Topics

136

News / Corona Renderer 1.6 demo refresh

« on: 2017-04-26, 22:19:09 »

Corona 1.6 Demo Refresh

If you've tried Corona before and your 45-day trial expired, you'll be glad to know we have automatically refreshed the demo period to give everyone an extra 14 days! Simply download and install 1.6, and you can activate the refreshed demo period right from within 3ds Max. Enjoy!
https://corona-renderer.com/download/

137

News / Corona Renderer 1.6 for 3ds Max released!

« on: 2017-04-24, 15:17:30 »

Corona Renderer 1.6 for 3ds Max released!

Full details and download over at our blog: https://corona-renderer.com/blog/corona-renderer-1-6-for-3ds-max-released/

Here are just a few highlights of what this release brings you!

- Faster rendering thanks to new Stratified random sampler, improved sampling of HDRIs with high contrast, lowered RAM usage.
- Major updates to Distributed Rendering, with 3ds Max pre-started on slaves to reduce waits, automatic sharing of assets across the network when needed, better UI, and more!
- Improved Interactive Rendering, with subsampling for faster rendering, fuzzy render regions, and more!
- The new Corona Image Editor lets you use LightMix, apply Denoising and adjust post-processing outside of your 3D application!
- LightMix now can be baked into the scene, making it the easiest way to get the lighting you want, and the automatic set-up has been improved with more options and information.
- Improved Corona Scatter with many new options such as scattering in regular patterns, and along splines.
- Support for 3ds Max 2018.
- And way too much more to list here, see the blog for full details: https://corona-renderer.com/blog/corona-renderer-1-6-for-3ds-max-released/

138

[Max] Daily Builds / Corona Renderer 1.6 Release Candidate 10 is out now!

« on: 2017-04-21, 13:49:45 »

Corona Renderer 1.6 Release Candidate 10 is out now!

Everyone with an active FairSaaS or Box with Subscription license has access, and the download is in the usual location: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mswauuv1afec8am/AAA5OKrd_QujokDM3mxQ7S40a

(NOTE - to avoid scattered multiple threads with posts for each RC, the RC announcement post is being edited to highlight when a new RC is out just in case anyone doesn't watch the daily builds thread :) )

Here are the changes in RC10:

DR
- Fixed slaves occasionally continuing to render after master already stopped
- Fixed slave getting stuck while waiting for assets from master

Image Editor
- Fixed wrong preselection of file name extension in Save all dialog.
- Installer now creates a shortcut on desktop-
- Redesigned the confirmation dialogs when opening/quitting with unsaved changes to make them more clear and descriptive

139

[Max] Daily Builds / Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 8 is out now!

« on: 2017-04-20, 14:45:59 »

Corona Renderer 1.6 Release Candidate 8 is out now!

Everyone with an active FairSaaS or Box with Subscription license has access, and the download is in the usual location: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mswauuv1afec8am/AAA5OKrd_QujokDM3mxQ7S40a

Not many changes in this RC, but do please install and test - as final release nears, now is the time to catch any last remaining issues! The changes are:

- Fixed UV scattering behavior in very dense grids

Corona Image Editor
- “Save” button now saves all elements and configuration into a single file when the output format is chosen as CXR (this is equivalent to using “Save CXR” from VFB)


We've been creating new RCs to roll fixes out to you as soon as they are ready, rather than delay & gather more fixes into fewer (and less-frequent) RCs. This has been important particularly due to the completely-reworked Distributed Rendering. It has meant more RCs than usual, but we believe it was the right way to go! We appreciate you keeping up with the RCs as they come out and putting them through their paces with real-world tests.

Thanks!
   Tom

140

[Max] Daily Builds / Corona Renderer 1.6 Release Candidate 7 is out now!

« on: 2017-04-18, 21:57:57 »

A few more bugs uncovered, so another RC for your testing - if there are no more new bugs discovered, the only planned change before release is an update to the tooltips.

