XYZ To UVW is also known as planar projection or flat mapping. This mapping type takes the coordinates in world or object space and uses them as UVW coordinates. For images, only the X and Y coordinates are relevant, which are mapped to U and V. In other words, the images use flat mapping projected along the Z axis. XYZ To UVW results differ depending on whether it is applied to a Procedural texture or an imported texture.
Figure 1: XYZ To UVW Projection applied to RGB Image TexturesTextures are used to add details to a surface. Textures can be procedural or imported raster files., a Saw Wave Texture and a Turbulence Texture.
XYZ To UVW maps image textures to the (-1, -1) - (1, 1) range. Rotating the mapping around the Z axis rotates the image around the center, as the UVW rotation would do. Octane uses the object coordinate space in a way that the texture projection is in a coordinate space local to each instance. If UV mapping is required, you can apply a transformation in UV space (translation/scale/rotation) via the UV Transform pin.
Figure 2: XYZ To UVW projection applied to a box, cylinder, and sphere