Welcome tofinalRender™ 3.5

finalRender 3.5 for 3ds Max 2010-2013 and 3ds Max Design 2010-2013 is the perfect choice for mainstream user base as well as bigger production houses and advanced users seeking maximum quality and flexibility.

The product uses rock solid Hollywood production-proven rendering core, producing amazing rendering results . A complementary copy of finalToon 3.5 is included with a purchase of the version.

Interior Design Visualization using finalRender 3.5

finalRender 3.5 brings new enhancements and features that offer more stability and productivity. The introduction of a completely new GI-Engine along with an innovative concept for handling primary and secondary GI-Engines fulfills the highest demands of finalRender users. Global illumination renderings are faster and cleaner, and show more detail than ever with unexpected ease-of-use.

3rd party compatibility has been improved considerably and, thanks to new co-operation initiatives, products like FumeFX 2.1 show dramatic speed improvements when using global illumination with finalRender. The software also comes with much better support for Hair Farm, an advanced 3ds Max hair plugin.

GI System Overhaul

Global Illumination

finalRender's global illumination system has received an overhaul in many areas and this release brings a well balanced set of speed optimization and workflow enhancements. GI-Engine settings are no longer lost or reset to their defaults when changing between different engines, even if by accident.

Another, more obvious change to the global illumination system is the option to freely choose between any primary and secondary GI-Engine. Global illumination sampling quality has also been enhanced and the former dependency on camera zoom-levels is no longer an issue.

Rendering speed improvements up to 10x have been achieved for global illumination effects and FumeFX. Speed improvements up to 5x can be expected for sub-surface scattering effects when using the AQMC GI engine.

Unified GI-Solution

In an effort to make the global illumination animation workflow effortless for the user, we reduced the amount of files involved in such an animation as well as the steps needed to handle the files. One unified solution-file dialog handles all GI-Solution files.

From now on, naming, merging, and compiling GI-Solution files is fully automatic and transparent. One need only supply a single folder and file name. The rest is done by the unified GI-Solution file system of finalRender.

New GI Engine

HarmonicsGI

It is uncommon in rendering to introduce a brand new global illumination technology in such a short time in a seasoned environment like finalRender. HarmonicsGI is a bold step towards offering better and faster global illumination solutions to the cebas community.

The new 3.5 system is meant as a future replacement of the “older” Image-GI global illumination engine and is the perfect secondary GI-Engine for AQMC.

The ImageGI global illumination engine was introduced as a cebas first in 2002. Now new algorithms and progress in multi-core software technology have finally made room for many new sophisticated approaches to enhancing and accelerating global illumination rendering for all cebas users.

Enhancements

fR-Scatter

finalRender's scatter object has been upgraded to support the all new fR-Proxy object. Now, fR-Proxy objects can be scattered on surfaces like any other object type in 3ds Max.

Render Globals

For improved speed and workflow, finalRender 3.5 adds a new flag to the global render options: Unload Maps. This new option enables texture maps the be unloaded from RAM after rendering is finished.

fR-Advanced

Several optimizations have been introduced to our "classic" all purpose finalRender material. Many more parameters can now be easily controlled through texture-maps.

fR-MultiSubMap

finalRender Proxy files (fR-Proxy) offer an increased value over other solutions available for 3ds Max, every fR- Proxy object comes automatically wrapped wit hthe proper material setup. To add support for this new feature, a new option has been introduced to the fR-MultiSubMap material.

Micro Triangle Displacement (MTD)

The effectiveness of the Micro Triangle Displacement (MTD) code of finalRender has been greatly augmented. In its current release, enhanced performance and multi-core processor support have been optimized to guarantee maximum speed while maintaining a low memory footprint at render time.

A smooth surface is still maintained even with a highly detailed surface structure. MTD scenes now use less memory, create more detail, and render faster than before. Scenes that were hard to render or really complex to set up in previous releases are now just a click away from picture perfect.

All these enhancements have been achieved without breaking workflow or introducing new UI components.

Physical Camera

Within the fR Physical Camera Rollout preview window, the vignetting effect is now displayed in real time as well.

New Object Type: Render Proxies

fR-Proxy

Render Proxies have been an on-going topic. For some users, they have been a core feature of their future pipeline. finalRender has always been the most efficient renderer on the market when it comes to instancing complex meshes in the hundreds of thousands.

Billions of polygons have never been an issue for finalRender. However cebas listened to its users and now offers a "render-pipeline" tool that many users want and keep integrating into their studio setups.

finalRender Proxies are gathered as highly optimized files that can be used to replace geometry at render time without the need for the renderer core to redo work in preparing the meshes for rendering.

New materials

fR-2 Sided

A new wrapper material to allow for fast end efficient translucency effects or two-sided material appearances with single-sided, modeled faces has been added.

fR-MultiMtl

This new material is equivalent to the fRMultiSub map implemented in 3.5 now it is a standard material.

New Stereo Camera

For the first time, the new stereo camera offers a sophisticated way to reproduce true 3D stereo camera effects from within 3ds Max in a single rendering pass.

The heavily loaded 3D effects production, “Alice in Wonderland”, required a true 3D stereo camera render effect that would allow proper compositing of existing footage, created with thinkingParticles R4, and special effects rendering by finalRender 3.5 SE in full stereo.

Sam Korshid, former effects Supervisor at CafeFX, approached cebas with an urgent need for a proper rendering solution for 3ds Max that would work out of the box, have no issues with live action footage, and would match rendering setups created in Autodesk Maya.Within the tight production timeline of “Alice in Wonderland”, cebas developed and integrated a new, true 3D stereo camera model into finalRender 3.5, which proved to be an ideal rendering solution for this large-scale production.

Alice in (Stereo-) Wonderland

The new finalRender Stereo Camera offers the 3ds Max user a sophisticated way to reproduce true 3D stereo camera effects from within 3ds Max.Sam Korshid, former effects Supervisor at CafeFX, approached cebas with an urgent need for a proper 3ds Max rendering solution.

It needed to work out of the box, have no issues with live action footage, allow proper compositing of existing footage (created with thinkingParticles R4), and would match rendering setups created in Maya.Within the tight production timeline of “Alice in Wonderland,” cebas integrated a true 3D stereo camera model into finalRender, which proved to be an ideal rendering solution for this major production.

DomeLight

finalRender R3 SE was the rendering system of choice for Uncharted Territory for the 3D VFX in the blockbuster movie “2012.” DomeLight proved to be the key lighting method used to create believable and fast global illumination scenery.

It also showed great stability in ultra-complex scenes with thousands of animated objects, possessing millions of polygons.

In finalRender 3.5, DomeLight is now faster, smoother and better than before, accelerating both the animation and QMC rendering modes.

Ocean Object and Material Enhancements

User input is very important to cebas. The latest feedback on Ocean Material and Ocean Object has led to more fine-tuning and upgrades in rendering and processing speed.

Foam Map handling, for example, has seen a total overhaul.

Skin2 and CarPaint2

fR-Skin2 is a new layered skin material shader that resembles the effects of human (or alien) skin much better than the previous fR-Skin.

fR-CarPaint2, with optional new material, makes the paint on your car model look exactly like a shiny, new car.

Also, fR-FastSkin has been upgraded to allow full map control of its features.

...and More

In addition, finalRender 3.5 offers RE AA control, the Reinhard Tone Mapper, additional Shadow Mapping tools, as well as many additional texture map shaders, such as fR-Wet, fR-Velvet, fR-FastSkin and many more.

finalRender 3.5 is Built Upon:

- All features and functionality known to finalRender- pyroCluster 3.5 (without mental ray shaders)- finalToon 3.5- Former finalShaders (unlimited network render license)

Render Elements

finalRender 3.5 offers special Render Elements (RE):

- fR AA Sampling- fR Vignetting- fR Complete- fR Material- fR Object-Material ID

In addition to these elements, finalRender 3.5 incorporates a whole new mechanism for rendering elements in individual passes, where each pass can show different objects in its render elements. This feature makes finalRender 3.5 overcome the 32 RE restriction of 3ds Max.

Another option in finalRender 3.5 is that the Anti-Aliasing controls can also affect the RE and Beauty Pass at the same time with the same settings. This allows for cleaner and faster RE renderings.

finalRender has always had strong Render Elements (RE) support. It was in fact the first 3rd party renderer to support all the standard 3ds Max Render Elements.

finalRender 3.5 now supports even more RE. In addition to finalRender-specific RE, many additional options and features have been added, such as Includes and Excludes for RE, Advanced Zdepth and Depth.

