Autodesk VRED Design 2022.3 + Professional 2024 + macOS

Video Captions: In VRED 2023.1, we have implemented several new features that increase your visual quality and workflows.

Within the new Material Editor, we added a new option for the Plastic material. Now you can add an additional clearcoat layer. You can adjust several parameters like the thickness, color, or density of the clearcoat. With this new option, you can create, for example, a textured material with a layered clearcoat on top of it. And with the new decoupled Material Editor, you can also set a clearcoat for multiple Plastic materials at once.

We also added the support for the so-called LTC area lights (Linear Transformed Cosines). These lights work for Open GL and precomputed modes and give you a much closer look to a Full GI rendered result. The changes affect only area lights in Open GL and don’t affect the raytracing mode. They calculate the behavior of glossy reflections with less noise. You can clearly see the difference of the old and new behavior. This will massively increase your visual quality for real-time visualization. Also, the Visible in Reflections option is now working the same in OpenGL and Raytracing mode!

Also, for open GL, we now support render layers. So, you can disable for example Visible in Alpha. This is not only a nice to have render feature, this can be very helpful for augmented reality, for example. Now you can easily make objects invisible and map a part of the virtual car onto a physical object for instance.

For all users of the Varjo XR3 AR headset, we added a static Marker option. In augmented reality mode, we can add markers to track the virtual model, and now you can change the tracking method from predicted, which is the old behavior, which constantly tracks the object, to a static mode, where the tracking is not done constantly. This will keep your object more static on the ground.

You can trigger the new modes using the new Python commands. Now, you just need to add them within the script area of a variant set and you can trigger it from there within the VR menu. If you want to use these scripts, just go to the documentation or find them in the Comment area of the YouTube channel.

