Substance 3D Designer to get new Hydra viewport

Change will let artists use apps like RenderMan or OctaneRender as viewport renderers inside Designer. Native MaterialX support also due.

Tuesday, September 12th, 2023

AMD releases USD Hydra plugin for Blender 1.1

Free plugin for composing and rendering USD scenes in Blender can now export animated USD files.

Friday, June 3rd, 2022

Download AMD's free USD Hydra plugin for Blender

Now officially shipping: new plugin lets users import, compose and render USD scenes in Blender.

Tuesday, December 21st, 2021

Blackmagic Design releases Fusion Studio 21.0

Now out of beta: 3D compositing app gets new motion graphics tools and updates to deep compositing, USD and lens correction workflows.

Thursday, June 4th, 2026

Foundry releases Nuke 17.0, NukeX 17.0 and Nuke Studio 17.0

Check out the new features in this major update to the compositing software, like support for Gaussian splats and an updated 3D system.

Friday, February 27th, 2026

Foundry releases Katana 9.0

Heavyweight lighting and look development tool gets a new 'UsdSuperLayer' and a preview of Hydra 2.0 rendering.

Wednesday, February 18th, 2026

DreamWorks Animation releases MoonRay 2.40

Check out the new features in the open-source release of the production renderer used on movies like The Bad Guys 2.

Monday, February 9th, 2026

DreamWorks Animation releases MoonRay 2.34

Check out the new features in the open-source release of the production renderer used on movies like The Bad Guys 2.

Thursday, January 1st, 2026

Chaos releases Vantage 3.1

Real-time ray tracing renderer is now available as a viewport renderer in Houdini, via a Hydra delegate. New smoke and fire simulator, too.

Thursday, December 11th, 2025

Chaos releases V-Ray 7.2 for Houdini

Check out the changes to the Houdini edition of the renderer, including a 'completely re-imagined' volume shader for smoke and fire.

Thursday, December 11th, 2025

Chaos releases Vantage 3.0

Major update to the real-time ray tracing renderer adds initial support for USD, MaterialX, 3D Gaussian Splatting, and volumes.

Thursday, October 16th, 2025

SideFX just released Houdini 21: check out its five key features

Read our pick of the changes in Houdini 21, from Copernicus and KineFX to new AI workflows - then see a list of all 300+ new features.

Wednesday, August 27th, 2025

Sneak peek: Houdini 21

Read our list of 300+ new features due in the next version of Houdini - from Neural Point Surface for liquids to the Otis organic tissue solver.

Tuesday, August 5th, 2025