If the render process for animation is the same as Indigo, this new Iray plugin is pretty much useless in production.
The export process is the major issue with the Indigo plugin. It takes a huge amount of time to process each frame on a complex scene. Sometimes hours for a 300 frame scene. Forget the huge files it exports, hdd is cheap, but time is money and when you use Indigo with its flawed export process, you lose a lot during the export process. And then that's the time to render with the indigo engine after the export process. Indigo is very much behind compared to Redshift and Octane and its extremely slow at this point.

@Reallusion,

Do you think it's about time to change the status of this Feedback Tracker issue from "Active" to "Assigned?"
https://www.reallusion.com/FeedBackTracker/Issue/Nvidia-Iray-Support

As far as I know, "Active" merely means someone at Reallusion as read the post, nothing more than that.  Certainly Iray support is past the "Active" point.

This is why I continue to have little faith that unresolved, but still valid, requests in FBT don't get carried forward to the next version.  But it's really stupid for us to have to re-enter all our 6.x requests and report them against 7.x.  Are older entries forgotten and abandoned or not?


ADDED...

Another FBT issue reported against iC6 that, I think, has bees addressed in iC7:  https://www.reallusion.com/FeedBackTracker/Issue/Physically-accurate-cameras-lenses/1/camera
Wasn't "real" cameras a big deal in a 7.x release, so shouldn't this FBT issue be marked as "Released?"

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

Mike I appreciate you frequently calling RL out when you see something out of line however.. I think you're missing the point on this, when RL or anyone else pre - sales something with a promise you expect the promise is kept. Seen this play out with RL many times before.

1. Pre - paid for Goz in IC6 - never delivered
2. Pre - paid for CT8 because it was going to revolutionize facial animation - never delivered
3. Indigo - no need to explain..

It's not that it's 'just $50' it's principal and cumulative. I won't install CT8 or indigo because they waste space and resources on my pc and remind me of getting burned. Maybe it's just dinner and a movie with my wife but I'd rather have that experience with my wife in memory than getting taken advantage of.

Rant aside I'm an IRAY advocate and personally find it to be one of the main reasons for pre - purchasing Pipeline and Plugin. I don't think it's much to ask to see an IC animation render demo pre - purchase, considering the IC version won't likely drop till December when there will be no 2 week option to say 'not this time'.

Maybe in the 3rd Work in Progress..?


Virtual Media® / VTV® / The Virtual Entertainment Network...
http://VTVLive.com

Well, it's unlikely I'll ever stop complaining about something RL has done (I'm sort of that kind of gadfly) and, yes, it's an odd position for me to be in here trying to defend them.  I understand what you say about history, and while I did buy CT8 for the facial creation thing (and still find it useful in that regard) I didn't get burned with Indigo or Goz, so perhaps if I had I'd be more cautious.  But I'm still confused by what folks are worried about here.  If you have such concerns about iRay based on your past experiences, then by all means pass it by and wait.  So you end up paying $50 more?  Isn't that worth it if it works as you want?

Let me see if I can explain it another way -- yesterday my wife was going back and forth about renting a car for her upcoming trip to visit her family in Iowa.  She was worried because there is a $50 cancellation fee (apparently pretty standard among car renters).  What she was worried about was she *might* not need the car if things work out a certain way (kind of complicated, but let's just say there's a fair chance she won't need it due to circumstances).  What I told her was this -- she HAD to have a car, and if it worked out that she had a car another way, then she was out $50 but she would then SAVE $200 (the total cost of rental was $250).  IOW, it was a win-win situation -- either she didn't lose that $50, or she didn't have to spend $250.

I see this exactly the same way -- if iRay doesn't pan out, so I'm out $50 (coincidentally, the exact same cost :>.  If it does, then I save $50.  But just like a good deal for both parties, it works if you take either side of the bet (this, BTW, is how you know a bet is equitable to both parties -- structure the deal but then allow a person to take either side.  That ensures fairness).  In this case if you DON'T pre-order the plugin you're out an extra $50 but only if it turns out useful to you.  So you win either way.

I would take this kind of bet all day long.

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Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

Thank you all for the feedback. I will pass this on to the team for review. Hopefully we can get a demo video out soon to show how Iray works in iClone 7. 

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

With the understanding that "your mileage may vary," some animation times for iClone/Indigo/Iray would be nice to have.  What CPU/GPU/RAM are involved.  Maybe do at least two tests of a one-minute animation.  The "loft scene" would be a good one to consider.

For Indigo, they should report both the "export" time and the "render" time separately.  For Iray, well, that remains to be seen...

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

Thanks for your efforts and understanding Peter!

Mike I appreciate your analogy however if you placed bets at a casino and won several but they didn't pay up would you continue going to that casino? I'd assume you wouldn't as you're clearly a deep thinker.  Just pointing out analogies can be explained or interpreted different ways.  

I wanna place this bet I just want to be a little more informed about what I'm betting on, I can render stills with IRAY in DS.

Speaking of controversy, what ever happened to sn0000p?




Virtual Media® / VTV® / The Virtual Entertainment Network...
http://VTVLive.com

I'm too lazy to find the reference, but Miranda has indicated that the mechanism to export from iClone is completely different for Iray compared to Indigo, in that it does not require a complete scene to be exported for each frame, which is kind of a silly way to go about things. So for Indigo the failure for animation is primarily the space requirements. Time is secondary, and Indigo 4 is faster than Indigo 3. I have given up hope that RL will fix the export plugin, but it is what it is. 

I'll probably gamble the $50 for the Iray plugin. I have had my disappointments too with RL, but I never pre-paid for Go-Z, and I doubt if many would have stayed with iClone 5 just because it wasn't included. I would still like to have face creation from a photograph in CC3 rather than having to go the CT8 route (which really was kind of a silly move on RL's part), but I will live with CT8 for now. For me the positives with RL outweigh the negatives, and I would probably not have gotten as far in animation as I have without iClone.

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Regarding Iray and *animation*...  I see it as a $50 gamble either way.

Option 1 - Pay $50 now for something that may not work for you, and you won't be able to get your money back by the time you find out it doesn't work for animation.
Option 2 - Pay $50 "extra" by buying it later, after the early-bird special expires but when you have a chance to evaluate it and keep it only if you like it.

So which risk do you prefer?  

Me?  I placed my pre-order, since I konw I will want to "play" with it, whether it's a viable animation tool or not.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

You forgot option 3 - Peter gets us an example

Got my trigger finger on the purchase button and will likely push it. However on principal alone it would be nice to see a simple 5 second render of a stock avatar waving with specs. I'd bet it triggers a lot of pre - purchases.



Virtual Media® / VTV® / The Virtual Entertainment Network...
http://VTVLive.com