Features
Rendering: Added support for DLSS 2.2
Improvements
Asset Manager: Added preference option to save material textures as image files on disk, instead of embedding texture data in the asset osb
Cluster: Improved load balancing and copy functions for GPU raytracing clustering
GPU Raytracing: Added support for the Optimize for Many Light Sources option when GPU raytracing
GPU Raytracing: Added the Clear GPU Memory preference to clear all geometries and textures when activating GPU Raytracing
Materials: Added Flip U and Flip V to switch the orientation of what is stored in the normal map on the axis, ensuring the bump map is uniform with the normals displayed along the U and Y axes
Raytracing: Use full image sampling for stillframe antialiasing
Rendering: Added Use OpenGL Texture Compression to compress textures in OpenGL to save VRAM
Rendering: Disabled mipmapping on a transparency texture when cutout transparency is used in OpenGL
Rendering: Partial support for Speos 2.1 and Speos 2.2 format added
Rendering: Warning for non-inline textures missing changed from pink dummy texture to a pink/black checkerboard
Scripting: Added the VRED_SHARED_SCRIPT_PLUGINS environment variable for shared script plugins
Stream App: A scrollbar was added to the bottom of the Stream App to indicate there are off-screen options
Stream App: Added a loading animation to indicate there are no variants, viewpoints, or collaborations to display
Stream App: Added auto color to assign an unused color to each session user of the VRED Stream App
Stream App: Added an option to display the number of participants accessing the streaming session
Stream App: Joining a Collaboration Session via mobile device is possible now
Stream App: Unsuitable menu options were removed
VR: Added a relative viewpoint mode to set camera height as ground plane for VR
VR: Enabled Ultraleap hand tracking for Varjo VR-3
VR: Replaced the flashlight with a polygonal model
Bugfixes
Asset Manager: Obsolete material asset files are no longer written to disk
Assets: Saving X-Rite Materials in the Asset Manager no longer saves an unwanted environment in the file
Cluster Manager: Saving renders from the Cluster Manager job queue to a network folder no longer fails to create an output file or trigger a warning
Cluster: In CPU raytracing cluster mode, Ambient Occlusion Rendering renders as expected
FileIO: EXR files with very high contrast values load correctly
FileIO: Fixed the crash when loading a vpb with non-inlined bump or displacement textures
FileIO: Import of .slp files is working again
FileIO: A material texture file path now remains intact after saving the vpb file in the same user folder as the texture file
FileIO: Surface alignment of the adjacent surface orientation and transitions are aligned and patches are displayed/interpretation correctly using Parasolid / JT-Open Toolkit
FileIO: VRML loading works as expected
GPU RT: No more differences in render behavior when using a material with incandescence as a light source in Precomputed mode
GPU RT: Plastic incandescence now renders correctly
GPU Raytracing: Fixed rendering when the GPU with the OpenGL Context is not used (included in the list) for raytracing
GPU Raytracing: Fixed the crash when both a material with cutout transparency is in the scene and a clipping plane is active
GPU Raytracing: Fixed the crash when calculating vertex tangents on geometries without texture coordinates
GPU Raytracing: Fixed the triplanar mapping for Substance materials on scaled geometry
GPU Raytracing: NVLink now works on Linux and loads the correct library
General: All strings in Preferences > Bake are now localized
General: All strings in the Undo/Redo History dialog are now localized
General: File paths referring to a non-existent file no longer create massive performance issues
General: Fixed the crash when copying and pasting copious amounts of data between two VRED instances
General: Nested Properties panes within editors, such as the Material and Light, work as expected
General: Removed the Alternate Frame SLI Mode Render Options preference
General: The Properties pane displays the correct drop-down/combo boxes for the clicked option
Light Editor: Lens Flare custom settings now update in realtime after undoing/redoing changes within it
Light Editor: Lens Flare element controls now work correctly when using a mouse and the Enter/Return key is not pressed
Light Editor: Pressing Delete, while renaming a lens flare element, deletes the element
Light Editor: Renaming lens flare elements works as expected
Material Editor: Substance presets can now be renamed when imported, as their source filename is no longer displayed
Material Editor: The Texture Size calculation in Material Editor reflects the actual memory usage of the image
OpenGL: A Layered material sub material now renders on the back side of the applied node
OpenGL: Fixed Layered and multipass materials' shadows in OpenGL realistic rendering. Layered now cast a shadow from both sides of a plane. For Layered and multipass materials, all layers now cast a shadow, regardless of layer order
Reference Editor: Convert to Smart no longer crashes if an invalid node is passed
Reference Editor: Fixed the crash when using contextual actions in the Source column of the Reference Editor
Rendering: Fixed the crash when denoising large resolutions for offline rendering
Rendering: In OpenGL, the expected shadow is cast when a light doesn't shine on any object in the scene
Rendering: Non Photorealistic Rendering (NPR) stillframe antialiasing and offline renders work
Rendering: Renderpass position output now works for post-processing and compositing
Rendering: Renders out the correct range of frames when Use Clip Range is enabled
Scripting: Updated the Example file, lights/simple.py, to now display a light blue glow effect when run
Scripting: vrHandTypes and vrdTrackedHand are now in the Python API v2 documentation
Scripting: vrImmersiveInteractionService.getHandTrackingType() does return the correct value now
Transform Editor: Using the Tab key in the Transform Editor jumps the active input to the next option
Web Interface: Added a Web API-specific mapping for Dict[string,QColor], so vrSessionService.getDefaultColors() returns the correct value, instead of NULL
XR: A shadow plane will not be hidden in MR when Depth Estimation is enabled

