LuxRender v1.0RC2 release

[jeanphi]

Hi all,

A few weeks after RC1, here comes RC2 with lots of fixes and a few new features too. The polish is nicely coming up so please continue to help us make a great final release by providing feedback in the forum and the bug tracker.

Note that the splash screen competition is now open in case you've missed the announcement and don't forget to vote for the entries in our 'slow day' competition.

Thanks to all those who have made this release possible.

Get the new binaries from our downloads page.

Changes since v1.0RC1:
- new bidirectional integrator light sampling options (allowing undersampling dim lights for example)
- lots of improvements to hybrid CPU/GPU bidirectional integrator (still highly experimental)
- new "none" volume integrator to speed up rendering of empty volumes
- continued improvements on statistics display
- fix for the "fresnelname" texture
- more preset exposures for the "linear" tonemapper
- fix for "environment" camera that didn't work with integrators other than bidir
- lots of network rendering improvements with file caching, better reconnection logic, ...
- lots of SPPM improvements
- huge memory reduction with SPPM and hybrid rendering
- accurate dispersion support for the "roughglass" material
- fix for IES lights
- improved numerical stability
- various fixes and improvements

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Source Code

People who want to download the source code can download the v10RC2 tag files of our HG source code repository here:
http://src.luxrender.net/lux/file/008805644181

LuxRays: http://src.luxrender.net/luxrays/file/8707be9e6dc9 some changes absolutely require this newer version

Luxblend (it is becoming deprecated): http://src.luxrender.net/luxblend/file/fcc289baf750
LuxBlend25: http://src.luxrender.net/luxblend25/file/bd6244aa973f

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Cheers,

Jeanphi

[kuvapuisto]

Thanks

Will this work on Blender 2.63a ? Release before (RC1), I succeed to install it only on Blender 2.62.

[Lord Crc]

Will this work on Blender 2.63a ? Release before (RC1), I succeed to install it only on Blender 2.62.

Yes, it should work just fine

[swordkensia]

Hey Guys,

Great work..looking forward to trying out this latest RC..

I notice you have made alot of changes to network rendering since RC1...

So when using luxconsole do you still use the '-s' toggle /switch, or is there now a better option to choose..

Cheers,

Swordkensia.

[J the Ninja]

Hey Guys,

Great work..looking forward to trying out this latest RC..

I notice you have made alot of changes to network rendering since RC1...

So when using luxconsole do you still use the '-s' toggle /switch, or is there now a better option to choose..

Cheers,

Swordkensia.

Same option as before, the new stuff is all just built into the existing slave mode.

[swordkensia]

Thank you, J the Ninja...

Hybrid GPU is MUCH MUCH better...

Just a note I don't get any kind of performance increase between different gpu's. i.e. on one machine I have a 580GTX 3GB (510 cuda cores) and on another machine I have a 550ti (192 cuda cores), but the GPU contribution to the scene / speed increase is exactly the same from both cards...I guess this is purely a utilisation/optimisation issue that will be tweeked once the GPU Hybrid code is completed.??

But apart from that, FANTASTIC work guys, I absolutely love LuxRender.

Cheers,

S.K.

[jeanphi]

Just a note I don't get any kind of performance increase between different gpu's. i.e. on one machine I have a 580GTX 3GB (510 cuda cores) and on another machine I have a 550ti (192 cuda cores), but the GPU contribution to the scene / speed increase is exactly the same from both cards...I guess this is purely a utilisation/optimisation issue that will be tweeked once the GPU Hybrid code is completed.??

Without more data, it's hard to tell. Note that the hybrid performance boost is tightly linked to the scene since the CPU has to feed the GPU with computations: the more rays the CPU can send at once, the more boost you'll get. If the bottleneck is the CPU feeding the GPU, you'll get the same boost whatever the GPU you're using (this can come from either the CPU being too limited or the data transfer being maxed out).

Jeanphi

[swordkensia]

Hi Jeanphi,

Sorry I should have been more specific with regards system specs, my apologies...must get that modified in my 'sig'.

Both systems are Intel 3930K 6 core / 12 thread processor running @4.2ghz. 16BG ram. Windows 64 premium.

On the system which is running the NVIDIA 550ti the GPU utilisation / efficiency is 53%.

and on the system running the NVIDIA 580 GTX the GPU utilisation / efficiency is 30%.

I guesss my expectation was that the 580 would give more contributions, but I do understand that this is also scene complexity dependant.

Out of interest do the AMD cards perform better.?? I need a good excuse to buy a 7970..

Cheers,

S.K.

[nghminh81]

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful works. I love Luxrender!!!

Cheers,
Minh

[jeanphi]

Out of interest do the AMD cards perform better.?? I need a good excuse to buy a 7970..

I seem to remember that AMD cards usually perform better than nVidia on LuxMark, however I don't have nVidia hardware at the moment so I can't confirm it.

Jeanphi