v2023 e-on Software Professional Solution

VUE

Atmospheres and Clouds

Amazingly Realistic Skies

VUE has one of the most realistic atmospheric systems on the market, from fully volumetric clouds to procedural, scene-wide wind and breeze animations, customizable haze and fog and weather effects. Spectral Atmospheres provide unprecedented control for setting the right mood in a scene.

Atmosphere Models

VUE’s hero atmospheric model, the Spectral Atmosphere, is available as a standard spectral version for a more artistic approach and as a photometric spectral version with real-world light intensities and extremely realistic light scattering. In Photometric mode, all lights in the scene operate with photometric intensities in lumen or candela and optional IES profiles. Render time-lapse animations of rising suns and changing weather conditions. Add drama with rainbows, rain and snow.

With standard and volumetric atmospheres, two fast-rendering legacy models are also available. Choose between different GI modes with varying degrees of accuracy and light bounces for the best balance between render time and realism. Every atmosphere model features scene-wide wind and breeze which animate entire EcoSystems with realistic wind algorithms.

VUE ships with a large collection of pre-made atmospheres. Extend the library by saving your own creations to the Atmosphere Content Browser and change the mood of a scene with a new atmosphere on the fly.

Volumetric Clouds

The Standard/Photometric spectral atmosphere engine is capable of rendering highly realistic volumetric clouds with accurate lighting and volumetric shadows. Spectral cloud layers are three-dimensional, allowing you to create anything from thin ground fog to massive Cumulonimbus.

You can place as many layers as you need, at any height, and even combine spectral and standard, non-volumetric cloud layers (to add high altitude Cirrus, for instance). Spectral layers are created using any type of noise function, and provide a wide range of control over density, cover, sharpness, illumination, and even vertical profile.

You can easily control the overall shape of the clouds, from feathery to clumpy and create skies with as many overlapping spectral cloud layers as you like for complex and unbelievably realistic cloudscapes! They look equally good from below or from above, and thus are perfectly suited for fly-through sequences, as well as ground fog or “mountains peeking through clouds” effects. With the right settings, you can produce natural phenomena like God-rays.

In addition to infinite cloud layers, Metaclouds, which are standalone cloud objects, can be used for easy cloudscaping. Convert meshes into Metaclouds and create any shape imaginable. Metaclouds can be seamlessly animated to morph from one cloud shape into another.

Atmosphere Export

Skies can be rendered out as 32-bit HDRIs in different layouts such as spherical, hemispherical or cubic. This makes VUE the perfect tool for skybox creation and for building up your own library of HDRIs. Bring VUE atmospheres into other applications and render them with any render engine of your choice.

Clouds can be rendered into the HDRI or alternatively exported as static or animated OpenVDB file sequences. These OpenVDB files carry multiple grids, from cloud color over ambient lighting, density and transparency.

OpenVDB Import

OpenVDB volumes can be imported as Metacloud volumes. For shading the volume, the raw information from the OpenVDB file may be used or a mix of VUE’s cloud noises, custom density functions with nodes and the values from the OpenVDB object.

VUE’s Function Graph offers an OpenVDB node which can read the grid information from the file and make it accessible for use within a node shading network.

Terrains & Planets

The Groundwork For Any Environment

From large scale to small scale scenes, terrains serve as the base for scene creation. VUE offers nodes, sculpting and painting tools to create any terrain shape, be it surreal or realistic. Import real-world satellite data and external heightfields and enrich them with procedural tools. Even entire planets are possible. Whether you need canyons, mountain ranges or rolling hills, the terrain features will cater to your needs.

Heightfield & Procedural Terrains

Terrains are available in two versions: heightfield, which uses a fixed resolution, and procedural, which adds infinite fractal detail the closer the camera is. Both terrain types can be driven by a node graph, imported greyscale heightmaps, and 2D or 3D hand-sculpted shapes. Mix and match each of these approaches as needed.

Special terrain fractals, strata, erosion, terracing and blur nodes recreate realistic geological features with fully non-destructive controls. Procedural terrains can be extended in any direction, essentially adding more terrain to the already existing area. Create and extract zones of a procedural terrain as separate terrains into the scene and work only on the extracted localized detail. Terrains can also be displaced through materials to create overhangs, rock outcrops and other 3D detail.

Infinite And Planetary Terrains

Procedural terrains can operate as infinite terrains. In this mode, the terrain shapes are indeed truely infinite and will extend towards the horizon as far as the camera field of view allows.

When setting an infinite terrain to a spherical projection mode, it becomes an entire planet with customizable radius which you can view from outer space with clouds and realistic atmosphere. Just move the camera high above the ground and render. Thanks to infinite fractal detail, you can also zoom from outer space back to the smallest pebble on the ground.

Real-world Terrains

Import real-world satellite data as terrains directly from within VUE. Choose from a variety of different DEM data providers such as USGS or Sentinel and import heightfield and satellite texture images as pre-textured terrain objects into the scene.

An interactive world-map based on geo coordinates makes finding the right spot easy. Just research the coordinates of your favorite landmark or terrain formation, enter them and press import. VUE will fetch all heightfield and texturing tiles and create a matching terrain object.

This generated terrain retains its real-world scaling and can be combined with any node network for adding infinite fractal detail. Real-world terrains work both as heightfield and procedural terrains.

Terrain Export

Export terrain heightfields into a variety of image file formats, including 16 bits and 32 bits. Terrains can alternatively be baked to polygon meshes, with or without material displacement applied to the baking process, and auto-UV-unwrapped for use in sculpting applications.

With the VUE integration plugins, terrains can be converted to native scene objects with pre-built materials for several target render engines.

EcoSystems & Vegetation

Grow Your Own World

EcoSystems are VUE’s instancing technology. Together with procedural plants, they form the heart and soul of environments. Scatter millions of plants across object surfaces, paint them into a scene and create as many plant variations as needed. With environmental constraints, layering systems and affinity and repulsion, setting up complex forests, meadows and jungles is quick and easy.

Procedural Vegetation

VUE integrates PlantFactory’s plant technology natively. Load any procedural *.tpf plant into VUE and select presets, adjust maturity, health or seasons and edit published parameters. VUE can generate new variations, adjust plant resolution and use the built-in LODs for distant vegetation. For even more control, a temporary copy of a model can be sent through a bridge to PlantFactory. There, you can change the model’s internal node network and sync them back to VUE without the need to save a new species. Depending on how a model was designed, PlantFactory plants also can grow on polygon objects in the VUE scene. Of course, PlantCatalog species are supported by VUE, too.

Next to the PlantFactory file format, VUE ships with a collection of lightweight legacy procedural plants called SolidGrowth. These models are less detailed and lighter on memory than PlantFactory models and thus well suited for dense and distant populations. SolidGrowth plants generate random variations, too, and can be edited with a set of simple, pre-defined parameters.

Populating EcoSystems

EcoSystems can be added as a material layer onto any object. Setup growth rules such as altitude, slope and orientation constraints or affinity and repulsion with other EcoSystem layers. Stack rocks to quickly create geological formations or use PlantFactory, PlantCatalog or SolidGrowth plants for unique variations. Any type of mesh, static or animated, native or imported, can be used in an EcoSystem. Densities, color and scale variations and much more can be optionally controlled node setups or noises.

An optional dynamic population mode populates objects only at render time, which is ideal for creating large-scale, sweeping landscapes without overloading system memory. EcoSystem instances can also be used as particles in animations with simple forces and effects such as drag, collision, elasticity or adhesion as well as emission of other Ecoparticles upon collision or death.