Options

In addition to the standard 3ds Max RE, many new finalRender-specific RE have been added to help optimize renderings for post-production.

Below are some of the specific RE options now available in finalRender 3.5:

Baking Render Elements

The 3ds Max native Render To Texture feature is now the only supported texture baking option for finalRender 3.5. Many additional baking elements were added to fully support all advanced features of finalRender.

3ds Max Exposure Control

To support all power RE, finalRender 3.5 introduces a 3ds Max-conform exposure control that fully exposes all the power of the unique finalRender Color Mapping tools. Using the standard 3ds Max Exposure Control from within the Environment Menu section guarantees the best possible compatibility with full support of all REs.

fR-AA Sampling Render Element

The fR-AA Sampling Render Element renders the Anti-Aliasing debugging data exactly in the same way as the Show Samples option of finalRender, without touching or affecting the final image.

This is a great feature to enhance and debug a scene and obtain the best possible render time.

Original Rendering

fR-AA Sampling Element

Render Element Passes

3ds Max has a built-in limit of 32 Render Elements (RE) that can be created in one render.

finalRender 3.5 is the first rendering application to overcome this restriction, which enables even the largest scale movie productions to have reliable rendering output without limits.

Creating enormous amounts of complex frames is a huge task for any rendering pipeline. This is especially true considering the memory footprint of modern VFX scenes with thousands of objects and gigabytes of high- res textures.

Sending all this data to a render farm and rendering everything in 4k resolution requires maximum attention to detail and extremely efficient memory handling.

This is the reason that rendering an image in layers offers invaluable flexibility and control, especially as today's complex visual scenes often need to be broken down into multiple scenes and passes anyway.

What's the Idea?

Adding multiple passes, with specific RE per pass, easily overcomes the 32 RE limit of 3ds Max.

Another benefit of using Passes is that it reduces the memory footprint for every rendering pass and for the entire scene.

Adding hundreds of Settings by Hand?

One might think: who will ever need more than 32 RE? Setting up scenes with high RE requirements is a major headache, especially with a less than ideal UI.

finalRender 3.5 comes to the rescue by fully supporting MAXScript and RE Passes, along with the capability of setting each RE via MAXScript.

A simple MAXScript can now easily collect hundreds of objects, automatically place them in a separate RE,and adjust its settings at the same time. If anything changes, the script is re-run and the data readied for output to the render farm.

fR Reinhard Tone Mapper Effect

The fR Reinhard tone mapper effect is an all-purpose image tone mapping tool. It is used to strip down HDRI to standard RGB values suitable for display devices such as monitors, TV screens, or for print media.

This render effect works by analyzing the complete, rendered image and dividing it into areas to decide how the color, brightness, and illumination should be matched to a smaller (non HDRI) RGB number space. This render effect uses all available pixels in the final image as a calculation base.

In the illustration below, note how the windows change. This is one of the advantages of this tone mapper, as it analyzes the image and finds the areas that need adjustment.

fR Reinhard Tone Mapper appliedNo fR Reinhard Tone Mapper applied

finalRender Object Properties

finalRender 3.5 offers a special Matte/Shadow rollout menu added to the standard, right-click Object Properties menu in 3ds Max.

What makes Object Properties special is its ability to control Matte/Shadow options independently of any material assigned to a specific object.

Full License of pyroCluster 3.5 Included

pyroCluster closes the gap between soft, hazy 3D environment effects and puffy, dense, and accurate pyroclastic volcano clouds. A long-awaited 3D artist's dream comes true with 3D smoke and cloud effects in all variations just a few clicks away.

pyroCluster offers state-of-the-art volume acceleration rendering technologies and is one of the fastest, most flexible 3D smoke/cloud generators for 3ds Max.

To guarantee a flawless integration into 3ds Max, many new workflow and design concepts have been introduced. pyroCluster is now more user-friendly and offers even better control over volumetric effects.

This product is now an integral part of finalRender 3.5. To learn more about this amazing value see the description of pyroCluster 3.5

fR-Skin

finalShaders users have appreciated Human Skin and other advanced SSS rendering effects.

finalRender 3.5 now incorporates all of this power into its core, along with unlimited network rendering.

No more skin that looks like plastic

Realistic human skin is one of the hardest effects to achieve in computer graphics. fR-Skin is now included in finalRender 3.5 and addresses this complex task of rendering human skin, along with the advanced subsurface scattering algorithms involved.

fR-Skin uses a multi-layer skin approach. With Dermis and Epidermis Layers, the color of circulating blood and the penetration depth of the light rays can be controlled and fine-tuned.

A refractive value of the skin material allows for the creation of complex and stunning looking skin structures that might take light in or reflect light more than standard human skin.

Parameters to define the dryness or wetness of the skin allow for full control of the final look.

fR-Skin2 Material

fR-Skin2 is an enhanced version of fR-Skin that now supports multiple layers and allows better control of the light scattering inside the skin.

Animation stability is improved and flickering skin a thing of the past.

In-depth controls, easy-to-adjust parameters, and perfect pre-sets make this shader a ready-to-render solution for everyone involved in character animation or human skin simulation.

Obviously, fR-Skin2 can also be used for "supernatural", out-of-this-world skin rendering effects.

fR-CarPaint

New Paint for Your Car

fR-CarPaint is an advanced metallic shader material that creates car paint effects in no time at all. It is easy to set up and offers all the flexibility and power one needs.

You can create metallic car paint effects (metal glitters enclosed in the lacquer) with adjustable size and strength. Creating a dull used car or a highly polished show room model is just a matter of a few mouse clicks.

As with every finalRender material, the name of the material is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, you can create completly original effects that are totally unique!

fR-CarPaint2 Material

As the successor of the fR-CarPaint material, fR-CarPaint2 offers vastly enhanced, real-world lacquer and paint effect simulation as found in actual metal car finishes.

This material/shader simulates the subtle multi-layer, glossy finish of car paints, including metallic glitter or flakes embedded in the paint itself.

fR-3DGradient

Unlimited flexibility in 3D

fR-3DGradient is an advanced texture map optimized for maximum flexibility and performance. This new procedural texture map brings the power of the 3d dimension to the user's finger tips.

The colors are now controlled in 3D space relative to the bounding volume of the object, the world bounding box, or even absolute object measures.

Whatever the artist can dream up, fR-3DGradient is able to create an unlimited number of material properties, ranging from linear color ramps to 3D fire effects. This opens an extraordinary number of possibilities, all with a simple, easy-to-use interface.

Changes made to the texture are shown in the material editor in real time.

fR-CD

No CD can do without it

Have you ever tried to render, let alone animate a CD-ROM? Using standard 3ds Max tools and materials makes it nearly impossible.

Adjusting the spectral rainbow colors correctly is just a huge task. Arranging the colorful streaks and always pointing to the center of the CD are also very tedious.

The fR-CD shader material manages the interaction of light rays that hit the surface based on true optical effects.

A freely adjustable spectral color gradient defines the angle at which a color should be reflected. As the camera moves, the CD-ROM effect changes accordingly.

fR-Curvature

fR-Curvature lets you get curvy with its real-time convex and concave shader that takes the curvature of a mesh and maps it with colors, maps, and textures.

Image above rendered in only 4 seconds, with MTD

fR-Curvature is a spectacular tool for masking other maps, as well as creating effects, like real-time ambient occlusion, dirt, and powerful sub-surface scattering masks.

fR-Curvature is perfect for character FX work, as well as landscape situations.

fR-DistantFur

Micro-Fur Structures no Longer a Problem

Creating surfaces with hundreds of hairs may be easy to do, but is nearly impossible with hundreds of thousands of short hairs.

fR-DistantFur is a special fur shader for finalRender 3.5 that allows the rendering of surfaces with nearly unlimited amounts of "micro-fur", or short hair.

This material render effect works for distant objects only. A horse, cow, dog, or even a zebra in full scale view, are perfect subjects for the fR-DistantFur shader/material. fR-DistantFur also simulates cloth or any subtly furry looking object.

fR-Electron

Welcome to your Personal Raster Electron Microscope

fR-Electron is the perfect material to simulate electron microscope imagery.

In addition to the neat rendering effect, the material may also be used for superb metallic effects or any other advanced material.

fR-Elevation

The Alps in your Back Yard

For rendering landscapes, mountains, and valleys with sand, rocks, or snow, fR-Elevation offers extensive controls for quick-and-easy setup.

