Redshift is the world’s first fully GPU-accelerated, biased renderer.

[bisenberger]

See more at: http://www.redshift3d.com/products/redshift/

 

an example towards the bottom of the page of this thread on the luxology forum:

http://forums.luxology.com/topic.aspx?mode=Unread&f=4&t=79380#NewPost

 

Bummer! looks like it only works with 64-bit versions of Autodesk Softimage (2011 and higher) and Autodesk Maya (2011 and higher). Autodesk 3ds Max is currently in development.

Edited August 26, 2013 by bisenberger

[Carlosan]

Redshift releases version 2.0

Redshift has released a new version of their GPU-accelerated biased renderer which runs on NVIDIA GPUs. New features include initial Open VDB support, new BRDFs (GGX and Beckmann/CookTorrance), new and improved SSS models, a new and more intuitive PBR-based Redshift Material, and more.

The new version also debuts integration with 3ds Max, with Houdini and Cinema 4D support coming later this year.

Here's the full press release from Redshift....

[Rebelismo]

19 hours ago, Carlosan said:

Redshift releases version 2.0

Redshift has released a new version of their GPU-accelerated biased renderer which runs on NVIDIA GPUs. New features include initial Open VDB support, new BRDFs (GGX and Beckmann/CookTorrance), new and improved SSS models, a new and more intuitive PBR-based Redshift Material, and more.

The new version also debuts integration with 3ds Max, with Houdini and Cinema 4D support coming later this year.

Here's the full press release from Redshift....

Some very nice improvements with 2.0. Really liking the new PBR Material, and OpenVDB support. 

[AbnRanger]

22 minutes ago, Rebelismo said:

Some very nice improvements with 2.0. Really liking the new PBR Material, and OpenVDB support. 

I was just looking at the pricing and maintenance terms on their website. With the 20% sale, it comes out to $400USD, which is pretty reasonable. However, I am not a fan of that maintenance policy. It would be like 3D Coat charging $380 for a professional license + 1yr maintenance...but next year, to keep "current" (getting access to all the Beta builds) you have to pay an additional $250. Not good. Too much like AD and their forced subscription. What you are paying for is the initial license and you are effectively forced to pay a rental fee annually, to stay current.

I'm liking Octane and how integrated it is with Houdini, and I don't understand the whole concept of biased rendering on the GPU. Physically Based, Unbiased rendering is always better, in terms of quality and ease of use.  Most GPU renders are pretty darn fast anyway.

[Rebelismo]

3 hours ago, AbnRanger said:

I was just looking at the pricing and maintenance terms on their website. With the 20% sale, it comes out to $400USD, which is pretty reasonable. However, I am not a fan of that maintenance policy. It would be like 3D Coat charging $380 for a professional license + 1yr maintenance...but next year, to keep "current" (getting access to all the Beta builds) you have to pay an additional $250. Not good. Too much like AD and their forced subscription. What you are paying for is the initial license and you are effectively forced to pay a rental fee annually, to stay current.

I'm liking Octane and how integrated it is with Houdini, and I don't understand the whole concept of biased rendering on the GPU. Physically Based, Unbiased rendering is always better, in terms of quality and ease of use.  Most GPU renders are pretty darn fast anyway.

I'm perfectly fine with their maintenance policy, and I own both Redshift and Octane. RS support is the best I've ever encountered when it comes to bug fixing and feature requests, so comparing them to Autodesk doesn't make sense to me. I can use my single license of Redshift across multiple DCCs without having to pay for each individual plugin like I would with Octane. There's also the possibility of running multiple jobs on one machine with multiple gpus. 

Most engines nowadays support physically based rendering (energy conservation). Biased rendering on the gpu allows for a faster clean up. Imagine single and multi scatter subsurfaces, volumetric rendering, global illumination, depth of field, motion blur and combine this with millions/billions of polygons. All of those processes are quite intensive to render so studios/freelancers tend to look for ways to make heavy projects feasible. This is why de-noising software is getting more popular. Complexity always increases, and noisy renders are a problem. 

 

 

 

 

[AbnRanger]

12 hours ago, Rebelismo said:

I'm perfectly fine with their maintenance policy, and I own both Redshift and Octane. RS support is the best I've ever encountered when it comes to bug fixing and feature requests, so comparing them to Autodesk doesn't make sense to me. I can use my single license of Redshift across multiple DCCs without having to pay for each individual plugin like I would with Octane. There's also the possibility of running multiple jobs on one machine with multiple gpus. 

Most engines nowadays support physically based rendering (energy conservation). Biased rendering on the gpu allows for a faster clean up. Imagine single and multi scatter subsurfaces, volumetric rendering, global illumination, depth of field, motion blur and combine this with millions/billions of polygons. All of those processes are quite intensive to render so studios/freelancers tend to look for ways to make heavy projects feasible. This is why de-noising software is getting more popular. Complexity always increases, and noisy renders are a problem. 

 

 

 

 

Interesting, especially the part about the license working on different apps without being charged separately. I already have a license of Thea, for GPU rendering, but it's clear to me, now, that they have no intention of servicing the Entertainment industry by offering features important to that market. They are focused on the Pre-Viz crowd almost to exclusion. They'd rather offer features for Sketchup than 3ds Max, and their support for the Max plugin is practically nil. It's a nice stand alone if you want to render some 3D Coat models, but for anything involving volumetrics, hair and such...forget it.

I've been sort of waiting on Octane to go on sale, but I might instead jump on this Redshift deal. I just like that Octane already has an integrated Houdini plugin and it works nicely with Houdini volumetric effects....doesn't have to OpenVDB. Redshift supposedly is working on a Houdini plugin, but I'm afraid of assuming they will support volumetrics like Octane does. The last time I assumed something about a render (Thea) I got bit in the bum for it. Basically, in this regard, Octane is a big step ahead of them, and there is no yearly maintenance fee. It costs a little more ($580 for the Houdini bundle). Tough choice to make, but that $250 annual maintenance fee bothers me a little.

