24-12-2008 10:14
Kray 2.0 RC1 releasedDear Krayers!
We are happy to announce the next Kray update! It took us a bit longer
than we expected but we are sure the wait was well worth it. We have
reached an important milestone with this release and now when we look
back, we see how big leap we have already made from version 1.6. The
improvements and new features that have been added during Open Beta
phase went far beyond our work plan for 1.7 release, therefore we have
decided that the only appropriate thing to do is to relabel the release
and shift its version to 2.0.
Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Kray
2.0 RC1.
Yes, this is the first Release Candidate version of Kray. As of
now we have frozen the feature list and will now work hard on the
remaining bugs and stability issues. This is a major update that brings
a lot of improvements and loads of bug fixes! Not to mention that Kray
now renders faster than ever! We are also happy to say that we've
had some good feedback from Newtek and so now Kray is also better
integrated into LightWave. Unfortunately we cannot reveal all of
the cool things we have under the hood until the next LightWave update
but we just want to let you know you will be able to use Kray with it
better then ever.
Highlights:
- easy instancing
- added support for nodes and new LightWave
lights
- easy linear workflow
- more cool features that we cannot announce
just yet
Improvements include:
- improved instancing: we have developed a new
plugin that allows easy placement of instances on point cloud, mesh or
custom objects more
info here
- Linear Workflow plugin: finaly you can get
easy linear workflow with this simple plugin more
info here
- major improvement to the memory usage: now you
should be able to render huge scenes easily!
- Photon power multiplier for lights and
surfaces more
info here
- "RenderWorm" and "Frost" pixel order
- GUI for override surfaces and buffers added more
info here
- some major MAC bugs fixed
- new render presets added and old presets
modified
- chromatic aberration filter added more
info here
- tone mapping changes, now tone mapper is
applied before AA. This should improve AA quality (limitdr also
changed, see Kray
wiki)
- tone mapping enabled when output is HDR. It
does not
affect final image, but affects color space where edge detection and AA
is done
- lightmap/photonmap rendering preview added
(photonmap preview works only with classic cam)
- alpha channel on transparency fixed
- new output file name variables added more
info here
- Raytrace flags and Ambient reminders added
- support for LightWave nodes
- support for LightWave dissolve added
- new LightWave lights SDK support added (you
can now use LW IES lights, etc.)
- last, but not least. Some extra really cool
features that we cannot talk about yet unfortunately... Those on
LightWave Open Beta program probably already know about it others will
hear about it soon!
Please note that for best performance you will want
to use the latest Lighwave update that should be out very soon. Then we can
reveal more details about it also.
Soon we will also launch our new, completely redesigned website.
There is some new training material being produced so it will help you get up to speed with Kray faster
Stay tuned and happy new year!
Your Kray Team
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