InstaLOD releases InstaLOD 2026
InstaLOD has released InstaLOD 2026, the latest version of its powerful set of geometry-optimization tools for games and VFX.
It’s a varied update, adding support for ray traced shadows in the viewport, extending the mesh processing and texture baking tools, and improving support for animation in USD workflows.
The core software is free to indie artists with revenue under $100,000/year.
A set of heavyweight geometry optimization tools for games and VFX
InstaLOD is a suite of tools for making 3D assets lighter to render, primarily for games and real-time work, but also for visual effects and visualization.
The core application, InstaLOD Studio, has a set of intelligent polygon-reduction features, plus baking and automatic UV unwrapping tools for transferring details from high-res meshes.
The software also includes features for processing CAD files and 3D scan data, including for converting triangular meshes to quads.
It comes with integration plugins for common DCC applications, game engines and visualization tools: 3ds Max, Blender, Maya, Unity, Unreal Engine and VRED.
For studios, InstaLOD Pipeline makes it possible to run tasks from the command line, or batch-process assets; while InstaLOD Grid manages on-premises processing farms.
Customers listed on the product website include game developers like Capcom and Ubisoft, and VFX, animation and motion graphics studios like Pixomondo and Taylor James.
InstaLOD 2026: viewport ray tracing, and updates to mesh processing, baking and UVs
Major changes in InstaLOD 2026 include support for ray traced shadows in the viewport, making it possible to visualize the assets being processed more accurately.
The core Mesh Toolkit gets new mesh smoothing options, and better handling of winding order to reduce artifacts when processing CAD data.
The baking toolset gets a new Bevel Normals baker for adding rounded edges to low-res geometry, plus a new Disk Sampling mode for the existing Curvature baker.
The UV unwrapping tools get a new 3D primitive-based projection mode.
Better support for character animation data and new VR quality preset
The update also extends InstaLOD’s support for animation data, with skeletal meshes and blendshapes now supported when working with glTF and USD files, as well as for FBX files.
The software also gets a new quality target for optimizing assets for virtual reality.
Tighter integration with Abstract’s Polyverse asset-management platform
In addition, it is also now possible to browse and download assets from Polyverse, InstaLOD parent firm Abstract’s cloud-based asset management platform, directly inside InstaLOD Studio.
Price, system requirements and release date
InstaLOD 2026 is compatible with Windows and macOS. Integration plugins are available for 3ds Max 2023+, Blender 4.1+, Maya 2023+, Unity 2021-3 and Unreal Engine 5.4+.
The Pioneer edition includes InstaLOD Studio and the Unity and Unreal Engine integrations. It is free to artists and studios with revenue under $100,000/year, and can be used on commercial projects on an attribution basis.
For non-games work, subscriptions cost between $1,188/year and $5,988/year. Games licenses start at $11,880/year. See full pricing here.
Read more about InstaLOD on the product website
Read a full list of new features in InstaMAT 2026 in the online release notes
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