AMD releases Radeon ProRender 3.5 for Blender
AMD has released Radeon ProRender 3.5 for Blender, its latest update to the Blender version of the free GPU renderer, adding support for IES lights and shadow catchers during interactive rendering.
The update also a new Bevel Shader node for creating rounded edges on models at render time.
AMD also released Radeon ProRender 3.4 for Maya and Radeon ProRender 2.3 for Houdini and USD, new versions of its Maya and Houdini plugins. Both updates extend the RPR Interactive rendering mode.
Radeon ProRender for Blender 3.5: better interactive rendering and new bevel shader
AMD announced last year that its development focus is now its new USD Hydra plugin for Blender, and that the ‘classic’ Blender plugin would only receive bugfixes and SDK updates.
In practice, that hasn’t proven true: Radeon ProRender 3.5 for Blender is now the second feature update to the classic plugin this year, while the last new release of the USD Hydra plugin was back in May.
The 3.5 release extends the RPR Interactive viewport rendering mode, adding support for IES lights, Blender’s Shadow Catcher, per-face materials, OpenColorIO texture spaces, and “more AOVs”.
In addition, RPR Interactive mode now supports the new curve-based hair system introduced in Blender 3.3, support for hair rendering having been originally added in the previous update to the plugin.
Outside interactive rendering, Radeon ProRender 3.5 for Blender adds a new bevel shader, for generating rounded edges on models at render time; and support for double-sided materials.
Updates to Radeon ProRender for Maya and Radeon ProRender for Houdini and USD
The Maya edition of the renderer gets a very similar set of new features, with Radeon ProRender 3.4 for Maya also adding a new Bevel Shader node and support for double-sided materials.
Its own RPR Interactive mode gets support for hair rendering, shadow catchers, OpenColorIO texture spaces, plus support for “more” AOVs and shader node types.
(And if you think you’ve read about version 3.4 before, you’re right: the update that AMD released in June was originally listed as Radeon ProRender for Maya 3.4, but it’s since been renumbered to version 3.3.55.)
The Houdini edition gets similar changes to RPR Interactive mode – support for hair rendering, OpenColorIO texture spaces and more AOVs and shader node types – plus support for interactive rendering on Linux.
In addition, Radeon ProRender 2.3 for Houdini and USD adds support for instance and object ID AOVs.
Availability and system requirements
Radeon ProRender 3.5 for Blender is compatible with Blender 2.80+ on Windows, Linux and macOS.
Radeon ProRender 3.4 for Maya is compatible with Maya 2020+ on Windows and macOS.
Radeon ProRender 2.3 for Houdini is compatible with Houdini 19.5 on Windows, Linux and macOS.
Source code for all three plugins is available under Apache Licence 2.0.
Read a full list of new features in Radeon ProRender 3.5 for Blender in the release notes
Read a full list of new features in Radeon ProRender 3.4 for Maya in the release notes
Read a full list of new features in Radeon ProRender 2.3 for Houdini and USD in the release notes