Topics

121

News / Corona Renderer 1.7 for 3ds Max released!

« on: 2017-10-24, 14:13:22 »

Corona Renderer 1.7 for 3ds Max released!

Full details and download can be found at our blog:

A quick summary of some of the highlights:

- Up to 8 times faster rendering (dependent on the scene) thanks to a new improved sampler, a new optional adaptive direct lighting algorithm, optimized glass / water sampling, and more
- Hair and Skin: Support for all hair and fur tools (3ds Max, Ornatrix and Hair Farm), and dedicated hair and skin shaders
- Material Library with over 300 ready-made materials, with drag-and-drop functionality
- New Subsurface Scattering and Dispersion in the CoronaMtl
- Dedicated CoronaCamera
- UvwRandomizer and Universal Bump Map Converter
- And much more that would be too long to list here :) See the blog post for full details!

For those of you who have tried Corona before and your 45-day trial expired, we've automatically refreshed the demo period to give everyone an extra 14 days so you can try out all the new features! Simply download and install 1.7, and you can activate the refreshed demo period right from within 3ds Max. Enjoy!

122

[C4D] Resolved Bugs / CoronaBitmap is upside down if used as Backplate in the Shadowcatcher

« on: 2017-10-12, 21:42:50 »

If I load a bitmap direct into the shadowcatcher Backplate slot then it looks as expected. If I load a CoronaBitmap in there with the same image, it is upside down. Thanks!

123

[C4D] Resolved Bugs / Crash with ShadowCatcher and repeat rendering

« on: 2017-10-09, 22:04:19 »

Hi all!

Don't think I've seen this reported.

I can't pin down exact steps, but when I've been working with a scene with the Shadowcatcher in it, I am getting very regular crashes that happen when I render for something more than the 1st time. Sometimes it's the 4th time, sometimes the 8th time. The 1st time always seems to render fine. It seems to be related to having changed something in the Shadowcatcher material, and maybe also related to having the Shadowcatcher material open for editing.

Doesn't seem to matter if the Shadowcatcher is in Environment or Backplate mode. In both cases I've been using a Corona Light Material in the Shadowcatcher's slot.

The scene is basic, plane for the shadowcatcher, then a simple bench object, though had the same crashes with a more complex car object too. Bug report text is attached in case it is helpful.

C4D R19, and C4D R18 (bug report is from R19), Corona Oct 9th build.

Thanks!
   Tom

124

News / Corona Renderer 1.7 Release Candidate 4 for 3ds Max out now!

« on: 2017-09-28, 23:27:13 »

Corona Renderer 1.7 Release Candidate 4 for 3ds Max out now!

Download from: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mswauuv1afec8am/AAA5OKrd_QujokDM3mxQ7S40a

The changelog is in the Daily Builds thread, but wanted to post this here to catch everyone's eye - release date is planned for next Tuesday, Oct 3rd, so we've released RC4 in time for the weekend, in the hopes that as many of you as possible can put it through its paces and test it and let us know any remaining issues or problems! We appreciate all of you who are able to do that, it is what helps us make things as stable and functional as possible before release!

Please post any findings, issues etc. on the daily builds thread at https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=15843.645

Thanks!
   Tom

125

News / Corona Renderer 1.7 Release Candidate 1 for 3ds Max out now!

« on: 2017-09-21, 01:20:03 »

Corona Renderer 1.7 RC1 for 3ds Max 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

A Release Candidate is close to being the final release, but we need your testing and feedback to catch any remaining bugs or other issues from real world testing!

Here's just some of the major new items in 1.7:

- Much faster rendering, in some scenes up to 8 times faster, thanks to the combination of many speedups (new DMC sampler, new adaptive direct light algorithm, faster adaptivity recomputation, and more)
- Memory savings, in particular with render elements
- The Corona MatLib, a collection of over 300 ready to use materials
- Dedicated Hair shader, plus compatibility with 3ds Max native Hair and Fur, Ornatrix and Hair Farm
- Dedicated Skin shader
- New additions to the CoronaMtl: a new SSS mode, and Dispersion
- A dedicated Corona Camera
- UVW Randomizer
- Bump Converter so that any map can be used as a bump map
- The Corona UI displays properly on high DPI monitors
- And of course many other improvements!

