CG news

V-Ray for Unreal is Chaos' answer to Unreal Engine's own Datasmith toolkit, which allows you to export scenes created in other versions of V-Ray in .vrscene Chaos format and import them into Unreall Engine. This process automatically converts V-Ray light sources and materials into their real-time equivalents. The user can either generate a real-time rendering using the game engine, or make changes to the scene within

The free RenderMan plug-in for Substance Painter can now export Substance materials for use in other DCC applications in a format compatible with RenderMan's Lama layering system. Update 24.1 itself does not add any important features. Most of the changes are workflow and performance improvements, particularly improvements to the NPR Stylized Looks shading system and the RenderMan XPU heterogeneous rendering engine. The update moves XPU, which

  Many of the new features included in Maya 2022.1 aim to reduce the learning curve for new users. Changes include two new tutorials for beginners: "Interactive Basics" and "Overview", as well as a new "Home App" home screen that provides access to additional tutorials and information about new features. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uhae8Zn5YE&feature=emb_imp_woyt The character kit for Mayabot, a virtual tutorial host for the basics of interactivity, comes

Modo 15.1 includes Omni Haul, an interesting system for custom gesture-based controls, for editing tool attributes, a new logical curve value system, and an automated Static Analysis scene test system. OmniHaul extends the approach used in the existing Channel Haul tool to the entire Modo tool set, allowing you to assign your own combinations of attributes to the left, right and middle mouse buttons.   [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbQN4sf_hh0&feature=emb_imp_woyt[/embed]

Corona Renderer 7 has received CoronaPhysicalMTL, a new "PBR-based material" designed to increase compatibility with other visualisation tools such as Substance 3D Collection and Quixel Mixer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyVGb5PnCb4 It includes clear coat parameters to recreate car paint and gloss parameters to recreate the surface properties of a tarnish, and comes with 35 new presets for common real-world materials. Inherited physical material is still available for backwards compatibility

Redshift, a powerful GPU-accelerated renderer designed to meet the specific requirements of modern high-performance rendering, is transitioning to a subscription-based distribution model beginning August 31, 2021. Subscriptions, which will only be available through Maxon's proprietary licensing system, will be "comparable" to current annual maintenance fees. Maxon also discontinued support for the existing Cinema 4D/ Redshift subscription package on the same date. There have been questions about

The release of 3DCoat 2021 from Pilgway brings a change in the pricing structure of 3DCoat, introducing new, cheaper options. The first of these is 3DCoatTextura, a new stripped down version of the software designed to texture models created in other DCC applications and available at a more affordable price. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uy7Hcrfq94&t=1s 3DCoatTextura and 3DCoat are available via a rental system in which users who rent the

Radeon ProRender 3.2 for Blender and Maya adds motion blur and warping to render character animation or cloth modelling with realistic blur. Previously, blur was only available when rendering camera motion or moving objects with a solid surface. The update also added the PRP Toon shader, a new node for creating non-photorealistic, cartoon-style renderings, in addition to the existing contour rendering system. Users can now choose

Chaos has introduced initial USD (Universal Scene Description) support for V-Ray 5 for Maya and V-Ray 5 for Houdini, linking the two powerful rendering modules to one of the fastest-growing file formats for visual effects. USD is originally a format developed by Pixar and designed to store the most common types of scene data - geometry, shaders, light sources, rigging, hair and so on. Consequently, artists