Thursday, December 5th, 2024Posted by Jim ThackerMaxon releases Redshift 2025.2html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Maxon has released Redshift 2025.2, the latest version of the GPU renderer.The update adds new nodes for varying materials in a scene, new non-photorealistic rendering options, and support for GPU denoising across NVIDIA, AMD and Apple Silicon hardware.For VFX and animation work, studios get a USD Command Line Rendering tool for running Redshift on a render farm without other DCC software installed.New nodes for randomly varying materials across scene objectsNew features in Redshift 2025.2 include Random Color Switch and Random Material Switch.The nodes vary the materials applied to a set of objects within a 3D scene, with Random Color Switch randomizing colors and textures, and Random Material randomizing entire materials.Both come with Color Jitter options for additional random variation.You can see examples of their output in the release thread on the Redshift forum, which showcase their potential applications for motion graphics work.Updates to non-photorealistic renderingRedshifts new non-photorealistic rendering toolset gets another update, adding a new set of Backfacing controls to the Contours shader.They make it possible to render separate contour outlines for the back-facing edges of an object, helping to create blueprint and X-ray render effects.It is also now possible to control more precisely how contours are drawn around overlapping and intersecting objects in a scene.GPU denoising supported on AMD, Apple and NVIDIA hardware via OIDN 2.3In addition, Redshift now uses OIDN (Open Image Denoise) 2.3 as the default render denoiser.The change improves denoising speed, and means that denoising is now supported on the GPU on all compatible hardware: AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, and Apple Silicon chips.Redshift RT, Redshifts interactive render engine, gets a new Global Light Sampling option, improving performance on scenes with many lights.New USD Command Line Rendering tool for running Redshift on render farmsFor studios using Redshift in USD-based production pipelines, another major change in Redshift 2025.2 is the new USD Command Line Rendering tool.It reads USD files and renders them to disk, making it possible to run Redshift headlessly on a render farm, without the need to have a DCC application like Houdini or Maya installed.There is also a new Redshift Lite installer: a smaller, faster-downloading and faster-to-copy installer, intended for use on web-connected devices.Updates to the integration pluginsCinema 4D users get an update to the Substance 3D Material, including new texture placement options and support for triplanar projection without the need to add any triplanar nodes to the shader graph.The 3ds Max, Blender, Houdini and Maya plugins get bugfixes.Price and system requirementsRedshift 2025.2 is compatible with Windows 10+, glibc 2.28+ Linux and macOS 13.3+.The renderers integration plugins are compatible with 3ds Max 2018+, Blender 3.1+, Cinema 4D R25+, Houdini 20.0+, Katana 4.5+ and Maya 2018+ (Maya 2022+ on Linux).The software is rental-only, with subscriptions costing $46/month or $264/year. Read a full list of changes in Redshift 2025.2 on the Redshift forum(Login required)Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Latest NewsMaxon releases Redshift 2025.2GPU renderer gets new non-photorealistic rendering options and a USD Command Line Rendering tool for use on render farms.Thursday, December 5th, 2024Maxon releases Cinema 4D 2025.13D animation and motion graphics software gets revamped Boolean modeling system, plus updates to simulation and USD workflows.Thursday, December 5th, 2024Maxon releases ZBrush 2025.1Digital sculpting software gets new Quick Polygroup Brush, updated Anchors Brush, tighter integration with the Redshift renderer.Thursday, December 5th, 2024Maxon releases ZBrush for iPad 2025.2iPad edition of the digital sculpting app gets GoZ support for Cinema 4D, plus ZSpheres templates for female, male and hand mannequins.Wednesday, December 4th, 2024Adobe releases After Effects 25.1Check out the changes to 3D workflows in the latest update to the compositing software for motion graphics and VFX work.Wednesday, December 4th, 2024Check out Substance 3D Modeler's new Primitives systemUpdated for version 1.17: VR modeling software gets new non-destructive workflow for blocking out complex hard surface models.Wednesday, December 4th, 2024More NewsOtoy releases OctaneRender 2026.1 in alphaOtoy releases OctaneRender 2025.1 in betaiClone 8.52 adds new AI-assisted character posing systemDownload ActionVFX's 20 free stock VFX clips of asteroidsBlack Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday 2024 deals for CG artistsNekki releases Cascadeur 2024.3Exclusive Cyber Weekend offer on The Gnomon Workshop trainingTutorial - Maya for Animators: Body Mechanics3DGS Render 2.0 now lets you edit 3D Gaussian Splats in BlenderNevercenter releases Silo 2025 and Milo 2025Boris FX releases Sapphire 2025Epic Games releases RealityCapture 1.5Older Posts