Features
GPU Raytracing: Added support for cryptomatte
General: VRED Core can now be used for VR on Windows, using CloudXR
Lightmaps: Enabled separate baking of light sources to combine baked light from light sources with real-time environment
Rendering: Added OpenGL support for light sources illuminating the Shadow material
Rendering: Added support for multiple GPU denoising with Optix 7.2
VR: Added support for HP Reverb G2
Improvements
GPU Raytracing: Added Use Two Sample MIS and Use Ray Splitting options to preferences
GPU Raytracing: Updated GPU raytracing to use Optix 7.2 and CUDA 11.1
General: Added a Navigation preference option for automatic motion factor adaption
General: Improved pre-filtering performance by adding a cache for environment and irradiance map
General: Triplanar projection no longer creates tiny UV islands for highly curved objects
Lightmapping: Added the BakePresets XML file to store vertex and texture bake shadow presets
Lightmapping: Showing baked light on Shadow material now
Lightmaps: Using less memory now for AO/Shadows maps when baking without indirect light to the base lightmap
Scripting: Added information on function calls and keyword arguments to the VRED Python API v2 documentation
Scripting: Added vrClusterService and vrClusterManagerService to the Python API v2
Scripting: Improved the sendToWebEngine documentation
Scripting: Materials contained in an X-Rite Measured material are now displayed in the Node Editor
Scripting: Provided a consistent container interface for vrdObject lists
VR: Added support for Oculus via the OpenVR SDK and retired the native Oculus SDK
VR: Teleport is now available when using the Place tool in VR
Bugfixes
Bake Light and Shadows: Settings menu options displayed in the selected language
CPU RT: Activating spectral raytracing no longer causes VRED to crash
Camera: Imported files with cameras and aims no longer prevent a file from stillframe sampling
FileIO: ATF import doesn't stick during file tessellation
FileIO: Added warning message when saving a file fails
FileIO: Canceling the import of a PLMXML file works as expected
FileIO: JT import fixed for both JT Open and Parasolid for some files
FileIO: Multilayer PSD files contain all passes
FileIO: Removed the error message from loading PLMXML files with missing nodes
FileIO: UVs are imported correctly from Alembic files
GPU RT Lightmap Baking with Photon Mapping: Indirect light is displayed for scenes with baking Indirections = 1
GPU Raytracing: Fixed edge antialiasing in Spherical Map, Peters Map, Vertical Cross, Horizontal Cross, and Omnidirectional Stereo projection modes
GPU Raytracing: Layered materials containing X-Rite shaders no longer crash VRED
GUI: Fixed missing combo box scroll bar
General: Annotation can now be displayed in CHS/JPN/KOR
General: Constrained node transforms are retained after creating a parent constraint, then saving and reloading the file
General: Property Editor displays the correct drop-down/combo boxes
General: Removed version number from Web Interface homepage
General: VRED Go no longer crashes if the Web Server is deactivated during file creation
General: VRED log files are written to the correct directory
General: Warning added for non-inline textures missing texture links
Light Editor: Enabling and disabling lens flare elements is undoable
Light Editor: Interface consistently displays after using Lensflare elements
Light Editor: The tool/function and shortcut appear in the Light Editor shortcut list
Lightmapping: Added tonemapping to the 2D view of lightmaps
Lightmapping: Correct bake results after changing the bake type from Texture to Vertex and using Load from Node
Lightmapping: Preferences and Load from Node no longer reset unstored properties
Lightmapping: Vertex indirect light baking now appears in GPU RT Precomputed+IBL
Lightmaps: UV Editor uses a Decal display for lightmap textures
Material Editor: Pasting a deleted node no longer disrupt Material Editor states
Material Editor: The Material Editor now updates after pasting a node
Offline Rendering and Cluster RT: Camera projections display the correct image resolutions
OpenGL: Transparent objects viewed in front of the background are correctly tonemapped and blended
Raytracing: Fixed issues for vertical and horizontal cross projections (flipped/90°off, seams caused by antialiasing)
Raytracing: Fixed issues with mirrored light sources
Raytracing: Fixed rough and specular glass material inconsistencies between CPU and GPU RT
Raytracing: Precomputed Illumination Rendering is now accurate for Light & Shadows baked geometry in Precomputed+Shadows mode
Render Queue: Using Set in Render Queue no longer disables Export Renderpasses settings
Rendering: Fixed inconsistencies between render modes when using fog
Rendering: No white line appears around an object when using Tonemapper with low exposure levels
Rendering: The brightness for a CPU raytraced Layered material renders correctly
Rendering: Turning on and off raytracing in combination with shadow lightsources works as designed
Scripting: "AttributeError: module 'PySide2' has no attribute 'QTCharts'" error message no longer appears
Scripting: Fixed support for network paths on Windows
Scripting: Issues with using addToAnimClip have been fixed
Scripting: Joint node transforms can be accessed with API v2
Scripting: The vrFileIOService.reimportNodes function no longer opens the Import dialog
Scripting: vrdReferenceNode is now derived from vrdTransformNode
VRED Core: Added support for GPU raytracing light baking
Variant Sets: Renaming VSets no longer crashes VRED when GPU raytracing is enabled
Variant Sets: Renaming a variant set by pressing the Return key no longer activates a variant set
Varjo: Foveation is now active on focus and context display
XR: A scrollbar appears in the VR menu for accessing more tools when in mixed reality
XR: Fixed the crash when starting VR with handtracking
XR: Hovering no longer hides other selectable object indicators
XR: Minimizing the VRED window after using the Place tool no longer causes memory leak/high CPU usage
XR: Place target indicator and object pivot point are aligned
XR: Teleport cannot be activated in MR when availability is set to VR
XR: The Place target indicator appears in the correct location when the node has a non-zero rotation pivot
XR: The Place tool laser pointer aligns with the Place point
XR: The Place tool no longer triggers animation touchpoints
XR: VR controllers are hidden in MR mode

