Luxrender 0.6 RC3 released

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luxlogo“LuxRender is an open-source, free software rendering system for physically correct, unbiased image synthesis. Rendering with LuxRender means simulating the flow of light according to physical equations. This produces realistic, photographic-quality images.”

After the announcement that the Indigo renderer is planning to go commercial, LuxRender got a lot of attention. A new version has just been released.

From the announcement:

The LuxRender Team is pleased to announce the third release candidate for the upcoming v0.6 release. As before we’ve prepared a set of archives containing everything packaged. (luxrender/luxconsole/dll’s/luxblend) Not all platforms have auto-installers yet, these will appear in the 4rd release candidate.

We’d like to ask all community members to give us a hand and test and identify problems with this release, even if they are things already reported, as it’s difficult keeping track of the many bugreports we’ve had during the last months.

Please download the relevant archive for your platform.

Changes since RC2:

  • portals are now sampled by lightpaths in bidirectional integrator -> speedup for interiors (jeanphi)
  • firefly issues with bidirectional should be solved (jeanphi)
  • QMC metropolis, should converge quicker. (jeanphi)
  • 16bit png texture loading fixed (lotuspec)
  • whitepoint panel visible properly on linux/gtk (lord crc)
  • experimental qbvh accelerator (jeanphi)
  • procedural clouds boundvolume (edward)
  • lightgroup names saved to FLM io (lotuspec)
  • and many small issues tweaked / fixed

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    • Socceroos

      I for one welcome our new Luxrender overlords!

    • ccherrett

      Now if I only knew what half the new features were :)

      It always helps to show pictures and say something like, before and after

      It is the only way small brained individuals like myself will understand :)

    • http://freshsurge.com RH2

      Go Luxrender!!!! :)

    • ibkanat

      Just tried it out impressively easy, with impressive results. Way to go.

    • http://www.dgitialbitedesign.com Sandking

      Yaaay! Go Lux! My no1 renderer as for now. Especially when Powua wll support it shortly! ;]

    • http://joshua.worth.id.au/ yokljo

      watching the Simpsons last night were we Socceroos?

    • http://sites.google.com/site/unstablemind01/ bullfivehundred

      Nice!

    • MaximB

      Excellent news !

      Is there a chance for it to be included in the next Blender releases ?

    • Big Fan

      I had a first look at Lux as 0.6RC3 yesterday and it seems to be coming along very well.
      I had a network render running in no time..
      Its somewhat different from Indigo if you are used to that but feature wise its all quite useful and almost on par.
      A little more time and it will surpass it I think esp with more developers, with the bonus it will remain free.
      Now that Kerkythea is also probably headed for extinction as well pending the commercial release of Thea I am sure even more Blenderheads will give Lux a try and even contribute to it.
      Lux appears to have a good website already, reasonable documentation, organised bug reporting/fixing etc etc. Probably it just needs a few more enthusiastic users and coders to really get it humming along.
      I did think on first impression that the Blender exporter may need a few useability features yet and maybe a slight visual makeover to be easier to comprehend + helpful tooltips but, yeah, I was genuinely impressed all round by progress.
      I’m definitely looking forward to further releases from the Lux team and picking up using it.

    • Jordan

      Looks great! If a renderer like this would be fully integrated with Blender I’d be very cool! :)

    • Jordan

      I meant “it’d be very cool”. Sry for my bad english

    • Agile

      Tis is my renderer of choice!

      Is Kerkythea really going commercial?

    • Big Fan

      My understanding is that Kerkythea development as such is more or less coming to an end although occassional updates are talked about and that the core code will be carried forward into a ‘new’ commercial renderer called Thea.

    • Agile

      @Big Fan

      I see… Thanks for the info!

      Anyway, LuxRender is much more easy to use than Kerkythea.

    • redbyte

      I gave Kerkythea a try once and didn’t like it. Indigo was far easier at the time, and with that out of the open source game, I guess that leaves Luxrender.

      Can anyone comment on the rendertimes versus indigos?

      I remember about a year ago someone said it was around 6 times longer than indigo (and that’s when indigo was pretty slow). Has it improved since?

    • Artisten

      I have been using the rc2 for some time now, and that version have been working perfectly for me! I will check out this version asap.

      Thanks!

    • Hitechboy722

      i miss indigo especially how it deals with materials! Is there any plan at all for Lux ever doing something even close, prty please!!!!
      I’m currently using a script that import blender materials from the online library, I think that’s the way to go for luxblend, user friendly quick setup and go!

    • RNS

      sad, the same goes for blender when it reach pro status and be come commercial too some day.
      what a sad it is.

    • Mantar

      RNS: Surely you’re joking, right? Blender is GPL’ed. The source code cannot be taken away. In fact, to fork off a commercial version would require agreement from everyone who’d ever sent in code, or failing that, a removal or rewrite of any code written by the holdouts. And even if they could manage that, development would continue on the GPL’ed version, and there’d be nothing a commercial company could do to stop it.

    • zynif

      Now that kerkythea has come to an end imo this is my renderer of choice.

    • http://www.dustyghost.com dusty

      Hey this looks promising! Some of those renders are going the way of Fry Render!

      Very cool!! I’m going to download and experiment now!!!

    • LOGAN

      I guess I have to check it out.

      PS. I tried adding my open ID but blendernation returned a black page and nothing seemingly was posted.

    • Appolo

      Glad to see this released, i’ve been using lux for some time now, great renderer.

    • TonyB

      How do the results differ from Blender’s internal renderer ?

    • RNS

      Mantar, i believe that it will be a half and half program.were the open source will be for none profit
      education and artist purpose use only,and the commercial package will be for professional use only. there is even a new name for that future package “Blender pro”.and with upgrade it be Blender pro 1,2,3 and etc.it’s the nature of all thing,how can blender survived?people are greedy.
      that how all this open source program get founded and later venture in commercial use.
      take for what it wealth now and enjoy it.

    • EagleWing

      @TonyB: Best way to see it is to take a look at the gallery. I’m no expert, but from what I understand is that it actually simulates the physical behavior of light when it renders. I’ve tried it before and its absolutely stunning; especially for indoor scenes.
      It’s not designed for animation though as it is very slow; they might have sped it up by now, idk.

    • Icono

      You mean the hundreds of dollars I’ve spent on blender merch have been for not RNS?

    • Mantar

      RNS: You’re high, man. You can’t place restrictions on GPLed software like that. It’s freely redistributable, and anyone can sell it or give it away. There’s simply no way of stopping people from continuing to use and develop the open-sourced code themselves, with full protection by the law. About the only thing that could be done is to stop the free version from being called “Blender” or using the logo, since those are trademarked, but you can’t pull the GPLed code off the net, or revoke the license. It’s not legally possible.

      The software *is GPLed* and *will remain so* as long as copyright laws exist.

      http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLCommercially
      http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#CanDeveloperThirdParty
      http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#ModifiedJustBinary
      http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DistributeExtendedBinary

    • Master Danix

      Lux FTW !

    • Skofo

      “that how all this open source program get founded and later venture in commercial use.”

      Can you give me even one example of that ever happening?

    • Skofo

      Oops, he said commercial use, not proprietary. My bad.

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