Everyone with an active FairSaaS or Box with Subscription license has access, and the download is in the usual location: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mswauuv1afec8am/AAA5OKrd_QujokDM3mxQ7S40a

The changes for this RC:

- Fixed denoised image not being properly loaded from VFB history
- Fixed DR slaves not reporting their status correctly
- Fixed errors popping up when picking colors through Corona color picker (hopefully!)

Corona Image Editor:
- Fixed image editor not loading already denoised data from CXRs

As always, let us know of any remaining issues you uncover - we appreciate your testing!

    Tom

141

[Max] Daily Builds / Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 6 is out now!

« on: 2017-04-14, 22:10:43 »

We are getting really close to release, if there are no more new bugs discovered, the only planned change before release is an update to the tooltips.

Everyone with an active FairSaaS or Box with Subscription license has access, and the download is in the usual location: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mswauuv1afec8am/AAA5OKrd_QujokDM3mxQ7S40a

The changes in this release:

- Disabled noise limit for rendering only masks (since it does not make sense in this situation)
- Fixed tab order in dialogs
- Fixed regions on/off state reset in interactive rendering
- Fixed error message informing that settings could not be loaded when running Max with Corona for the first time
- Fixed DR slaves reporting incorrect status while working correctly

Corona Image Editor
- Some error messages rewritten to make them more comprehensible
- The application EXE made fully standalone with no dependencies on any DLLs
- Added curve color mapping controls

Thanks!
   Tom

142

[Max] Resolved Bugs / RC5 BlurSharen different in VFB and Saved Image

« on: 2017-04-14, 18:37:44 »

Hi all!

2560 x 1440 render, with Blur and Sharpen applied. The look is different in the VFB compared to the saved image (I tried PNG and JPG only so far)

Image attached, arrow points to where it is particularly noticeable. Second image is just a zoom in done in Photoshop (saved is still on top, VFB screengrab is on the bottom)

I confirmed this is blur and sharpen by disabling it in the checkbox - then both saved and VFB version looks the same.

Thanks!
   Tom

143

[Max] Daily Builds / Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 5 is out now!

« on: 2017-04-14, 03:16:06 »

Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 5 is out now!

Everyone with an active FairSaaS or Box with Subscription license has access, and the download is in the usual location: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mswauuv1afec8am/AAA5OKrd_QujokDM3mxQ7S40a

We ask for you to keep testing this latest version, as it is your testing and feedback that finds and fixes any remaining issues before the final release - the changes in this version are:

- Added an FPS counter checkbox for Interactive Rendering (it can be enabled in the devel/debug settings)
- Renamed and reordered the buttons in the LightMix tab.
- Fixed potential lockup of the Corona VFB when 3ds Max is under heavy load (such as when rendering with a lot of DR slaves)
- Added support for 3ds Max 2018 to DrServer
- Fixed adaptivity not working properly with DR
- Fixed error message being shown when saving an image with VRWarp data in to the Corona Jpeg format
- Fixed drawing of VFB regions when a 3ds Max region is also used
- UI dialogs sizing and layout tweaked

Corona Image Editor:
- Added button for toggling all LightMix elements on and off. The LightMix controls are now consistent with the VFB.

Thanks!
   Tom

144

[Max] Resolved Bugs / RC4 Disabled Render Regions become active with a scene change

« on: 2017-04-13, 18:26:36 »

- Start IR
- Draw a Render Region
- Select "Disable All" from the "Region" dropdown in the IR
- Region disappears and whole scene begins rendering in IR as expected
- Change the scene (e.g. move an object, move the camera, change lighting, change a material)

- Render Region now becomes active again, the box for it shows up, and rendering is limited to the region. The VFB dropdown still shows "Enable All" as the option as it sees them as disabled (though they are re-enabled now). If you choose "Enable All" it will do the same thing as "Disable All" used to do.

Things can get stuck in this reversed state after stopping rendering, so that Enable is Disable, and vice versa.

