Foundry Releases Modo 17.0

Foundry releases Modo 17.0, a major update to its 3D software that overhauls internal systems to provide performance increases, the company says. These enhancements help artists by providing the interactivity necessary for modern asset creation workflows. Foundry has also bundled OTOY’s Prime version of OctaneRender—which is meant to give artists a speed increase.

“There’s so much demand and expectation for top-quality 3D graphics,” says Greg Brown, product manager at Foundry. “With 3D asset creation becoming widely adopted, performance is paramount for the future of DCC apps. Modo 17.0 sets a foundation for increased performance now, plus further enhancements well into Modo’s future. Additionally, bundling the Prime version of the amazingly powerful OctaneRender from OTOY with Modo 17.0 will speed up the entire experience, from modeling to final render, reducing performance barriers for artists.”

Finish Any Project Faster

Modo 17.0 provides an interactive experience, while enabling further performance enhancements, the company says. Artists working on Apple Silicon machines will also see an additional speed increase thanks to Modo’s new native macOS ARM build, the company notes.

With overhauled core systems and granular performance updates to individual tools, this Modo is set to serve as a gateway to more frequent releases for Modo in 2024, according to the company. 

Better Tools 

Foundry has enhanced several capabilities of Modo’s modeling tools, including:

• Decal workflow—It’s now faster and easier to use decals and wrap flat images onto complex surfaces with minimal distortion and no UV creation, Foundry reports.
• Primitive Slice—You can now clone multiple slices of the same shape at once, making it easier to produce complex patterns. A new Corner Radius feature rounds corners on rectangles and squares, so you can make quick adjustments without switching between presets.
• Mesh Cleanup—Foundry has added the ability to automatically fix broken geometry and gaps with this tool, so you can stay productive and avoid interrupting your creative flow.
• Radial Align—Radial Align turns a selection into a flat circle; however, artists frequently need a partial radius and not a complete circle for things like arches. Modo 17.0 ships with the ability to create a partial radial alignment.
• PolyHaul—PolyHaul combines many of the most used modeling tools into one streamlined tool. This means artists can spend less time jumping between separate tools.

“We are thrilled to bundle OctaneRender with Modo 17.0, bringing instant access to the industry’s first and fastest unbiased GPU render engine,” Jules Urbach, founder and CEO of OTOY, says. “Our mission is to democratize high end 3D content creation, enabling anyone with a modern GPU to create stunning motion graphics and visual effects at fractions of the cost and time of CPU architectures. We are excited to see how Modo artists integrate OctaneRender’s GPU accelerated rendering platform into their creative process, including the ability to scale large rendering jobs across near unlimited decentralized GPU nodes on the Render Network.”

To see a full list of new features and improvements, visit Modo 17.0’s what’s new.

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