussed the infinite memory of the internet and how things can come back and bite you.
A good example.

I installed the Demo today, because I was curious how fast an interior is rendered. The meshes from Rhino wasn't shown right and the scene navigation was difficult. I stoped my test. With mesh display problems the renderer is not useable.

Looks like Thea is the way to go with MoI... :-P

I'll give the demo a gander.

-Will

PS - Paq, that Car render (crinkles and all) with the wood attached at the back was hilarious!

Radiance should had understood that we're all just trying to make his product the best it can be - Michael was very helpful explaining how NURBS exports data, and how it should be properly used by a rendering app.

I hope Radiance takes a deep breath and reconsiders his stance on this - we're here to help him succeed not to stress him out as he seems to feel.

I agree that all other development should be put on hold until this issue is resolved however.

Taking the same model and rendering it in Thea and Octane should be proof enough, all personalities aside...

I think that these issues will be resolved eventually.

Please have patience and understand that it is on the radar and these example files will be a great help. I cannot confirm any timing with any further work in this area, but it is on the to do list (and it isn't the number 1 priority.)

Please sit tight, and by all means, try every demo of every render engine you can get your hands on. Then purchase the best one for your style and work flow. In the end, I hope that Octane will be every ones choice but understand that it will not be so.

Thanks for your patience and understanding in the issue.

Sincerely:

Phil Beauchamp

Maybe we can let this thread dwindle down now and get back to MoI discussions?

Otherwise poor Phil is going to be stuck in a loop having to apologize over and over again for something that he doesn't have direct control over.

- Michael

Yeah...like when can I fork over money for MOI3D Version 2.0!!!!

Pretty darn soon! :) This pesky documentation...

- Michael

How are those docs going, anyway? Have you begun the latin translations, or are you still working on the iambic pentameter? =)

I'm afraid I'm still stuck on the Aramaic at the moment... :)

One times more, Michael, you show us how serious you are.
You have a software almost bug free, but you don't start selling it just because of the documentation. I really admire your way of work. Thanks for that!