Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 5, 2018. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
With the last major Arnold 5.0 update, Solid Angle integrated new shaders, improved sampling and color management with OCIO, among other things. After a year, just in time for the upcoming FMX 2018, the developers have now released Arnold 5.1.
Arnold 5.1 at a Glance
Anyone who was looking forward to the long-awaited GPU update will unfortunately have to remain patient. At the GTC 2018 there was a talk about Arnold GPU, however, with more information and an announcement of a private beta. Arnold 5.1 instead already includes GPU noise reduction with Nvidia OptiX AI Denoising, which was recently also integrated into many other tools. Further update features are the new Toon Shaders, sampling options and pipeline additions.
Denoising & Sampling
Two new denoisers have been added in Arnold 5.1, allowing rendered scenes to make do with significantly fewer samples.
- OptiX AI Denoiser is Nvidia’s new GPU-based denoiser, which you can apply as a filter (denoise_optix_filter) to any AOVs in Arnold. An Nvidia GPU with the latest driver version is required for use. More about it here.
- Arnold Denoiser – a standalone post-process tool from Solid Angle that can be used as “Final Frame” denoising.
In addition, through Adaptive Sampling, Arnold now offers the possibility of automatically adjusting the sampling rate of individual pixels. When the “Enable Adaptive Sampling” option is activated, pixels that exhibit greater variations in sample values are identified in order to save render time. More about the new Adaptive Sampling here.
Toon Shader
A new Toon Shader has been integrated as an option for non-photorealistic rendering (NPR). In combination with the contour filter, this shader enables new stylized looks. The attached graphic shows the shading components.
Volumes, motion blur, DOF and the VR camera are excluded so far. In addition, jagged edges can arise at pixel intensity (> 1.0). Further information and example images for the Toon Shader are available here in the documentation.
Alembic & Pipeline
Solid Angle has also added various innovations to improve the pipeline. With Alembic there is now a new procedural node that better supports the Alembic workflow with Arnold. The update also includes a series of new operators that let you override and modify every part of an Arnold scene. Support for open standards, including MaterialX, is intended to make it easier to exchange material and look-development content between applications and renderers.
A complete overview of all innovations & features can be found in the release notes
GTC 2018 talk: “Bringing Arnold to the GPU”
Price & Availability
Arnold 5.1 is currently available here as an SDK and Maya plug-in for users. Plug-ins for Cinema 4D, Houdini, 3Ds Max, Softimage and Katana will also be available shortly. Arnold is priced at €70 per month and is now only available under the subscription model. You can find more information about prices & integration here. Anyone wishing to test Arnold can download a one-time 30-day trial version. (All functions & without watermarks).
DP Issue 04 : 18 – Rendering
Some time has passed again since our last DP issue with a rendering focus. In our next DP 04 : 18 we are once again taking the broad view: alongside an overview of current offers and trends, we examine the state of the most interesting renderers in detail. These include Arnold, Cycles, Mantra, Redshift, Octane, ProRender, Renderman and V-Ray. The publication date is June 25, 2018!
