Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Changelog

[Aram Avetisyan]

Please check this article covering the risks of using daily builds: Daily Builds FAQ
If you are familiar with the daily builds and know how to use them, download the newest one here:
chaos-corona-13-3dsmax-daily-2024-07-30.exe

Note: The following will be released as a hotfix for v12 soon.

User-Facing Improvements

• Disable history autosaving for sequences and for slaves during distributed rendering. This is to avoid poping a blocking confirmation dialog about history item deletion when the user is likely not around.
• Added bakeIthLightMix function to MAXScript to allow baking parameters of specific light mix element.

Bugfixes

• Fixed issue where several of the new parameters (Bloom&Glare compute after rendering, IR resolution lock, VFB history settings) could not be accessed via maxscript.
• Fixed issue where interactive rendering would disable denoising blending in VFB2 for the following production rendering.
• Fixed errors when switching color management mode while IR is running.
• Fixed crash when using "scene-linear Rec.709-sRGB" space in OCIO mode, when the scene contains dispersion.
• Fixed pick and region mode turning off after IR is started.
• Removed accessing data objects in TileMap during rendering.
• Fixed crash in pattern occurring when using pattern object with degenerate triangles.
• Fixed issue where changing aperture parameters did not refresh VFB2.
• Fixed rare crash while switching from zoomed-in production rendering to interactive rendering.
• Light select names in VFB2 now update after renaming and re-rendering, also after switching from Edit CXR.
• Fixed issue where VFB2 could crash when someone deletes history item without using VFB2 controls.
• Fixed issue where light mix was reset when docked IR was started.
• Fixed dialog resizing on render start to adjust its size to contain as much of rendered image as possible.
• Fixed locked IR resolution second dimension value being wrong on entering (due to upscaling factor).
• Fixed issue where VFB2 was not updated when render stamp was changed from MaxScript.
• Fixed issue in Corona Image Editor where tonemapping in rare cases could look different than tonemapping in Corona VFB.
• Improved frames per second in docked VFB.
• Fixed issue where NVidia denoiser was not applied during production rendering. Added missing refresh of VFB when denoising is done.
• Fixed issue where IR was restarted while VFB dialog size was changed even though its resolution should have remained unchanged.
• Fixed copying of colors between different color swatches in Lightmix tab.
• Fixed issue where 3ds Max would freeze when history item deletion dialog is shown after rendering finishes.
• Fixed saving of CXRs for light mix elements.
• Fixed bad_optional_access error when opening Render setup dialog during rendering.
• Light mix layers can now be toggled by clicking on the entry widget, not just the checkbox, same as in the old VFB.
• GammaCorrectionOperator present in .conf files is now handled correctly - the operator is removed from the pipeline and the rest is loaded correctly.
• Fixed issue where real world mapping was not applied on some materials imported from Cosmos.
• "Show VFB" now also raises the Vfb2.0 above other 3dsMax's dialogs (as Vfb1.0 did).
• Fixed IR restarting/changing appearance after Render Setup dialog is open.
• Fixed issue where VFB would show when updating scene with docked IR running.
• Fixed color management update when loading a Corona scene with other renderer being set as default.
• Fixed issue where old V-ray materials could not be rendered/converted.
• Fixed incorrect position/scale of VFB2 after restore from previous session on multi dpi monitor setups.
• Fixed issue where scatter edge trimming would in some cases incorrectly trim instances.
• Fix issue where minimized VFB stays hidden when rendering starts.
• Fix of not updating VFB2.0 when option "Lock 3ds Max during render" is set.

[Aram Avetisyan]

Please check this article covering the risks of using daily builds: Daily Builds FAQ
If you are familiar with the daily builds and know how to use them, download the newest one here:
chaos-corona-13-3dsmax-daily-2024-10-10.exe

NOTE: The installer has new digital signature, which may trigger warning when run. This is expected and fine.

Major User-Facing Improvements

• Caustics Guiding: caustics now clean up much faster (better results in the same amount of time).
• Implementation of caustics in volumes.
• Added tab with Chaos Cloud Collaboration. For information on this, for now see the V-Ray notes at https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/24008870901649-How-can-I-use-Cloud-Collaboration
• Chaos Scatter: Added Distribution map presets. Presets and any custom maps are previewed in UI.

User-Facing Improvements

• Added Depth of field range indicator for 3ds Max Viewport, when Corona Camera is selected.
• Extended CoronaBitmap about togglable aspect ratio lock button + added 'Fit to bitmap' button. The second one is available when Real World Scale is on and lock is not active.
• Caustics improvements:
- More photons are now delivered to caustics in large/complex scenes.
- Added max photon repeat parameter into advanced settings that influences noise of caustics.
- Added intensity multipliers (surface and volume) for caustics.

• Added the option to load multiple CXRs into VFB history at once.
• Added an improved algorithm for white-balance computation. To ensure existing scenes render as before, they will load using the “Legacy White Balance” tone mapping parameter.
• Removed the Corona Material Library component from Corona installer. If you do not have it installed already, a download button will be shown on opening the Corona Material Library.
• Added a decal arrow pointing in the decal projection direction.
• Vfb2.0 - Shows correct render stamp when loading or comparing images.

Bugfixes

• Fixed changing of "Locked IR resolution" when rendering with docked interactive.
• Fixed issue where OCIO would convert everything to black when alpha is NAN.
• Show image comparison splitter at the center even when zoomed in + draw also overlay A/B when zoomed in.
• Interactive rendering restarts are now faster when using Caustics solver.
• Small behavior fixes of the button used to select node for fitting PatternMod crop box.
• Fixed issue where caustics did not work correctly with Foam or Slicers.
• Fixed issue where clicking on Save in VFB would not save the currently displayed image, but the rendered image instead.
• Fixed issue where saving values over 1 to PNG/JPG with OCIO would give incorrect results.
• Fixed issues with decal/media and heterogeneous media when material-based medium resolving is used.
• Fixed issue where animated texmaps would in some cases render without animation.
• Fixed issue when a selection of non-defined map channel could affect scatter distribution.
• Fixed issues with value precision sensitivity of scattering in some scenarios and improved consistency of scattering results across various scatter integrations.

