Corona Renderer version 3 Daily Builds Changelog

[maru]

You can always get the newest build at the usual location [link]

[Ryuu]

• DR is now able to autodiscover slaves connected through all network interfaces.
• Fixed "Region" button update in VFB when regions were enabled/disabled via MaxScript.
• Low memory warning now gives a bit more detailed breakdown of Corona memory usage (split into geometry, textures and frame buffer)
• Fixed incorrect results of CoronaBitmap used as screen mapped environment
• Optimization of random sampler memory usage
  • High-res images render with less memory (116 bytes per pixel, so 3.5 GB per 8k image). There should be no impact on amount of noise (noise pattern itself can change)
• Optimized VFB redraw speed
• Improved texture sharpness on grazing angles
• Fixed Tilt&Shift in XRefed camera when rendering with DR
• Fixed problem where scatter density map updates were not reflected in scatter viewport display in 3ds Max 2017
• Fixed unlinking target in targeted camera
• Fixed no warning shown when trying to run Corona on unsupported CPU - now error message is shown, not just crash
• Unified Look&Feel of Corona warnings/question popups

[Ryuu]

• Changed behavior of installer when Corona is already installed.
  • Previously when some component (e.g. 3ds Max 2017 plugin) was installed and newer installer was run, when you deselected this component in the custom installation, it meant that this component will be left installed in the previous version.
  • The new behavior is that deselecting an already installed component will uninstall it.
  • This allows easier uninstallation of selected components (just run the installer and deselect those) and also prevents mixing incompatible versions of various Corona files.
• New (experimental) light solver improvements:
  • Improved sampling of translucent objects
  • Fixed inefficient sampling when the shading normal differs significantly from the geometry normal
  • Fixed square artifacts that appeared when non-physical lights (invisible or transparent lights) are used in the scene
  • IR restarts with the new light solver are now significantly faster.
• Added NVIDIA AI denoiser support
  • The AI denoiser can be selected as the final denoising mode in the Scene tab in render settings. In this mode, the rendered image is denoised with each VFB refresh.
  • The AI denoiser can also be enabled separately just for IR in the performance tab in render settings.
  • The new denoiser is an optional component in the installer and requires additional download by the installer similar to the material library. This component is pre-selected when an NVIDIA GPU is detected on the computer.
• Smaller changes and features
  • Corona now requires SSE4.1 CPU for all tools (including licensing server)
  • Licensing and DR servers are now 64-bit applications
  • In viewport, scatter is now able to toggle the instance color between the original object wire color and the scatter object color.
• Misc fixes
  • Fixed inferior pixel randomization of the image sampler (bug introduced in the previous daily build)
  • Fixed IR not restarting when render elements were modified
  • Fixed non-filtered render elements not being correctly rendered in IR
  • Fixed scatter object densities and frequencies not working with undo/redo
  • Fixed undo/redo not working with various object lists in Corona UI - scatter instance/distribution objects, material override exclude list, etc.
  • LightMix now properly works with lights having “Occlude other lights” disabled
  • Fixed diffuse texture being visible in reflection render element when non-physical lights are used
  • Minimized problem of installer progress log window blinking when downloading additional pack files

[Ryuu]

• Fixed the new light solver producing rectangular artifacts when textured lights are used.
• Fixed bias when rendering portal hidden behind another portal
• UI controls in object lists in Scatter have been reorganized to make more space for object names.
• Fixed CIE not starting
• NVIDIA AI denoiser
  • Fixed artifacts caused by using AI denoiser with blurring & sharpening and/or bloom & glare
  • Fixed rendered image being saved, CTRL-C’d or copied to 3ds Max frame buffer without denoising
  • Fixed denoised result disappearing after rendering stopped
  • Fixed UI lags when using the AI denoiser
  • Added denoising timer to VFB stats tab
  • Fixed link in NVIDIA AI denoiser error message leading to a wrong help page

[Ryuu]

• Optimized IR restarts, making it more responsive
• Fixed IR restarting multiple times while VFB window is being resized, now the IR restarted only once the resizing is finished
• Fixed .exe files in Program Files/Corona (CIE, DR server, …) not being able to run due to installer not updating some shared libraries

[Ryuu]

• Fixed Corona Light gizmo scaling in viewport when scene units changed.
• Changed the order of operations in the installer - the components which need additional download (NVIDIA AI denoiser and material library) are installed last, so that when the installation is canceled during the additional data download, everything else should already be done.
• Fixed custom material editor preview being rendered in ortho projection.

