Archive notice: This article was originally published on August 4, 2006. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Luxology’s Modo 202 software for modelling, painting and rendering works up to 42 percent faster than the previous version 201, the company promises. Despite the small version jump, the update also brings useful new features in all areas.
To make it easier for users to assess and compare renderings, it is now possible to load up to ten rendered images and jump quickly from one to the next. In the render window, it is now also possible to specify only a certain region for rendering.
To improve the quality of the rendered images, Luxology implemented a more exact and faster-working image-map resampler. Improvements to irradiance caching significantly raise the quality and performance of global illumination, the manufacturer explains.
With the Object-to-Object Baking feature, users in Modo 202 can automatically transfer the surface details of a complex object to a simpler object for real-time applications: With this feature, Luxology is targeting the games sector in particular. In the paint module, Modo users can load an image file, display it transparently over the material and transfer it to this. Luxology calls this “Visible Image Ink Display” mode.
The company paid particular attention to UV tools in this update. For example, it improved texturing along difficult areas such as UV-map seams or on folded UV maps. A new interactive UV Relax with a pinning function simplifies the unwrapping of overlapping UVs. In the viewport, the user now sees scene lights in Advanced OpenGL mode and interactively adjusts the aperture, camera angle and distance to the target object.
In addition, Luxology has improved support for FBX and X3D files to ensure smooth collaboration with other 3D and animation packages.
Modo runs under Mac OS X and Windows and costs 895 dollars new. The update is free for customers with version 2xx; customers with earlier versions pay 395 dollars. A fully functional demo and some learning material are available for testing on the Luxology website.
Further Links:
- Modo 202 Demo
