Foundry ships Modo 12.2
Update adds render denoising, Workbenches system for custom UI layouts, more improvements to modelling, UVs and tech animation.
Friday, November 16th, 2018
Search for "ai denoise"
Chaos Group releases V-Ray Next for Maya
Now shipping: see videos of the new GPU rendering features and the new hair and toon shaders.
Friday, October 26th, 2018
Solid Angle ships Arnold 5.2.1
Update to the renderer adds a Modo-style Round Corners shader and normal map blending; further speeds up adaptive subdivision.
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2018
SideFX ships Houdini 17
Videos: major Houdini update adds Vellum multphysics solver, new cloth and hair tools, material-based facturing and simulation retiming.
Wednesday, October 10th, 2018
Chaos Group releases Beta 3 of V-Ray Next for Maya
Open beta of next big update to renderer gets new layered texture node, in-viewport OptiX denoising.
Monday, September 17th, 2018
Otoy previews OctaneRender 2018.1's Vectron and Spectron
Next update to GPU renderer to add new procedural 'uberprimitive' and volumetric lighting system.
Tuesday, August 14th, 2018
Chaos Group releases Beta 2 of V-Ray Next for Maya
Update improves the IPR and GPU rendering architectures, extends the new toon and hair shaders.
Saturday, August 11th, 2018
LuxRender reborn as LuxCoreRender 2.0
Open-source renderer gets faster hybrid and spectral rendering, support for resumable renders.
Monday, May 14th, 2018
Appleseed team releases appleseed 1.9
Open-source renderer adds image denoising, random walk SSS, neat camera shutter curve and light path recording systems.
Monday, May 14th, 2018
Solid Angle ships Arnold 5.1
Big update to the renderer adds toon shader, adaptive sampling, two denoising systems, progressive rendering, native Alembic support.
Friday, April 6th, 2018
Clarisse adds support for Nvidia's OptiX denoising
2D/3D rendering system gets fast, AI-based image denoising for both the 3D viewport and final renders.
Friday, March 30th, 2018
Chaos Group releases Beta 2 of V-Ray Next for 3ds Max
Latest beta adds Nvidia's AI-based OptiX render denoising system, GPU volume rendering, updates to the hair shader.
Friday, February 23rd, 2018
Chaos Group releases Beta 1 of V-Ray Next for 3ds Max
Updated: Find more info on the new light cache analysis-based 'smart features' like auto exposure.
Monday, January 22nd, 2018