All this 'over-excitment' about Octane for Carrara is similar to the cheering when Luxus for Carrara was released. Everybody was in tears. Finally a renderer that we can use to express our boundless creative talents!

And then it flopped. Luxus for Carrara didn't even reach version 1.0.1. I bought it and I never even installed it. There were a few images rendered with Luxus posted in RO's Carrara galleries, and then nothing.

Will the same thing happen with Octane plugin for Carrara? Will its development stop at version 1.0.1 or 1.1.x at most? Or will it live happily to reach version 2.x and 3.x and so on?

Considering what happened to Luxus, and considering that most plugins for Carrara don't get beyond version 1.1.x, I suspect that the same will happen to Octane for Carrara, so I'am not holding my breathe on it.

Carrara's native renderer is OK. It can produce acceptable results, but it is slow and, compared to Shade's jaw-dropping renderer, it is only good for amateur work.

The solution to Carrara's ailing renderer is not Lux or Octane. It is, in my opinion, Embree by Intel.

The Embree library can give Carrara's renderer a much needed speed boost, up to 30x by my estimate, while at the same time significantly improving the output quality.

Embree is now at its 2.0 release and, considering that it is part of Intel's core technologies, we can be sure that it will live to reach its 3.x and 4.x versions and beyond.

Intel is most likely more than willing to provide all the free consulting that a company like Daz needs to incorporate Embree in its products, thus actually absorbing some of the implementation costs.

Embree is a unique opportunity for Daz to rejuvenate Carrara relatively quickly, probably not more than 6 months of work for one knowledgeable developer.

The huge advantage of Embree over external renderers is that Embree will be integrated in Carrara's native renderer, thus it will support Carrara's shading and lighting systems. Therefore there will be no need to re-adjust the textures or redo the scene lighting.