-FileIO: Added a missing Inventor Server 2022 component for importing Inventor 2022 files

Features
-Assets: Added a circular HTML menu to the VRED Assets installer
-FileIO: Added new Reference Editor for smart assembly workflows
-FileIO: Added support for material names for XT_faces from JT
-Rendering: Added support for foveated rendering

Improvements
-General: Updated the Oculus SDK to version 1.39

Bugfixes
-File IO: FBX import now respects UV offset information from Maya when repeat UV factor is set
-FileIO: FBX import can now import layered textures
-FileIO: Fixed UI issues in Reload Options tab when reloading/reimporting
-FileIO: Results are now consistent when reimporting Rhino source files
-General: Application no longer crashes when closing render windows after showing Split View
-General: Fixed the crash when closing a render window created by View In New RenderWindow
-General: Fixed the crash when creating recursive structure with copy/paste as a clone
-General: Fixed the crash when renaming scene or material tags
-General: Fixed the crash when switching between different stereo modes, while doing perspective matching in RT
-Materials: Fixed the broken substance rendering when changing a substance parameter quickly after (re)loading an archive
-Raytracing: Clamping Value no longer affects alpha channel
-Scene Graph: Fixed the crash when working with transformable clone roots
-Sceneplates: Renaming is now undoable
-Selection: You can now pick through transparent parts of textured area lights
-VR: The inputside value is now correctly handled during input mapping setup
-XTAL/VRHero: Controllers are now appearing if they are turned on after the HMD

Features:
-HDR Light Studio:Added support for linking 3D area lights with live sync
-Materials:Added a new Substance environment material
-Rendering:Added support for HDR10 displays
-Scripting:Added Python script for getting the serial number of VR devices
-VR:Added collaboration participant icons and names to the top of the VR Menu Home panel
-VR:Added the time to the bottom of the VR Menu Home panel
-VR:Enabled annotations to be seen upon creation by all participants in a collaboration session