An unlimited and expandable amount of layers, each with its own material, define at exactly what height snow, water, rocks, or sand should appear and how they should be blended.

fR-FastSkin

Introducing fR-FastSkin, a new Shader for finalRender 3.5 users.

fR-Fastskin is the newest innovation in fast and accurate skin shading for realistic and hyper-realistic characters.

fR-Fastsl<in has a short set of parametersthat allow artiststo immediately begin creating-- no more fiddling around

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fR-Ghost

fR-Ghost is a special effects material that enables a multitude of diverse rendering effects.

The focus of this material is to simulate the famous ghost-like effect as seen in many Hollywood block buster movies.

However, fR-Ghost was designed with versatility and can be applied in many other creative ways.

fR-MeshDistance

fR-MeshDistance is an powerful texture map that can be used in many surprising ways. This texture map is available in the finalRender 3.5 version only.

Its main purpose is to automatically fade the texture map to black based on the distance of the respective object to the surface. One or more "exterior" objects may also be chosen to measure the distance between the surface to whichthe map is applied and the picked object(s).

Note that only true 3D materials are suitable for this texture map, such as fR-Volumetric or fR-VolumeSolid.

fR-VolumeSolid and fR-MeshDistance created this effect

fR-Ocean Material

fR-Ocean is a special purpose material for use with the fR-Ocean object. As the name indicates, it is meant for creating water and ocean water-like effects.

Thanks to its special connection to the fR-Ocean Object, automatic foam rendering effects can be easily performed with this material as well.

Physical properties, such as V\eter depth or light absorptiontom light penetrating the water,including simulated plankton, are a core part of this shader.

fR-Ocean Object

fR-Ocean is a standard 3ds Max object used to simulate large scale water surfaces, where the scale can be as small as a pool or a pond and as large as the whole ocean. The ocean object behaves like any other 3ds Max parametric mesh object and can be easily adjusted and animated in near realtime.

Advanced automatic Level-of-Detail algorithms ensure a low memory footprint and an optimal rendering speed with the highest amount of surface detail possible. Along with the fR-Ocean material, believable and photoreal water surfaces can be created easily and in a short amount of time.

fR-ReWrapper Material

finalRender offers an advanced method to add more control to Render Elements and their 3ds Max output.

With the introduction of the fR-ReWrapper material, Render Elements can be individually attenuated by material. A Refractive object in the beauty pass may appear solid, or with a different color in the Refraction Render Element.

Many aspects of an element created by a material can be easily changed or overwritten by this new material type.

Top right window shows the beauty pass output with the Render Elements modified

fR-Tension

Introducing fR-Tension, a new Shader for finalRender 3.5 users. fR-Tension is a real-time shader that maps both the tension and compression of an object.

With fR-Tension, amazing things, like applying wrinkles to morphed faces or stretching muscles can be simulated.

fR-Tension can be used as a color map or a mask to produce dynamic mapping of characters and dynamic objects.

fR-Tension is also highly useful in effects animation for objects that might break apart or tear when stretched too far.

fR-ThinFilm

fR-ThinFilm simulates object surfaces coated with an ultra-thin layer of a different material refracting and reflecting light rays based on the viewing angle and light position.

With fR-ThinFilm applied, light hitting an object is split into a user defined color rainbow. Each color section of the rainbow gradient corresponds to a specific angle of incident.

Animating the camera, light, or object creates a colorful light shimmering effect, as commonly seen with oil on water.

fR-Velvet

For those who like satin or velvet, fR-Velvet is the material of choice.

fR-Velvet is another advanced material shader for finalRender 3.5. This material fosters the creation of all kinds of satin- or velvet-like effects.

Even rough cloth properties can be simulated with this material. Easy-to-understand settings make fR-Velvet a first-class, ready-to-render material.

fR-VolumeSolid

The material type fR-VolumeSolid simulates a true volumetric, solid object surface.

Different operational modes create simple displacement-like effects. Users can go even further by applying fR- VolumeSolid to sculpt a 3D solid surface impossible to model with polygons.

fR-Wet

How does one spread thousands of small water drops over a surface? One of the most challenging tasks a modeller can face is the creation of realistic water drops or liquid sitting on top of a surface.

Surface-to-surface contact renderings are a tough task for even the world's best raytracing solutions.

As of this writing, finalRender 3.5 is the only raytracing system to offer special support for Surface/Surface contact situations when rendering refractive or semi-refractive material properties.

By looking closely at the drops one can see the reflected/refracted enviroment

fR-XRay

What is inside? fR-XRay can quickly simulate an X-Ray rendering effect. It is one of the easiest, most straight-forward ready-to-use material in finalRender 3.5.

Adjustment of a few settings creates the desired effect.

Because fR-XRay is a true raytracing material with full finalRender functionality, one can also make frosted glass or similar effects with this material. The boundaries are the user's imagination.

Physical Camera

finalRender 3.5 offers new camera options and settings with every standard 3ds Max camera object in the scene. With fR Physical Camera, the user can "see" (render) the scene with the eyes (lenses) of a real-world photo camera.

This extra camera rollout menu defines the physical parameters of the camera model used in finalRender, individually adjustable for each camera in the scene. A realtime preview window allows for the adjustment of nearly every parameter.

By using the physical camera model, the rendering process of finalRender is automatically switched into "real world physics and optics" mode without the need for complex interactions with the software.

One example of this "real world" mode is proper handling of energy levels and light transport in a scene. The finalRender skylight automatically uses real-world intensity values as well as standard 3ds Max light sources. It is turned into photometric lights with proper energy levels (foot-candle or lux).

3D Stereo Camera

For the first time, finalRender offers a sophisticated way to produce true 3D Stereo Camera effects from within 3ds Max in a single rendering pass.

The heavily loaded 3D effects production, “Alice in Wonderland”, required a true 3D stereo camera render effect that would allow proper compositing of existing footage, created with thinkingParticles R4, and special effects rendering by finalRender 3.5 SE in full stereo.

Sam Korshid, former effects Supervisor at CafeFX, approached cebas with an urgent need for a proper rendering solution for 3ds Max that would work out of the box, have no issues with live action footage, and would match rendering setups created in Autodesk Maya.

Within the tight production timeline of “Alice in Wonderland”, cebas developed and integrated a new, true 3D Stereo Camera model into finalRender 3.5, which proved to be an ideal rendering solution for this large-scale production.

3D Stereo Now Child's Play

Rendering 3D stereo images with finalRender 3.5 has become so easy, it can be used in every single rendering or visualization project.

Impressive 3D stereo renderings are no longer just for the "big guys" in Hollywood. finalRender democratizes this area of rendering and brings it to the mass market.

Architects and designers, for example, can now easily create 3D stereo renderings of their designs for every single project. The added overhead to create a fully stereoscopic 3D image from an existing rendering is near zero and adds little to the render-time.

The rendering shown below illustrates how 3D Stereo Camera creates images that show real depth in any rendering. No extra effort was needed to obtain this effect with finalRender 3.5.

Image by Ground Studios GmbH. To see 3D stereo, use red / cyan anaglyph glasses

HarmonicsGI - Unlimitd Bounces. Unlimited Power

finalRender 3.5 comes fully packed with new rendering technology and enhancements. It is uncommon in rendering to introduce a brand new global illumination technology in such a short time in a seasoned environment like finalRender. HarmonicsGI is a bold step towards offering better and faster global illumination solutions to the cebas community.

The new 3.5 system is meant as a future replacement of the legacy Image-GI global illumination engine and is the perfect secondary GI-Engine for AQMC.

The ImageGI global illumination engine was introduced as a cebas first in 2002. Now, new algorithms and progress in multi-core software technology have finally made room for many new sophisticated approaches to enhancing and accelerating global illumination rendering for all cebas users.

HarmonicsGI sample

Our new HarmonicsGI stores samples independent of the bounce level. This results in less sampling for a similar result.

HarmonicsGI offers faster access in the sample search structures and uses less memory to store illumination information. HarmonicsGI does not need parameters, such as bounce level, as light is bounced throughout the entire scene until all energy is distributed.

This new approach is a major advantage in interior scenes, as light travels even to the darkest edges, and results in an even more realistic looking illumination.

Summary of HarmonicsGI

- Easy and fast setup with only a few basic parameters- Works with any kind of light, even skylight- Supports HDRI and self-illuminated objects- Produces realistic lighting, even in corners or on edges- Visualizes light generation for a GI preview

3rd Party Support: FumeFX 2.1

cebas has a close software co-development agreement with Sitni Sati to build next generation effects tools and rendering solutions for their joint customer base.

Both companies are well established software developers, creating advanced solutions for the 3D animation and visualization market. Renowned for delivering state-of-the-art technology solutions, the two companies intend to deliver even better overall performance and functionality when using both product lines together.