[Ryuu]

• Fixed crash when CoronaSun is used as an input node for Corona Distance Map
• New light solver
  • Fixed occasional crashes
  • Improved light sampling in case the geometry is very close to a spherical light.
  • Fixed NaNs occasionally appearing in the rendered image. This would also cause colorful artifacts when denoised with NVIDIA AI denoiser.
• Unsupported materials are now gray for GI rays. This removes the red bleeding of the material.
• Reduced the memory size of mapping coordinates by 25%.
• Added randomization by mesh component (contiguous triangle group) to CoronaMultiMap and CoronaUvwRandomizer

[Ryuu]

• Denoising modes renamed to “fast preview (NVIDIA)” and “high quality”
• Fast preview (NVIDIA) denoiser
  • Denoiser is now generally faster and takes less memory (most noticeable at high resolutions)
  • Denoised image is now properly saved in render history
  • Denoised image is no longer recomputed on VFB refresh after render ends
  • Added support of NVIDIA AI denoiser to CIE
  • Internal render elements used by the denoiser are no longer exposed in CIE
• Fixed crash on loading the scene or certain textures (introduced in last daily build)
• Reduced memory usage of geometry normals by 4 bytes per vertex
• Reduced memory usage of the new light solver in media (in some cases down to 14%)

[Ryuu]

• Auto-bump: significantly improves displacement quality without increasing tessellation - turned on by default, you can turn it off in devel settings if needed
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[Ryuu]

• Camera shutter offset has now range from -1 to 1
• Fixed issues with autobump checkbox and autobump giving incorrect results when low blur amount is used
• Fixed crash when autobump is used with multisub material
• Fixed autoscaling of kelvin temperature result in volumetric rendering

[Ryuu]

• IR restarts in Corona VFB are now generally faster (comparable to docked VFB).
• In Scatter switched to standard Pick Object dialog for picking distribute-on and instanced objects.
• Added new symbols to render stamp, allowing to measure memory used by Corona
  
  • See https://corona-renderer.com/wiki/renderstamp
• ColorPicker now remembers sRGB state and color range between sessions
• Installer
  • Reverted to the original behavior where unselected components are left in the original state instead of being uninstalled.
  • CIE, standalone and DR and licensing servers are now installed to subdirectories by default to avoid problems with multiple versions of the same DLL being installed at the same time
• Fixed occasional crash with CoronaLightMtl

[Ryuu]

• Fixed occasional crash in denoising
• CScatter - In surface scattering fixed Count control to be disabled when switched to UV map scattering.
• Added better reporting of Corona version - https://corona-renderer.com/wiki/maxscript#corona_rendering_core
• Older scenes are now loaded with disabled autobump (for compatibility reasons). Whenever an older scene is opened, a warning is showed, allowing to enable autobump in the scene.
• Changed the default displacement edge size (in screen space) to 4px
• Fixed unnecessary reparsing of environment map in IR
• IR no longer unnecessarily restarts when a map not attached to scene is modified
• Fixed some of the unnecessary IR restarts when navigating material editor

[Ryuu]

• CScatter
  • Rotation and scale of original instanced objects no longer affects scattered instances. Does not change old scenes unless Legacy checkbox gets unchecked.
  • Fixed Dots viewport display mode to display dots at correct places in case of animations. The bug did not affect rendering.
• CIE & Standalone - Extended the list of file formats into which the frame buffer can be saved. When saving, user can now specify the output color depth and presence of alpha channel.
• Added support for following image formats to Corona bitmap: Kodak Cineon, Adobe PSD Reader, SGI file, RLA Image file, DDS Image file
• Fixed parsing of memory symbols in renderstamp - https://corona-renderer.com/bugs/view.php?id=3075

[Ryuu]

• Reduced memory usage by about 5% (up to 30% in extreme cases) when using auto-bump
• Optimized the new light solver, the overall speedup is 5-15%
• Fixed IR not restarting when global volume material changes
• Fixed environment overrides not being updated in IR
• CScatter - fixed distribute-on object density and instanced object frequency spinners to get updated when changing object selection in the lists above them via keyboard.

[Ryuu]

• Fixed slow pixel probe when OptiX denoising is enabled
• IFL image sequences are now correctly handled by Corona DR
• Integrity of scenes sent via Corona DR is checked and reported in the case of integrity failure
• Fixed Corona version reported in Render Setup title.
• Due to some internal changes Corona now requires newer Phoenix FD version. Oldest supported version is now 3.11.04.
• Reworked MAXScript interface for the Scatter. The old interface is no longer available - https://corona-renderer.com/wiki/maxscript#corona_scatter_api
• Scatter lister changed into unified lister - the lister lists just Corona scatter and lights for now with more object types coming in later in v4