LogInAfter almost a year since its announcement, Pixar has finally released RenderMan for Blender, alongside RenderMan 24 itself.
After almost a year of waiting, Pixar releases RenderMan for Blender 24 (RfB), a new version of RenderMan that takes advantage of the new interactive rendering capabilities that were introduced into RenderMan several years ago, where the old version was batch render oriented. This current release offers support for Blender 2.83 and Blender 2.92, but not Blender 2.93, the current Long Term Support release, due to the change of the version of Python it uses.
RenderMan for Blender has been extended to support all of the features of RenderMan 24, including:
- Interactive rendering – As you make updates to your geometry, shading, or lighting, RenderMan for Blender will communicate your changes through to RenderMan so that you can constantly see updates of your work within a path traced environment
- XPU – Switch to XPU for doing Look Development. XPU is Pixar’s hybrid CPU + GPU rendering technology is a next-generation rendering engine, rewritten for speed and efficiency on film production assets. This first phase of XPU is focused on accelerating look development for shading artists. XPU is only available if you have a Commercial license for RenderMan
- MaterialX LaMa – Use RenderMan 24's new Layered Materials developed at Industrial Light and Magic. It introduces a modular approach for building materials
- Stylized Looks – Move beyond physically based shading and lighting into a world where you can easily create a variety of styles for your projects. You can non-destructively control outlines, create sketch patterns, and develop a wide range of unique looks. Stylized Looks are only available if you have a Commercial license for RenderMan
- OpenColorIO – Robust support for the industry-standard ACES color management system and other color spaces
- Live Statistics – Watch your rendering resource usage live, thanks to a completely redesigned statistics system that prioritizes interactivity and extensibility
- OSL Patterns – We have converted the great majority of C++ patterns to OSL. This conversion allows the sharing of code between RIS and XPU, which provides confidence that the renders from RenderMan XPU are representative of what you will see in RenderMan RIS. C++ patterns are still supported, but they will only work in RIS
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