The Sitni Sati FumeFX 2.1 software is considered one of the fastest and most flexible CG fluid dynamics simulation systems available on any platform. It is capable of producing completely photorealistic visuals of smoke and fire that interacts with an entire scene.

FumeFX 2.1 takes full advantage of the finalRender 3.5 rendering and raytracing core and is optmized to perform at its best in conjunction with finalRender.

Rendering FumeFX scenes with finalRender 3.5 SkyLight can result in an eye-popping rendering speed gain of more than 10x. QMC and Adaptive QMC algorithms are both supported.

From an artistic point of view, this means that high levels of realism can be achieved using global illumination at reasonable rendering times.

To learn more about the co- operation between cebas and Sitni Sati maker of FumeFX go to the press release: cebas co-operation announcement.

Animation with FumeFX 2.1 using the finalRender 3.5 advanced global illumination methods to light the smoke cloud

Interactive Rendering

finalRender 3.5 offers a special rendering mode called Interactive Rendering (IR). This mode uses a highly modified renderer based on the identical core of finalRender, but with enhanced render buffering features.

In its first incarnation, several important features are already running through an intelligent buffer to actively avoid re- calculation whenever possible.

The implementation of this IR mode is realized through the 3ds Max Active Shade interface, which many users may have never used or been aware of.

The main advantages finalRender 3.5 has to offer through IR are:

- Full interactive support of all Materials and Shaders- Full interactive support of all Light Types- Full interactive support of all Shadow Types- Full interactive support of all Secondary Rendering Effects

Interactive Rendering in 3ds Max Viewport with full shading support

Hybrid Rendering

finalRender 3.5 offers true hybrid rendering technology. Besides the standard raytracing algorithm, another special "scanline rendering" algorithm has been added to the core engine of finalRender.

The main advantage of such a hybrid approach is improved rendering speed and better image quality. Both rendering technologies have their advantages and disadvantages. Combining the best of both leads to a superior, more robust rendering solution.

What can I expect from such a hybrid thingy - is it faster?

Yes and No.

A noticeable speed increase should be visible in everyday productions when using the scanline rendering option. Especially scenes without heavy secondary (raytracing) effects will perform at their best compared to pure raytracing scenes. Renderings with 10x improvements can easily be achieved using the Scanline Option.

In some situations however, scanline rendering may not be faster. In the worst case, it might even be slower and use more memory than raytracing, for example with instanced geometry or with scenes showing many overlapping high poly objects.

So what's scanline rendering?

Scanline rendering is the algorithm of choice for all realtime-based or hardware accelerated rendering applications. Several flavors of scanline rendering methods exist. Z-Buffer and A-Buffer rendering methods, for example, are used to render complex 3D scenes.

The 3ds Max core renderer is a highly optimized scanline renderer, though it is aged now and people are moving towards true raytracing engines. The 3ds Max scanline rendering system is still the top choice with tight budgets and a high volume output requirement at the lowest possible cost.

In its simplest form, a scanline renderer would use a Z-Buffer to render pixels. A Z-Buffer is an array that stores the current Z-Depth (distance to the camera) of each pixel. As polygons are sent to the Z-buffer, only those nearest to the camera are rendered (shown in their color). This Z-Buffer rendering is done per scanline, hence the name scanline renderer.

Which method is used by finalRender?

finalRender 3.5 uses a special bucket-based rasterizer algorithm to implement the full advantage of a scanline rendering system in its raytracing environment. It is beyond the scope of this manual to explain the coding methods used by finalRender in detail. The basic methods are nevertheless explained below.

The main rendering process can be divided into two main steps, though in reality, there are many more. The first step is finding the closest pixel to the camera inside a bucket, then coloring (shading) it based on its polygon or face color. Pixels behind the closest one do not need to be processed because they are hidden.

After this first "rasterizing" step is complete, the second step, "raytracing", is started. By shooting rays into the scene, starting at the position of the first (primary) position (nearest Z-Buffer value) reflections, shadows or GI are calculated. As described, finding the first hit on a surface visible to the camera is done by a scanline rendering approach (Z-Buffer). All further calculations are done through raytracing.

The renderings below show the full power of the hybrid rendering approach.

Scanline rendering means speed

Shown below is a rendering of a benchmark scene used to stress and test any rendering technology. The image consists of extremely thin objects at large distances with a very low color contrast towards its surroundings.

Note:To illustrate the outstanding thin geometry rendering, all images shown below are zoomed in 2x.

Rendered in 4 seconds with finalRender Scanline Option enabled (zoomed 2x)

Alpha channel of the exact same rendering in 4 seconds with finalRender Scanline Option enabled. The images shown above illustrate the clean and smooth anti-aliasing along the fine detail cables on the bridge model.Note the render time as well as the Alpha channel.

Rendered in 20 seconds with the raytracer only option (Scanline Option turned off)

Rendered in 20 seconds with the raytracer only option (Scanline Option turned off). By using the raytracer only option, the thin lines in this scene are not captured well and show large gaps when using the same quality settings as the scanline rendering option.

To capture such fine detail, low contrast objects, the raytracer needs to shoot a large amount of rays resulting in a much higher rendering time.

Rendered in 34 seconds with increased anti-aliased settings

Rendered in 34 seconds with increased anti-aliased settings

Conclusion

To obtain the same render quality with raytracing, as shown in the first image, the anti-aliasing render settings must be turned up very high, which increases render time dramatically.

This simple test already shows an increase of more than 8x when compared to the Scanline Option.

finalRender Proxy Object

Render proxies have been an on-going topic. For some users, they have been a core feature of their future pipeline. finalRender has always been the most efficient renderer on the market when it comes to instancing complex meshes in the hundreds of thousands.

High facecounts in the Billions of polygons have never been an issue for finalRender. However cebas listened to its users and now offers a "render-pipeline" tool that many users want and keep integrating into their studio setups.

finalRender Proxies are gathered as highly optimized files that can be used to replace geometry at render time without the need for the renderer core to redo work in preparing the meshes for rendering.

The basic application of the fR-Proxy object is ot create and optionally animate the source object, apply a material, and then save a copy to disk for possible future modification. Next, one converts the object to fR-Proxy format and writes the proxy to a disk file or series of files, after which it appears in the viewports as a point cloud (a set of vertices showing the object size and approximate shape).

Finally, the source object is deleted as its presence in the scene is no longer necessary. The fR-Proxy object can then be used like any object in a scene, instancing it, transforming it, and so on. finalRender loads the fR-Proxy files for rendering and uses the geometry defined therein.

However, to modify it (such as changing a modifier parameter or editing a sub-object), one needs to load the source object, modify it, reconnect it to the proxy object, and rewrite the files.

Summary of the finalRender Proxy Object

- Low memory footprint in the 3ds Max scene file (it's only a box)- Portable: fR-Proxy files are easy to integrate and handle, are self contained, and include all materials- Pre-Calculated: fR-Proxy files are in binary format, already accelerated, and render ready- Integrated: fR-Proxy objects and files are fully scriptable and accessible in 3ds Max through standard UI operations

Anti-Aliasing

New Anti-Aliasing Slider

finalRender 3.5 comes with an easy-to-use system of adjusting anti-aliasing (AA). Anyone in 3D knows that AA is notoriously difficult to tune in a raytrace engine. In finalRender 3.5, a single slider with left-to-right dragging capabilities tunes anti-aliasing using automatic settings.

Simply dragging the slider will adjust many different parameters to an optimum level, such as threshold jitter minimum and maximum samples.

Once the slider is used to adjust AA to the correct level for the scene, simply adjust all the advanced parameters, tuning AA to achieve the required balance of speed and quality. This feature offers a highly intuitive process for a difficult rendering task.

Adaptive Multiple Ray Sampler

finalRender 3.5 offers a unified sampler for raytracing effects that requires more than one ray to render a certain effect. Effects like Depth of Field (DOF), Area Shadows, Area Lights, Quasi Monte-Carlo (QMC) GI, and Blurry Reflections are all affected by this new Sampler.

What does the Adaptive Multiple Ray Sampler do?

Previously, it was difficult to get an optimal render time when multiple rendering effects were being used in one scene. A scene that had raytraced area shadows combined with blurry reflections and GI with some Depth of Field would be virtually impossible to render in a reasonable amount of time.

The new Adaptive Multiple Ray Sampler (AMRS) is THE technology to solve such rendering bottlenecks. finalRender3.5 condenses multiple ray effects into one set of controls.

