OTOY has released the first 2026 Alpha of OctaneRender (v1.7.0), and the standout change is for Cinema 4D users. Gaussian Splats are now available in the Octane C4D plugin.

OctaneRender itself integrated splats at the beginning of the year, but until now Cinema 4D artists couldn’t access the feature within their plugin workflow. With this Alpha, splats can finally sit alongside Octane’s traditional geometry and volumetric pipelines in C4D, opening the door for faster experimentation with radiance field content in motion graphics and VFX.

As with most of the new features in this Alpha, splats are still marked experimental. OTOY also added meshlets, tracesets, MaterialX node support, and a new texture displacement system, while v1.7.1 will prioritize stability and fixes.

For Cinema 4D artists, though, this release is an important milestone. Gaussian Splatting is no longer a separate experiment in Octane. It’s part of the plugin toolset.

Access the Alpha here and see OTOY’s full roadmap on Trello.