Corona Renderer 1.7 for 3ds Max released!

[romullus]

Great!!!!!! Can't wait to come home from vacation and install it!
Will Ludvík Koutný make some follow up tutorials after this release? We miss him!

I second to that, bring Ludvík back on tutorials, he is great!

Count my voice too. We need those great Corona tutorials on the new features (skin, hair, sss).

[johan belmans]

Well done Devs! Thanks for the update.
Looking forward to the detailed tutorials about the new features.

[Ryuu]

- Is the Corona Light Lister implemented in this release? This would be a major reason for us to upgrade sooner.

Unfortunately there were many last minute bugfixes so I didn't have the time to include the light lister in 1.7. It should be introduced in 1.8 dailies soon. IIRC it's completely independent on the rest of the code, so you could just use 1.8 light lister with 1.7

- What's the deal with the new light sampler that appears to be optional. Am I right in understanding that it's faster but in some cases results in splotches/leaks? Can we simply use the old sampler and carry on as usual to avoid this?

The new sampler is off by default and is enabled by toggling a single checkbox somewhere in the render settings (it's in the regular settings, not in the devel/experimental), so you can easily switch it on/off to see if it introduces any problems in your scene. The new sampler still has some problems (produces misc. rendering artefacts) when the scene contains non-physical fakes and few users report slowdowns on CPUs with high number of cores.

- Any major issues you're planning to squash in a forthcoming hotfix?

We're trying to stay positive, so there are no plans for hotfix yet. There would be something very wrong if we had plans for hotfix on the day after the release :)

Probably a stupid question, but here I go: does the Material Library need to be installed on the rendernodes or not ?

It shouldn't be needed. All material data should be uploaded from master to DR nodes like any other assets.

[NicolasC]

Probably a stupid question, but here I go: does the Material Library need to be installed on the rendernodes or not ?

It shouldn't be needed. All material data should be uploaded from master to DR nodes like any other assets.

ok, thanks for your answer, that's what I suspected :)

[alexyork]

Thanks Ryuu.

Sounds good to us! Cheers.

[Juraj]

Probably a stupid question, but here I go: does the Material Library need to be installed on the rendernodes or not ?

It shouldn't be needed. All material data should be uploaded from master to DR nodes like any other assets.

ok, thanks for your answer, that's what I suspected :)

For people who don't use File server, network transfer is slower than direct read from local SSD drive. So for those it makes sense to install library locally too.

(And even for those who use File server, the asset collecting and transfer is rather slow process compared to directly reading network paths from my experience).

[Dalton Watts]

Ryuu,

I'm getting better rendertimes with the new sampler ON than OFF on my dual Xeon 2696 v3 setup. In some scenes i get 50% less rendertimes. Granted on most rendertimes are almost the same. So, to me, the change in including an ON/OFF checkbox is not very beneficial. Haven't noticed any artifacts with the new sampling also. I should test 1.6 vs 1.7 (speedwise).

[RolandB]

Great update guys, congratulations !
No lightlister in the Corona bar ?

To NicolasC : you are not on the right forum !

[maru]

The new light solver *should* work fine in most cases, and it's purpose is speeding up rendering, but in some cases it may introduce dark square-shaped artifacts. This may happen for example in case of using "fake" lights, that emit light, but do not cast shadows ("occlude other lights" off). That is why we left the new solver off by default and made it optional.

Currently the recommended workflow is: try it, if you don't see any artifacts in your image, leave it on. If you see them, turn it off.

The plan is to improve it ASAP so that it would be always on by default. That is also why sample scenes, where the artifacts/other issues appear, are greatly appreciated.

[Juraj]

("occlude other lights" off)

I have this on every single Corona Light I have ever created :- ), in 100perc. of my scenes. I didn't even consider it fake it due to being part of analytical light (not to the same degree as "ignore this object" ).
Will test if it causes artifacts all the time.

[alexyork]

("occlude other lights" off)

I have this on every single Corona Light I have ever created :- ), in 100perc. of my scenes. I didn't even consider it fake it due to being part of analytical light (not to the same degree as "ignore this object" ).
Will test if it causes artifacts all the time.

I'd say we use this on pretty much every project too, at some point.

[Dalton Watts]

Thanks maru! As Juraj and Alex i can't remember any project where i turned off "occlude other lights" but will keep an eye on those artifacts. Is "visible directly" OFF considered "fake" in the same regard?

[Christa Noel]

Same here, i never set the "occlide other light" on. Never.
I'll check the last project which used RC5, as far as i remember i didnt experience the artefacts

Thanks maru! As Juraj and Alex i can't remember any project where i turned off "occlude other lights" but will keep an eye on those artifacts. Is "visible directly" OFF considered "fake" in the same regard?

Logicaly I guess that must be categorized as FAKE thing too

[maru]

("occlude other lights" off)

I have this on every single Corona Light I have ever created

I'd say we use this on pretty much every project too

As Juraj and Alex i can't remember any project where i turned off "occlude other lights"

Same here, i never set the "occlide other light" on. Never.

Now tell me who meant what! :D

Is "visible directly" OFF considered "fake" in the same regard?

Probably yes. It is really hard to tell. That's why the new solver is off by default.

[vrauwena]

The new sampler is off by default and is enabled by toggling a single checkbox somewhere in the render settings (it's in the regular settings, not in the devel/experimental), so you can easily switch it on/off to see if it introduces any problems in your scene. The new sampler still has some problems (produces misc. rendering artefacts) when the scene contains non-physical fakes and few users report slowdowns on CPUs with high number of cores.

True in my case, most scene is slower with new sampler and although lesser noise for overall, but introduce more fireflies at the same time. I'm using i7-5930K