The Update Formerly Known as Hotfix

Chaos has released Corona 12 Update 2, a minor but precision-targeted update to its physically based production renderer Corona Renderer, available for 3ds Max and Cinema 4D. While officially a follow-up to Corona 12, this one was originally pitched as a hotfix—until the feature list turned out to be too long to hide under a patch note rug.

Sunlight Gets Directional

The Sun Directionality parameter, now available via the Corona Sun object, allows artists to dial in light scattering in the atmosphere. Directionality controls how focused the sunlight appears, similar to tweaking anisotropy in a volume shader: a higher value tightens the sunlight into a beam, while a lower value makes it feel more diffuse. It’s a subtle but effective way to tune outdoor lighting setups and comes with full support for LightMix.

Just keep in mind: while it’s nice to have more control over sunlight, no renderer update will save you from bad taste in lens flares.

Scatter Now Exports Static Meshes

Chaos Scatter—included with Corona—now offers a static mesh export option. This lets users bake scatter distributions into a single mesh object, reducing scene complexity and making instanced assets easier to handle downstream. The new Export as Mesh button outputs a consolidated object with proxy references intact, making this workflow particularly handy for scene optimization, archive preparation, or studio handoff.

Fun fact: Chaos points out this can also be useful for “other renderers,” although we assume they’re muttering that part under their breath.

Sky Consistency Between Hosts

The Corona Sky object now has a consistent default setup across 3ds Max and Cinema 4D. Previously, default sky-and-sun pairings differed between hosts, sometimes leading to inconsistent lighting setups when migrating scenes. With Update 2, both platforms now share the same out-of-the-box configuration, reducing headaches when switching DCCs or sharing files in cross-platform teams.

Also noteworthy: the official changelog is already up and running for those who like to check the plumbing before moving in.

Licensing and Availability

Corona 12 Update 2 is available now for users of Corona for 3ds Max 2016–2024 and Cinema 4D R17+. The update is free for users with an active Chaos Corona subscription. Pricing starts at €54.90/month for a solo license. For those still using Corona for everyday rendering tasks: Update 2 doesn’t reinvent the renderer—but it does shave off a few rough edges. And some days, that’s exactly what you need.

The post Corona 12 Update 2: Sunlight, Static Meshes & Setups first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.