Painting EcoSystems

EcoSystems can also be painted onto any object. You can paint both new EcoSystems or make edits to existing auto-populated or painted EcoSystems. Painted EcoSystems can be tied to an object and will move, scale and rotate with that object, or they can be a global EcoSystem without any dependency on the underlying surface.

Build your own brushes by layering effectors, from painting to scaling, rake, ripple, grid align or tornado. Setup environmental constraints, use bitmap masks for painting and customize falloffs.

Painted instances can be selected, transformed and optionally converted to real objects. When using the integration plugins in the VUE Professional and Enterprise solutions, you can even paint and populate instances on host application objects or add host application objects as items to an EcoSystem population.*

*Note: This feature is not available in the Lightwave plugins.

Global Wind And Breeze

Both standalone procedural plant objects and PlantFactory and SolidGrowth plant instances in an EcoSystem react to scene-wide wind and breeze settings. Customize gusting, fluttering and wind intensities in the atmosphere editor and keyframe constant wind directions and intensities on single plant objects.

Wind animation can be computed procedurally per frame or pre-baked and cached per item in an EcoSystem for PlantFactory plants. The framerate and duration are customizable and the animation can loop seamlessly. Using the export functionalities or the integration plugins in VUE Professional / Enterprise, entire EcoSystems can be exported or converted with or without animation into native host application objects or generic 3D file formats such as FBX, Alembic and Pixar USD.

Natural Elements

Enrich Your Environments

VUE includes additional tools for adding additional natural details to a scene such as rocks and pebbles, open bodies of water, displaceable metablobs and primitives or spline tools for river carving, roads or abstract effects.

Open Water Bodies

Based on a special type of infinite terrain driven by nodes, the Water Surface Editor lets you control the look of infinite open water surfaces for oceans and lakes.

The editor provides an easy-to-use interface that controls a function graph in the background. Switch from still water to stormy weather, complete with foam at the tip of the waves. The editor offers either a global slider or a set of parameters to control the water surface more accurately.

You can further customize the look of your water using the Water Surface Editor-compatible MetaWater materials. Water looks equally good from above and below. Create beautiful underwater scenes with volumetric light breaking through the water surface.

Splines and Roads

Use splines to distribute EcoSystems, carve riverbeds into terrains or extrude geometry along the spline. The spline editor includes options for EcoSystem distribution & masking, elevating or digging into a terrain and for creating, roads, ribbons or railway tracks. Import vector data in SVG format or hand-draw splines in the viewports.

When using the Integration plugins in VUE Professional & Enterprise, native host application spline tools can be combined with VUE’s spline features.

Procedural Rocks, Boulders and Pebbles

Choose from a library of dynamic rock templates that can be used to instantly create single rocks and groups of rocks. Each time you create a rock from a template, a new and unique variation will be generated.

You can use the rock technology to populate your EcoSystems or interactively scatter rocks into your scenes. Simply add new rock templates to your EcoSystem or EcoPainter tools by drag-dropping the rock templates to your EcoSystem population list.

For added realism, each rock type used in an EcoSystem automatically generates variations.

Next to procedural rocks, you can also combine primitive geometry to metablobs and displace them with procedural materials for archways, cliffs and other rock formations.

Materials

Natural Texturing

VUE offers flexible texturing and unwrapping features. Choose from volumetric, PBR and standard materials, Substances or VUE’s own procedural material system. Specially designed material mapping modes mix UV-projection for bitmaps with procedural coordinate systems for fractals and noises. Create materials with unlimited detail with the help of over 400 different material nodes.

Substance Integration

Use Substance materials in *.sbsar format in VUE. Substance support is included automatically and does not require additional plugin installation. Take advantage of Substance’s fast GPU engine for rapid material computation or switch to the CPU engine for network jobs and backward compatibility.

Each Substance file is loaded as a node into the material shading graph so that it can be optionally combined with or driven by other material nodes.

Procedural Materials

Design materials from scratch with VUE’s powerful node-based material system. An artist-friendly frontend facilitates editing simple bitmap-based materials without the need to even dive into the shader graph. Select between volumetric, standard and PBR materials and craft materials with noises, fractals or pre-made bitmap textures.

Hypertextures, which create shapes defined by a volume function which are then textured by another surface material, bridge the gap between volume and solid materials and are ideal for otherworldly effects as well as rock generation.
Materials can be layered like Photoshop Layers and layered materials can even be mixed together into a new material. The layering and mixing criteria can depend on scene-wide environmental characteristics such as altitude, slope, water level and orientation. Create smart materials that adapt to shape and condition changes in the object or scene.

With two-sided materials, realistic leaves that look distinctively different on their front and back sides are easy to create.

Procedural materials can be baked to texture maps with varying resolution during export. Existing texture maps are dumped to disk. VUE supports UV unwrapping and Ptex generation.
Using the integration plugins as an alternative to export, native materials for different render engines can be setup automatically.

Rendering

Flexible Rendering Options

When rendering a scene, different approaches are available. When running VUE as a standalone software, use any of the three internal render engines included with VUE. When running VUE as a plugin in other applications, scenes can be rendered in Hybrid Rendering mode or entirely with other render engines.

Internal Rendering

VUE ships with a CPU-based biased Ray Tracer and an OpenCL-based unbiased Path Tracer which utilizes both CPU & GPU. VUE also supports local network rendering through its own Render Cow system.

Render stereoscopic 3D and 360° panoramic images Web, AR and VR. VUE operates in full linear space so that renders can be saved as 32 bit EXRs or HDRs.

Additionally, a NPR (Non-Photorealistic Rendering) engine turns both raytraced and pathtraced images into hand-drawn artworks of watercolor, oil paintings or constructional pencil drawings. The NPR engine uses scene information such as depth passes and normals for applying different stroke types to the image.

VUE supports Multipass (AOV) and G-Buffer generation for all included render engines. Multipasses can be rendered to a pre-composited PSD file.

External Rendering

With the included integration plugins, VUE scenes can be opened and rendered in other applications. Convert a VUE scene into a native host application scene with all objects and lights, including clouds and skies, and render it with any render engine. Alternatively, use Hybrid Rendering to render the scene with VUE’s render engine in your favorite DCC application.

Integration & Export

Seamless Pipeline Integration

VUE includes a wide variety of export options as well as free integration plugins. Choose whichever method works best for your pipeline and let the application assist you with presets, automatic shader creation or even with VUE’s complete environment creation toolset, directly accessible from within your favorite DCC application.
Compatible with:

• 3DS Max
• Arnold
• Blender
• Cinema 4D
• Clarisse
• Lightwave
• Maya
• Nvidia Omniverse
• Plantfactory
• Redshift
• RenderMan
• Substance
• Unity
• Unreal Engine
• V-Ray
• ZBrush

…and many more!

Export

A large range of export formats for both 2D and 3D makes it easy to integrate VUE scenes seamlessly into any production pipeline. Texture maps are saved to disk and written as basic materials into the mesh file. Any type of VUE static or animated geometry can be exported to the following 3D formats:

• *.3DS
• *.ABC
• *.C4D
• *.DAE
• *.FBX
• *.GOZ
• *.LWO
• *.OBJ
• *.TPF
• *.USDA/C/Z

Export entire Ecosystems to FBX, Alembic or Pixar USD. Skies and clouds can be exported to 32bit-HDRIs and animated OpenVDB files with multiple grids.

Using the GoZ-bridge, VUE geometry can be edited in Pixologic™ ZBrush® 2021 and the changes will be synched back to VUE.

