Octane for Houdini

Render Layers separate scene geometry into parts, where one part is meant to be visible, and the other parts capture the side effects of the visible geometry. The layers allow different objects to render into separate images, where you can apply some normal render passes. The Render Layers are meant for compositing, not hiding parts of the scene. 

To set up a scene for rendering in layers, you need to add the Octane OBJ Parameters node to each scene object using the Octane shelf button (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Adding the OBJ Parameters to a scene object 

In the scene object's Octane tab, you can assign the Object Layer ID for that object from the Properties sub-tab (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Assigning Object Layer IDs for Layer Passes 

With the Layer ID for objects in the scene assigned, you can specify the active render layers to render in this scene. You can do this through the Octane ROP node's Output tab (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Specifying the render layers to render 

The Render Layers can also be viewed in the Octane IPR window under the Layers menu item (figure 4).

Figure 4: Accessing Render Layers in the IPR window