Anti-Aliasing Core Engine Technologies

The latest adaptive Anti-Aliasing sampling algorithms are implemented within finalRender 3.5 and provide a new engine along with significant speed enhancements to the existing engines.

Significant R&D went into enhancing the quality of the raytracing core. cebas also received a great deal of beneficial feedback from users around the globe, which helped tailor new technologies to the needs of the artist.

finalRender 3.5 has made great strides in speed and quality, consequently making considerable differences to previous versions.

The innocent looking image shown below, for example, uses the new Adaptive Sampler to render even the finest details correctly. In exhaustive testing, it was discovered that other raytracing applications often miss several lines and/or generate moiré effects while finalRender does not.

fR-Scatter Object

finalRender 3.5 introduces a new object called fR-Scatter that can easily be created from the standard 3ds Max geometry drop-down list.

fR-Scatter is an extremely memory-efficient tool for creating a virtually unlimited amount of objects without draining 3ds Max memory in the modeling editor or scene file.

fR-Scatter offers a variety of options and controls for nearly every placement aspect of scattered objects on any surface. Placement can either be made by using texture maps, vertex paint, or by using collision objects to avoid placement of scattered geometry.

Handling millions of objects in the 3ds Max viewport is easily possible, as well as having animated groups of objects scattered around on a surface.

This tool represents outstanding value for all finalRender users and is included with finalRender 3.5 at no additional cost.

Global Illumination

finalRender unleashed the first fast and affordable GI solution for 3ds Max. Then came Stage-1 R1, and now finalRender 3.5 revolutionizes rendering all over again.

A new era in robust and animatable GI rendering has started with the addition of the brand new AQMC Gi engine.

Light Map Prepass

finalRender 3.5 has the ability to use light maps for its secondary bounces. A light map pre-pass mode was added so that light maps can be seen and rendered with the pre-pass. By rendering light maps with the pre-pass, it is easier to achieve artifact-free interior renderings.

Detail Detection

finalRender 3.5 introduces an automatic option to drastically increase detail and allow for much faster GI rendering. This new Detail Detection algorithm can now be added to all optimized GI engines available in finalRender. Every GI rendering will be more detailed, even when fewer samples or higher interpolation values are used.All four finalRender GI engines allow for this new option to add a basic Ambient Occlusion pass to find small details in lighting resolution. Increasing GI is often the only way to get tiny details into a scene, but it extends the time needed for creating small details with a global pass.

Sometimes it can be much more effective to do a smooth, lower detail global illumination pass, then to add detail detection to get those tiny areas.

The scene below is shown with and without detail detection. It shows that how this feature speeds up workflow by rendering tiny details without having to crank up the GI.

fR-Image GI-Engine

The finalRender Image GI-Engine, is enhanced and optimized to offer better detail detection and smooth results with fewer samples.

fR-Image GI - Share Samples

Share Samples avoids black splotches in areas where objects form a common surface but are in fact two separate objects. Neighboring sample values make interpolation between adjacent faces across object borders possible.

Key GI Features

- Better automatic detail surface detection- Overall speed improvements- Memory reduction of up to 50%- Automatic depth-dependent quality control- Physically correct energy decay for ambient rays- Save solution to File option

Documentation and Training

Documentation

finalRender 3.5 is packed with documentation and training for new and advanced users. Every registered finalRender user is able to access the Wiki pages on this portal to get the latest up-to-date manual of finalrender 3.5 and 3.5 SE.

This huge, full-color "living manual" includes a live updates, full explanations of every parameter, general workflow topics that describe how raytrace rendering works, and tutorials to get you started.

Sample Scenes

finalRender also ships with a huge amount of sample scenes, showing the setup of almost every feature. Simply browse through these scenes and see how to set up any particular effect.

Training Videos

New video training is being released continually. finalRender now has over five hours of free training on its website with more to come. With all of these learning tools, finalRender makes it easy for beginners to start, or for more advanced users to delve into more complex topics. Training videos can be easily accessed at the following link: Training Video

Presets

finalRender 3.5 ships with over 150 presets that get users up to speed quickly and provide a base from which to work.

The presets are:

- 29 fR-Architectual Material presets- 39 Advanced Material presets- 53 Rendering presets- 34 finalToon presets

finalToon 3.5

finalToon 3.5 is included in finalRender 3.5 and works with both 32- and 64-bit systems.

finalToon 3.5 is not just the simple cell shader other renderers offer, but a top-of-the-line NPR rendering system for cell shading, technical and cartoon line rendering, hatching, brush stroke effects, and much more.

With 64-bit power, finalToon 3.5 can now render huge images with very dense lines. The above image was rendered at 11K.

Please review the finalToon 3.5 product page where all its new features are highlighted.

Adaptive Quasi-Monte Carlo (AQMC)

finalRender Stage-0 unleashed the first affordable, fast GI solution for 3ds Max. then R2. Now finalRender 3.5 revolutionizes rendering all over again.

Then came Stage-1 R1 and

With many enhancements to the Adaptive Quasi-Monte Carlo (AQMC) GI engine, a new era of better and faster GI rendering has been started.

AQMC is the global illumination engine in finalRender 3.5. The all new, fine-tuned AQMC produces better and higher quality renderings in less time and with beautiful, flicker-free GI animations.

Flicker-Free GI

AQMC has an option for rendering moving and deforming objects with GI without getting undesirable flickering

effects. The AQMC character animation mode renders objects from bricks flying off buildings to character

deformations, and anything in between.

Camera Fly

AQMC also has an option for camera animation. There have always been techniques for rendering pre-passes for every other frame and saving them to obtain a nice camera fly pass.

With AQMC, we have automated this feature so that you can simply check camera fly, and finalRender will calculate the pre-pass for you. Once this is accomplished, you can render your GI without having to worry about tricks or re- using different sample sets.

Hyper-GI Illuminates Your Animations

finalRender 3.5 still possesses its powerful Global Illumination engine, called Hyper-GI. This unique approach to Global Illumination (GI) was developed to solve the well known shortcomings of modern GI rendering technology.

When working with animation, GI can cause all sorts of problems due to the Stochastic Ray firing methods that most GI engines employ. Otherwise, beautiful still images can be destroyed when animated, as the resulting output flickers or changes illumination inconsistently over the course of the animation.

In constrast, the Hyper-GI solution is based on a sophisticated hybrid energy distribution approach. The two methods of classic, view-independent, finite element radiosity calculations and view-dependent, stochastic shading point sampling are combined in a unique way that provides stability and consistency in the illumination of the resulting animation.

Hyper-GI is a great leap forward for end users as it marries two strong rendering technologies into a single, powerful solution.

Hyper-GI is highly robust and works even in the most extreme situations. It can handle both animated objects and lights (or both of them together). When used properly, it is also faster than any other GI solution included in finalRender 3.5 assuring both control and speed. One can't ask for much more than that.

Please review the sample animation rendered with Hyper-GI below. Every object in this animation is set to receive and reflect light and every single brick will influence the GI solution.

Here is the same animation without Hyper-GI

Flicker Free GI

finalRender 3.5 offers many options to handle global illumination and animation. The AQMC GI engine has a Camera Fly mode for non-moving/-deforming scenes and a Character Animation mode for moving/deforming objects.

In 3.5, it is possible to easily bake the GI with non-moving objects, then use AQMC where needed.

Light Sources: finalRender 3.5 Rich Set

In the beginning, there is always light.

finalRender 3.5 supports the standard 3ds Max light sources, including Photometric Lights. Besides the standard 3ds Max lights, finalRender ships with many additional unique light types for simulating real world lighting scenarios -- or even out-of-this-world light effects.

Here is a short list of additional Light Types introduced by finalRender 3.5:

Light Types (scene objects):

- Object Light- Particle Light- Rectangular Light- Cylinder Light- Dome Light

Other Light Emitters:

- fR-Light (Material)- Physical Sky- Skylight- HDRI Texture Maps

Physical Sky - The Dawn of a New Era

An appointment with the sun is waiting for you!

The physically accurate skylight model in finalRender 3.5 has been completely fine-tuned and overhauled. It is the new power tool for illuminating scenes in a photo-realistic way never possible before.

Through utilizing real world measurements and formulas to describe the illumination properties of skylight and its coloring based on the time and the region of the world, a light setup can now be created that nearly matches the "real thing" outside the office. Thanks to the new CIE sky color models, it is now easier than ever to match a skylight with a real world situation.

finalRender 3.5 offers a physical sky simulation methodology that accurately represents the colors and illumination model of a real world sky environment. The light intensities created by the physical sky model are calculated in a true High Dynamic Range Image format. Color and light intensities are calculated as they would appear in reality, at a certain place and time on earth.