The following 2D export formats are available:

• *.BMP
• *.EXR
• *.GIF
• *.HDR
• *.IFF
• *.JPG
• *.PCX
• *.PNG
• *.PSD
• *.TGA
• *.TIF

Alternatively to export, VUE includes integration plugins for 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, Maya and Lightwave. These plugins open up new ways to integrate scenes with your target application and might be even preferrable to generic export formats.

Integration Plugins

The VUE integration plugins for 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Maya and Lightwave introduce three distinct workflows that can serve as an alternative to export.

1. Create environments natively in your host application

VUE runs as a sandboxed software-within-a-software in the host application. You can access all VUE toolbars and functionalities and do not need to use VUE as a standalone software to design environments. Build everything from scratch inside your target application or open already saved VUE scenes and continue editing them. Then render the scene with one of the following two options.

2. Convert scenes into native objects and render them with any render engine

With the Convert Tool, procedural VUE elements can be converted to native host application objects. This includes support for native instances or proxy objects such as Arnold Procedurals / Stand-ins or C4D multi instances. During conversion, the plugins will automatically create materials for a variety of different render engine. This includes each application’s native render engine as well as Arnold, Redshift, Renderman and V-Ray®.

After conversion, the VUE render engine is no longer needed for rendering and the VUE scene can even be closed altogether. The converted elements can now be rendered immediately with the render engine of your choice.

Using each host application’s native render engine native shader conversion option, you can also render VUE scenes with any render engine that is not covered by the convert tool, for example Octane, Corona or others. Just use the native materials as a starting point and convert them on your own for the dedicated target render engine.*

*Note: The Convert tool is not available in the Lightwave plugin.

3. Render scenes in Hybrid Rendering Mode

Native procedural VUE elements can be rendered together with native host application meshes and assets in one pass with the Hybrid Rendering mode. In this mode, both the VUE render engine and the native render engine communicate with each other and match GI, lighting, reflections and anti-aliasing settings.

Native VUE objects and lights will cast shadows and reflections onto native host applications and contribute to their GI and vice versa. This mode is great for lookdev and eliminates the need to compose render passes from two different engines in post.

Please note that due to limitations in the Lightwave SDK, not all of the features from the 3ds Max, Maya and Cinema 4D plugins are supported in the Lightwave plugin.

For the currently supported renderer and host application versions, please see our FAQ.

NVIDIA Omniverse Live Sync And Extension

VUE includes a live synchronization with the USD stage in Omniverse. Edit your scene in VUE and trigger a synchronization to the Nucleus core with a single click.

Find out more about the integration with Omniverse on our dedicated Omniverse page.

PlantFactory

Drawing & Editing

Design Like An Artist

Combine the power of procedural modelling with artistic control. With drawing, pruning and editing tools, you can art-direct your model up to each individual leaf, petal or twig. Each change you make with gizmo tools in the 3D view is reflected in a corresponding node parameter. You can even override settings for a specific copy, while keeping all other copies unaffected.

Drawing, Pruning And Editing

With the drawing tool, entire plants or just parts of them can be hand-drawn in the 3D view. Everything can serve as a brush: primitive geometry, existing plant parts from the node graph or pre-saved components from the component browser.

While drawing, PlantFactory creates an axis spline that follows the movement of the cursor. Switch to pruning and editing tools to remove, cut and prune or edit the axis spline shape of any geometry part. When generating new plant variations, the hand-drawn edits are preserved.

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Component Workflow

While hand-drawing is great for hero parts of a model and for fine-tuning, it becomes impractical when adding hundreds of branches, twigs and leaves. That’s why you can also use pre-made components for assembling a complete model. A component is a template for a plant part and it can be anything, from a single branch or trunk to a flower head, a group of leaves or even an entire branching structure.

Simply load a component from the content browser and add it with a single click. PlantFactory will distribute multiple copies of the component along the model, according to the growth rules setup within the component.

You can also create your own components by grouping and saving nodes. PlantFactory’s leaf cluster feature can automatically render textures of real 3D geometry and save them as leaf components for real-time models. Build your personal, ever-growing library of templates and pre-made plant parts.

Node-Based Modeling

Take Full Control with Nodes

Modeling from scratch with nodes provides maximum control and flexibility. A node is a building block for assembling the full model. Each plant part is represented through a single node in a bigger node network. Edit a node parameter and the model updates immediately.

Create highly detailed plants with just a hand-full of nodes or go beyond the capabilities of pre-built parameters and design elaborate node setups with advanced growth rules.

Geometry Nodes

Geometry nodes generate primitives such as spheres, planes or cylinders. Use multiple parameters to deform each primitive into a plant part, e.g. a cylinder into a trunk or branch. Choose between nodes specifically designed for trees / bushes, grasses and flowers.

A single geometry node generates many more copies that will be scattered on the previous parent geometry, e.g. a single branch node will create hundreds of branches.

Fine-tune each geometry parameter with curve editing. A curve changes the intensity of a setting either along the length of the geometry or according to the position on its parent. For example, branches can get shorter the higher up they grow on a trunk.

Botanically accurate parameters for sap or phyllotaxis growth angles help with achieving realistic, believable models.

Leaf Creation

PlantFactory offers several methods for creating leaves.

For lightweight leaves, the leaf node provides an easy way to shape any leaf with textures and alpha maps. Optionally, set the node to one of various crossed-plane modes which simulate leaf clusters with low-polygon geometry for real-time pipelines. Choose between different normal computations for enhancing the depth perception of leaf clusters.

The cutout leaf node provides a powerful UV editor for cutting out custom meshes from a single texture or an atlas map. Control the topology through placing vertices on the inside and set custom polygon sizes and catmull clark subdivison levels for maximum flexibility.

Blades generate leaves with real 3D geometry and depth. They are especially useful for close-ups and hero vegetation. Blades are the best method for modeling fronds for palm trees or ferns, for example.

Custom Geometry Import

Custom meshes can be imported when the need for more complex geometry arises, for example fruits or highly detailed petals and leaves.

Imported geometry can be procedurally distributed along the plant or used as a replacement skin for a specific plant part.

Imported geometry is also useful for adding sculpted details to meshes. A live link through the GoZ bridge enables interactive sculpting of geometry in Pixologic™ ZBrush® 2021, all while retaining the node’s procedural nature in PlantFactory.

Loop Nodes

Alternatively, using one node per plant part, a single geometry node can be looped (repeated) a set number of times. This creates organic, self-repeating branching structures with minimum effort and is more powerful than any traditional L-system.

Additional geometry such as leaves, fruits etc. can be grown on all loop iterations, on just a specific one, on all but the last or on the last one only. And if you need even more flexibility, you can nest loops inside other loops for truely recursive fractal patterns.

Loop nodes are the perfect companion for creating believable growth structures with ease.
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Autogrowth

Based on the loop node system and biological growth algorithms, PlantFactory includes an Autogrowth node which generates a whole tree or bush with just a single node.

Branches and leaves decay naturally depending on the amount of light they receive and the model can grow seamlessly from a seedling into the full tree, thanks to built-in maturity.

Creating natural looking vegetation was never easier or quicker.

Advanced Dependencies

Need even more control? There is no limit to how simple or complex a plant can be. Select from any of the 400+ available nodes, which range from dozens of noises and fractals for adding displacement and shading details to filters, to math nodes and color operations.

Any parameter can be extracted as a separate node into the graph or driven by other nodes. Create your own rules and algorithms for shaping each detail exactly how you want it.

Import polygon meshes as nodes and let plants grow over them to create species such as ivy. Nodes can be included or excluded from growth influences and branches will realistically gnarl when they crawl across an object’s surface or across the floor.

