ArtVPS Releases Shaderlight Version 0.3

By DE Editors

ArtVPS has announced the availability of version 0.3 of Shaderlight, its interactive rendering plug-in for 3ds Max. Shaderlight 0.3 includes a number of enhancements over previous versions. According to the company, overall speed has been increased by 100 percent for complex production scenes, and early image quality of glossy materials and area lights has been improved. Other benefits include increased image resolution and the addition of a message window to track log messages during interactive rendering.

Shaderlight delivers productivity and creativity improvements. Intelligent pixels understand where they fit in a 3D image and what to do if something changes, enabling users to change materials, environments, lights or textures of a full-resolution image at any stage of the rendering process without having to re-render.

New features in Shaderlight 0.3 include:

• Redesigned Art Professional Material: Changes have been made to the ArtMaterial to create a flexible, physically accurate material that is easy to understand and use.

• Improved resolution: Shaderlight can now render interactively to any custom resolution up to 1920x1920.

• Improved performance: Speed has been increased by up to 100 percent for complex production scenes with notable improved performance for skylight, area lights, and glossy materials.

• Improved image quality: Progressive image refinement has been improved, with particular reference to the early image quality of glossy materials and area lights.

• New message window: A message window has been added to track log messages during interactive rendering.

• Bug fixes: Several bugs have been fixed to improve overall stability as well as feature-related bugs such as invisible objects not rendering.

Shaderlight 0.3 is free to existing Shaderlight users. New customers will pay $75 for version 0.3 but will receive a discount on the purchase of Shaderlight 1.0, which is scheduled to be released at the end of the year.

For more information, visit ArtVPS.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.