3.1 release notes

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