Update: e-on Software VUE & PlantFactory Release 2021.2 Is Out Now

The 2021.2 release of VUE & PlantFactory has over 800 improvements and fixes!  PlantFactory adds new blending algorithms, procedural axis smoothing settings, a clearcoat material channel and support for Unreal Engine 4, Renderman, Redshift and NVIDIA Omniverse.  VUE adds clearcoat to PBR materials, graph workflow improvements, and live sync with NVIDIA.

Here’s some of the highlights of what is new in release 2021.2.

What’s new in VUE & PlantFactory 2021.2?

Clearcoat channel in PBR materials

VUE & PlantFactory now support clearcoat properties inside PBR materials for creating realistic wet, painted and shiny surfaces. Adding literal polish to your materials is now easier than ever before.

Node workflow improvements

2021.2 marks the first step towards a major function graph overhaul in both VUE & PlantFactory over the next few releases. This update introduces increased display and computational performance, a navigator, an updated node design, resizable node previews, background grids with snapping, easier connection handling and more.

New blending & topology options

PlantFactory includes new options for improved topology and blending transitions. New axis controls help with smoothing out strongly distorted axis splines, hence improving the generated mesh and preparing it for successful blending.

Standard blending has received new options for ignoring displacement in transition areas, offsetting the blending shapes and ensuring blending continuity with difficult growth angles.

Redshift & Renderman conversion*

Convert your PlantFactory & PlantCatalog plants and entire VUE scenes to Redshift and Renderman assets inside Maya (Redshift & Renderman) and Cinema 4D (Redshift). The VUE, PlantFactory and PlantCatalog integration plugins do all the work for you so that your scene is ready to go for rendering in your favorite engine.

And with Redshift conversion, you can even instruct the plugin to us the sprite node for alpha channels for maximum rendering performance.

Live Sync & Extensions for Omniverse*

Continuing our USD developments from the 2021.1 release, we are proud to announce the first iteration of scene live sync between all our applications and NVIDIA Omniverse. Design your content, then establish a live link and see your scene edits update in your Omniverse stage in real-time.

PlantFactory and PlantCatalog also include extension plugins for Omniverse. Any USD plant exported to Omniverse can be sent back to PlantFactory (resp. PlantCatalog Exporter) and be edited again at a later stage.

Your assets remain procedural even after they were exported!

More about Omniverse integration

PlantFactory plugin for Unreal Engine 4*

With the technology preview of the PlantFactory integration plugin for Unreal Engine 4, you can send your PlantFactory and PlantCatalog plants into Unreal, edit them natively and convert them to actors with native Unreal Engine shaders.

Other features

• Support for macOS Monterey and Windows 11
• Introducing support for Maya 2022, 3DS Max 2021 & 2022, Unreal Engine 4.24 to 4.27, Cinema 4D S24 & R25 and NVIDIA Omniverse*
• Support for Renderman 24, Redshift 3.0.46 and above and the latest builds of Arnold & V-Ray*
• New math nodes and cloud layer input nodes
• New advanced dependency nodes in PlantFactory
• Grow children from the bottom of segments in PlantFactory to create better roots than ever before
• AMD denoiser for the path tracer in VUE & PlantFactory
• Rewritten spline algorithms
• New UV-mapping options and nodes in VUE & PlantFactory
• PBR material baking*
• Up to 40% faster plant computation for PlantFactory plants in both applications
• Up to 30% faster rendering of heightfield terrains, 20% for clouds and 10% for atmospheres

(*Professional and Enterprise)