How does it work?

As in the real world, finalRender 3.5 takes many aspects that form the illumination and color of a sky hemisphere into consideration. Aspects such as the time of the day, the year and month, along with the exact place on earth, are considered when rendering the skylight effect. Furthermore, parameters like dust particles, ozone, and water vapor play an important role in coloring the sky.

The color of a light source is defined by a collection of wavelengths. Each of these configurations indicates a particular absorption curve unique to each atmospheric element. Vaporized water in the atmosphere, for example, shows strong absorption between a wavelength of 690 and 730nm.

Nano what?

The physical sky model uses a true wavelength-based rendering scheme. The international standard for measuring wavelength is in nano-meters (a billionth of a meter), an extremely short distance.

In the real world, all the beautiful colors we see are made from a combination of different wavelengths, radiating all around us. A red color shows a wavelength ranging from 633-690nm, green 500-555nm and blue 440-500nm.

As usual, there is no need to focus on all physical sky parameters. The instant feedback experimenting with the controls shows in real time will easily yield the desired results.

True Micro Triangle Displacement

Micro Triangle Displacement (MTD) is an advanced rendering method that enables the creation of more surface detail for models by generating and displacing extra triangles.

The remarkable aspect of MTD in finalRender 3.5 is that the extra triangles are only created at render time, which means that even 100 million micro-triangles will not consume memory. The micro-triangles in finalRender only exist for a short time and are only created as needed for rendering each bucket.

MTD Modifier

finalRender 3.5 has significantly improved its MTD thanks to the MTD modifier. Rendertime displacement, modifier- based displacement, or both can be used. The MTD modifier is extremely fast and flexible and opens new doorsfor production effects and workflow.

Objects can be affected by displaced objects because they are visible in the viewport at any resolution. Another advantage of the MTD modifier is that there is no render time increase every time Render is pressed. The only action required is to pass the pre-calculated mesh off to the render, as with any other large mesh.

Lastly, the MTD modifier enables layered and stackable MTD, as well as interaction with other 3ds Max modifiers.

The MTD core

The MTD core has been enhanced for finalRender 3.5 for a higher level of quality and speed with the MTD systems opening up a broader range of possibilities.

True 3D MTD

The finalRender MTD helps create more realistic surfaces than ever. MTD is of course also supported by GI and other raytracing effects.

The images below illustrate various MTD options with the finalRender GI. Note the difference MTD has made on the final images.

Absorption

Significant upgrades and additions have been made to finalRender materials. Besides adding many new materials and effects, the reliable legacy material options have also been enhanced or fine tuned.

finalRender 3.5 does not only offer the well known fR-Architecture material, but has been enhanced to create even btter and more realistic materials.

finalRender 3.5,the rendering system of choice for 3ds Max, hasthe most materialoptions onthe market.Creating realistic glass effects has also become easier.

Reflections and Refractions

Below are examples of Reflections with and without applied Absorption.

Below are examples of Refractions with and without applying Absorption.

Sub-Surface Scattering

What is SSS?

Sub-Surface Scattering (SSS) describes a real world effect appearing on and in different kinds of materials.

With finalRender 3.5, many objects -- not limited to transparent objects like glass -- are able to transport light through their volumes better than ever.

finalRender Stage-0 was the first commercially available rendering system that introduced true sub-surface light scattering to 3ds Max. finalRender Stage-1 went one step further by offering an enhanced volumetric light scattering algorithm.

finalRender 3.5 can scatter light in a truly diffuse way with more control and less memory consumption. For example, objects inside a volume add to the light scattering effects. This effect is created from diffuse illumination and will create the known '\Iolume glow" or halo effect inside semi-transparent liquids.

The method of storing volume sample information, introduced with finalRender R2, has also been enhanced. finalRender 3.5 is now faster and more stable in animations, offering better self-adjustment.

This method of collecting and creating volume data ensures that an animation creates the lowest number of changes in the light scattering result for each frame. In addition, scenes that use secondary SSS rays are now much cleaner and do not require as many rays to achieve a smooth result.

Dispersion

The Colors of Light

What is Dispersion?

Dispersion is the effect of light separating into its specific wavelengths. A classic example is a white beam of light sent through a glass prism. Because each wavelength has its own refraction value, a white light beam is spread into its rainbow color components. Light also interacts with the molecular structure of the material it is sent through according to its wavelength.

finalRender 3.5 can now take advantage of Dispersion.

The 2x images belowdemonstrate the effect of dispersion.The V\hite "color" of the cylindersbehindthe sphere is dispersedinto a rainbowof colors, of V\hich V\hite light is comprised.

Geometry Samples

Geometric sampling is a powerful feature of finalRender. finalRender 3.5 improves ease of use and efficiency, especially in animations with SSS and UltraBlur.

Enhanced SSS and Blurries

finalRender 3.5 uses geometry samples to obtain fast and accurate sub surface scattering (SSS), as well as blurry reflections and refractions. Geometry Samples are now enhanced with much faster calculation times, as well as user interface options to aid in configuring samples.

The option to automatically calculate samples on a surface of an object has been dramatically improved and now works much better.

"Camera(s)... and... Action!"

finalRender 3.5 offers one of the largest choices of pre-setup camera types of any rendering system on the market. A rich set of camera types offers a solution for nearly anything you might think of rendering with finalRender 3.5.

Simple cameras like the Spherical or Fish-Eye Camera are easy and fast to set up and use, while other cameras, like the Advanced Camera in finalRender, let you easily create unusual and superior effects.

Advanced Camera: Choose Your Angle

The finalRender advanced camera offers, for the first time, a real physical camera lens model that can easily be used to create real world camera effects, or out of this world special effects! Create special effects and actually model the lens to your discretion with the Advanced Camera in finalRender 3.5.

The Perfect Camera for every Job

Below are a number of samples rendered with the camera types included in finalRender 3.5. As you can see, there are lots of camera types: 9 of them in total!

Each image shown below also contains an animated view. Simply click on the images to view a short animation, which shows the effect of each camera on an identical fly-through:

The Architectural Camera makes sure that all vertical lines stay vertical.

The Cylinder Camera is useful to create panoramic views.

The Distortion Camera simulates a real film camera using an optical lens system.

This is the Fisheye Camera which causes heavy image distortion.

The InsectEye Camera simulates the view of an insect with facet eyes.

The Panorama Camera lets you render full, 360 degree panoramas.

The Spherical Camera renders full spherical images.

The UltraWide Camera shoots an ultra wide angle of the scene and also causes distortion.

The Window Camera angle can be adjusted horizontally and vertically for dome cinema projections.

2D Image Motion Blur

finalRender 3.5 fully supports 3ds Max image motion blur

Beyond the physically correct and robust 3D Motion Blur finalRender 3.5 provides, it also supports standard 2D Motion Blur within 3ds Max. In many scenes and situations, 2D Motion Blur effects can create believable imagery without additional rendering time.

This is especially true when working with complex raytraced objects where 2D Motion Blur can save up to 1,000% of valuable render time as compared to a true 3D Motion Blur calculation.

finalRender 3.5 fully supports the native 3ds Max Render Elements and layered G-Buffer channels including the important Coverage and Velocity channels.

The Magic of 3D Motion Blur

finalRender 3.5 offers robust methods to render true 3D motion blur that includes proper handling of all rendering effects from reflection to refraction and GI.

An ultra fast 3D motion blur rendering method in finalRender 3.5, the Rasterizer Only method, uses all possible horsepower of the CPU to create one of the fastest true 3D motion blur effects ever.

The image shown below is a simple illustration of how a good 3D motion blur should work. finalRender renders such complex blur effects with ease. As seen, the propeller has an incredibly high rotational speed, thus the motion blur is in full action.

Note that the shadow of the propeller head is well defined. This is correct, because the shadow does not move.

In contrast, the image below uses an "easy" way of implementing motion blur. This rendering method is called image motion blur and is a 2D effect. It is nothing like the true 3D motion blur created with finalRender above. The result is self-evident.

Distributed Rendering

finalRender 3.5 offers enhanced Distributed Rendering for a much better experience, even when used with the most complex scenes. It is now more stable, solid, and faster. The ability to mix DR environments between 32- and 64-bit has been kept.

DR Makes the Most of Hardware Infrastructure

With 3ds Max, a choice about rendering on 32- or 64-bit machines must be made. But with finalRender 3.5 DR, no matter the hardware infrastructure, all machines can be used at the same time. Therefore, in addition to the speed and workload benefits, 32- to 64-bit hardware migrations are also easier to implement.

finalRender 3.5 offers a true distributed network rendering concept, including an enhanced distributed rendering server and management system.