You can also use nodes to design completely procedural materials directly within PlantFactory.

Infinite Customization

Full Vegetation Engines

PlantFactory models are not just static. They contain a whole vegetation engine. Instead of designing multiple models, different plant stages can be built into a single file, reusing existing nodes and materials.

Model a plant once and then create infinite, customizable plant stages and variations. With PlantFactory, no two models will ever look the same.

Random Variations

Each node parameter can be randomized. By entering a plus / minus variation to the base value, PlantFactory will pick a random value from the total range. The randomness behavior and the probabilities for each value can be controlled through a variety of criteria.

Favorite random variations can be saved into a list and reloaded at any point.

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Maturity / Growth, Health and Seasonality

Link any node parameter to maturity / growth, health and season. Make plants grow, decay and change leaves. Thanks to customizable probabilities and dependencies, there is no limit to how much detail you can add to each plant stage.

Exporting the procedural plant model in VUE, these properties can even be keyframed and animated.*

*Animation within PlantFactory is currently in development

Published Parameters and Presets

Any node parameter can be published to a top-level interface. Build custom vegetation engines for each model with easy to use sliders and checkboxes.

Generate presets which store the state of each published parameter and switch between the stored plant stages and shapes.

Granular Control

Sometimes, a random parameter can produce unwanted variations. Probability editors provide the ultimate control over how PlantFactory picks random values and generates new variations. Exclude unwanted values from randomness ranges, switch between absolute and relative randomness and make randomness of one parameter depend on the randomness range of another parameter.

With so much granularity, no detail slips through the cracks.

Texturing & UV-Wrapping

Texturing Made Easy

PlantFactory offers flexible texturing and unwrapping features. Choose from PBR and standard materials, Substances or PlantFactory’s own procedural material system. UV-unwrapping is done automatically with a choice of different algorithms. Spend more time creating plants and less time worrying about seam placement.

Substance Integration

Use Substance materials in *.sbsar format in PlantFactory. Substance support is included automatically and does not require additional plugin installation. Take advantage of Substance’s fast GPU engine for rapid material computation or switch to the CPU engine for network jobs and backward compatibility.

Each Substance file is loaded as a node into the material shading graph so that it can be optionally combined with or driven by other material nodes.

Procedural Materials

Design materials from scratch with PlantFactory’s powerful node-based material system. An artist-friendly frontend facilitates editing simple bitmap-based materials without the need to even dive into the shader graph. Select between standard and PBR materials and craft materials with noises, fractals or pre-made bitmap textures.
Materials can depend on plant characteristics such as plant shape properties, maturity / growth, health and season. Create smart materials that adapt to shape and condition changes in the model.

With two-sided materials, realistic leaves that look distinctively different on their front and back sides are easy to create.

UV-Unwrapping

PlantFactory handles UV-unwrapping automatically in the background. Simply adjust the tiling and mode in each node and let the software do the hard work. By default, PlantFactory creates stacked UVs for best texture efficiency and high texel density. When exporting to 3D painting applications, the entire model or just selected parts of it can also be fully unwrapped. With additional support for UDIMs and Ptex, your models will fit into any production pipeline.

Material export

Procedural materials can be baked to texture maps with varying resolution during export. Existing texture maps are dumped to disk. Optionally, bake additional Ambient Occlusion information from the 3D model. Using the integration plugins as an alternative to export, native materials for different render engines can be setup automatically.

Topology & LODs

Ready for Real-Time

Saving polygons and resources is essential when modelling for games and real-time pipelines. PlantFactory’s smart meshing algorithms take care of topology and edge flow, including subdivision surface transitions between plant parts, while increasing polygon density only where necessary. Add or remove subdivisions on the fly and switch to manual meshing parameters for maximum control. Create as many LODs (Levels of detail) as you want and let PlantFactory automatically decimate the model with each new LOD.

Quads and Triangles

Switch between quads, triangles or a mix of both. PlantFactory recomputes the geometry on the fly with minimal to no changes to the overall shape. Create clean transitions between trunk and branches with the help of Subdivision Surface blending or save polygons with a normal-based blending in transition areas.

Automatic and Manual Meshing

PlantFactory includes several meshing algorithms for creating clean, uniform polygon distribution as well as adaptive algorithms. These save polygons in areas where they are not needed at the cost of introducing N-gons.

When you need full control over your mesh, switch to manual meshing. New controls in each node allow setting the number of polygons for each plant part individually with customizable falloffs and distributions through curves.

Geometry Targets

Special nodes allow creating both highly detailed VFX models for offline rendering and efficient real-time models in the same scene. Reuse node setups and materials throughout both geometry target modes and replace only what’s necessary. You can then switch back and forth between both model versions with the click of a button.

An additional stylized meshing mode automatically generates low-poly, cartoony geometry out of the overall plant shape. This is particularly useful when lightweight placeholder meshes are needed, for example in pre-visualization.

LODs (Levels Of Detail)

Each new scene automatically creates by default five LODs with less subdivisions out of the full resolution model. The amount of simplification is user-definable. Add more LODs or remove unneeded ones and replace or disable entire node structures with lower LODs. Using PlantFactory’s leaf cluster feature, 3D geometry can be baked into textured crossed plane leaves, which are ideal for real-time pipelines.

LODs are exported alongside the hero mesh with optionally lower resolution textures. In VUE, they are used automatically in distant EcoSystems and procedural PlantFactory plants.

Animations

Animating Is a Breeze

Add life to your models and make them react to wind and breeze. Combine random gusting, gentle fluttering and strong directional wind forces to create anything from a calm day to a dramatic hurricane. Each animation can be set to loop seamlessly. Animation data can be included as a rotational rig or a baked point cache for Alembic, FBX and Pixar USD file formats.

Fully Customizable Look

PlantFactory’s wind algorithms consist of three different effects:

Random gusts
Apply “Wind and gust motion” to stalks and stems, trunks, branches and twigs. Randomly appearing gusts will bend the plant into a specific direction. Optionally, a constantly blowing wind with a set strength and direction can be applied on top of the random gusting motion for simulating strong hurricanes.

Gentle breeze
Mostly suitable for leaves, “Ambient motion breeze” will add a gentle, calm swaying movement and sudden rustling and fluttering of small geometry.

Frond animation
Blades, which are PlantFactory’s leaves with 3D geometry, can be animated with a flapping motion, an effect especially useful for light-weight palm tree leaves and fronds in real-time projects.

Additionally, global criteria such as stronger movement on thinner and longer branches or in higher or outer parts of the plant add an extra layer of realism. Combine all wind effects to art-direct the final animation.

Keyframing in VUE

VUE can open PlantFactory models in their native procedural *.tpf file format and read published and global parameters. Keyframe any plant parameter and atmospheric wind change and render seamless growth, decay and seasonal animations.*

PlantFactory plants can also be used in EcoSystems to create entire wind-swept forests and meadows.

*Keyframing animations directly in PlantFactory is in development.

Seamless Pipeline Integration

PlantFactory includes a wide variety of export options. Adjustable export presets for many DCC apps are included. This integrates your models seamlessly into any production pipeline. Using the GoZ-bridge, PlantFactory geometry can be edited in Pixologic™ ZBrush® 2021 and the changes will be synched back to PlantFactory.

Hero meshes and LODs can be exported to the following 3D formats:

• *.3DS
• *.ABC
• *.C4D
• *.DAE
• *.FBX
• *.GOZ
• *.LWO
• *.OBJ
• *.TPF
• *.USDA/C/Z

Animation data can be included as a rotational rig or a point cache for FBX, Alembic and Pixar USD. Procedural materials are baked to bitmaps during export. The baking algorithm can also compute object-based Ambient Occlusion.

