LuxRender v0.8RC1 release

[jeanphi]

Hi all,

Here we are, back with a brand new LuxRender release. This is not yet the final product, some features still need a bit of polishing, but we feel confident that you'll enjoy this new version and we are awaiting your feedback to make a great final.
This release is the first to embed GPU acceleration through the OpenCL library. Not all graphic cards/drivers support it yet, that's why on Linux and Windows the release comes in 2 flavours: with or without OpenCL support. If you experience issues with the OpenCL enabled version, let us know and fall back to the other version until we can fix the issue. Right now, only the path integrator with sampling one light source at a time supports GPU acceleration.
Worth noting too: closing the GUI now aborts the render instead of waiting for a clean state with saved data. Don't forget to force a save with the new menu entries before closing if you have large write intervals.
Thanks to all those who have made this release possible, especially documentation writers who are still working really hard on updating information and help topics. We hope it will help exporter writers and users get the most out of LuxRender.

Get the new binaries from our new downloads page.

Changes since v0.7.1 (also check the new in 0.8 wiki page):
- New GUI options to save render on demand (most file types are supported), with or without separate light groups, statistics overlay, ...
- new glossytranslucent material, initially developed for better leaves rendering
- film response curves to emulate traditional cameras color response (some curve are for black&white films too)
- GPU acceleration for path tracing when sampling one light at a time
- render queue to process several files in batch mode from the GUI
- support for split vertices in mesh subdivision (mesh will no longer open up in the presence of UV/normal seams when subdivided)
- new light groups color handling for better accuracy when adjusting light color
- outlier rejections (this will eat slightly more memory and slow the render a bit, but the noise level will be reduced significantly)
- finally usable exphotonmap integrator
- new band texture to enable complex gradients
- new volume scattering feature atop the volumetric absorption introduced in v0.7 (only homogeneous volumes for now)
- much improved ply mesh loader (supports quads, texture coordinates, subdivision, ...) and export to ply for various exporters instead of lux native (faster export and loading)
- on the fly microdisplacement to allow very high subdivision depths without any memory impact
- lots of bug fixes and improvements

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Source Code

People who want to download the source code can download the v08RC1 tag files of our HG source code repository here:
http://src.luxrender.net/lux/file/02bbe5ae1348

And luxblend: http://src.luxrender.net/luxblend/file/67d831846d36

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Cheers,

Jeanphi

[dougal2]

Woohoo!

Well done to everyone involved in this release - my own special thanks go to the documentation team over the last few weeks for your concentrated efforts to bring everything up to date; Cheers!

[SATtva]

Congrats everybody! Another huge milestone passed.

[tomb]

Woohoo!

Well done to everyone involved in this release - my own special thanks go to the documentation team over the last few weeks for your concentrated efforts to bring everything up to date; Cheers!

Seconded! Awesome stuff, not least on the docs side!

[pciccone]

Just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of congratulations. This is a great milestone.

[Akhbour]

Awesome work guys!

Very much appreciated by a "non-code monkey" and user!

[maleficmax]

Greate news and the great features! I'm already waitin' for 0.9dev!

[sk2k]

Oh, nice surprice. Thank you all and a special thank you for dougal2 for his work on luxblend25.

MfG
sk2k

[iKlsR]

great guys. just great!

[rusted]

thanks for your hardwork!