Messages

1

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2025-06-27, 16:24:39 »

I don't think it needs to be a default.

Perhaps adding a video to your youtube channel so people that don't follow this person that created the video are aware of these settings and the pros and cons.

I think back when Corona started they used to do a lot more of technical videos that included "secrets" that we didn't know of. Like stuff you could do with certain corona maps that wouldn't even cross our minds, or workflows and techniques that were very interesting and weren't necessarily showing new features only.  Like the way to work with corona scatter and using just as spline to direct a path in the forest.
I think that guy really knew how to use Max in general. Very knowledgeable and was explaining multiple things in one video. Credit where credit is due :)

2

[Max] Corona Goodies - User Contributions / Re: Corona Randomizer

« on: 2025-06-26, 22:43:46 »

Hi James.

Thank you again. Still using it daily.

I have a couple of comments.

1- I just recently noticed that Vegetation: settings>Translucent color correct>Brighter leaves checkbox not only changes brightness but also saturation and gamma, which to me was unexpected since the checkbox mentions "brighter" only.
So I wanted to suggest adding the text "change in brightness, saturation and gamma" to make it more clear.

2- I checked your website to see if there was a newer version than the one I have and I was surprised to see that the one you have as the latest is 4.4 while mine says 4.5.

I attached a few screenshots.

Cheers.

3

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2025-06-19, 16:20:47 »

I can quote Alex's really good suggestion of running internally downresed input so the user can have the primary image be native high-res and AI enhancement up-resed.

I still miss the internal AA down-resing from Corona Alpha :- )

Oh the internal AA down resing, that was before my time - is it at all similar to what is shown in this recent video?

(basically, render to 2x resolution, then downscale to final image size). This is an idea I am considering putting on the cards for development, basically skipping the Photoshop step of downsizing, so am interested to hear thoughts.

I always hated denoising but this sounds pretty amazing. It would be great to have it done under the hood with just one click...As an option I'm guessing.

EDIT: And to me this is a much proper use of AI for a Rendering engine than improving the look of 3D people. I think it would be best if Chaos has a separate application for that kind of work (the AI enhancer), and not integrated into a rendering engine.

4

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2025-06-18, 16:55:51 »

Or just focus on the ideas with the most votes?
I know that the ai effort is Chaos-wide, but there are many other things on the list and these features are very much replaceable with other existing and better products out there.
I don't mean to tell you how to do your product. This is just my two cents.

Just a note on this that no-one on the Corona team spends any dev time at all on the AI itself. All we do is the UI and hooks to get an image sent up to Chaos Cloud (well, and created a very easy new render element, which is basically just three other render elements combined). So you are seeing a feature that is as close to "free" as it gets in terms of development time, so much so that not adding it wouldn't make any sense :)

Got it. Thanks for the note. Nice perk of the merger.

5

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2025-06-17, 15:30:49 »

Or just focus on the ideas with the most votes?
I know that the ai effort is Chaos-wide, but there are many other things on the list and these features are very much replaceable with other existing and better products out there.
I don't mean to tell you how to do your product. This is just my two cents.

6

[Max] Bug Reporting / Re: Corona Color correct doesn't show output handle with Hide Unused Nodeslots

« on: 2025-06-04, 23:59:58 »

Oh ok. Thanks.
Since I posted this I realized that clicking on the "-" brings it back. So it's not terrible really.

7

[Max] Bug Reporting / Corona Color correct doesn't show output handle with Hide Unused Nodeslots

« on: 2025-06-04, 19:21:08 »

When in the material editor Hide Unused Nodeslots is checked, a new Corona color correct node doesn't show the output handle.
See attached.

3DS Max 2025, Corona 12 Update 2.

8

General CG Discussion / Re: Have you seen Unreal Engine 5.5?

« on: 2025-05-15, 17:47:36 »

Envision is a 100% in-house Chaos product.

I didn't mean that. I meant they seem to be neglecting their products in general or just not having enough manpower or enough responsiveness to keep such a large amount of products.
At least that's my feeling with Corona and Vantage, and I read in this forum that the Anima forum isn't getting responses from developers.
https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=44916.msg233263#msg233263

I mean, it's not a secret that core Corona development got very slow. Its development seems to be focused on the compatibility with other Chaos products and their ecosystem or additional services they can offer rather than true improvement.

Not a good sign.

Edit: Also the difference in development between D5 and Vantage, although they both started practically at the same time, is huge.
Edit 2: Also at least here in NY, I find it impossible to get an Nvidia RTX 5090 or even 5080 for a decent price. They're mostly sold out since their launch. D5 seems to support AMD without issues. I may be wrong though.

9

General CG Discussion / Re: Have you seen Unreal Engine 5.5?

« on: 2025-05-15, 17:10:22 »

Envision may be another tool to consider: https://www.chaos.com/envision

The problem with Chaos products, it seems, is that they are spreading too thin to the point that they seem to be neglecting a percentage of each product they acquired. I don't like that and would rather work with a software that is unique to the company that owns it. Sorry, but I'm being honest here.

