Sneak peek: Houdini 14

Demo video shows crowds, OpenVDB-based grooming, and position-based dynamics - from sand to squids.

Monday, December 8th, 2014

Next Limit unveils Maxwell Render 3.1

VFX-friendly release to add support for OpenVDB, Mari's UDIM textures, improved skin rendering system.

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014

Chaos Group ships V-Ray 3.0 for Maya

Now shipping: Speed boosts, new progressive renderer, plus new option to render Bifrost meshes.

Thursday, October 23rd, 2014

SolidAngle releases Arnold for Houdini

New Houdini to Arnold plugin now available to download alongside the Maya and Softimage versions.

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014

Thinkbox Software releases Stoke MX 2.0 for 3ds Max

Increasingly versatile simulation tool now incorporates firm's $595 Genome geometry modifier.

Wednesday, June 4th, 2014

Chaos Group releases Phoenix FD 2.2 for 3ds Max

Fluid simulation system gets internal self-illumination, simulation morphing controls, PRT and OpenVDB support.

Thursday, May 8th, 2014

Thinkbox Software unveils Stoke MX 2.0

Updated and now in open beta: high-density 3ds Max particle toolkit gets new field-manipulation tools.

Wednesday, March 12th, 2014

V-Ray 3.0 for 3ds Max now available in beta

Updated: Latest beta release adds new distributed rendering, subsurface scattering and proxy functionality.

Monday, November 4th, 2013

Side Effects Software ships Houdini 13

Update adds cool new soft and hard body, particle and fluid simulation tools; more robust lighting workflow.

Thursday, October 31st, 2013

Blender's Cycles renderer released via Apache licence

Switch from GPL licence designed to attract big studios and software houses to contribute to development.

Monday, August 19th, 2013

OpenEXR 2.0 released

Update to the open-source HDR file format should finally make deep compositing available in most tools.

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

Side Effects Software ships Houdini 12.5

Major update adds better ocean-surface sims and cloud sculpting via DreamWorks' OpenVDB technology.

Friday, March 15th, 2013