The Null MaterialThe representation of the surface or volume properties of an object. node is used for mesh objects that have an invisible surface but contain a medium. This is equivalent to setting up a specular material with IOR 1 and a reflection of 0 and a transmission of 1. However, that methodology no longer makes sense with nested dielectric. The Null Material was created to make a medium with no surface work in all cases.
Figure 1: The Null material with an Octane ScatteringDefines how fast light gets scattered when traveling through the medium. Medium connected to it's Medium input
Medium - Accepts any medium node.
Opacity - Controls the transparency of the material via a greyscale texture.
Smooth - If disabled, normal interpolation will be disabled and triangle meshes will appear facetted.
Smooth Shadow Terminator - If enabled, self-intersecting shadows are smoothed according to the polygon's curvature.
Affect Alpha - If enabled, refractions will affect the alpha channel.
DisplacementThe process of utilizing a 2D texture map to generate 3D surface relief. As opposed to bump and normal mapping, Displacement mapping does not only provide the illusion of depth but it effectively displaces the actual geometric position of points over the textured surface. - Accepts any displacement node to create highly detailed geometry with a low memory footprint.
Round Edges - Bevels the surface edges at render time without needing to alter or subdivide the geometry. Using this option enhances object realism by eliminating overly sharp edges. You must connect the OctaneRender®Round Edges node to this input pin. The value refers to the rounded edge's radius. Higher values produce rounder edges.
Virtual Material - Gives particles random materials. The main material is assigned to the particles. After that, you can create any number of additional materials by adding them to the MaterialsA set of attributes or parameters that describe surface characteristics. List. The particles are assigned materials according to the Virtual Material type chosen. If you select the Non-Permanent Object Material checkbox, materials will not stick to the particles.
TexturesTextures are used to add details to a surface. Textures can be procedural or imported raster files. Resolution (PX) - Assigns a resolution to the Texture. Default setting is 1, which represents a 1 x 1 square. The maximum setting is 1024.
Preview Plane Size (M) - Adjusts the Octane Material preview plane's size, with the default value measured in meters.
Texture Quality (SPP) - The number of samples rendered per pixel. Higher values give finer details at the expense of rendering speed.
Shininess (VP2.0 Only) - Renders roughness in the Viewport. A value of 0 makes the texture totally shiny, and a value of 8 makes the texture totally rough.
Rebuild Textures - Refreshes the Viewport after you adjust any of the parameters in this section.
Swatch Quality (SPP) - The number of samples rendered per pixel on the native Swatch material in Maya®.