Bad things first, so let’s jump straight into it without sweet talk.
We are aware that you all expecting the release of Corona Renderer 1.0 for 3ds max during November, but I have the sad obligation of telling you that it will not happen. There are some delays in non-application related things we have to deal with before the release.
We still aim to release Corona Renderer 1.0 for 3dsmax as soon as possible – so keep your fingers crossed for the beginning of January 2015.
We are really sorry about this, but delays seem to be almost inevitable in all software development. When we were forced to decide what to do, we chose postponing the release a bit, rather then releasing something that is not quite ready.
As version 1.0 for 3dsmax is behind the corner, we have decided to post a series of articles showing new functions & features which you can expect.
I have prepared a longer video showing Interactive capabilities of Corona Renderer in combination with our CoronaScatter (old version) which comes for free with the renderer.
The video shows two demo scenes. First one is the all-time favorite demo for GPU renderers – acar lit with HDRi, but I decided to do it with a little spin. The second one is a more realistic scenario which you will encounter in archviz – non-proxied vegetation which uses opacity maps, the multitexture plugin in diffuse, translucency, and bump mapping.
The car scene was kindly provided by Ludvík Koutný, and the tree model by Juraj Talcik from TD Visual.
Videos
Corona Interactive + Scatter
Bonus video: turning it up to 11: Corona Interactive – extreme polycount test (5.5 Trillion polygons)
Corona Interactive Facts
Runs on CPU (No special HW needed)
Shares over 99.9% of code with standard Corona Renderer (ie. same render engine)
Same results as the final frame rendering (What you see is what you get )
Same set of features as standard Corona Renderer (geometry, proxies, motion blur, dof…)
All 3ds max maps and 3rd party maps are supported
Truly interactive (Change materials, lights, geometry while rendering, no need to restart interactive mode)
Thanks to a discussion with Corona Renderer users, we have decided to adjust some of the things in this article. Please read follow-uparticle here.
Prices & Licensing
One of the most complicated topics which we have encountered yet. We are talking about this for the second time. This time we have much clearer image, but still it is a big step into the unknown. We have done our research, calculated costs of future development, compared licensing options, exchanged numerous emails, made countless hours on skype and killed couple of hours on meetings regarding this topic. You can read the results below.