Friday, June 28th, 2013 Posted by Jim Thacker

Pixologic releases ZBrush 4R6

Pixologic has released ZBrush 4R6, yet another packed free update to the digital sculpting package, including ZRemesher, a significant improvement to the software’s existing retopology tools.

An “evolution” of the QRemesher toolset added in ZBrush 4R4, ZRemesher enables artists to decimate hi-res sculpts and reproject the detail onto the low-res version.

Edge flow can be controlled by drawing curves and local mesh density via the Polypaint tools. The results in the demo video above look very impressive, reducing sculpts with several million polys to a matter of thousands.

Other new features
ZBrush’s multi-resolution sculpting system, DynaMesh, now retains PolyGroup settings from the original model: a change that Pixologic notes may open up interesting new hard-surface modelling workflows.

There are also several new brushes, including Trim Curves, which automatically deletes all geometry outside of a drawn trim line, and closes the resulting hole: again, a useful addition for hard-surface work.

The new Bridge Curves brush creates polygon bridges between holes or PolyGroup borders; and a useful-sounding Creasing Brush enables users to draw edge creases, not rely on PolyGrouping to define them.

Even the ‘minor’ features are pretty major: the fixes to the UV-smoothing options, for example, are something that a lot of studios have been waiting for for some time.

Price up a little next month
You can read the full list of new features via the link below. As ever, the update is free to registered users.

New licences of the software will be available at the current price of $699 for a further month. However, a price increase is finally coming: from 26 July, the price of a ZBrush licence will increase to $795.

Read more about the new features of ZBrush 4R6 in the announcement thread on ZBrushCentral