LuxRender v0.8RC2 release

[jeanphi]

Hi all,

The previous RC was already one month old and we really wanted another boost for our server load, so here is the second RC towards v0.8 of LuxRender and it is mostly fixes and improvements all around (except GPU acceleration). We hope you'll like it even more than the first one and as usual we are awaiting your feedback to make a great final.
Special thanks go to Lord Crc who fixed lots of issues in Mantis and dougal2 for his work on the LuxBlend25 plugin. I'm not forgetting all the other developpers, especially the 9 new developers we've had since the beginning of the v0.8 cycle (pciccone, Hedphelym, BinaryCortex, aldozang, neo2068, moure, povmaniaco, PerPixel, Carbonflux). Most of them are exporter writers, and we now have a fast development for DAZ Studio, 3DS Max and XSI.

As of now Linux builds are still cooking, they'll be serve as soon as they're ready.
EDIT: Linux builds are now available too!

Get the new binaries from our new downloads page.

Changes since v0.8RC1 (also check the new in 0.8 wiki page):
- various fixes/improvements to the pylux library (should help Blender 2.5 integration, now using python 3.2 to follow Blender change)
- fix architectural glass with photon mapping
- add volume scattering to GPU accelerated rendering
- proper volume integrator support warning: behaviour change, the "single" volume integrator will only do single scattering (good for aerial effects), there's a new "multi" volume integrator for multiple scattering (good for SSS)
- improved mesh subdivision, the new "bool dmnormalsplit" option allows to create edges at shading normal splits so that hard edges are preserved by the subdivision
- new "multimix" texture to create arbitrary mixtures of textures
- removal of the "highcontrast" tonemapper
- photon shooting can now be aborted by stopping the render
- film output file path can now be overriden in luxconsole with the -o/--output option
- EXR output is now always linear (no gamma correction) even when tonemapped and post processed
- bidirectional integrator fixes
- volumetrics fixes
- render queue fixes
- nextwork rendering fixes
- the alpha channel is now exported if requested when saving from the GUI
- "environment" camera is no longer horizontally flipped and points in the right direction
- various fixes and improvements all around
- LuxBlend: improved preview, fixes to portals and infinite lights exports, ubiquitous exported paths (using / always instead of \ as separator)
- LuxBlend25: too many fixes and improvements to list them all

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Source Code

People who want to download the source code can download the v08RC2 tag files of our HG source code repository here:
http://src.luxrender.net/lux/file/4523befe847e

And luxblend: http://src.luxrender.net/luxblend/file/44d39c30d73f

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Cheers,

Jeanphi

[Lord Crc]

Yay!

Big thanks all who have contributed, not just coding but also on the documentation/wiki!

[pciccone]

Congratulations on another great milestone. LuxRender is moving fast and adding a lot of great features.

[SATtva]

Congratulations! Big thanks to LordCrc for squashing a big pile of those pesky bugs. And to everyone else, you're awesome!

[tomb]

Hurrah excellent work everyone involved in the new rc!

[J the Ninja]

Wooohoooo *applause*

Great job bugfixing everyone, (the queue especially is nice now, LordCrc).

I've submitted this as news to Blender Nation, btw. All servers should brace for impact.

[dougal2]

Woohoo! Well done everyone !

[nrk]

What a bright future. You guys are awesome.

Signed,
Totally committed fan

[hiningenteki]

Thank you, lads! The list of changes is simply overwhelming!

add volume scattering to GPU accelerated rendering

That's what I was looking for! Good job!

[infinder]

When i try to download the win32 non opencl version the file name is 0.8rc1.
Is this the right one file wrong name or is it what it says?