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HDR Light Studio - Carbon Release

Published: 15th February 2018
HDR Light Studio - Carbon Release

Tighter integrations bring leading 3D Renderers
inside HDR Light Studio

Thursday 15th February 2018 – Today, Lightmap announces the immediate availability of HDR Light Studio – Carbon Release.

What’s the Carbon Release?

This new major release of HDR Light Studio is called Carbon – the element used in the filament of the first commercially available light bulbs. Version numbers have now been replaced with nick names.

Customer licenses will run any build of HDR Light Studio up to and including the version date as shown in the License Management dialog. All subscription customers can run the latest releases. Customers with permanent licenses get 1 year of updates from the date of purchase, then need to renew their maintenance to update the version dates in their license files.

What’s New in the Carbon Release?

New Render View

New Render View
Pressing the Play button on the new Render View will start an interactive rendering session in the connected 3D software and display the image in the HDR Light Studio interface. Use LightPaint to click on the render to position lights and see the external render update instantly inside HDR Light Studio. Drag and drop Preset lights too.

The benefits:

  • Ideal for users with a single display – everything needed to create perfect lighting is now available inside HDR Light Studio’s interface. No need to juggle two interfaces.
  • For many lighting tasks, HDR Light Studio’s own renderer is no longer needed and can be closed. Freeing resources for your main 3D renderer during your lighting session.
  • Working directly on the final render enables better lighting decisions – seeing the light interact directly with the final shaders inside HDR Light Studio.

This new Render View is compatible at launch with the following 3D software and renderers:
3ds Max – V-Ray, Corona, Arnold, Redshift
Maya – V-Ray, Arnold, Octane, Redshift, RenderMan

We look forward to adding this feature to additional connections in the future.

“The best automotive and product design lighting tool just got updated and it’s impressive! Being able to see the V-Ray result inside HDR Light Studio, and work on top of it, allows the artist to produce high-quality images, faster and easier than ever! ”
Rusko Ruskov, VP 3D Production and Delivery, Chaos Group

Faster Area Lights
Area Lights performance has been significantly improved in HDR Light Studio’s own 3D renderer. Area Lights are now created, adjusted and soloed instantly – even when loading huge 3D scenes. This inbuilt renderer is the perfect pre-vis lighting tool when IPR updates are too slow in the connected 3D renderer.

3ds Max and Maya Connection Workflow Improvements
HDR Light Studio is now even easier to use with 3ds Max and Maya. The plug-in now creates the lighting setup for you – simply press Start and begin image based lighting. Bringing the 3D scene into HDR Light Studio is also a click away – press Play and the scene will be automatically imported.

Cinema 4D Connection Improvements
Redshift and VRAYforC4D 3 now fully supported
Press play in HDR Light Studio to import the Cinema 4D scene

Additional Improvements:

  • HiDPI display support
  • LightWave 2018 Connection support
  • Change the diffuse color in the Render View (HDR Light Studio)
  • Major speed boost to production renders containing Procedural Sky
  • Easier client setup with floating licenses
  • Now includes a selection of demo scenes
  • HDR Light Studio interface layout is stored on a ‘per connection’ basis. Ensuring a preferred interface layout is loaded when using HDR Light Studio with different 3D software.

Update: Carbon Drop 2 has been released – find out more

How do I get my hands on it?

Don’t forget, we’re here to help. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact sales@lightmap.co.uk