Archive notice: This article was originally published on May 30, 2014. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
RenderMan now costs only 495 US dollars per license. If a company needs more than 25 licenses, Pixar also offers attractive Custom Studio packages with additional peak render capacity and volume discounts. With the upcoming release, the renderer’s functionality is intended to be combined with the previously separate RenderMan Pro Server and RenderMan Studio solutions in a flexible license.
According to Pixar, the price was reduced to meet market requirements for higher rendering capacity and thus give artists greater access to RenderMan. But perhaps the increased use of Solid Angle’s Arnold in studios was also an argument for Pixar.
With the upcoming release, RenderMan may be used free of charge for non-commercial projects, meaning learning projects, experiments, research work, or the development of RenderMan tools and plug-ins. Here you can register for non-commercial RenderMan and will be notified as soon as it is available.
In the new release, Pixar has also incorporated a new modular rendering architecture called RIS, which includes an optimized method and a new algorithm for simulating light transport. Also included: an improved Unidirectional Path Tracer and a Bidirectional Path Tracer with progressive photon mapping. The traditional Reyes architecture remains in RenderMan, however, so the renderer now offers two modes in the same environment.
Here, Pixar’s Ed Catmull talks more about Pixar’s new pricing policy.
You can obtain all further information about Pixar’s RenderMan here.
