Chaos releases Corona 14 for 3ds Max and Cinema 4D
Chaos has released Corona 14, the latest version of its production renderer for architectural visualization and portfolio rendering in 3ds Max and Cinema 4D.
The update adds support for 3D Gaussian Splats, a new procedural night sky system, and access to cloud-based AI tools for generating PBR materials and upresing renders.
New AI features for generating PBR materials and enhancing or upscaling renders
Corona 14 gives Corona users access to new AI features in Chaos Cosmos and Chaos Cloud, the asset library and cloud rendering/collaboration platform available with Corona subscriptions.
Available in Chaos Cosmos, the AI Material Generator generates a 3D material and PBR textures – albedo, normal and roughness – from a real-world reference photo.
We wrote about it in more detail when it was integrated into V-Ray, so you can find more details on how it works and how the AI model was trained in this story on V-Ray 7.2 for 3ds Max.
Available in Chaos Cloud, the AI Upscaler is a self-descriptive AI render upscaler, with options to upres images 2x or 4x.
Also available in Chaos Cloud, the AI Enhancer introduced in Corona 13 gets new advanced controls for human features and clothing.
It is also now possible to send the output of Corona’s LightMix system to the AI Enhancer.
Support for 3D Gaussian Splatting and new Night Sky system
Corona 14 also introduces two key features from recent releases of V-Ray: support for 3D Gaussian Splats (3DGS) and the new Night Sky system.
A new technique for creating and rendering 3D scenes, 3D Gaussian Splatting generates high-quality reconstructions of real-world objects or scenes from source photos or video.
You can read a good overview of how 3D Gaussian Splats work, and the pros and cons of workflows based around them in this post on Chaos’s blog.
The Night Sky system generates… well, night skies, with the moon, stars and the Milky Way.
The sky can be generated automatically to match a specific real-world location, date and time; or users can adjust the position and brightness of the moon and stars manually.
Other new features, workflow and performance improvements
Changes unique to Corona include a new procedural fabric material: according to Chaos, it generates fibers, weave structures and displacement without needing a source texture.
There are also workflow improvements to the VFB and Image Editor, and the option to export multiple cameras to Vantage, Chaos’s real-time renderer for exploring large production scenes.
Performance improvements include improved volume sampling, and a more responsive UI.
3ds Max users get support for avoidance groups in object scattering tool Chaos Scatter, to prevent overlap between scattered objects when working with multiple scatters.
Price and system requirements
Corona 14 is compatible with 3ds Max 2016+ and Cinema 4D R17+. It is rental-only.
Named-user Corona Solo subscriptions cost $62.90/month or $414.80/year. Floating Corona Premium subscriptions cost $72.90/month or $514.80/year.
Read a list of new features in Corona 14 on Chaos’s blog
Find more details of the new features in Corona 14 in the online documentation
Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.