Thanks!
   Tom

Thanks!
   Tom

145

[Max] Daily Builds / Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 4 is out now!

« on: 2017-04-12, 23:17:34 »

Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 4 is out now!

Everyone with an active FairSaaS or Box with Subscription license has access, and the download is in the usual location: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mswauuv1afec8am/AAA5OKrd_QujokDM3mxQ7S40a

We ask for you to keep testing, your feedback is invaluable in finding and fixing any remaining issues!

Summary of changes:

- Added support for the newly-released 3ds Max 2018
- Fixed saving images in .cxr format using ‘Save All’
- Fixed incorrect sizing of snapshots in the History tab
- Hopefully improved DR stability in general
- Fixed black stripes received from DR slaves when using VFB regions

Corona Image Editor
- Fixed checking/unchecking exposure radio buttons
- Fixed indication telling which of the elements have been already denoised
- Improved way of displaying informative and error dialogs


Thanks!
   Tom

146

[Max] Daily Builds / Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 3 is out now!

« on: 2017-04-11, 21:58:53 »

Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 3 is out now!

Everyone with an active FairSaaS or Box with Subscription license has access, and the download is in the usual location: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mswauuv1afec8am/AAA5OKrd_QujokDM3mxQ7S40a

This build is looking pretty stable (the changelog is shorter this time around as a result), so we expect minimal changes between this and the final release  - unless your testing uncovers any new problems of course, so please test as much as your time allows! We appreciate it as it is what ensures everything is as stable as possible.

Changes this time around are:

- Improved error message in Corona Standalone when the user tries to save to .hdr format (which is currently not supported for saving)

- Replaced the Corona logo in the interactive docked viewport with the “Options” button

- Replaced the “All to 0” button in the LightMix tab with a toggle that switches all checkboxes on or off

Misc UI tweaks
- Fixed saving rendered .cxr images when rendering with Backburner by splitting to stripes

Scatter:
- Fixed point cloud viewport display sometimes randomly jumping around
- Updated the lister script to support the new scatter functionality

Thanks!
   Tom

147

[Max] Daily Builds / Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 2 is out now!

« on: 2017-04-10, 23:48:11 »

Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 2 is out now!

Everyone with an active FairSaaS or Box with Subscription license has access, and the download is in the usual location: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mswauuv1afec8am/AAA5OKrd_QujokDM3mxQ7S40a

We welcome your testing and feedback to catch any remaining bugs or other issues. The Release Candidate should be stable, but we need your testing in the real world to confirm any remaining issues - 1.6 final should be out in around 2 weeks, to allow time for that testing.

Changes from RC1:

- Fixed unnecessary CPU usage after render when bloom&glare is used with render elements.

- Implemented “Force PT” checkbox for Interactive Rendering (using PT in place of the UHD cache during IR allows faster interactive rendering by removing the time needed to calculate the UHD cache; this checkbox allows IR to use PT, while final renders still use the UHD Cache)

- Vignette now properly works with 2D pan/zoom mode.

- Fixed possible artifacts with refraction environment override.

- Reset all hidden UHD cache parameters that may be still set incorrectly in old scenes due to some previous bugs - there are no longer any hidden parameters in the UHD cache.

- Fixed IR starting with old global renderer settings (e.g. if displacement was disabled in the Common tab in the Render Setup dialog, IR would still show displacement)

- Fixed Corona bitmap not refreshing in the viewport after the file is modified on the HDD.

- Fixed bug causing slower parsing and memory usage for displacement - displacement can now take 10 times less memory, and 3 times less time

DR:
- DR reverted back to rendering whole passes on slaves to fix the “slaves sending too many passes” bug. Rendering smaller strips can be optionally enabled, but is considered “experimental, may break some things” until further bugfixes.

- Fixed: bug where search lan would return only first 10 nodes

Corona Standalone:
Improved error messages on duplicate materials.

Corona Image Editor:
- User is now asked for confirmation when resetting post-processing settings.

