A Kernel is the central part of the rendering engine that interfaces with the rendering hardware. There are mulitple rendering Kernels in OctaneRender®: 

    • Direct Lighting
    • Info Channel
    • PMC 
    • Path Tracing
    • Photon Tracing
    • Kernel Switch


Each Kernel has its own strengths and weaknesses, so deciding the best Kernel to use is determined by the types of Materials and lighting in the scene, how you want the final image to look, and how fast you want to render the scene. The render kernels can be access from either the Octane Kernel Node Editor or from the Render Properties panel.

Figure 1:  Octane Kernel Node Editor on the left with the Render Properties panel on the right.