Texture maps are saved to disk and written as basic materials into the mesh file.

The following 2D formats are available:

• *.BMP
• *.EXR
• *.GIF
• *.HDR
• *.IFF
• *.JPG
• *.PCX
• *.PNG
• *.PSD
• *.TGA
• *.TIF

You can also export the native procedural *.tpf file format to VUE and use the plants in there. Plants can be edited with presets and published parameters in VUE and they will produce infinite variations with support for LODs when used in EcoSystems. Additionally, they will react to global wind and breeze.

Compatible with

• 3DS Max
• Arnold
• Blender
• Cinema 4D
• Clarisse
• Lightwave
• Maya
• Nvidia Omniverse
• Plantfactory
• Redshift
• RenderMan
• Substance
• Unity
• Unreal Engine
• V-Ray
• ZBrush

…and many more!

Integration Plugins

With the included integration plugins for 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, Maya and Unreal Engine 4 and 5, procedural PlantFactory plants can be natively opened and edited in each application. Generate new plant variations, edit published parameters, change presets and increase or decrease plant resolution.

Once everything has been customized to your liking, bake the plant into a native host application polygon mesh. Animation can be included as a point cloud or as a rotational bone rig. This workflow eliminates the complexity of finding the best export / import settings from PlantFactory standalone when the export presets do not completely suit your project.

Native shader creation

In addition, the plugins are a real time saver when setting up materials for another render engine.

When converting a procedural plant with the plugins to a baked mesh, the plugins will automatically create native shaders for each host application’s native render engine or for Arnold, Redshift, Renderman or V-Ray®, based on which render engine was selected when the plant was loaded.

Plugins for further applications are in development. We will also extend material support to more render engines in the future.

For a list of currently supported renderer and host application builds, please see our FAQ.

Nvidia Omniverse Live Sync And Extension

PlantFactory includes a live synchronization with the USD stage in Omniverse. Edit your model in PlantFactory and trigger a synchronization to the Nucleus core with a single click.

Even better, the PlantFactory extension plugin for Omniverse can send exported USD assets back to PlantFactory, even when the live sync is no longer active. Thanks to this technology, any USD asset exported to Omniverse remains completely procedural and can be sent back to PlantFactory for modifications any time.

Find out more about the integration with Omniverse on our dedicated Omniverse page.

VUE is a 64-bit application, designed for 64-bit versions of Windows 8, Windows 10 and Intel macOS 10.14+ platforms. Like all 3D packages, it is highly demanding in terms of computer power. Although the application is totally multi-threaded to ensure the smoothest possible response, you must realize that there is a lot going on when you work in VUE.

Recommended System Specs

• Windows 64 bit (Windows 8, Windows 10 or Windows 11), macOS 10.14-12*,
• Multi-core CPU (Intel Core I7, I9, AMD Ryzen or Mac Pro), AVX compliant,
• 8GB+ of RAM,
• 4GB+ of free Hard Disk space (on the drive hosting the OS),
• We recommend a graphics card containing at least 4 GB of VRAM with a 3D Mark score of 10,000 or better.

Compatible Hosts:

• Autodesk MAYA 2018-2023 (Win/Mac)
• Autodesk 3ds Max 2018-2023
• Maxon Cinema 4D R18-2023 (Win/Mac)
• Newtek Lightwave 11.6-2020

*Please note that VUE and PlantFactory 2023+ will only run on the ARM based Apple computers through Rosetta 2 at this time.

Supported Render Engines

The convert tool for 3DS Max, Cinema 4D and Maya supports automatic material creation for the following render engines:

3ds Max:

• V-Ray 6 and older for 3ds Max
• Redshift 3.0.46 and up for 3ds Max
• Arnold for 3ds Max
• Scanline & ART renderer

Cinema 4D:

• V-Ray 6 and older for C4D
• Arnold for C4D
• Redshift 3.0.46 and up (available from C4D R23 and up)
• C4D standard and physical renderer

Maya:

• V-Ray 6 and older for Maya
• Arnold for Maya
• Redshift 3.0.46 and up (in Maya 2020 and up)
• Renderman for Maya
• Maya Software renderer

With the VUE Live Sync for Omniverse, you can also create native OmniPBR materials and USDPreviewSurfaces.

PlantFactory

PlantFactory is a 64-bit application, designed for 64-bit versions of Windows 8, Windows 10 and Intel macOS 10.14+ platforms. Like all 3D packages, it is highly demanding in terms of computer power. Although the application is totally multi-threaded to ensure the smoothest possible response, you must realize that there is a lot going on when you work in PlantFactory.

Recommended System Specs

• Windows 64 bit (Windows 8, Windows 10 or Windows 11), macOS 10.14-12*,
• Multi-core CPU (Intel Core I7, I9, AMD Ryzen or Mac Pro), AVX compliant,
• 8GB+ of RAM,
• 4GB+ of free Hard Disk space (on the drive hosting the OS),
• We recommend a graphics card containing at least 4 GB of VRAM with a 3D Mark score of 10,000 or better.

Compatible Hosts:

• Autodesk MAYA 2019-2023 (Win/Mac)
• Autodesk 3ds Max 2019-2023
• Maxon Cinema 4D R20-2023 (Win/Mac)
• NVIDIA Omniverse with the built-in RTX render engine
• Unreal Engine 4.26-4.27 & 5.0.-5.1

*Please note that VUE and PlantFactory 2023 will run on the ARM based Apple computers only through Rosetta 2 at this time.

Supported Render Engines

The PlantFactory plugin for 3DS Max, Cinema 4D and Maya supports automatic material creation for the following render engines:

3ds Max:

• V-Ray 6 and older for 3DS Max
• Arnold for 3DS Max
• Redshift 3.0.46 and up (from 3DS Max 2023 and up)
• Scanline & ART renderer

Cinema 4D:

• V-Ray 6 and older for C4D
• Arnold for C4D
• Redshift 3.0.46 and up (available from C4D R23 and up)
• C4D standard and physical renderer

Maya:

• V-Ray 6 and older for Maya
• Arnold for Maya
• Redshift 3.0.46 and up (in Maya 2020 and up)
• Renderman 24
• Maya Software renderer

With the PlantFactory Extension & Live Sync for Omniverse, you can also create native OmniPBR materials and USDPreviewSurfaces and build your own PlantFactory asset collection.

What’s new in 2023?

PlantFactory

PlantFactory 2023 adds vertex colors and new Ambient Occlusion, nested repeats, a mesh cutout editor for atlases and major workflow enhancements.

This is one of the biggest PlantFactory releases we have ever had, filled to the brim with new modeling features, workflow and QoL improvements and export and integration enhancements.

VUE

VUE 2023 introduces a complete graph and node editing overhaul, a GGX model for material highlights and Redshift conversion for 3ds Max.

This release adds consistent material reflection handling for standard materials across all atmosphere models and render engines and improves the core workflow experience of the Function Editor, the heart of many of VUE’s advanced setups.

Full Release Notes

What’s new in 2021.2?

This release is pretty massive so we’ve provided external links to different sections rather than trying to list everything here, so you can easily find the info you want.

Full Release Notes

Vue

VUE 2021.2 adds clearcoat to PBR materials, graph workflow improvements, live sync with NVIDIA

Not only does this release add new creation and integration features, but it is also the first step on an ongoing journey towards a major graph editing and nodal workflow overhaul.