This system offers the following features:

- Enhanced and robust TCP/IP core- Fast response time between rendering slave and manager- Feedback and network messages throughout the whole rendering process- "Dead Slave" detection for ultra-fast shutdown and re-initialization of the same slave- Major file transfer protection so big scenes can be distributed over the network- fRServer.exe application installs as system tray icon- Local Start/Stop Slaves option- Automatic Start option

Rendering to the Power of 10

Distributed network rendering in finalRender 3.5 allows the use of all available rendering power under your finger tips. Many PCs can render just one image at a time. It's the optimum balance between rendering power and the time needed to finish an image.

True Distributed-GI Calculations

Distributed network rendering in finalRender 3.5 offers many unique features and functions to enhance rendering speed by massive parallel rendering technology. Even global illumination is fully supported by distributed network rendering, resulting in less render time and cleaner images.

A few top renderers are able to do distributed rendering and GI. Still, they must render the same, full "light- solution" on a single machine or on all machines at the same time. Such an "easy" implementation of distributed rendering may be simple to program but does not use the power of parallelism of true distributed network rendering technology.

In the flash animation below, a single PC rendering approach is compared to a full-blown three PC distributed network rendering set-up. As shown below, finalRender 3.5 wins hands down.

Click the image to see a Flash animation of a live distributed rendering

Large Scale Rendering

The sequence above is from the movie "Red Cliff", in which finalRender 3.5 and thinkingParticles R4 was used in the iconic battleship sequence. To read more about this project and how it was done GO HERE.

Rendering several thousand ships with full GI, Reflections, and FumeFX effects, with characters walking around on every ship, was not an easy task. It required highly optimized automatic memory management at render time. finalRender 3.5 offers many advanced memory handling features to ensure the success of even the most complex tasks.

On demand loading

finalRender 3.5 offers an On Demand Loading feature that will only load 3D objects into memory when needed (seen) by the raytracer. This feature alone can save an enormous amount of memory for the raytracer while processing large-scale scenes.

Memory Pool Recycling

Besides the efficient scene management mentioned above, finalRender 3.5 also offers a mode in which the user can "lock" the amount of memory that should be used at all times, regardless of the real amount needed to render a scene.

For instance, one could decide to keep only 25 objects in memory and nothing more. If the raytracer needs more memory, the least important 3D geometry is unloaded from memory first, after which the same memory pool is reused. This ensures that no extra memory is allocated.

Advanced Proxy Stand-In Loading

finalRender 3.5 even goes one step further in handling massive rendering scenes. By directly accessing the renderer core, zero face, zero memory objects that will be later swapped with high-poly meshes at render time can be used very efficiently.

Caustics Done Right

finalRender 3.5 supports advanced caustic rendering effects for reflections/refractions along with volume caustic rendering effects. Multi-threading support comes standard with the caustics core rendering algorithms, enabling very high rendering speeds when using Caustic effects.

Thanks to the optimized Caustic rendering method in finalRender 3.5, images as the one shown above can be rendered with incredibly high detail in a very short time.

Dynamic Bitmap Pager

Bigger is Better

There is a growing need for images and texture maps with more than 10K resolution. NASA images, for example, come in 8K or even 21K resolution. What if one had to render a view of earth with a high-resolution NASA earth map texture?

finalRender 3.5 offers an ultra-fast, general, bitmap paging algorithm that allows the use of texture maps of unlimited size and creates render outputs of unlimited size (both depending on available disc space).

The finalRender bitmap pager is completely transparent to the user. Selecting a 21K texture map will make finalRender work it through.

fR-2Sided

The fR-2Sided wrapper material is a faster alternative to the translucency shader of 3ds Max. It is fast because it works with single-sided faces and simulates efficient pseudo-translucency effects.

It is flexible and versatile because it is a wrapper material able to enclose any existing material.

Translucency = 0 Translucency = 100

In the illustration above, note the nice back-light, shine-through effect on the image with translucency set to 100.

finalRender Advanced Material (fR-Advanced)

finalRender 3.5 is one of the few rendering solutions on the market offering a full set of materials for a wide range of situations. Nearly every thinkable real world material effect can be instantly created by using specialized pre-defined finalRender materials.

fR-Advanced was developed for all other situations, or to get the ultimate "kick" in image quality and control.

Renowned artists like Igor Posavec or André Cantarel love to use the fR-Advanced material because of its unique in-depth controls and the unlimited flexibility for adjustment to their needs and artistic taste.

Ambient Occlusion Shader

A true, full-blown, and highly optimized Ambient Occlusion Map is part of the finalRender 3.5 core.

This shader can be applied to any object in a scene and can be individually tuned with ease to effects such as reflective samples, interactions with skylights, and spread values. The AO shader in finalRender 3.5 is simple to use, fast to render, and a powerfull addition to anyone's toolset.

The implementation of the finalRender 3.5 AO shader as a map allows the use of AO for lighting, masking, blending, or anywhere else in the shading pipeline.

fR-Architecture

fR Architecture is an all new, advanced, and easy-to-set-up finalRender material. It emulates the standard 3ds Max Arch&Design material, so that every 3ds Max user can feel at home right away, or even use scenes with the original 3ds Max material applied.

In 3ds Max 2009, Autodesk introduced an architectural design material with great pre-sets.

finalRender 3.5 has an array of materials from glass, to brushed metal, and ceramics that have been completely translated in finalRender 3.5.

BitmapHDR finalRender Texture Map

finalRender 3.5 offers full support of HDRI along with correct Non-Clamped Color values in bitmaps. Every installation of finalRender comes installed with a new bitmap type called BitmapHDR.

This texture map is meant to replace the standard HDRI import filter of 3ds Max. BitmapHDR overcomes many of the restrictions found in the integral 3ds Max HDRI loader.

Exposure = 1.0Exposure = 0.0

Linear Workflow (LWF) Additions

To guarantee a proper linear work flow when working with finalRender 3.5, Color Space Conversion functions have been added to the finalRender Bitmap-HDR texture.

fR-ColorCorrect

The fR-ColorCorrect texture map is implemented as a standard 3ds Max texture map and comes as a core component with finalRender 3.5.

Full RGB, HSV color processing features have been implemented into this versatile texture map. This offers maximum flexibility for adjusting texture maps inside 3ds Max and the material editor. It also eliminates the need for an external image processing application to adjust the color space, contrast or HDR values of a texture map.

The fR-ColorCorrect texture map can even be used to modify secondary ray level behavior. It is very easy to modify or set the color to a specific value for reflected or GI rays only, independent of the main diffuse texture part.

fR-Dirt

Aging is In

Dirt rendering and other aging rendering effects have always been a privilege for finalShaders users.

finalRender 3.5 now incorporates all this power into the core of finalRender along with unlimited network rendering.

Models readily look like they have history and plenty of use. fR-Dirt ages models quickly and efficiently. It can be set up and applied like any other finalShaders material from within the 3ds Max Material Editor and comes as both a standard texture map and full material.

While the texture map is powerful, easy to control, and is very flexible, the fR-Dirt material offers many more advanced effects that can't be found in the texture map.

This includes dirt placement based on a bump map and full Render Elements support. It's amazing how simple it is to create wear and tear with just a few mouse clicks.

fR-Dome Light

finalRender 3.5 introduces a new Image Based Lighting (IBL) light type called fR-Dome.

frDome is especially useful to achieve one important task that would be hard to do with any other illumination method in finalRender: it creates crisp, well defined and accurate shadows based on HDRI data.

Important areas of an image are detected through special image content analysis. The image is automatically searched for the illumination levels created by direct light, as well as the remaining light energy usually treated as the ambient light amount.

