Content
Added (iClone):
New SpeedTree content type for the Iray renderer. New Height Map Terrain content type for the Iray renderer. New embedded Iray Sample Projects for iClone. From Content Manager > Project > IrayPreview Window
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
1) Preview window new features and layout adjustments:
Use the left mouse button to frame a preview region. The toggle switch keeps the size and position of the last region. If the size of the Preview Render Window is adjusted, then the region size and position will be reset to default.2) Fit to Image(Ctrl +.) : Preview Window fit to actual image size.
3) New CPU and GPU usage stats in the Preview Window.
When video card memory is depleted, Iray will automatically switch to CPU rendering which can also drastically slow down the render time.4) New Iray message log.
5) Maximize window feature in the title bar.
Content
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
New embedded IES light content. From Content Manager > Media > IES (..\Reallusion\Shared Templates\IES\).Lighting
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
New IES input for point and spot lights under Iray Render (Panel) > Lighting (Tab).Material
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
New Select All Materials checkbox under Material (Tab) > Materials (List).Material
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
New Iray Render Globals under Preference:
1) New default values for Iray Render Stop Criteria:
Preview Sample iterations : default = 1000 Export Sample iterations : default = 1000 Export Max Seconds : default = 36002) New default values for Iray auto convert texture settings:
- Max Texture Size: default = 2048*2048
Set the max texture resolution for Iray auto-conversion. Max texture size will clamp all of the texture sizes for the Iray preview and Save MI Scene.- Texture Compression: default = None
Adjust the compression ratio for Iray auto-conversion. Texture compression is an internal setting of the Iray SDK which is declared inside the XX.resource.mi file and does not affect the actual texture maps exported for Iray renderer.Material
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
Iray Material Tab add Texture Setting Section:
1) Max Texture Size: default = Use Perference Settings
Set the max texture resolution for Iray auto-conversion. Max texture size will clamp all of the texture sizes for the Iray preview (..\iCLone7Temp\IRayResource\) and Save MI Scene.2) Texture Compression: default = Use Perference Settings
Adjust the compression ratio for Iray auto-conversion. Texture compression is an internal setting of the Iray SDK which is declared inside the XX.resource.mi file and does not affect the actual texture maps exported for Iray renderer.Note.
Adjustments by material with Iray (Panel) > Material (Tab) > Texture Settings (Section). Adjusting the entire scene with Preferences > Iray Global Settings (Individual materials must be set to Use Preferences Settings in order for this to take effect.)Render Settings
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
New Render Mode section for Iray Render Settings:
1) New Iray Interactive Mode :
Iray Interactive is a semi-realtime render mode which uses faster yet less accurate rendering algorithms than Iray Photoreal. Iray Interactive targets a look which is consistent with the physically-based results of Iray Photoreal, yet it is optimized for interactive scene manipulations by leveraging NVidia CUDA-capable GPUs. It is ideal where ray-tracing effects like reflections and refractions are desired and limited photorealism is acceptable.2) New Advanced panel for Interactive Mode.
Working Memory: Reserved video memory for Iray Interactive Mode. Raytrace Quality: Interactive GI Bounce related settings. GI Lighting: Will only work when GI Interactive Mode is OFF. - Indirect Light Intensity: Indirect light color and strength adjustments.
- Ambient Occlusion: Compensate for light intensity over-exposure in occluded areas.
- Environment Light: Only takes effect with the presence of IBL or Iray Sun&Sky. It is mainly to used to adjust the intensity level of the environment lighting.
Limitations: The number of procedural texture functions per material is restricted to a maximum of 32.
Material volume properties is ignored, i.e no volumetric effects, except for volume attenuation in glass-like materials.
No volumetric effects excpt volume attenuation by Beer's law.
Emissive geometry is not illuminating the scene, but it is considered when the geometry is hit directly.
Non-specular refraction of finite lights is rendered black.
The shadow buffer does not contain glossy reflections of shadow computations on the virtual ground plane.
Render Settings
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
New features under Render Settings > Compositing Elements:
- New Shadow and AO (Interactive Mode only)
- Depth and Distance can be used to set the black and white distance regions.
Near : objects within this distance from the camera will be occluded with a white color. Far : distance from the camera where objects occlude with a black color.Render Settings
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
New Preview Settings (Section) for the Render Settings apart from the usual preview settings.
Preview Auto-update New Preview Displacement and Tessellation mesh can be used to turn off the tessellation and displacement effect for the mesh which can increase the update speed for the preview window. Preview Selected Preview SizeNew Anti-alias Radius under Iray Render (Panel) > Render Settings (Tab) for anti-aliasing.
New Cancel button for Save MI Scene.
Render Settings
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
New features for Render Scene :
1) Ability to set the filename and folder directory for export.
2) New Export Mode Section :
Save MI Scene: Export a MI file for the current frame range along with all of the deployed resources. Background Render (Save MI Scene): Export a MI file for the current frame range along with all of the deployed resources for the Iray Background Renderer. iClone Render (Image Sequence): Render the current frame range within iClone while occupying essential resources, thus, preventing further operation. (iClone Only) iClone Render (Image Sequence and MP4): iClone Render exports a sequence of images before coalescing them into a video. The user will be asked whether or not to keep the image sequence after the video is made. (iClone Only)Render Settings
Added (iClone):
New Animated Objects List keeps track of keyframed objects. Any objects not added to this list will be considered "static" during playback to increase real-time performance and enhance render speeds.
