IRVINE, CA — Luxion, a leading developer of advanced rendering and lighting technology and maker of KeyShot, the first real-time ray tracing and global illumination program, has released KeyShot 4.1, a new update to KeyShot 4 that introduces new rendering capabilities and many improvements that continue to speed the creation of 3D visuals throughout the entire product design process.
With the release of KeyShot 4, users were introduced to new features like LiveLinking, physical lights, new color libraries including Pantone and RAL colors, Mold-Tech Textures, Rounded edges, import improvements and translucent material enhancements. KeyShot Pro users also received updates to create View and Model sets, render passes and render layers, stereoscopic viewing as well as improvements to the KeyShot HDR Editor. KeyShot 4.1 complements and improves on these features with new procedural textures, focused caustics, toon shading, color management and additional updates to the KeyShot HDRI Editor, Material Templates and Importer. In addition, KeyShotVR now has the ability to output interactive content for Apple iBooks directly from within KeyShot.
Focused caustics and procedural textures are just two of the new features in KeyShot 4.1.
Luxion continues to make advances in realtime lighting simulation and rendering technology. Focused caustics adds a simple method for adding refracted light rays, while procedural textures build on the simple, uniform application of textures. The new Toon shader material type allows for solid color contouring and shading of parts and new color management brings accurate color matching to KeyShot. Users have clearer options for files on import along with interface improvements that simplify both options and layout. With internally developed algorithms that push the level of realism, these new features provides the fastest, most accurate method for creating professional level visuals. All new features can be seen here.
The new Focused Caustics feature allows KeyShot users to accurately display the rays of light that reflect or pass through transparent or translucent surfaces. Users have the ability to toggle Focused Caustics in the render scene settings. This compliments the new physical lighting feature in KeyShot that allows any object to be used as a Point, Area or IES light profile with added functionality in KeyShot 4.1 to adjust the size of the light, allowing the user to control the softness of the shadow. The proprietary algorithm for focused caustics developed by Luxion co-founder and chief scientist Dr. Henrik Wann Jensen is one of the fastest algorithms in the industry, delivering results in seconds.
New Procedural texture options are available for any material when applying a texture to an object. Six preset procedural materials allow a user to immediately apply a seamless texture to any surface with the added ability to scale, adjust bump height and sync to other textures. The six presets include Granite, Leather, Marble, Noise (Texture), Noise (Fractal) and Wood with more planned for future releases.
The non-photorealistic (NPR) toon shader is a new material type that allows users to apply solid colors, solid shading and contours to their objects for a flat, cel shading appearance. Users can apply this material from the material type selection box with options to adjust material color along with contour color, angle, width, quality and more advanced options to adjust contours and shadows. Since it is a material rather than a render mode, the toon material can be used in combination with any other material for still images, animations and KeyShotVR.
A new Color Management setting has been added to the KeyShot Preferences with this release. Color Management allows the matching and control of color representations across various devices. In the Color Management settings, users have the ability to enable Color Management selecting an ICC profile (.icc or .icm) available from various software and hardware manufacturers.
A new STL importer is now available as part of the 25+ 3D file formats supported inside KeyShot. This new importer allows .stl files to be imported directly into KeyShot.
All importers have been significantly improved to better represent the geometry inside KeyShot. The order and exact structure is now maintained for all file formats. Geometry for many file formats is now properly represented.
Among the major features mentioned above, KeyShot 4.1 also contains additional features and improvements. iBook support for KeyShotVR is now available allowing the creation of an iBooks widget with the use of iBooks Author. Improvements to the HDRI Editor have been added with new Flat and Spherical Display types as well as Display Orientation for the Spherical display. In addition the user interface has been streamlined with the ability to rename pins and to copy and paste regions from the HDRI. Additional options have been added to the Material templates dialogue that allow users to add a template for a part or materials either automatically or manually and materials used for the scene have been moved to the Project Scene tab. The user can now create an unlimited number of render layers with the ability to create custom names for each layer. The animation capabilities have been made more robust, respecting now the order in which animations have been created, with the ability to change the order interactively in the scene tree.
KeyShot 4.1 is available immediately as a free upgrade to all customers with subscription. KeyShot starts at $995 with option of adding animation capabilities for $500 and interactive KeyShotVR capabilities for $1000.