Today, Chaos Czech brings a simple, yet powerful approach to caustics, building an essential element of realism into Corona Renderer 4 for 3ds Max. Now artists and designers can render lighting effects from surfaces like glass and water with even more accuracy, adding a new layer of photorealism to their stills and animations.
Caustics focus on the patterns of reflected and refracted light commonly found in examples like pool water, diamonds and wine glasses. While important, caustics have traditionally been costly to render, which has led many developers to ignore them for faster render speeds. Using a one-click solution, Chaos Czech has kickstarted a process that will mainstream caustics, making them as normal as global illumination is today to artists and designers.
“Photorealism is a potent tool, but also comes with an asterisk,” said Adam Hotový, Vice President at Chaos Czech. “With our caustics, users finally have the speed they need to fill an important gap in photorealism. And because it’s through Corona, accessing it is only a click away.”
Caustics will work alongside all Corona Renderer features, including LightMix, which will allow artists to adjust caustics, color and light intensity simultaneously. This breakthrough was made thanks to the help of Chaos Research, a newly announced division of Chaos Group led by Chaos Czech co-founder Jaroslav Křivánek that is focused on re-inventing the ways computer graphics are created today.
Other New Features Include:
- Viewport Enhancements – Artists can now click to select objects in the Corona VFB or IR Viewport, just as you would in 3ds Max. A right click will also now set the point of focus for depth of field adjustments.
- Fisheye Camera – The Corona Camera has been updated with a new fisheye projection mode for wide interior and exterior shots.
- Intel AI Denoising – The new Intel AI denoiser works on any CPU for final renders. This joins the previously included NVIDIA AI Denoiser aimed at interactive rendering.
- Multiple Corona Suns and Environments – Artists can now create as many Corona Sun light sources or environments as they wish. This is especially effective for creating noon, evening and night images in Corona’s LightMix, as artists can depict multiple times of the day, all from one render.
"Caustics are essential to my workflow, especially for lighting products like lamps and light fixtures that require a high-end photographic look," said Giona Andreani, Architectural Visualizer and Project Lead Artist at State of Art Studio. "With the new caustics solver, I can play with light in a more artistic way."
To try Corona Renderer 4 now, please visit the Chaos Czech website.
Pricing/Availability
Corona Renderer 4 is available now for Autodesk 3ds Max x64, versions 2013-2020. Pricing is subscription-based, with monthly rates set at $28.50 and yearly rates at $330. A free 45-day commercial trial is also available at: https://corona-renderer.com/download.
About Chaos Czech
Chaos Czech (previously Render Legion) are the creators of Corona Renderer, a high-performance photorealistic rendering engine. Chaos Czech is a leader in architectural visualization software, where it offers a simple, yet powerful approach for professional artists. Chaos Czech continues to bring this approach to its development of new tools and technologies for architectural visualization, VFX and broadcast. Chaos Czech, a Chaos Group company, are headquartered in Prague.
About Chaos Group
Chaos Group is a worldwide leader in computer graphics technology, helping artists and designers create photorealistic imagery and animation for architecture, design, and visual effects. Chaos Group’s award-winning physically-based rendering and simulation software is used daily by top design studios, architectural firms, advertising agencies, and visual effects companies around the globe. Today, the company's research and development in ray-traced rendering, cloud computing and real-time ray tracing is shaping the future of creative storytelling and digital design. Founded in 1997, Chaos Group is privately owned with offices in Sofia, Los Angeles, Prague, Seoul, and Tokyo. For more information, visit: chaosgroup.com.
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