[Aram Avetisyan]

Please check this article covering the risks of using daily builds: Daily Builds FAQ
If you are familiar with the daily builds and know how to use them, download the newest one here:
chaos-corona-13-3dsmax-daily-2024-10-23.exe

User-Facing Improvements

• Chaos Installer is now used instead of Corona legacy installer.
• Command line arguments were changed. You can use -auto instead of -acceptEulaAndInstall. For more command line arguments use -help.
• Unpack is no longer option in installer. Can be done by command prompt --unpackInstall=dir. E.g. --unpackInstall="C:\User\Corona\Unpack".
• Note: Requires SSE 4.2, released in 2008 for Intel and 2011 for AMD, so any machine newer than 13 years old should be unaffected.
  This would be around one tenth of one percent of users at our estimate, and some of those may be using an older Corona version anyway since Corona itself needs SSE 4.1 already.
• Added a Separate IR button instead of the dropdown menu option.
• Collaboration now disables 3ds max hotkeys only when text is edited.
• VFB2.0 - Place new history items at the top of history instead of at the bottom.
• Added support for ForestPack Ivy Generator.

Bugfixes

• Fixed issue where showing VRayMtl in material editor without VRay installed leads to crash when Corona is active renderer.
• Fixed issue where Caustics solver could cause NaNs when used in volumes.
• Fixed issue where camera name in Tone Mapping disappears after editing history item and rendering again.
• OCIO config path from the environment variable "OCIO" is used only when the respective mode is selected in Color Management settings.
• Fixed not being able to maximize the VFB while IR was running as it re-adjusted its size.
• Fixed issue where debug.log file is created in 3ds Max project folder.

[Aram Avetisyan]

Please check this article covering the risks of using daily builds: Daily Builds FAQ
If you are familiar with the daily builds and know how to use them, download the newest one here:
chaos-corona-13-3dsmax-daily-2024-11-04.exe

Major User-Facing Improvements

• Upscaling - Added option to upscale rendering for both interactive and production rendering:
        Upscaling is intended for the quicker rendering of draft renders, including animation.
        For both IR and Production rendering, it halves the render resolution (width/2 x height/2) and then upscales to the set resolution.
  
• Added automatic exposure & white balance into postprocessing.
• Added initial support for Vantage Live Link.

User-Facing Improvements

• Added option to system settings to disable overwrite confirmation dialog when using history autosave.
• Added Unpack button to the installer which performs the unpack installation.
• Fit to bitmap in Corona Bitmap now works also in non-real world scale mode.

Bugfixes

• Fixed issue where auto-saving animations into history often resulted in black history snapshots.
• Fixed issue where material library would not be downloaded through the material library dialog when the user did not have permission to modify Corona installation folder.
• Fixed incorrect order of render elements in case Rest render element was not the last one.
• Fixed crash when opening Login window in Cosmos browser.
• Fixed issue where sometimes the sun and environment lights were accidentally calculated as being inside a non-global volume during caustics computations.
• Fixed 3ds Max hotkeys being wrongly reenabled after clicking from Cosmos to another Corona spinbox.
• Fixed issue where "Need help setting up licensing?" link in installer leads to Vantage installation page.
• LUT path is no longer converted from local to UNC after arbitrary UI operations.
• Fixed animated camera unexpectedly changing position when switching target on and off.

[Aram Avetisyan]

Corona 12 Update 1 (not hotfix) will be released before Corona 13, below is the first Release Candidate of Corona 12 Update 1.

Please check this article covering the risks of using daily builds: Daily Builds FAQ
If you are familiar with the daily builds and know how to use them, download the newest one here:
chaos-corona-12-update-1-3dsmax-RC1.exe

User-Facing Improvements

• Improved decal arrow sizing, based on the decal box size.
• When exporting to Vantage, Corona exports to a running Vantage application instead of starting a new one. When Vantage is not installed, error is shown to the user.
• Added new Legal Agreements dialog, which is shown only after "--auto" installation (when the eula/privacy policy is not shown).

Bugfixes

• Paths to assets used in Corona Material Library downloaded from Cosmos are no longer converted from mapped drives to UNC paths.
• Fixed Memory Report dialog preventing render from completing, it is closed automatically for render to finish.
• Fixed issues in Caustics solver when Camera physical size is enabled - specifically incorrectly shaded caustics and shadows casted by the camera box.
• Fixed Bloom&Glare occasional incorrect computation when Auto Adjustment is on.
• Disable denoising UI in VFB when upscaling is ON, because upscaling forces denoising ON.
• Fixed issue where interactive rendering in docked VFB would reduce user interface responsiveness when upscaling and sharpenning/blurring were enabled.
• Fixed issue where Cosmos lights were imported with wrong units.
• Fixed Scatter not updating correctly. Scatter is now also uninstalled with Corona, but only if V-Ray of corresponding version is not found.
• Fixed Bloom&Glare missing when saving multiple elements with B&G.
• Fixed issue where fitting decal and then changing the size with locked aspect ratio would result in incorrect decal aspect ratio.
• Uninstallation should no longer fail when some directory cannot be removed because it is still not empty during uninstall (e.g. due to some additional added file).
• Fixed computing of curves operator histogram - histogram now updates during rendering and is computed from editted item as well, not always from the main render.
• Fixed issue where some OSL maps (e.g. those using user-defined attributes) were not working properly.