Winter 2015-16 Release – Upgrade for Design 3D CX 8 Users
For buyers of Design 3D CX 8 prior to November 15, 2015, this release provides many bug fixes and improvements – and two major new features:
Embree raycasting technology increases rendering speed up to an astounding 800%.
Stage Model makes it easy to take your finished models and stage them in one of the nearly 30 professionally created templates in just two clicks.
Before you buy: Make sure you use the same email address for your upgrade purchase that you used for your Design 3D CX 8 purchase. Your email address is used to match the Winter 2015-16 Release upgrade to your Design 3D product license and won’t work with a miss-matched address. The Winter 2015-16 Release Upgrade requires a valid Design 3D license.
Subscribers: Design 3D CX subscribers get this release free as part of the subscription benefits (free updates, access to the Strata 3D University – a $9.95 monthly value, and Premium Support – a $5.95 monthly value – all for less than $20 a month). To get the upgrade, in Design 3D CX 8 just select the “Help” menu and choose “Check for Updates…” Download the Strata Update application and run it. When the update is installed you’ll see the Winter 2015-16 logo in the “Manage License” dialog when you relaunch Design 3D.
Converting to a Subscription: If you’re not a subscriber but would like to switch your Design 3D CX 8 license to a subscription – and get this upgrade free – just contact sales@strata.com for a special offer.
Winter 2015-16 Release Overview Video
Embree™ Raycasting Technology by Intel®
Rendered using Strata and Embree technology by Intel. Embree crown model courtesy Martin Lubich. Rendering courtesy Chris Tyler.
Raycasting is at the heart of the rendering process in Design 3D CX. The state-of-the-art in raycasting comes from Intel with their Embree raycasting engine. This highly optimized technology is ideal for increasing speed and adding features. After many months of work we have been able to integrate the Embree technology directly into the Strata rendering engine. The results are nothing short of amazing.
Up to 800% Speed Increase
The remarkable efficiency of the Embree raycasting engine, combined with new improvements in the Strata rendering engine combine to provide speed increases of up to 8x the previous release. Depending on the image and configuration of your model and lighting, you can see speed increases that will greatly enhance your productivity. Do more for your clients – or just spend more time doing what you love – the extra time is all yours!
W15-16 Release up to 800% faster than CX 8.0 and nearly 1,000% faster than CX 7.5. Rendering courtesy Chris Tyler.
Deeper, Broader and More Refined Antialiasing
What else can you do when you have lightening fast raycasting? Use it to improve image quality through superior antialiasing for one. With the Winter 2015-16 Release we were able to change how Design 3D antialiases images by going into darker and broader color areas to refine edges of objects and textures. This gamma adjusted antialiasing takes more rays cast into more areas but the results are well worth it.
Better Displacement Mapping on Subdivision Surfaces
It takes a lot of rays to refine a surface that’s using both polygon subdivision and displacement mapping. With Embree we were able to greatly improve on this combination. Now you can use the “Displacement” texture type with confidence on your subdivided objects. Just use the popup menu in the left side of the Resource/Texture palette.
Stage Model Feature
Now you can easily stage your finished models in any one of nearly 30 professionally created templates. Just select the model you want to stage, click on the Stage Model button in the button bar and up pops the setup assistant Stage dialog. Choose your template, decide whether to have your model automatically scale to the template and whether to rotate to face the camera. Just click the “Stage Model in Template” button and your model is ready to render.
Choose between these templates, including the new retail shelving templates, or you can even create your own to easily use for future projects. Create consistent renders between projects, maintain a “company look” – and even share with other Design 3D users.
