Maxon releases Redshift 2026.8
A brushed metal material with extra surface damage, created with Redshift’s Scratches shader.
Maxon has released Redshift 2026.8, the latest version of the GPU-accelerated renderer for VFX, motion graphics and visualization work.
The update introduces a procedural Scratches shader and a high-altitude cloud layer in the Clouds object. The new Redshift for Archviz editions get additional workflow improvements.
New Scratches shader provides procedural controls for scratches and edge wear effects
New features in Redshift 2026.8 include a Scratches shader, for adding procedural scratches and edge wear effects to materials.
It has controls for scratch size, curvature and direction, making it possible to mimic anisotropic materials like brushed metal; and scratch distribution can be controlled with texture maps.
New high-altitude cloud layer creates more realistic procedural skies
The Redshift Clouds object also now has separate low- and high-altitude cloud layers.
The new High Altitude layer provides a separate set of control parameters for adding an independently animatable cirrus cloud layer above the base cloud layer for extra realism.
Further updates to the new Redshift for Archviz editions
Redshift for Archviz – the new editions of the renderer for Vectorworks and Revit – get the new high-altitude clouds, plus further workflow improvements.
Changes include the option to save post effects presets; to save scene settings, views and animations into a storyboard menu context; and a offline AI-powered asset search.
Price and system requirements
Redshift 2026.8 is compatible with Windows 10+, glibc 2.28+ Linux and macOS 14.0+.
The plugins are compatible with 3ds Max 2018+, Cinema 4D 2023+, Houdini 19.0+, Katana 5.0+, Maya 2018+ (Maya 2022+ on Linux), Revit 2024+, Vectorworks 2026.4+ and ZBrush 2023+.
The software is rental-only. Subscriptions cost $49/month or $289/year.
Read a full list of changes in Redshift 2026.8 on the Redshift forum
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