Wednesday, November 18th, 2020 Posted by Jim Thacker

Act-3D releases Lumion 11.0


Act-3D has released Lumion 11.0, the latest version of its real-time architectural visualisation software, adding a new orthographic rendering mode, support for custom IES spot lights, and an RAL colour picker.

The Pro edition get a new animated phasing effect for creating renders of buildings assembling themselves, volumetric fire, a rain streaks effect for windows, and a new car paint shader.

An easy-to-use near-real-time tool for architectural visualisation work
First released in 2010, and now one of the three most widely used renderers for arch viz work, Lumion creates renders of architectural scenes in near real time.

The software is intended to provide architects with little background in visualisation with a more straightforward way to create realistic stills and animations than conventional DCC apps.

Users import building models from other software, either in standard 3D file formats like FBX, OBJ, SKP and MAX, or via built-in live links to major CAD applications.

They can then edit materials inside Lumion, set up lighting and weather effects, dress the scene using readymade models from the accompanying asset library, and create simple camera animations.

New in Lumion 11.0 standard: new orthographic views, plus updates to lighting and colour picking
New features in the base edition of the software include a new orthographic view for rendering plan and elevation views of a building, in addition to the existing perspective view.

It works for both still images and animations, and to judge by the release notes, can also render isometric views as well as actual orthographic ones.

Lighting changes include the option to set up custom spot lights in scenes by importing IES profiles of real lights, and support for “micro shadows” when rendering the illumination that spot lights generate.

The update also introduces a RAL colour picker, making it possible to select colours for scene materials according to the European RAL colour standard for paints and plastics.

Lumion’s LiveSync feature, which creates a live link to CAD and BIM applications like AutoCAD, Revit, Rhino and SketchUp, also now supports BricsCAD 18 and above.

Other changes include a new high-quality preview mode in Theater view, and the option to apply the new Artistic render styles introduced in Lumion 10.0 to panoramas.



Pro edition only: new animated phasing system, plus fire and rain streak effects
Users of the Pro edition get some rather larger features, including an eye-catching readymade animated phasing effect, which creates effects like those shown in the video above.

Users can apply a range of transitions to phase the component parts of a building and its surroundings into a scene, including having objects fall from the sky or grow up from the ground.

Epic Games recently added similar capabilities in Twinmotion 2020.2, the latest version of its rival real-time visualisation software.

Other changes in Lumion 11.0 Pro include a volumetric fire system for mimicking fireplaces and bonfires.

The shape of the flames can be controlled via texture maps, or by setting simple properties for size, turbulence and intensity.

Lumion’s Precipitation system also now includes a rain streaks option which generates raindrops on surfaces in a scene using the PureGlass material. The drops are dynamic, and move under gravity.

The update also adds a new metallic car shader, making it possible to render car paint more realistically.

Other changes include support for satellite maps in the OpenStreetMap system, making it possible to recreate real-world terrain with both height and surface colour data.

Updates to the asset libraries
The asset libraries accompanying the software have also been updated, with users of the standard edition getting 108 new 3D objects, and Pro users 401, including plants, people, cars and interior fittings.

Users of the Pro edition also get 63 new readymade materials for both indoor and outdoor scenes.

Pricing and system requirements
Lumion 11.0 is available for 64-bit Windows 10. The standard edition of the software costs €1,499 (around $1,780); the Pro edition costs €2,999 ($3,560). You can see a comparison table here.


Read a full list of new features in Lumion 11.0 in the online release notes