Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 3, 2015. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Anyone who likes Corona Renderer should obtain a licence for the full version as quickly as possible after the first tests, because there is currently a "45-Day Launch Promo Discount" and the renderer is available for 19.99 euros per month.
Features
The main features of Corona Renderer are interactive rendering, which is intended to support nearly all materials, maps and geometries. "UHD Cache" brings a new caching solution that is similar to HD Cache but causes almost no distortion and flickers less in animations – even in scenes with moving geometry. Other features include SSS and volumetric scattering capabilities and a GGX Microfact BRDF model, which is intended to make realistic metal materials easy to create.
The user interface has been redesigned, so that Corona now has not just one tab but three, avoiding tedious scrolling. The CoronaMultiMap texture function can be used to randomise colours and texmaps with instances, and it works with every scatter plug-in and with 3ds Max native instancing. Blend Material support has also been improved, as have Corona Scattering and the ShadowCatcher. Furthermore, the performance of displacement parsing, heavy instancing and the saving of large renderings has been optimised, and several major bug fixes have been added.
Here is a comprehensive overview of all features, improvements and bug fixes.
Prices and the ordering option for Corona Renderer 1.0 can be found here. The renderer is compatible with 3ds Max from version 2011 onwards and is supported by 64-bit.
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