December 5, 2024 Yen Lily

Troubleshooting common displacement issues in Octane for Cinema 4D part 1

There are ways to get a fine surface detail on a model. You can add more polygons or fake it with textures using bump and normal maps, or using displacement which is good for any details with the close-up camera.  In this article, let’s check out some common displacement issues in Octane for Cinema 4D you may encounter, and how to troubleshoot them.

Not working

There are various reasons for this, you can check them carefully.

Check if it’s plugged in

You should pause the render before doing anything else, then click [R] button in the Octane Live Viewer. This will help refresh the scene. After that, hit the Octane button to start it up again. This will clear out the cache from the GPU and send everything into VRAM again.

In Cinema 4D, check if the right material is on the right model. Is there an active selection in the material tag that’s limiting it to only a few polygons (or none because the selection tag has been deleted, but the material still has something in it?). Is there another material tag overriding the material with displacement?

In the Octane Material, check if everything in the node tree is hooked up correctly. Is the source image in the /tex directory, and is the path to the texture correct in the ImageTexture node? You can try reloading it. Is the height value in the displacement node enough for the scale of your model to see anything? Try making it 100cm and see if that changes anything.

If you’re using Texture displacement and doing anything procedural (generating, mixing, mapping, OSL, etc), check if that procedural chain ends with a Baking Texture node before going into the Displacement node.

If you’re using Vertex displacement, check if the map type is set correctly (Height for b&w, Vector for vector maps).

Check the texture itself

You can run the ImageTexture node into the albedo channel after disconnecting the displacement node.

Then create a new plane with 500×500 segments, and apply the material to it to isolate the problem better. Don’t copy the tag from your model in case it’s a problem with the tag.

If it looks like what you’d expect, maybe the problem doesn’t come from the image itself, but it’s from the rest of the steps in this section. You can check all the way back into the displacement node and see if it works on the plane. If so, it’s an issue with the tag, material setting, or model, not the source texture.

If the image is coming up black in the thumbnail and not showing up in the color channel (even on the new plane), it’s probably a texture problem.

Now you open the texture in a 2D image editor – sometimes the image itself is corrupt, in which case you will have to get a new copy of it, attempt to repair it, or use a different texture.

If it opens fine, try saving a copy as a PNG. If that works, maybe the issue comes from layers or other data in the original file that breaks Octane.

If the texture is a PSD, try opening it up in Photoshop and make sure there are no smart objects or vector layers. If so, save a copy as a flattened image (no layers), and try again with the new flattened version. Octane can recognize PSDs with layers, but ifyou have anything fancy in there like effects, vector objects, or other procedural layers, Octane will often just show the texture as black in the thumbnail and it won’t work.

If the texture is an EXR, try opening it in an image editor and see whether it’s a multi-layered file. If so, extract just the height map and use that.

If saving as a flattened copy doesn’t work, it’s probably not a texture-related issue.

Check the model

If you’re using Vertex displacement, make sure there is enough geometry via subdivision or segments to actually displace polygons so you see anything. If you do, the problem probably comes from elsewhere.

You can check if all your normals are aligned and facing outward. Or check to see if there are any polygon selections and whether they’re linked to the proper materials.

Check UVs/Projection

You can check if the right projection is used, if you’re using UVW to XYZ projection, if it’s set up properly, if the UV island you want to displace is overlapping part of the texture with displacement (in case you use MeshUV projection).

Crashing issue

Check your System

Usually the Live Viewer will dipsplay how much Octane is using your VRAM, and if you run out, it will result to Out-of-core memory or crash. You should check it and see if your GPU has enough VRAM. If not, consider simplifying your scene.

Sometimes other programs in the background might eat up your GPU resources (like a game running, Adobe software, etc.). RAM and hard drive space are also worth checking. RAM should ideally be 2-3x the amount of VRAM, and you should always have 30 or 40GB of free hard drive space at a bare minimum for any 3D work.

Check your Scene/Settings

Always check your polygon count and complex effects. Low-end GPU cannot handle many triangles. Usually over a few million, things can start to slow down, and over ten or twenty million can sometimes cause crashes. Some complex effects or things such as caustics, sims can also eat up your resources.

In these cases, try copying the model and the displacement material into a new scene and see if that works.

Missing polygons/clipping issue

You will encounter this issue in texture displacement (not vertex). It’s very apparent when you move the camera around and different polygons disappear.

You can fix it by adding more actual polygons to the mesh (subdividing).

Water stains issue

This is another common texture displacement issue. You can fix it by playing with the filter value, and also increasing the polygon count of the base mesh and texture resolution to get corners as sharp as you need them. A higher resolution in the Level of Detail dropdown can also help this.

iRender - The best cloud rendering service for Cinema 4D and Octane

This part 1 article is to help you solve some common issues related to diplacement in Octane for Cinema 4D. In part 2, we will discuss more about how to fix issues of Pixelated long X&Z axes, Stepped along the Y (height) Axis, Variable Resolution, Intersecting/Misaligned Edges and Distortion.

iRender provides you a high-performance and configurable server system for 3D rendering, AI Training, VR & AR, simulation, etc. We believe that design and creative activities are private and personal that only you artists will know what you want with your animation.

As Octane can scale up linearly when you use a multiple GPUs system, we offer you from single RTX 4090 to multiple RTX 4090s/3090s.  Check out these articles to know why RTX 4090 is still the best for Octane rendering: Top GPU for Redshift, Octane and V-Ray in 2023 and Compare RTX 4090 vs RTX 6000 Ada vs RTX A6000 for content creation.

We are not only providing you the most powerful graphics card, but also the same level of hardware, such as AMD Ryzen Threadripper processor, 256 GB RAM, 2 TB of storage (NVMe SSD).

For Octane, we suggest our multi RTX4090s or RTX3090s. Below is our test with Octane and Cinema 4D:

Not only those powerful configuration, iRender also provides you more services. Free transferring tool named iRender drive for macOS or Linux users. For Windows users, we recommend using our all-in-one application iRender GPU to work, and you don’t need to come to our website. Our price is flexible with hourly rental which has pay-as-you-go basis, daily/ weekly/ monthly subscription with discount from 10-20%. Plus, you have 24/7 support service with real human who will support you whenever you encounter an issue.

If you use Cinema 4D, kindly create a remote machine with Cinema 4D pre-installed and you are provided one license free. Regarding Octane, you can transfer your own license, or contact us if you want to use our license. Our 24/7 staff will advise you on how to use it.

Register an account today to experience our service and enjoy a very big promotion 100% bonus for new user. Or contact us via WhatsApp: (+84) 916806116 for advice and support.

 

Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Source and images: Scott Benson and otoy.com

Related Posts

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yen Lily

Hi everyone. Being a Customer Support from iRender, I always hope to share and learn new things with 3D artists, data scientists from all over the world.
Contact

INTEGRATIONS

Autodesk Maya
Autodesk 3DS Max
Blender
Cinema 4D
Houdini
Daz Studio
Maxwell
Omniverse
Nvidia Iray
Lumion
KeyShot
Unreal Engine
Twinmotion
Redshift
Octane
V-Ray
And many more…

iRENDER ECOSYSTEM

iRender Core – GPU Render Engine
Rynus – AI & Render Network
Chip Render Farm

iRENDER TEAM

MONDAY – SUNDAY
Hotline: (+84) 912-785-500
Skype: iRender Support
Email: [email protected]
Address 1: 68 Circular Road #02-01, 049422, Singapore.
Address 2: No.22 Thanh Cong Street, Hanoi, Vietnam.

Contact
[email protected]