Octane for 3dsmax

Can be used with the Gradient Texture node. The Instance Range texture holds a gradient color with the range of 0 - Maximum ID, and prepares this range to map to geometric instance IDs. This node has two attributes, Maximum ID, which corresponds to the total number of instanced geometry in the scene for which the material is applied and an Invert parameter which inverts the gradient across the instance IDs. . 

Figure 1: The Instance Range texture maps a Gradient onto a series of instanced cubes 

You should set the Instance Range texture's Maximum ID parameter to the corresponding number of instances its Material is applied to in a scene. 

Figure 2: The Maximum ID value set to a corresponding number of instances in a scene 

Object instance IDs are set in an Object's Octane Properties window, which you can find in the Quad menu when right-clicking on an Object. 

Figure 3: Specifying Instance IDs from the Octane Object Properties window