Render Legion ships Corona Renderer 3 for 3ds Max
Render Legion has released Corona Renderer 3 for 3ds Max, the latest version of its production renderer, adding support for Nvidia’s OptiX GPU-based denoising.
The update also improves displacement, interactive rendering and memory use, and adds new options for randomising materials by mesh elements.
Denoise render previews via Nvidia’s OptiX technology
Render Legion has done away with point updates, so Corona Renderer 3 isn’t as big an update as the version number might suggest: under the old numbering scheme, it would be 2.1.
However, there are new features, not least GPU-accelerated render denoising, Render Legion becoming the latest developer to adopt Nvidia’s AI-based OptiX technology.
In Corona, it’s intended for denoising interactive previews, as it is in V-Ray, its sister application: you can use it for final-quality output, but it may cause blurring, and may result in flicker in animations.
However, Render Legion’s implementation does preserve details in reflections and refractions, “unlike … implementations of the denoiser in other software”.
Better interactive rendering and displacement, and lower RAM usage
Improvements to existing features include interactive rendering itself, now “generally faster” after restarts.
Handing of displacement has also been overhauled, making it possible to get good results with lower render times and reduced memory usage. You can see comparisons in Render Legion’s blog post.
Memory usage has also been improved, with Render Legion claiming a reduction of “up to 2.5GB for an 8K image without having to change any settings”.
There are also new options for troubleshooting memory use, including more detailed usage breakdowns during low-memory warnings and when rendering.
In its blog post, the firm describes the optimisations as having been prompted by the recent rises in the market price of RAM.
Other features include new options for randomising materials
Other changes include support for randomisation by mesh element for both CoronaMultiMap and CoronaUvwRandomizer, making it easier to vary materials across the geometry in a scene.
This release also marks the debut of the new unified Corona Lister. It currently lists Corona Scatters and Corona Lights, with more object types to follow in the next update.
You can see a full list of features and bugfixes via the link below.
Pricing and availability
Corona Renderer 3 for 3ds Max is available for 64-bit 3ds Max 2013+, running on Windows 7+. To use the OptiX denoiser, you will need a Kepler or newer Nvidia GPU.
Users have a choice between a perpetual ‘Box’ licence, which costs €449 (around $510), and a ‘Fair SaaS’ rental model, which costs between €24.99 and €44.99 a month ($28-50). You can find more details here.
Read a full list of features in Corona Renderer 3 for 3ds Max on Render Legion’s website