10

General CG Discussion / Re: Have you seen Unreal Engine 5.5?

« on: 2025-05-15, 15:47:34 »

In terms of both quality and speed, D5 Render is clearly beginning to dominate the architectural visualization market. Chaos Vantage, while technically capable, lacks the content depth and aggressive marketing to match what D5 currently offers.

Engines like Unreal Engine may appear fast and flexible for Archviz workflows, but they often become impractical when dealing with large-scale, detailed, and serious projects. That’s why we believe D5 will continue to gain momentum in the coming months. As the largest visualization office in Turkey, we've already shifted around 45% of our pipeline to D5.

We are now entering a market where seamless technical control and ultra-optimized workflows are more important than ever. Corona Render will always remain an artistic tool that I personally can’t give up — it has soul. But it’s also true that the market is changing at an incredibly fast pace.

Unfortunately, Corona has begun to lag in technical innovation, much like what happened with Mental Ray and even V-Ray at certain points. There’s been little movement recently in terms of speeding up workflows (e.g., no integration with Gaussian Splatting, minimal real-time development, lack of AI-driven enhancements, etc.).

Today there are dozens of real-time enhancement tools — very few professionals even open Photoshop anymore. At this stage, I believe Corona may face a long-term challenge if it doesn’t evolve fast enough.

And no, I won’t go down the path of complaining “why Corona doesn’t have GPU support.” That would be like arguing whether Tesla should make a diesel model. It’s irrelevant. The discussion is about pipeline efficiency and market direction, not nostalgia.

Very interesting. Thank you for the insights.
I'm using Vantage for the first time and I find it a little buggy EDIT: and the camera animation part is not quite ready yet IMO, nor the export of camera animations from Max.
I'm interested in D5 but I, like you, I don't want to give up Corona for still images (EDIT: not yet at least).
How is your workflow in that case?
Do you have a Corona scene and a separate scene for D5? Because AFAIK D5 is not compatible with Corona shaders, no?

11

[Max] Bug Reporting / Re: Collab -in VFB causing "internal error meesage"

« on: 2025-05-14, 15:49:59 »

I would vote for having option to make it disappear - many users will probably never ever will use that feature. I can only see it as positive to have less clutter in the VFB, its tools sidebar is getting fatter and fatter with each new release.

+1

12

General CG Discussion / Re: 3DS Max can't create any new objects

« on: 2025-05-06, 15:07:14 »

Hi everyone, first of all sorry if i missed the category, but after searching all over i couldn't fix the problem i have.

I literally can't create anything, any objects, cameras, forestpack, literally any object in 3DS Max, i suspect it happened after i imported another model into a scene. I tried reseting the preferences, reseting the controller to default aswell but nothing seems to help. I want to point out that this is only a case on a specific scene, new ones and other scenes i have work propertly.

So if anyone has any idea on how to fix this it would be a lifesaver, thanks!

Make sure the home grid is active, as opposed to a secondary grid you may have created before.

13

[Max] I need help! / Re: Still no OPEN button to open a CXR in the VFB?

« on: 2025-05-05, 18:00:26 »

but please tell me if what you are describing was ever possible in Corona, in some version.

No. It was never possible in Corona. It should be by now.

It may become a feature request in the end.

yes please.

14

[Max] I need help! / Re: Still no OPEN button to open a CXR in the VFB?

« on: 2025-05-05, 15:30:30 »

I believe there's a bug:

https://youtu.be/pBMelae7118

To replicate it:

1- Open a scene, create somthing, render and save CXR.
2- the the VFB clear, open the CXR from history and edit it.
3- Draw a region and click render.

The image in the VFB goes away.

In any case, an "open" option under the little disk icon in the regular (not history) VFB would be better in my opinion.

EDIT: 3ds Max 2025.3, Windows 11 latest update AFAIK.

3 - instead of Render, draw a region and do Resume in rendering (play button for history item).

Hi Aram,

Resuming the rendering is not what I'm looking to do. If I do that the result I get is the mix of new pixels with older ones.
I want to re-render a region in an existing saved CXR file, while keeping that CXR image in the VFB.
In other words, I want to load a CXR file, draw a render region, and render from scratch for that region only without affecting the rest of the image.
Is that possible without having to use "resume file" and then click cancel and wait for the processing to finish before I can go ahead and render the region?


Thanks.

Edit: see attachment please.

15

[Max] I need help! / Re: Still no OPEN button to open a CXR in the VFB?

« on: 2025-05-02, 17:12:37 »

I believe there's a bug:

https://youtu.be/pBMelae7118

To replicate it:

1- Open a scene, create somthing, render and save CXR.
2- the the VFB clear, open the CXR from history and edit it.
3- Draw a region and click render.

The image in the VFB goes away.

In any case, an "open" option under the little disk icon in the regular (not history) VFB would be better in my opinion.

EDIT: 3ds Max 2025.3, Windows 11 latest update AFAIK.