Improvements:
-FileIO:Removed VPE as save/export format
-Material Editor:Added a Quit button to shutdown an HDR Light Studio background process (HDRLightStudio.exe) and free up the license
-Materials:Included support for defined X-Rite and Substance variant states in Variants, VariantSets, and Render Queue captures
-Materials:Made Substance presets and AxF sub materials accessible in the Variants and VSets UI
-Rendering Migrated to using Optix 6 for the VRED denoiser to improve performance and provide alpha channel denoising
-Scene Plates:Added an environment variable to support a flexible URL file path location in the Sceneplate Editor
-Scripting:Added Parent Constraint Object
-Scripting:Added getSelectedMaterials function
-Scripting:Output loaded Script plugins in Terminal
-Substance:Resolved locating missing presets image attributes
-Substance:Restored images on disk using fallback images for image attributes
-VR:Added an explicit visual cue, a green ball, to the end of the pointer to indicate the user is hovering over a touch sensor
-VR:Added option to disable the visibility of Variant Sets in the VR Menu
-Varjo:Enabled the support to asynchronously submit frames to the GPU

Bugfixes:
-Cluster:Saving render passes, while rendering in cluster mode, no longer causes incorrect rendering results
-Denoiser:All render passes are now working when using the AI denoiser
-File IO:FBX import now respects UV offset information from Maya, when repeat UV factor is set
-FileIO:Unused materials are no longer deleted after importing CAD data
-General:Deleting tags no longer prevents the creation of new tags with the same name
-General:Documentation links in toolclips are now working
-General:An image is no longer upside down in HMD when opening Y-up scenes
-General:VRED thumbnail provider no longer crashes Windows Explorer
-General:VRPN tracking connection is now possible using the system variable VRED_SERVICE_PAGE = 0
-Known Issue:Denoiser artefacts when rendering out no- premultiplied alpha renderpasses
-Materials:Added missing tooltips for substance materials
-Materials:Fixed environment geometry picking issue when backplate is on
-Materials:Multigraph substance materials are now correctly restored when triggering a new rendering
-Materials:Pasting an archive file name to a substance material works correctly
-Materials:Substance presets with "(" in preset names are no longer causing issues
-Materials:Substance material images are now shared automatically
-Materials:X-Rite materials containing multiple materials now show all materials in switch
-Media Editor:A deleted URL no longer returns after a reload
-Media Editor:Fixed interaction with web engines when backplates are on
-Perspective match:Color correction for backplate now applies to the magnifier
-Raytracing:Flake size of flipflop material is now consistent with OpenGL
-Rendering:Cryptomatte passes are now rendered when using the Render Queue
-Rendering:Enabling Powerwall Mode, while in VR display mode, no longer leads to a crash
-Rendering:Enabling RT when the AI denoiser and camera glow are on now triggers a render update
-Rendering:Fixed the performance drop after using Optimize
-Rendering:Fixed the potentially incorrect evaluation order of constraints saved in a project file
-Scene Plates:Changes are now recognized in the "Save changes to..." dialog
-Scene Plates:HMI can now be accessed through a transparent area of a frontplate
-Scripting:Added missing Python functions to access the camera and tracking matrix of other users
-Scripting:Fixed Substance Python documentation for "adding presets"
-Scripting:Fixed command syncronization in VR Collaboration sessions
-Scripting:Fixed a crash when using setNodeInteractableInVR
-Scripting:Loading substance archives using Python now loads associated preset file
-Scripting:PySide signal connections to global Python functions are now disconnected automatically
-Scripting:applySubstancePresetWithDefaultOutputSizeByIndex now also works when a material is not selected
-Substance:Dependent property states are now correctly set when applying presets
-Substance:Image attributes of presets are now supported
-Touch Screen:2-finger camera navigation now respects disabled navigation, locked camera, and web engine blocking navigation
-Touch Screen:2-finger camera panning no longer causes corrupt camera transformations
-Touch Screen:2-finger zoom with orthographic camera works now
-VRHero:Changing view from HMD to Standard and back to HMD work as expected
-VRHero:Head position in VR is correct now
-VR: Vive Tracker is no longer initialized as a hand/controller
-Variant Sets:Duplicating variant sets now respects "Sequential Status", "Show in VR", and "Sync in Collaboration"
-Variant Sets:Verifiying variant sets no longer produces a lot of "false positives"
-Variants:Dragging a material into a material variant is now possible
-Varjo:SLI Multicast is now supported