iClone 7.0 What's New - Visual Enhancements

A Visual Feast

Reallusion has transformed iClone 7 into a completely new visual powerhouse built to perfectly animate a new generation of PBR (Physically-based Rendering) content. Experience how Global Illumination turns a normal 3D scene into a photo-realistic world with Image Based Lighting that demonstrates seamless blending between different image-based sources, while allowing you to bake HDR IBL maps right on the spot, from your very own 3D scenes.

NOTE: All images and videos have been natively rendered in the new iClone 7.

PHYSICALLY-BASED RENDER

PBR rendering is based on real physical interaction between light and materials making it more accurate and consistent under an array of different lighting conditions. It is the same technology that powers today’s AAA video games and high-end renderers. iClone 7 now gives you that power, in real-time.

Industry Standard PBR Visuals Among Real-time Engines

iClone 7 has an impressive, built-in PBR (Physically Based Rendering) feature that is used by Substance Painter and other PBR tools. Not only does it deliver high visual realism, but it also serves as a new material content standard that maintains a consistent PBR look between iClone 7, 3D game engines, and popular PBR design applications.

NOTE: All displayed content are property of their original copyright vendors. Content here are only shown to demonstrate interchangeability with iClone 7, and will not be part of iClone 7 content.

Impressive Real-time PBR Character Animation

Through sophisticated material detail and spectacular reflections that respond to HDR lighting, iClone 7 brings an impressive level of realism when animating human and non-human characters with PBR.

Dynamic PBR Effects

In iClone 7, now you can load your own PBR materials created by Substance Designer, or from other SBSAR sources. This allows you to fashion an unlimited combination of real-life effects on target objects; in this case, you can generate lots of procedural variations on a single piece of arm guard, or you can load your own image patterns to generate extruded emblems.

GLOBAL ILLUMINATION (GI)

Utilizing NVIDIA’s leading real-time VXGI (Voxel Cone Tracing technology), iClone 7 greatly improves visual realism by including secondary light reflections over Diffuse and Specular surfaces. Users can easily level-up their existing projects to achieve superbly fine video renders in a fraction of the time, even when using slower GPU systems.

GI Makes Content Look So Much Better

Once you start using Global Illumination, you can never go back! Experience the same content with a whole new different feeling. To prove this, take a look at the projects below and notice that even though they use simple lighting inside a Cornell Box, they already demonstrate high realism due to indirect illumination.

Naturally Illuminated Interior Visuals

Breathe Life in Exterior Environments

Emissive Materials & Particles as Light Sources

Emissive materials are the secret elixir to professional lighting, and previously they could only be achieved through an offline renderer. But now iClone 7 breaks that barrier by using glow maps, particles, dynamic images, and videos as light sources all in real-time! You have to see it to believe it.

Particle as Light Source

Glow Map as Light Source

Image as Light Source

Video as Light Source

DYNAMIC IBL & SKY ENVIRONMENTS

Image-based lighting (IBL) is a 3D rendering technique that uses High Dynamic Range (HDR) images to give 3D scenes highly detailed, real-world lighting. In iClone 7 you can synchronize sky textures to IBL images, create your own IBL maps from 3D scenes, and then blend and animate them to achieve dynamic lighting effects.

HDR Timeline Keys & Skybox Association

iClone 7 lets you sync sky textures to Image Based Light sources so that you get a consistent view when rotating lights. Additionally, besides altering the IBL brightness or changing the color tone, you can also load different IBL maps in the Timeline to smoothly blend from one IBL map to another in order to match animated camera motions.

Bake 3D Scenes to HDR Image Maps

IBL delivers much better lighting especially when used with PBR content, but you might experience unnatural reflectiveness when combining shiny objects in a 3D scene. iClone 7 gives you the power to bake HDR image maps that are based on an object’s position. You can use this feature to easily correct any reflective look.