- The functionality of opening a single image and merging multiple images has been separated; now each has its own button.

- Fixed not updating zoom level within the title bar.

- Editor asks for confirmation to discard changes when another image is dragged and dropped.

Thanks!
   Tom

148

[C4D] Resolved Bugs / Denoising progress bar and cancellation

« on: 2017-04-10, 21:59:03 »

- If I let a render run to a set number of passes, the Denoising progress bar does not show up during the denoising phase (denoising appears to work though as I get a working Denoise amount, so looks like it does process, just without the progress bar)

- If I cancel the render before it reaches the set number of passes, the Denoising progress bar does then show up. If I click on Cancel the denoising progress bar, and then hit render again without making any changes to the scene, the VFB continues to show "Denoising was cancelled" with the Denoise amount spinner greyed out, even after the render completes fully. (No denoising progress bar was seen).

- If after the above steps I then render again without any changes, I get the message "Document was closed, values won't be synchronized" in the VFB, and the Denoise amount becomes active again.

Let me know if a video grab would be useful :)

Thanks!
   Tom

149

[Max] Daily Builds / Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 1 is out now!

« on: 2017-04-07, 21:32:58 »

Corona 1.6 Release Candidate 1 is out now!

Everyone with an active FairSaaS or Box with Subscription license has access, and the download is in the usual location: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mswauuv1afec8am/AAA5OKrd_QujokDM3mxQ7S40a

We welcome your testing and feedback to catch any remaining bugs or other issues. The Release Candidate should be stable, but we need your testing in the real world to confirm any remaining issues - 1.6 final should be out in around 2 weeks, to allow time for that testing.

Here's a taste of some of what is new:
- Up to 200% speed boost in scenes where direct lighting from HDRI is dominant
- New stratified random sampler provides significant noise reduction for the same render time
- The terminator fix
- Subsampling for even faster Interactive Rendering
- Corona Image Editor for denoising, LightMix, post-production, outside of any 3D software; can also apply Corona post-production effects such as tone-mapping, bloom & glare etc to any image in EXR format, not just Corona renders
- Baking LightMix into scene
- Checkboxes to easily turn LightSelects on and off in LightMix
- New automatic LightMix creation allows LightSelects to be created by instances, groups or individual lights, reports memory requirements for each option, and allows enabling of Denoising on all LightSelects automatically if desired
- Improved scattering - on splines, in regular patterns, scatter lister button, and other improvements
- Reworked DR - assets sent automatically where required, noise limit and adaptivity works, 3ds Max prestarted on slaves, improved information on status and memory use on master and slave machines, and more
- Curves, and Sharpening/Blurring in the VFB
- VFB UI overhaul (collapsible groups, re-arrangeable tabs, LUT selection from the VFB, customizable title bar)
- IR zooming now focuses processing only on that area (Interactive Rendering ONLY)
- Render region improvements: fuzzy render regions, render regions saved with the scene, and more
- Triplanar mapping
- Corona MultiMap improvements: Frequency spinners and gamma randomization
- Corona Lights with directionality no longer render as black
- RoundEdges gives improved results
- RTT Projection Modifier support, and RTT rendering can have denoising applied
- Memory optimizations
- View rendering progress on the Windows taskbar
- Non-360 stereo rendering
- Bloom and glare now work on 360 VR renders
- Support for 3ds Max 2D pan and zoom
- Support for 3ds Max lens distortion
- And much more!


Thanks!
   Tom

150

[C4D] Resolved Bugs / LightMix in C4D DB Apr 5th

« on: 2017-04-05, 21:09:41 »

- The >Scene button is not working in my test scene (but this may be expected, not sure if that functionality is there or just the button :) )

- If I adjust colours or intensities in the LightMix, then start a new render, the LightMix images returns to the scene lighting, even though the LightMix controls show the changed colours and intensities. If I adjust a colour or intensity in the LightMix controls, they all snap back to 1.0 and White (which is what the rendered image is showing).

Thanks!
   Tom