Main Features

1. Graph workflow improvements & better performance
2. Clearcoat channel in PBR materials
3. Omniverse Live Sync
4. Convert scenes and assets to Redshift objects
5. Native material creation for Renderman

This release adds plugin compatibility for the following host application versions and render engines (bold items are new):

• 3D Studio Max 2018 to 2022
• Maya 2018 to 2022
• Cinema4D R18 to R25
• NVIDIA Omniverse
• Lightwave 11.6 to 2020
• V-Ray 5 and Arnold up to version 7
• Renderman 24 for Maya (2020 and up)
• Redshift 3.0.46 and up for Maya (2020 and up) and C4D (R23 and up)

PlantFactory

PlantFactory 2021.2 introduces new blending algorithms, procedural axis smoothing settings, a clearcoat material channel and support for Unreal Engine 4, Renderman, Redshift and NVIDIA Omniverse.

Not only does this release add new creation and integration features, but it is also the first step on an ongoing journey towards a major graph editing and nodal workflow overhaul.

Main Features

1. Graph workflow improvements & better performance
2. New misc. nodes and math nodes
3. Axis topology settings and improved blending capabilities
4. Clearcoat channel in PBR materials
5. Omniverse Live Sync & Extension
6. Create native materials for Redshift with the PlantFactory plugin
7. Native material creation for Renderman with the PlantFactory plugin
8. A new integration plugin for Unreal Engine 4

This release adds plugin compatibility for the following host application versions and render engines (bold items are new):

• 3D Studio Max 2016 to 2022
• Maya 2015 to 2022
• Cinema4D R20 to R25
• Unreal Engine 4.24 to 4.27
• NVIDIA Omniverse
• Lightwave 11.6 to 2020
• V-Ray 5 and Arnold up to version 7
• Renderman 24 for Maya (2020 and up)
• Redshift 3.0.46 and up for Maya (2020 and up) and C4D (R23 and up)

What’s new in R5 build 5003965?

Vue

Plugin (Integration)

Integration and Export

What’s new in R5?

June 23, 2020

Full release notes

What’s new in R4 build 4003044?

Vue

Real world Terrains

Automatically retrieve real world terrain data as heightmap or procedural terrains.

Cloud Morphing and Animated VDB export

Morph two MetaClouds together. VUE will automatically create a smooth interpolation between the two cloud geometries and material looks. Cloud animations can now be exported as animated VDBs too.

Integration and Export

• [NEW] Animated clouds and cloud layers can now be exported to animated VDBs (one VDB file for each frame)
• [NEW] Bake and export all material PBR channels as texture maps
• [NEW] New color bleed blending (smudge + mean average color filler) for exported texture maps
• [NEW] Added occlusion treatment option, allowing user to select between ambient occlusion compute, ambient occlusion texture or a mix of both
• [NEW] Added some maps (Ambient Occlusion, Blurred Reflections, Luminous, Glow) to write at export
• [NEW] Added baking to 16 bits Grayscale textures
• [NEW] When baking textures, use the alpha of input textures even if it is not exported, we do not want a different result whereas we activate the alpha export or not.
• [NEW] Modified the “generic UV” export algorithm to avoid making thousands of mesh parts in some cases. Made it make more compact parts for better packing.
• [NEW] Use a better packing for the “generic UV”
• [NEW] Ensure baked normal maps are normalized
• [NEW] Reworked and optimized FBX import
• [NEW] [Import/DEM] Importing a DEM file now offers the choice between creating a Procedural Terrain or a Heightfield (Note: previously it was Procedural Terrain only)
• Limit max size of adaptative maps.
• Better placement of fragments in baked texture maps.
• Fixed missing materials when importing some Collada files
• Added a new option (“Invert transparency maps”) at the bottom of the Import Options dialog for Collada files, to force VUE to use the contrary of the transparency rule defined in the file (some exporters don’t follow the Collada specifications, like VUE before the other fix below…).
• Fixed export of Collada files: transparency maps were always inverted, so never following the transparency mode defined in the file (RGB_ZERO).
• Fixed import of Collada files: transparency maps were always inverted (ignoring the transparency mode read in the file), which could lead to fully transparent materials if their mode was A_ONE.
• Fixed resizing and center options that were not applied to imported objects
• Fixed synchronization of imported objects: saved scenes now store the original import options for each object, so that they can be reapplied when objects are synchronized (=automatically reloaded after a change of the file on the disk). Also, if smoothing options are modified in the Mesh Options, they will now be reapplied in future synchronization of the mesh.
• Fixed a bug preventing to export the map of some objects (like alpha planes, imported LW models…), because a wrong extension was used to write images.
• Fixed wrongly exported Collada files (not readable by VUE or other apps) when material names use non-ASCII characters.
• Fixed export of CSG objects to Collada (materials could be wrong)
• Ignore empty grids when importing VDB clouds instead of making an error.
• Fixed potential crash when loading a scene with multiple MetaClouds
• Upgraded Open VDB SDK version to 6.2.1
• [LWO] Fixed crashes with some LWO files
• Fixed normal map export on PlantFactory plants
• Improved displacement export
• Fixed truncated camera animation path when importing FBX file as synchronization data.
• [Convert Tools for Maya] Fixed errors when converting more than one VUE object.
• [Plugin] Remove Synchro plugin for Cinema4D R15
• [Plugin] Upgrade V-Ray SDK to 3.6 and remove support for V-Ray 2
• [Plugin] Fixed the automatic loading of the VUE plugin for V-Ray Next update 2 and greater.

Substance

Path Tracer

• Fixed potential random crashes when there are EcoSystems in the scene (after undo/redo operations and grouping of objects with EcoSystems materials)
• Fixed potential crashes related to animated objects in the timeline.
• [TerrainEditor/Intel] Improved terrain editor stability with Intel chipsets on Windows
• [Mac/Drag&Drop] Robustness fixes following the report of a crash after a few hours sitting idle
• Fixed a crash (stack overflow) when relaying mouse events in the context of a scrollable group nested inside another group (or scrollable group)
• Fixed a crash when opening the format options panel twice
• Fixed a crash in Texture Manipulation Editor
• [MaterialEditor] Fixed a crash when switching material layer and the function graph is opened
• Fixed a possible crash on Mac when closing a dialog opened from a pop-up menu from inside a modal dialog opened from a menu (e.g. color map editor opened from any modal dialog)
• Fixed a potential crash when dropping a group (e.g. a Boolean operation) containing a PlantFactory vegetation to the ground.
• Prevent a crash when reading a .fsvue file referencing modified .tpf files, and improve feedback in this case.
• Fixed a potential crash (or render aborted at once) related to EcoSystem phasing.
• [Windows] Work around crashes in third-party library with some specific fonts (CrashSender will show but VUE will no longer crash)
• Fixed a potential crash in the render stack when the NPR or depth channels are selected but their data weren’t loaded.
• Fixed potential crash when loading a scene with atmosphere editor open
• Fixed potential crash on Help (F1)
• Fixed prevent potential crash with native browser
• Fixed potential crashes with multi-selection browser.
• Fixed potential crash using enter key in browser
• Fixed crash when editing functions from material editor with multiple materials edited
• Fixed crash when clicking on convert to MetaCloud when no object in scene
• Fixed a possible crash when loading a DAE files bigger than 2 GB. A proper warning message is now displayed.
• Fixed python initialization mistakes (macOS)
• Fixed a crash related to texture edition
• Fixed a potential crash in 3D Views refresh, after importing a FBX file as synchronization data.
• Fixed a potential crash in the Material Editor when loading an image with embedded alpha in the alpha channel itself.
• Fixed a potential crash when reading TIF files using color palette mode.