Reminder: Scenes saved with 1.7 will not open in 1.6, so you may want to keep separate versions of the scene while testing.

Thanks!
   Tom

126

[Max] Daily Builds / Direct Lights sampling tests

« on: 2017-09-15, 17:15:09 »

Hi all!

Just sharing a couple of quick internal tests of the improved direct lights sampling, coming soon!

The many lights (warehouse) scene was done with clay materials (except for the lights), rendered for 1 minute; the Corona Academy scene was rendered for 3 minutes and kept all the final materials from the scene. Neither uses Denoising of course. The "old" version in this case is the last daily build from Sept 14th.

127

News / Corona Renderer 1.6 for 3ds Max, Hotfix 3 released

« on: 2017-09-06, 15:55:56 »

Corona Renderer 1.6 for 3ds Max, Hotfix 3 released! Download it here https://corona-renderer.com/download/

- Fixed “Lock sampling pattern” checkbox not working
- Fixed too much noise in images when using DR/renderfarms/resume rendering with the DMC sampler

128

[Max] General Discussion / corona-renderer.com website updates

« on: 2017-08-22, 22:05:40 »

Hi all!

Just a heads up, we're updating the website. Sections will be going offline one at a time, and then will be offline until everything is restored. We apologize for any inconvenience - we'll post on Facebook (and here) once the updated website is live!

Thanks,
   Tom

129

[Max] General Discussion / Corona Academy 04 and 05 dates set!

« on: 2017-08-03, 16:00:17 »

Learn Corona, get Primary Certification, visit Prague, and meet the team, all at the same time! The two next dates for Corona Academy are set, Nov 11th to 12th, and Dec 2nd to 3rd, book your spot at https://corona-academy.com/

Meantime, here are some photos from Corona Academy 03 - definitely worth being part of! Though we can't promise whether Prague will be as sunny for these ;)

130

News / Corona Renderer 1.6 for 3ds Max, Hotfix 2 released

« on: 2017-07-24, 16:57:54 »

Corona Renderer 1.6 for 3ds Max, Hotfix 2 released! Download it here https://corona-renderer.com/download/

- Removed old and unused image samplers
- Added new and improved image sampler, capable of up to 100% speedup; on by default for all new and old scenes
- Changed rounded edges algorithm: new one is much faster and produces no noise, but works on same object only
- Removed now obsolete parameters of rounded edges - samples and include/exclude mode

131

News / Corona Renderer 1.7 for 3ds Max Daily Build

« on: 2017-06-22, 17:31:03 »

Hi all!
A new Daily Build of Corona Renderer 1.7 for 3ds Max is out now, with over 40 improvements! Below you will find more information on some of the most significant new features to help you get started using them:

Full changelog available at:
https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php/topic,15845.msg104095.html#msg104095

How to install daily builds:
https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000570015

IMPORTANT NOTE BEFORE YOU TEST:
Due to the significant changes in 1.7, scenes saved with 1.7 are NOT backwards compatible with 1.6.1 - if you save a scene using the 1.7 daily builds, you will not be able to open it with 1.6 or 1.6.1 installed.

What's New:

Hair and fur support
Ornatrix, Hair Farm and Native Hair&Fur are supported. A new Corona Hair Material has been added though this is still very much a work-in-progress, and this material does not currently work with the native 3ds Max Hair&Fur.


Some test renders by Luc Bégin (user Bigguns) are attached, you can see more test in the original thread at:
https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php/topic,16581.0.html

Bump Converter
If you've ever run into some maps looking different when connected to the Bump slot of a material, (things like the Cellular and Marble maps are examples), this new Converter solves that and lets you use almost any map to generate Bump. It also has the ability to vary the strength of the bump, and to blur the map.


UVW Randomizer
Similar to the familiar MultiMap, the UVW Randomizer allows you to randomly affect UVW scale, rotation and offset based on material id, object id, per instance, etc.




MultiMap Blurring
You can now set blur amount for all maps plugged into the CoronaMultiMap at once instead of changing it for each map one by one.



UHD Cache and LUT asset tracking
This means that these files get packed when archiving a scene, they can be retargeted, and there is a warning on opening the scene if they are missing.


