LogInThe release introduces a new ML-powered denoiser, enhances RenderMan XPU, updates the renderer's Stylized Looks toolset, and more.
Pixar has finally released RenderMan 25, a highly-anticipated update to the studio's 3D rendering software. Featuring a slew of new features and improvements to the existing ones, the release adds a brand-new AI denoiser that uses machine learning to converge partially sampled images in a highly effective way, upgrades RenderMan XPU, RenderMan's hybrid CPU/GPU rendering technology, enhances the software's Stylized Looks toolset, and much more.
The highlight of the update is the introduction of RenderMan Denoiser, a novel denoising technology developed by Disney Research that is able to remove noise on images with a significantly lower average sample count. According to Pixar, the denoiser works particularly well with animation and motion blur.
RenderMan XPU, RenderMan's hybrid CPU/GPU rendering technology, has been upgraded as well, with the release adding full support for volumes, AOVs, and LPEs, allowing for a "high-quality output for compositing and a variety of production scenarios."
The software's Stylized Looks toolset has also been enhanced, featuring improved Toon shading and upgrades to hatching, line distortion, and UX, making the process of creating non-photorealistic images more convenient.
The update also features:
- Progressive Pixels – Fractional first iteration display for improved image feedback with XPU, especially with very heavy models or volumes.
- New Texture Cache – Improved performance on GPUs if the texture cache needs to do out-of-core texture lookups or is memory constrained.
- Camera Controls – XPU now supports many controls of Pixar Camera, including depth of field and lens aberration.
- USD Improvements – Houdini Solaris support has been improved with advancements in MaterialX, camera controls, motion blur, and more.
- New Patterns – Extend your look development with new color and bump nodes.
- Better Convergence – XPU support for Russian Roulette, Ray Depth, and more.
- Bridge Updates – Houdini 19.5 and Katana 6 are now supported.
- MaterialX Lama Improvements – ILM's material layering system gets a new iridescence material response and improved physical accuracy.
On top of that, Pixar has also unveiled a free version of RenderMan 25, which comes with all the new features described above and can be used for personal projects, study, and the development of plug-ins and tools.
You can check out the full list of RenderMan 25's new features by clicking this link. Also, don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.