Automation

Ecosystem

Function Graph

Python

Rendering

• [NEW] Allow cube map and octahedron map to be selected as panoramic modes. (also add new layout for cube map)
• [NEW] [RenderNode] Introduced a new ’tile_rect’ option [-tile_rect x_min y_min x_max y_max], with (1,1) as top-left pixel.
• Fixed the inability to enable Stereoscopic rendering in the Render Options dialog.
• Fixed badly interpolated materials over MetaBlobs when activating relighting.
• Fixed missing underwater physical caustics after their activation if water material caustics flag was initially disabled.
• Fixed non sticking physical water absorption & scattering mode when changed in the material editor.
• Fixed inconsistent physical water foam behavior along coasts.
• Fixed Multi-Pass outputs for PBR materials using alpha mapping.
• Optimized fully transparent impacts (avoid lighting calculations when possible).
• [Render Options] Fixed alpha & depth paths not updated properly when changing the render output path
• Fixed invisible heightfield terrain when used inside a group or Boolean operation (for high resolutions and displacement mapping).
• Fixed invisible heightfield terrain when a displacement of depth zero is applied to it (only with high resolutions).
• Fixed wrong multi-pass/G-buffer output path upon scene reading, to avoid getting an error when saving render to disk.
• Improved shadows for terrains using high amplitude displacement mapping.
• Fixed potential alpha mapping issues (white leaves) when using GPU anti-aliasing with PlantFactory EcoSystems.
• Improved lighting on displaced meshes using Normal Mapping.
• Avoid losing 16-bit precision (if any) on imported bump maps.
• [Network Rendering] Fixed rendering cube maps with RenderCows
• [Network Rendering] Fixed rendering VDB clouds with RenderCows

Splines

UI/UX

• [NEW] In the render stack, renders can now be cloned from existing clones, not only from the original render (to make post process/exposure tests easier).
• [NEW] Hiding a scene layer from render now hides its cloud layers (like other objects)
• [NEW] Added the ability to open render options from the sky export options
• [NEW] Allow drag & drop from atmosphere browser
• [NEW] [RenderArea] Support scaling an existing render area from its center (pressing Alt) & preserving its aspect ratio (pressing Shift)
• [NEW] Added the possibility to modify gamma in the camera backdrop editor
• [NEW] Drag & drop of atmosphere files (.atm) in the main frame is now possible.
• [NEW] Added refresh of “Parent level” and “Cascade” in filter editor (for PlantFactory published parameters)
• [NEW] Added min/max edition of “Custom variance” in random range parameters (for PlantFactory published parameters)
• [NEW] Added modulation of PBR channel when using map
• [Erosion] Fixed division by zero in algorithm (could lead to artifacts)
• Allow sending a crash report even when we try to go on executing the program after a crash.
• Support loading images (for materials, environment maps, etc.) requiring more than 2GB of uncompressed pixel data
• Fixed gizmo size when switching to orthographic camera
• Fixed TPF plant preview issue when plant OGL qualities are equal
• Added a message asking confirmation before deleting a render from the stack
• Fixed incorrect graph connection after choosing “Mapped Picture” mode in the transparency tab of the material editor (the image was connected to the alpha output)
• In VUE Creator, it is now easier to set the resolution in the Render Options (the Digital 4K limitation is applied when closing the dialog or before starting the render).
• Enabled the edition of the output filename from the Render Options (without having to click on “Browse”)
• Prevented the addition of objects into EcoSystems when they are not supported (procedural terrains, fans, global EcoSystems…)
• Fixed interface update after copy/pasting a material inside the material editor (the current tab wasn’t correctly updated).
• Fixed the display of the EcoPainter brush on HiDPI screens (radius was wrong)
• Fixed several problems when painting EcoSystems without “airbrush style”: this mode now works in all views. The number of Added instances only depends on the stroke’s curve/path, not on the speed of the cursor (like with the “airbrush style”). There is no overlap or empty areas between sub-segment of strokes anymore. Also, the falloff filter is now applied by taking the path into account.
• Fixed the application of the falloff filter when painting EcoSystems in perspective views (only a subpart of the filter was applied, which depended on the current size of the perspective view).
• Fixed another problem with the distribution of instances in orthogonal views (there was an hidden “square root” falloff filter)
• EcoSystem instances are now Added in the whole circle of the brush on screen which seems more intuitive than the previous behavior which was a “mix” of screen and world projections.
• Fixed the slider controlling the roughness of PBR materials (in constant mode). The value used for rendering was not correctly applied and setting a value above 17% was like setting 100%.
• Fixed the import of materials for some 3D files, like DAE files created in MakeHuman: wrongly defined transparency maps are now ignored (= using an image with embedded alpha already used by the Color and Alpha channels).
• Fixed favorites not saved when closing the browser without loading an item (browser)
• Fixed Material Editor keeping the size of the function Editor when we close the function editor
• Fixed gizmo issues on 4K screen
• Fixed glitch on filter editor when switching monitor (with different DPI)
• Fixed post render options status bar not flashing sometimes
• Fixed animated MetaCloud OpenGL incorrect refresh
• Fixed black previews of plant specimens in plant browser
• When you reset a cloud material, you got a new cloud material.
• Fixed wrong preview in browser when loading species of plants
• Localization of hardcoded English strings in MetaNode pop-up menu (Function Editor nodes list)
• [Render area] Fixed disappearing render area when editing it would for example move the right border to the left of the left border (same with top/bottom & corners)
• [TerrainEditor] Altitudes color bar below the 3D preview was improperly drawn when the “Adapt to clipping” button was toggled down.
• [ColorMapEditor] Display real units (e.g. altitude in meters in the Terrain Editor) for key color positions
• [Gizmo icons] Inadvertent drag of the mouse of even a single pixel over a gizmo icon (P/L/G and M/R/S icons in the 3D viewports) would deselect the current object.
• [ColorMapEditor] Fixed manual edition of the key color position field pushing around other keys
• [SplineProximity/Edition] Fixed conflicts between Edit/Insert fast-switch keys and regular triggers + support deletion of a control point with Backspace (useful on Mac keyboards)
• [TerrainEditor] Fixed ‘adapt to clipping’ button status not remembered
• [Menu] Fixed varying shortcut displayed as menu item hints before and after opening the Options panel (for shortcuts with an editable and a non-editable version like Undo, Copy and Paste)
• Avoid displaying the vegetation variation browser if the file cannot be loaded due to licensing (PlantCatalog).
• Remember the last folder from which a Python script was loaded by user for next session.
• Fixed a crash in camera backdrop when selecting a picture rotated by 90 or -90 degrees
• Improved image mapping on primitives
• Avoid bad interaction between sliders and scroll bars.
• Better error handling of image/animation loading
• Report each parameter loading error
• Avoid exiting when accelerator file cannot be read, pop a message but go on.
• Fixed erratic random range slider behavior for integer values.
• Fixed tabbed dialog not correctly resized when maximizing/minimizing main window
• Fixed on preview for 4GB images in browser
• Improved error management while reading/writing files
• Fixed issues when trying to load a list of images.
• Fixed a possible crash when clicking on convert to MetaCloud when no object in scene
• Fixed MetaCloud interpolation of amount parameter (used in cloud animations)
• Fixed edition of colors in MetaNodes.