After Activation:
Timeline playback will only update dynamic objects inside the Animated Object List while static objects not listed will be ignored (automatic update optimization mechanism). Only the dynamic objects inside the Animated Object List will be exported by frame when Save MI Scene.Standalone
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
Renamed Iray Background Renderer to Iray Standalone Renderer.Standalone
Added (iClone & Character Creator):
New Camera Section under the Render Settings tab:
1) Target Camera: Ability to pick the render camera for the Iray renderer. (iClone Only)
Default: Use iClone Camera to use the previously used camera. 2) Depth of Field Group
Focus Distance Multiplier: multiplier value for Depth of Field > Focus Distance. Blur Radius Multiplier: multiplier value for Depth of Field > Blur.Preview Window
Enhanced (iClone & Character Creator):
New Camera Section under the Render Settings tab:
After optimization of material attributes and textures, the automatic refresh preview mechanism will no longer have to update all the materials in the scene.Render Settings
Enhanced (iClone & Character Creator):
Shared texture resources for rendering and export MI scene:
Shared textures within a single frame are not repeatedly exported. Shared textures within a sequence of frames are not repeatedly exported (ex: IBL texture will be shared across all frames)Material
Enhanced (iClone & Character Creator):
PBR MDLs > added Performance Settings with the ability to disable Glossy and Metallic effects.
Disable Glossy/Metallic check box : Disable Glossy/Metallic checkboxes are used to control the BSDF (Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function) for the MDLs. BSDF determines the scattering behavior for both directions in the case of reflections and refractions which has a direct impact on the look of Iray materials. Reallusion's Iray auto-conversion for PBR MDLs utilizes simple glossy bsf and diffuse reflection bsdf to visualize the roughness/metallic texture effects. In addition, the simple glossy bsdf is responsible for reflections on metallic objects. Thus, the simple glossy bsdf will calculate twice; Once for the basic material look (diffuse, roughness, etc.) and once for the added metallic specular effect. Disable Glossy disables the calculations from the simple glossy bsdf, and instead opts for a more simpler approach with diffuse reflection bsdf. This will improve the render speed overall at the expense of roughness reflectivity. In order to completely turn off the simple glossy bsdf calculation for metallic surfaces, one must also activate the Disable Metallic setting. Override Roughness/Metallic Texture : Usually texture maps will be generated and assigned to the Roughness/Metallic channels as a result of auto-conversion. In this case, we recommend overriding pure color texture maps with numerical values to speed up the iRay render process. This speed gain is a result of bypassing the pixel read process. Note: You'll need to auto-convert your materials to use MDL v1.1 via Iray (Panel) > Material (Tab) > Reset Selected MDL in order to see the effect.Standalone
Enhanced (iClone & Character Creator):
Optimized the structure of the file exported by batch Save MI Scene and the Performance of this feature.
Mitigated the lapse between export times. Optimized the structure and size of the exported file. Dispatching of a single MI file into three separate MI files. - MI format now includes all data for rendering.
- Resource MI keeps all of the MDL and Texture data.
- Scene MI keeps all of the mesh data in the scene.
Binarized the mesh data to decrease the file size.Standalone
Enhanced (iClone & Character Creator):
New crash restoration mechanism for Iray Standalone Renderer. Restoring a project session after a fatal crash will prompt the user whether or not to continue with the previously interrupted render assignment.Memorey
Enhanced (iClone & Character Creator):
Optimized consecutive operation of the Iray preview and Standalone Renderer by releasing the hold on the system memory; Thus, eliminating memory leaks.Render Settings
Spec Changed (iClone & Character Creator):
The default value for Render Settings > Render Mode > Photoreal > Max GI Bounces has reduced from 16 to 8 to increase the render speed with little impact to the render quality.Render Settings
Spec Changed (iClone & Character Creator):
Iray Render (Panel) > Render Settings (Tab) > Eliminate Shadow Acne has changed to Eliminate Shadow Artifact.Material
Spec Changed (iClone & Character Creator):
Reset Selected MDL button now only resets selected material as opposed to changing all of the materials on an object.General
Fixed (iClone & Character Creator):
Billboard not appearing in the Iray Renderer.General
Fixed (iClone & Character Creator):
The abnormal accumulation of main memory consumption without it being able to be released when Iray Render is repetitively used.General
Fixed (iClone & Character Creator):
Incomplete clearing of the IRayResource folder upon creation of a new project.Material
Fixed (iClone & Character Creator):
Iray pre-processing of lights even though object glow maps are removed and self-illumination disabled. Now these objects no longer factor into the emissive light pre-calculation process thus improving render speeds. Note: You'll need to auto-convert your materials to use MDL v1.1 via Iray (Panel) > Material (Tab) > Reset Selected MDL in order to see the effect.
