Thursday, September 1st, 2011 Posted by Jim Thacker

DNA Research cuts price of 3Delight for Maya


Image Engine used an earlier version of 3Delight for Maya on District 9. The price of the RenderMan-compliant renderer has now been released to as little as $400 to appeal to small and medium-sized studios.

DNA Research has released a new version of its RenderMan-compliant rendering plug-in, 3Delight for Maya.

Version 6.0 of the software features a number of UI and performance improvements, particularly a new global illumination UI designed to reduce the need for shader authoring.

The price of 3Delight for Maya has also been cut from $1,000 to $900 for a multi-core licence, or just $400 for a quad-core licence – a move that should appeal to the smaller studios that make up the software’s core users.

By contrast, the current version of RenderMan for Maya costs $995.

PRESS RELEASE (Excerpts)
DNA Research announces 3Delight for Maya 6.0, the latest major evolution of our fully integrated rendering plug-in for Autodesk Maya.

Starting immediately, 3Delight for Maya will be available as a package with a new entry-level pricing. This package is aimed at artists as well as small to medium sized studio who wish to work with a fast, robust, production-strength renderer that is totally integrated into Maya.

This new release improves usability and user-friendliness through improving UI improved user experience in our Maya plug-in and includes many performance and quality improvements in the core renderer.

Highlights of version 6.0

  • A new “Global Illumination” UI
    This tab allows for an easy control of global illumination settings, for both ray-traced and point-based algorithms and no further shader programming is necessary. Multi-bounce global illumination effects are easily computed using photon mapping.
  • Rendering Optimizations
    Ray-tracing and global illumination are faster for reflections, refractions, occlusion and shadows. Users can expect accelertion up to 50% in shading intensive renders.
  • Minimal Passes and Passes Templates
    This feature presents the user with a simple, uncluttered, render pass interface. Users can add features as needed for maximum usability. Such passes can then be organized in templates for rapid access.
  • More efficient Relationship Editor
    Large scenes are no longer a problem for the relation-ship editor. Scenes with thousands of nodes and assignments handle seamlessly.
  • Faster scene parsing
    A “scene caching” feature through RIB fragments further improves rendering performance, especially the loading time.
  • UI Improvements
    Many all-around improvements to the user interface increase productivity.
  • Latest Maya support
    Autodesk Maya 2012 is supported.

Pricing and Availability
3Delight for Maya 6.0 is priced at USD $900 and offers unlimited multi-core capabilities. It is also available at the more affordable price of USD $400 for users with quad-core computers. A single license, limited to dual-core rendering, is also offered for free. 3Delight for Maya 6.0 is available now for download as a public beta.

Download the public beta of 3Delight for Maya 6.0

Download the 3Delight for Maya 6.0 release notes

Visit the 3Delight for Maya product website