Misc

PlantFactory

[Technology Preview] Import Plugins

• [NEW] PlantFactory Importer plugins for 3ds Max and Maya (2019+).
• [NEW] Automatically convert materials to VRay native materials

Integration & Export

• [NEW] Bake and export all material PBR channels as texture maps
• [NEW] Added some maps (Ambient Occlusion, Blurred Reflections, Luminous, Glow) to write at export
• [NEW] Added baking to 16 bits Grayscale textures
• [NEW] New color bleed blending (smudge + mean average color filler) for exported texture maps
• [NEW] When baking textures, use the alpha of input textures even if it is not exported, we do not want a different result whereas we activate the alpha export or not.
• [NEW] Modified the “generic UV” export algorithm to avoid making thousands of mesh parts in some cases. Made it make more compact parts for better packing.
• [NEW] Use a better packing for the “generic UV”
• [NEW] Ensure baked normal maps are normalized
• [NEW] Added occlusion treatment option, allowing user to select between ambient occlusion compute, ambient occlusion texture or a mix of both
• [NEW] Added the import of FBX models.
• Re-center baked UVs to improve filtering
• Fixed normal map export on TPF plants
• Improved displacement export
• Limit max size of adaptative maps.
• Better placement of fragments in baked texture maps.
• Avoid losing 16-bit precision (if any) on imported bump maps.

Substance

Geometry

Function Graph

Performance

Stability

E-on Software Announces the Availability of its Summer 2019 Release for VUE and PlantFactory Software

e-on software’s summer quarterly release adds support for V-Ray Next, a new Orthographic Camera, 15 botanically accurate vegetation species, more than 300 new content assets, and over 60 additional feature, performance, and user experience enhancements.

Paris, France – August 8, 2019 – E-on software, a leading global developer of software for the creation, animation, rendering, and integration of natural 3D environments in the computer graphics, VFX, architecture, and gaming industries, announced the immediate availability of the Summer 2019 Release (otherwise known as R3) of its VUE and PlantFactory software.

A new free trial version is also available of its VUE and PlantFactory software, which includes all the updates from R3.

The full release note details are available online at https://info.e-onsoftware.com/release-notes-august-2019

Key New Features in VUE R3

Integration and Export ⁽¹⁾

• Added Progress Bar for export
• Always running color algorithm now on baked texture for export
• [Plugin] Added compatibility with V-Ray Next
• [Plugin] Added a “Convert” button in the Convert Tool and avoided conversion when using the close button
• [Plugin] Much faster reading and writing of large scenes in Maya (especially in ascii format)
• [Plugin] Ability to convert old scene gamma (same choices as in VUE Standalone) when loading a new VUE scene file from the menu

Rendering

• Allows the use of the RenderNode Network option with Path Tracer renderer
• Improved robustness of GPU anti-aliasing
• Added orthogonal projection in Camera Options

Performance

• When saving a material, faster computation of the preview for meta-cloud materials.
• Optimized PlantFactory plant computation (5%)
• Optimized Graph Edition (3x)
• Hidden node previews in the function editor are no longer recomputed (saving CPU time)
• Moved the compilation of nodes in the thread function to reduce latency
• Reduced the latency in the function editor when editing parameters (mainly useful for complex graphs)

Atmosphere

• IceRings and Rainbow effects work in a photometric mode

Displacement

• Ability to subdivide cube and pyramid primitives before displacing (like planes already are), to avoid a lower visual quality when compared to “curved” primitives like spheres, cones, cylinders and tori
• Improved the rendering of cubes when both displacement and normal mapping is activated

Function Graph

• Improved MetaNode edition
• Improved connection edition
• Improved graph layout when loading old functions

Python

• Added functions to get/set multi-pass and G-Buffer output path
• Added function to override the output folder for all channels

Substance

• Handles opacity map
• Handles image parameter

UI/UX

• Uses visible handles for tangent manipulation in the filter editor
• Enabled the K shortcut to break tangents in the filter editor
• Double clicks in filter editor create a new point where you have clicked
• Native HiDPI drawing of the filter editor
• Allows you to remove a filter point by double-clicking on it
• Vastly improved the reading speed of compressed files
• When saving a material file, a dialog now displays the progression of the rendered preview, and it can be stopped by pressing the escape key
• Replaced the 4 icon buttons (6 in hosted plugins) to load items in EcoSystems by a single “Add Item” button and a popup menu. The popup menu can also be accessed by right-clicking in the population list.
• The auto-exposure computed in the scene preview is now applied in the OpenGL views (with the shader 4 mode)
• Exposure and post-process settings are now applied while rendering with the path tracer (but not for interactive rendering)
• Added a filter to hide old SolidGrowth plant when browsing for the plant.
• Improved the automatic naming of plants by taking the species filename into account.
• Improved graph layout when loading old functions
• Improved reactivity when first opening a browser
• Improved quality of OpenGL preview of the atmosphere
• [Browser] Created a button to hide downloadable content
• [Browser] More buttons now support ALT shortcut to switch to native browser

Misc.

• A commercial license can now read a scene created in the Trial version on the same machine.
• Improved Thumbnail generator library stability

Key New Features in PlantFactory R3

Integration and Export ⁽¹⁾

• Exporting as billboards now also create normal maps
• Added Progress Bar when exporting geometry
• Always running a color algorithm on baked texture for export

Performance

• Optimized PlantFactory plant computation (5%)
• Optimized Graph Edition (3x)

Geometry

• Added functionality to position children orthogonally to the surface of the parent
• Two additional sliders for random positioning and orientation of children objects added via whorl

Function Graph

• Improved MetaNode edition
• Improved connection edition
• Improved graph layout when loading old functions

Substance

• Handles opacity map
• Handles image parameter

UI/UX

• Uses visible handles for tangent manipulation in the filter editor
• Enabled the K shortcut to break tangents in the filter editor
• Double-clicks in filter editor create a new point where the user has clicked
• Ability to remove a filter point by double-clicking on it
• A vastly improved reading speed of compressed files
• When saving a material file, a dialog now displays the progression of the rendered preview, which can be stopped by pressing the escape key
• Split graph and preview menu for clarification

Misc.

• A commercial license can now read a scene created in the Trial version on the same machine.
• Improved stability of thumbnail generator library

⁽¹⁾ Export and integration plugins are only available in Professional and Enterprise solutions

Plant Catalog Collection update ⁽²⁾

This summer release also offers a new batch of 15 HD and LD – botanically accurate – vegetation species, including:

• Broadleaf trees: Citrus x aurantium, Citrus x Limon, Ficus Carica, Jacaranda mimosifolia
• Bushes: Callistemon laevis, Callistemon rigidus, Callistemon viminalis ‘Little John’, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Malvaviscus penduliflorus
• Palms: Phoenix canariensis, Washingtonia robusta
• Perennials: Juncus rigidus
• Succulents: Beaucarnea recurvata, Dracaena draco, Euphorbia candelabrum

 ⁽²⁾ Plant Catalog compatibility is currently in Enterprise solutions only

New collection items

e-on software will be progressively giving away its owned content collection formerly sold on Cornucopia3D to users of its new software solutions. The company owns more than 2,000 3D assets, that are currently being updated and quality controlled. These assets will be made available in batches with every new quarterly release. The R3 release, therefore, includes the first batch of more than 300 3D assets comprised of atmospheres, materials, vehicles, animals, sample scenes, etc.

A formal statement about Cornucopia3D will be made this summer.

Availability

The new update is available for download as a free software update for all registered users of the company’s VUE and PlantFactory solutions. Users will find the software update and the plant catalog download links on their user account page (under the Software Center tab).

Spring 2019 update

VUE and PlantFactory build 2003711, Release date: April 24, 2019

See the full release notes for the Spring release here.