Paris, France “ E-on software, a leading global developer of software for the creation, animation, rendering, and integration of natural 3D environments in the computer graphics, VFX, architecture, and gaming industries, announced the immediate availability of the R5 Release of its VUE, PlantFactory and PlantCatalog Exporter software. A new free trial version is also available of its VUE and PlantFactory software which includes all the updates from R5.
The full release note details are available online at https://info.e-onsoftware.com/release-notes-june2020
Nvidia OptiX and Intel Open Source Image Denoisers for the Path TracerThe Path Tracer now includes two denoisers: The Nvidia OptiX and Intel Open Source Image Denoisers. The denoisers will remove noise from a path-traced render, based on machine-learning technology. Effectively, users can use less samples for rendering and remove noise automatically after the render is finished, which results in much faster rendering times.
Denoising is supported both with the interactive Path Tracer in the viewport and with the offline Path Tracer. By using the denoiser with the interactive Path Tracer, users will get an almost real-time preview of their scene in much better quality than what OpenGL can offer.
Vastly Improved Displacement
Displacement was massively improved in R5. It works faster, consumes less memory and generates way better displaced geometry. Three new displacement subdivision options were added in the material editor: no subdivision, dynamic subdivision and uniform subdivision. Shadow terminator handling in the render engines was also significantly improved thanks to new interpolation methods, yielding far better finer details and avoids shading artifacts in rendered images and animations.
Satellite maps for Real-World terrains
The real-world terrain import (introduced in R4) can now import satellite maps for automatic
texturing of imported terrain data. Users may select satellite data from sentinel-2 or from USGS, and VUE will import the maximum available texture resolution together with the heightfield elevation data information of the selected area.
PlantFactory real-time PBR viewport
PlantFactory has received a viewport facelift “ but it’s more than just cosmetics. The new viewport is fully PBR compliant with accurate PBR material previewing, has better responsiveness and performance and introduces a customizable sky model that casts ambient light into the scene for more accurate and comfortable previewing while authoring vegetation species.
Integration technology updates
The VUE integration plugins are now supported in Autodesk 3ds Max 2021, Autodesk Maya 2020* and Cinema4D up to S22* (*Windows only). Additionally, VUE is now compatible with V-Ray Standalone RenderNodes for Maya.
The PlantFactory importer plugins technology previews are also now supported in 3ds Max 2021, Maya 2020 on Windows and Maya 2019 on MacOS. The tech previews also add support for automatic material conversion to Arnold materials and V-Ray Next. Additionally, the plugins can now convert animated vegetation models to animated points.
Other notable new features in VUE and PlantFactory R5
As with previous quarterly releases, e-on software has also added many other new features and UI/UX enhancements such as:
- Cloud Morphing now supports material animation, plus is more performant and renders
- faster,
- VUE will automatically recognize and load sets of PBR texture maps (color/albedo, normal, roughness and many more) following preset and user-defined file name tags,
- The Path Tracer now supports PBR channels with variable intensities through texture maps as well as semi-transparent and semi-reflective materials,
- Python is upgraded to version 3.8, gets a new GUI, new documentation and a horde of new functions,
- Mesh smoothing is up to 4 times faster, and displacement mapping preparation is up to 4.5 times faster,
- Billboard export now supports PBR channels,
- Substance materials can now easily be rotated,
- VUE, PlantFactory, PlantCatalog Exporter and all PlantFactory import plugins can now share the same PlantCatalog collection location,
- And a lot more
(1) Export and Integration Plugins are only available in Professional and Enterprise solutions
Availability
The new update is available for download as a free software update for all registered users of the company's VUE and PlantFactory solutions. Users will find the software update and the plant catalog download links on their user account page (under the Software Center tab)
The R5 trial versions are also immediately available at no cost from https://info.eonsoftware.com/try.
All VUE and PlantFactory software titles are available in English, French and German and perform under all versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 (64 bit only), and Mac Intel (64 bit) for MacOSX 10.15+.
Supporting resources
Public announcement blog article: https://info.e-onsoftware.com/blog/r5
VUE and PlantFactory R5 presentation videos:
- Overview of the PlantFactory plugins in Maya: https://youtu.be/DjNyv0ga2nQ
- Real-World terrains and satellite maps: https://youtu.be/q-Ugq4Y38iQ
- Cloud Morphing: https://youtu.be/shrRs4icfKs
- Displacement improvements: https://youtu.be/n1YQc-NdiOY
- Nvidia OptiX and Intel denoisers overview: https://youtu.be/XhDcJN1uTds
- Substance support improvements: https://youtu.be/tkGLuWlv5wI
- PlantFactory PBR viewport presentation: https://youtu.be/LTm-R1HkOWs
- PBR workflows improvements: https://youtu.be/c6Q8ICGKMh4
More information on VUE: https://info.e-onsoftware.com/vue
More information on PlantFactory: https://info.e-onsoftware.com/plantfactory
More information on PlantCatalog: https://info.e-onsoftware.com/plantcatalog
Video demonstrations for all available species in the PlantCatalog collection can be viewed on the company's dedicated YouTube playlist.
About e-on software
E-on software is the leading developer of solutions for the creation, animation, rendering and integration of natural 3D environments (VUE and PlantFactory). E-on software products are used worldwide by the film, television, architecture, game, science, educational and entertainment
industries.
