3.1 release notes

Owned by dario (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 27 Jul, 2015 by Next Limit
3 min read


Render by Mihai Illuta

 

Main Features 

  • Full support to spotlights, fully controllable new emitters workflow. More information here. 
  • Extra Sampling feature, that allows to distribute different Sampling Level values in different parts of the image, saving a huge amount of time. More information here. 
  • OpenVDB format supported for volumetric rendering. More information here. 
  • 360º Animation tool in Studio, to easily create turntable and time-lapse animations in Studio in just one click. More information here. 
  • Camera sensor models, reproducing the color response of many real world camera models. More information here. 
  • White balance and Tint tone mapping controls of the render. More information here. 
  • Floating Shadows and Floating Reflections in FIRE. More information here. 
  • Support for UDIM and other tiled texture formats. More information here. 
  • Custom Alpha now based on materials as well. More information here. 
  • New Technology Preview Network System (TP Network). More information here. 
  • Hide to Camera in Shadow Channel, to get perfect full shadows for compositing, avoiding the 1 pixel border around the shadow without the need to launch an extra for the full shadow. More information here. 
  • Devignetting can now be negative, for artsy purposes. More information here. 
  • New output macro to specify the name of the channel in the output image file name. More information here. 

Improvements

  • Improved and simplified licensing procedure
  • Improved Single Sided SSS model
  • Improved performance in scenes with a lot of grass and/or hair
  • 50% reduction of memory consumption in volumetrics
  • Dramatical improvement in memory usage when loading references 
  • Dramatical improvement in memory usage and voxelization time in massive scenes with motion blur
  • Histogram now can display RGB curves separately 
  • RealFlow RenderKit updated to the latest version
  • Benchwell can be launched now with a command line flag: maxwell.exe -benchwell or maxwell.exe -benchwell:path to write benchwell results to disk
  • Optimizations in FIRE to preprocess the scene faster when editing materials 
  • Fireflies and hot spots in FIRE reduced 
  • Added support for machines with more than 64 cores in Windows (Windows 7 or higher required) 
  • Cleaning after rendering in large scenes is much faster now, allows for the next frame in an animation to start quicker 
  • In Studio: display of references in viewport improved
  • In Network: added preference to connect to a specific Manager

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed: potential problem loading the volumetric extension in some plugins.
  • Fixed: crash in On-the-fly displacement
  • Fixed: some artifacts rendering with Thin SSS and multiple BSDFs
  • Fixed: some artifacts with transparencies in spheric/cylindrical lenses
  • Fixed: crash freeing scenes with instances with motion blur 
  • Fixed: UV channel with motion blur failing
  • Fixed: UV channel with 100% opaque objects
  • Fixed: some artifacts with volumetrics in interactive mode
  • Fixed: backface material in object with transformation motion blur
  • Fixed: some details preprocessing extensions
  • Fixed: crash with MXS References and instances 
  • Fixed: crash with multipoint particles 
  • Fixed: displacement was not working in referenced materials 
  • Fixed: some problems with the Gamma on procedural textures 
  • Fixed: problem in alpha channel with Subsurface scattering if there where opaque objects behind sss objects
  • Fixed: some clipping artifacts in FIRE
  • Fixed: On-the-fly displacement could show incorrect height in FIRE
  • Fixed: Color Multilight + Sun was failing if there were emitters with emission textures 
  • Fixed: some problems with 32-Bits emission textures 
  • Fixed: volumetrics were not inheriting parent transformations correctly
  • Fixed: some problems with transforms of MXS references with transformed parent
  • Fixed: crash in MXS references with double sided materials
  • Fixed: display percentage box of particles could go beyond 100
  • Fixed: precision issue in daytime parameter
  • Fixed: parents with transformation motion blur were losing motion if they were instanced 
  • Fixed: -mintime command flag was not working in -node mode
  • Fixed in Studio: tab order in procedural textures
  • Fixed in Studio: clone camera in studio was not cloning some parameters
  • Fixed in Studio: resources browser was not listing folders properly. Now it also allows to navigate inside folders double clicking them
  • Fixed in Studio: materials with extensions with no bsdfs could not be saved in Standalone mode 
  • Fixed in Studio: crash cleaning scenes with several references pointing to the same MXS file
  • Fixed in Studio: "Convert to Mesh" was not updating the mesh state correctly 
  • Fixed in Studio: FIRE not working when the viewport was closed
  • Fixed in Studio: regression bug that was breaking drag and dropping in some UI elements 
  • Fixed in Studio OSX: Resource Browser allows selection of network paths 
  • Fixed in Network: bug closing sockets that could be affecting stability in some cases