[Rebelismo]

59 minutes ago, AbnRanger said:

Interesting, especially the part about the license working on different apps without being charged separately. I already have a license of Thea, for GPU rendering, but it's clear to me, now, that they have no intention of servicing the Entertainment industry by offering features important to that market. They are focused on the Pre-Viz crowd almost to exclusion. They'd rather offer features for Sketchup than 3ds Max, and their support for the Max plugin is practically nil. It's a nice stand alone if you want to render some 3D Coat models, but for anything involving volumetrics, hair and such...forget it.

I've been sort of waiting on Octane to go on sale, but I might instead jump on this Redshift deal. I just like that Octane already has an integrated Houdini plugin and it works nicely with Houdini volumetric effects....doesn't have to OpenVDB. Redshift supposedly is working on a Houdini plugin, but I'm afraid of assuming they will support volumetrics like Octane does. The last time I assumed something about a render (Thea) I got bit in the bum for it. Basically, in this regard, Octane is a big step ahead of them, and there is no yearly maintenance fee. It costs a little more ($580 for the Houdini bundle). Tough choice to make, but that $250 annual maintenance fee bothers me a little.

I understand the hesitation when it comes to cost. I bought Octane Standalone + Octane for Houdini Indie right before the price jump, and then debated getting it for Maya as well. Ultimately, I'd like to put more time into Houdini in the future so I decided against it. I've been using RS and Octane with Houdini Indie for some time now, as the developer of the Octane plugin is also the developer of the Redshift plugin for Houdini. The current version is definitely a work in progress but plenty of features are already there:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Tdh7MyeebbgVuy7Xktf01G2i1pAnShmXWnfGAnHeU4E/edit

RS4Houdini does support Houdini volume primitives and you can see it in my extremely basic test, so no need for OpenVDB if you don't want to use it. Few seconds per frame on progressive mode. 

 

If you can, download the demo to see if Redshift would fit your needs because that's the best way to make a decision. What type of rendering do you do? Is it mostly product rendering, or animations?

[AbnRanger]

19 minutes ago, Rebelismo said:

I understand the hesitation when it comes to cost. I bought Octane Standalone + Octane for Houdini Indie right before the price jump, and then debated getting it for Maya as well. Ultimately, I'd like to put more time into Houdini in the future so I decided against it. I've been using RS and Octane with Houdini Indie for some time now, as the developer of the Octane plugin is also the developer of the Redshift plugin for Houdini. The current version is definitely a work in progress but plenty of features are already there:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Tdh7MyeebbgVuy7Xktf01G2i1pAnShmXWnfGAnHeU4E/edit

RS4Houdini does support Houdini volume primitives and you can see it in my extremely basic test, so no need for OpenVDB if you don't want to use it. Few seconds per frame on progressive mode. 

 

If you can, download the demo to see if Redshift would fit your needs because that's the best way to make a decision. What type of rendering do you do? Is it mostly product rendering, or animations?

Usually more animation/motion graphics, which often involve some volumetric elements. Thea does have Volumetric lighting/fog using a primitive with their "Medium" material....but render times go way up with that. I'm switching to Houdini Indie, myself, to be rid of the AD Borg, and to have top notch volumetrics when I need them. In 3ds Max, you can pay another $900 for FumFX, but there is no interactive rendering with it. I think a lot of that is because Max's ActiveShade API is pretty much garbage, according to more than one developer I have spoken with.

So, is the idea w/ Redshift 4 Houdini, to convert all volumes to OpenVDB > render?

[Rebelismo]

1 hour ago, AbnRanger said:

Usually more animation/motion graphics, which often involve some volumetric elements. Thea does have Volumetric lighting/fog using a primitive with their "Medium" material....but render times go way up with that. I'm switching to Houdini Indie, myself, to be rid of the AD Borg, and to have top notch volumetrics when I need them. In 3ds Max, you can pay another $900 for FumFX, but there is no interactive rendering with it. I think a lot of that is because Max's ActiveShade API is pretty much garbage, according to more than one developer I have spoken with.

So, is the idea w/ Redshift 4 Houdini, to convert all volumes to OpenVDB > render?

If you were to grab the Fireball off of the Pyro_FX shelf the workflow would be as follows:

1) attach RS obj parameter to pyro_import. Under Redshift OBJ, check Volume Enable and select Volume primitive. 

2)Use a RS Volume shader with properly named channels

Essentially no need to use OpenVDB unless you want to. I would definitely try to get your hands on the 2.0.47 demo to see how it handles some of your animations. As for FumeFx and all these other plugins...that's one of the reasons why I wanted to try out Houdini. FumeFx, RealFlow, Krakatoa, etc. All of these will add up to a lot in maintenance fees. 

[AbnRanger]

5 hours ago, Rebelismo said:

If you were to grab the Fireball off of the Pyro_FX shelf the workflow would be as follows:

1) attach RS obj parameter to pyro_import. Under Redshift OBJ, check Volume Enable and select Volume primitive. 

2)Use a RS Volume shader with properly named channels

Essentially no need to use OpenVDB unless you want to. I would definitely try to get your hands on the 2.0.47 demo to see how it handles some of your animations. As for FumeFx and all these other plugins...that's one of the reasons why I wanted to try out Houdini. FumeFx, RealFlow, Krakatoa, etc. All of these will add up to a lot in maintenance fees. 

That's good to know. I'll definitely check it out, now. Knowing that I can use it with 3ds Max, without having to pay extra for it, is a nice bonus