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