The Dome Light source is very flexible and may be used in many combinations with or without GI, or with its ownspecial animation mode. HDRI values are the basis of all calculations made in fR-Dome light.

fR-DomeLight using HDRI sky texture (detecting sun)

Ease of Use

lnnnovative and User friendly, when using HDR-lmages finalRender 3.5 displays exactly what it is doing andwhat is going on - a simple feature yet very powerfuI.

fR-Fillet

"Cutting Edge" Stuff

finalRender 3.5 comes with a broad set of advanced and ready-to-use materials, one of these being the all new fR- Fillet material.

fR-Fillet allows the user to easily add soft, rounded corners on every sharp edge of an object. This is an extremely powerful rendering effect that can add the last bit of realism to any rendering.

fR-Fillet CUT

With an object or room that has large numbers of hard edges to round, simply applying fR-fillet in the shader allows adjusting the degree of roundness or simply indicating a beveled edge.

fR-fillet MAP

fR-fillet is THE shader for creating fillets or cuts at the edges of objects. Note that this is a shader solution and not an actual geometry addition. It therefore responds very quickly and produces surprisingly clean results.

fR-Fillet ROUND

The fillet shader is a great shader for creating soft, rounded edges on objects that usually have hard edges, since it allows setting the smoothing radius around the sharp edges of the object.

fR-Light Material

Turn any object into light on a material basis with fR-Light, now available in finalRender 3.5. It is a very flexible and versatile way to bring lighting to your scene.

True area light, with flexible area, can shape any form. This means that any geometry can be a true area light, including true area shadows from the shape of the object. fR-Light offers complete flexibility to mask light or apply a noise shader to distort the emissions by simply adjusting a material.

Above is an example of trying to render very thin/small geometry with a self-illuminated material. Using this method takes twice as long to render than with fR-LightShader and produces a rather undesirable result.

The fR-Light shader in the example above enables finalRender to use very small geometry to effectively light the scene. This render takes half as long as the the first example and produces a very smooth, well-lit result.

fR-Light material introduces the option to use a material as a true area light source. This is especially useful with thin objects, because it helps to increase the speed of GI calculation. The usual approach of using a self-illuminated material, and letting the GI do the rest, will usually fail within objects.

fR-Glass Material

The fR-Glass material uses similar controls and settings as the standard 3ds Max materials.

Keep in mind, that this material is intended to simulate standard glass behavior. However, individual creativity may be used to tweak it for whatever other material effect one may devise.

fR-Glass has a simple structure with an optimized number of settings in order to reduce set-up time.

In order to produce clear glass objects, one simply selects fR-Glass and assigns it to any glass objects in the scene without modification.

fR-Layer

fR-Layer is a new material for finalRender aficionados and launches multi-layered shading ability for 3ds Max.

fR-Layer is not just a simple blender composite material. With fR-Layer, 10 different blending modes are available that adjust mix amounts perfectly.

fR-Layer does not simply blend a couple of maps but entire shaders as well as final shaders. This means that one can, for example, blend fR-Carpaint with fR-fastSkin while having displacement on some maps and bump on others. The combinations are truly endless.

In addition, one can not only adjust how much each materia Imixes down to the next one, but also use a mask between materials that allows for even greater contro I.

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fR-LayerMap

With fR-LayerMap a new material layering texture map has been added to the standard material toolset of finalRender 3.5.

fR-LayerMap gives much more user control and flexibility compared to the material layer map by unleashing multi- layered shading ability for 3ds Max on a texture map level.

With fR-Layer Map, 18 different blending modes are available that perfectly adjust mix amounts.

This is not simply blending a couple of texture maps. fR-LayerMap blends entire stacked texture maps as well. The combinations that blend the different textures are truly endless.

In addition, one can not only adjust how much each texture map mixes down to the next one, but also use a mask between texture maps that allows for even greater control.

fR-LayerMap is great for special effects materials as well as multi-layered, physically correct shader buildings.

Some hyper-realistic skin or car shaders for example, may want to have 3 to 10 layers building on each other. These layers all have masks and blending modes to achieve the desired accuracy.

fR-Matte/Shadow Material

finalRender 3.5 offers a specialized material for complex compositing tasks. As the name implies, fR-Matte/Shadow is intended for matte shadow compositing tasks within 3ds Max.

The great thing about this new material type is the enhanced control over GI effects (shadows or illumination) when adding matte/shadow effects to a scene.

The finalRender fR-Matte/Shadow material offers more control than the standard Matte/Shadow material in 3ds Max. A sub-material can be used to control the "invisible" GI part of the matte shadow material.

Usually the Matte/Shadow part of the object is invisible towards the background. However, in GI situations, sometimes it is necessary to get a color spill from the background image. To achieve this, one may use a material and set it to any color or other properties that will be used for the GI calculation.

Final Rendering Alpha Channel of this rendering

fR-Metal Material

The fR-Metal material uses similar controls and settings as standard 3ds Max. It is intended to simulate regular metal, but can tweaked for whatever other material effect is desired.

fR-Metal has a simple structure with an optimized number of settings for faster setup of the metal effect.

Example of metallic surface properties

One can simply select fR-Metal and assign it to any metal objects in a scene, without modification, to produce clean, physically accurate metallic objects.

fR-MultiSubMap Texture Map

finalRender 3.5 offers one of the most complete sets of materials and textures.

fR-MultiSubMap is an efficient texture map that enables the creation of texture variations on thousands or even

millions of objects in a scene.

The illustration above was created with only one material. Still, every teapot shows a different texture map and material quality.

Change of texture per object can easily be controlled by predefined settings. They can be set with either RANDOM, Object ID, Node ID, Smoothing Group, Material ID, or Face ID.

The fR-MultiSubMap material controls the look of many objects at the same time.

fR-Override

fR-Override enables full control over raytracing ray levels in finalRender 3.5. This material lets the user configure which other materials should be "seen" by secondary ray effects in addition to the main material.

fR-Override makes it possible to use different materials for reflections, refractions, caustics, shadow casting, receiving shadows, and GI with one object. It now requires the application of a single material only.

fR-Photographic Tone Mapper

The fR-Photographic Tone Mapper effect is an all-purpose image tone mapping tool used to strip down HDRI values in an image to standard RGB values suitable for display on monitors, TV screens, or in print media.

This render effect works by analyzing the complete rendered image and using every single pixel to decide how the color, brightness, and illumination should be matched to a smaller (non HDRI) RGB number space.

Because it uses all available pixels in the final, rendered image as a calculation base, it is the perfect tool for the finishing touches of a still image presentation.

fR Photographic Tone Mapper appliedNo fR Photographic Tone Mapper applied

fR-PhysicalSky Texture Map

finalRender 3.5 offers a PhysicalSky light simulation that accurately models the colors and illumination of the real world sky environment.

The light intensities created by the physical sky model are calculated in a true High Dynamic Range format, giving access to the full power of daylight or sunlight, as we know it from the real world.

3ds Max view port with realtime display of fR-PhysicalSky texture map

The fR-PhysicalSky texture map offers full access to the sky colors created by the skylight model, as well as the sun disc itself.

fR-Raytrace Texture Map

The fR-Raytrace map is designed for use in concert with standard 3ds Max materials where only basic reflection and/or refraction capabilities are needed.

When using all of the included finalRender-specific material types might be overkill, fr-Raytrace is convenient in presenting some of the most common features rolled into a single interface.

Features like Glossy Reflections and Refractions are well supported by this material.

Glossy Reflection examplefR-Raytrace Texture Map

fR-Volumetric

A true volumetric material

Playing with marbles

Sometimes, the replication of something as simple as a kids toy can be very difficult. Some of the above marbles

can have colorful sections inside the glass volume.

fR-Volumetric can not only be used to render such objects as volumetric glass objects. It is a real volumetric ray

marching rendering effect that can be used to simulate blood or ink dripping into water, or a nebula in space.

Smoke or fire effects can also be created.

The real 3D color gradient that is part of finalRender 3.5 enables the creation of even more imaginative volumetric

material effects.

Another unique feature of fR-Volumetric is its Volumetric Light Emitting option. This defines the higher densities within the volume of the material, so that more light will be created internally. One example of this effect can be seen here.

fR-Wax

Sub-Surface Scattering in finalRender 3.5 has Never Been Easier

finalRender users have considered it a privilege to work with Wax rendering and other advanced SSS rendering effects.finalRender 3.5 incorporates all of this power into its core, along with unlimited network rendering.

fR-Wax can be used to create rich and complex surface properties characteristic of wax, marble, or even human skin.

fR-Wax offers a brand new SSS algorithm that is fast to render and easier to set up, with all the freedom to tweak settings as needed.

All relevant aspects of the wax surface property can be controlled in detail. Even a 3D map simulating natural inaccuracies inside a wax volume can be used effectively, as shown below.

fR-Wire

Technical Visualisation Effects

fR-Wire in finalShaders brings, for the first time, a true wire frame material to the raytracing system of finalRender.

What is special about this material is that it mimics behavior from the 3ds Max scanline renderer. The wire frame rendering material can be made of steel (reflections), stone, velvet, or even refractive glass wires.

A standard material with a bitmap was used on the cube in the background.The front torus knot contains a velvet material, the back one a metal with reflections.