Tuesday, June 25th, 2013 Posted by Jim Thacker

Solid Iris Technologies ships Thea Render 1.2


Made in Thea Render 1.2: Solid Iris Technologies’ latest demo reel showcases images created using the software’s updated biased renderer, and new Presto GPU-based render engine.

Solid Iris Technologies has shipped Thea Render 1.2, a free update to its hybrid biased/unbiased renderer.

The 1.2 release adds the new Presto GPU rendering engine and support for ‘field mapping’, which the developer describes as a revolutionary new technique for biased rendering.

Final-quality GPU-accelerated rendering
Solid Iris released a teaser video of Presto in action last year, at which point it seemed to be a more conventional interactive render preview.

However, in addition to the interactive preview, the engine features a second mode for generating “photorealistic, unbiased-like” final-quality images, including support for network rendering animations.

The engine is CUDA-based, so you will need an Nvidia graphics card to use it.

Simpler, more accurate biased rendering
Field mapping is also new, if harder to define. An addition to Thea Render’s biased render engine, the proprietary technology is said to provide less noisy output than conventional final gathering and photon mapping.

Solid Iris describes it as “a very robust technique with presets that simply work, producing high-quality renders without being troubled with the render settings”.

Available now for a range of DCC applications
Thea Render 1.2 is available now for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The studio edition, which includes two node licences, is currently available for €195 (around $255), down from its usual price of €295 ($385) until 10 July.

Plugins linking the renderer to a range of DCC applications, including 3ds Max, Softimage, modo and Cinema 4D, are available separately, and are priced individually.

Read more about the new features in Thea Render 1.2 on the product’s website

Read the release thread on the Thea Render forum