VFB Stats tooltips
Tooltips are now provided for each of the stats shown in the VFB Stats tab - if you're not familiar with what the stats show, these will tell you!


...and a lot of other improvements!
These include various speed improvements, fixes to the Corona Image Editor, fixed unnecessary restarts of IR when navigating in the Slate Material Editor and more - full details in the changelog.

132

[Max] General Discussion / Paris Apartment free scene from Slashcube

« on: 2017-06-07, 15:30:05 »

A free scene for Corona Renderer for Cinema 4D is now available, thanks to Slashcube!

You can download it from the new "Scenes" section on our Models page:
https://corona-renderer.com/resources/models/

We've also added links to other locations on the web where free scenes for various versions of Corona are available.

Thanks!
   Tom

133

News / Corona Renderer 1.6 for 3ds Max, Hotfix 1 released!

« on: 2017-05-30, 16:41:24 »

Corona Renderer 1.6 for 3ds Max, Hotfix 1 released! Download it here https://corona-renderer.com/download/

Below you will find the list of changes in this release, including the (still experimental) Command Line version of the Corona Image Editor and numerous bug fixes:

- Fixed scatter UV pattern random offset moving all objects only in one direction. Now the objects are properly moved in random directions. Old scenes are preserved via legacy checkbox.
- Added legacy switch to Corona Rounded edges texmap, which switches the behavior back to 1.5
- Fixed drawing of Corona VFB render regions when also using 3ds Max render regions
- Fixed crash caused by zooming in VFB with sharpening+blurring enabled
- Fixed a bug causing low CPU utilization when setting spline scatter random seed
- Fixed NaNs produced by CoronaOutput texmap with extreme gamma settings
- Fixed offset between beauty and alpha channels when using sharpening
- Fixed Corona Proxy crashing in max 2018
- Martin Geupel’s (deadclown) coronaConverter script bundled in the installer updated to version 1.36
   - Fixed: standard lights shadow conversion overwrote already existing CoronaShadows settings
   - Fixed: Mental Ray Multi/Sub-Map slot order
   - Added buttons to enable or disable legacy mode in CoronaRoundEdges map
- Fixed crash when exporting a scene to invalid location
- Fixed occasional crash in Corona Standalone and Corona Image Editor when the license was not activated
- Fixed CoronaBitmap producing artifacts in some cases with HDR maps as light source
- Fixed spelling in tooltips, added translations of new tooltips
- Fixed significant slowdown from Corona VFB when using sharpening
- Fixed converter and init scripts in installer
- FIxed NaNs caused by very small lights far from scene origin

DR

- Fixed incorrect representation of non-ascii characters in camera name on slaves
- Fixed incorrect status report that the remote side (slave) is not responding
- Fixed hang when closing DR server during render
- Fixed DR bug causing warning messages about failing to accumulate EXRs
- Better error reporting when slaves do not have a 3ds Max version capable of rendering received scene

Corona Image Editor

- Added command line version usable for batch image processing - this variant is still experimental and may contain bugs
- Fixed saving PNG files to contain an alpha channel
- Fixed crash when opening curve editor when no image is loaded
- Installer now issues a warning when .cxr and/or .cexr file extensions fail to be associated with Image Editor
- Fixed zooming using mouse wheel not always respecting the cursor position
- Fixed vignetting giving different results from Corona VFB in some cases

134

[Max] General Discussion / Corona Academy May 27th to 28th, 1 place at 20% off!

« on: 2017-05-17, 13:48:41 »

Corona Academy May 27th to 28th, 1 place at 20% discount!

We just had a last-minute cancellation, opening up a place for the next Corona Academy. Since this is short notice for you to book flights etc., we're offering a discount of 20% off the advertised course price! https://corona-academy.com/prague-may-2017

Great chance to learn Corona and meet the developers!

Thanks!
   Tom

135

[Max] General Discussion / Corona Academy 03 - May 27th to 28th

« on: 2017-05-03, 17:09:14 »

Hi all!

Only 2 places left for the next Corona Academy, happening on May 27th and 28th in Prague, so act fast! Register here for that one (or for future courses):
https://corona-academy.com/register

Here are some photos from the last Academy that took place last weekend, and we hope to see you in the photos from the next one :)

Thanks!
   Tom