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Digital Engineering April 2026
In the latest issue of Digital Engineering, we take a look at the latest innovations in design for additive manufacturing, including the use of natural language inputs, social media cosplayers, and AI integration. The issue also includes a feature…
January Special Focus Issue: Design for Additive
In this Special Focus Issue of Digital Engineering, learn about the latest advancements in design for additive manufacturing, including new software tools, additive in automotive, custom medical devices, and more.
Software developer, Foundry, announces the latest updates to its flagship development and lighting tool, Katana.
Katana 3.1 incorporates a range of updates that will enable artists to achieve complex and creative results faster.
Key features of this release include:
Performance improvements: Katana 3.1 launches with improved 3D scene processing performance, reducing time to first pixel for multi-threaded renderer plug-ins. Due to improvements in Katana’s Alembic library, multi-threading rendering plug-ins can be up to 5x faster than with Katana 3.0.
Integrated rendering with 3DelightNSI: Katana 3.1 incorporates the next generation of the 3DelightNSI rendering plug-in, which has added a host of improvements, including volume rendering speeds and quality. The latest update also brings fast multiple scattering support as well as a new 3Delight Principled shader. Live rendering via 3DelightNSI in Katana remains interactive and artist-friendly.
Hydra-powered viewer tab: Foundry has introduced upgrades to increase the efficiency and usability of the viewport launched in Katana 3.0. Common tasks are now accessible by hotkeys and facesets support shader assignment.
VFX Reference Platform 2017 support: This version now uses Qt5 UI library and OpenSubDiv 3.1 to bring Katana into full compliance with the VFXRP 2017 standard. Now all studios have access to all key media and entertainment products, which use the same set of code libraries.
Katana 3.1 is available for purchase on Foundry’s website and via approved vendors.
Sources: Press materials received from the company.
DE's editors contribute news and new product announcements to Digital Engineering. Press releases may be sent to them via [email protected].
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