We completely redesigned and redeveloped our OpenGL implementation, upgrading from version 2.x to 4.x. As a result, you can expect:
The VR updates in VRED 2017 make it easy and cost effective to experience total immersion.
To change the SLI mode, choose Alternate Frame or Multicast Stereo.
, and in the SLI section select the mode,We simplified the Tracking module. You can now add and configure servers, tracker devices, and bodies all in one view. Manual calculations are no longer needed. You can set local offsets. You can run diagnostics connection tests to make sure the communications are working.
Choose
.For details, see To Set Up a Tracking Configuration.
We added SSAO to the OpenGL rendering mode as an alternative to baked ambient occlusion. SSAO provides an efficient, realtime approximation of the baked ambient occlusion (AO). Although SSAO will never be as good as precomputed AO, or even baked lighting and shadows, SSAO is good for quick previews.
To activate it, choose Enable.
and selectFor information on settings, see Advanced OpenGL Settings in the Visualization Menu.
In VRED Professional 2016 SR1 we introduced a newly designed HPC Cluster module that provides better scalability, and better monitoring and diagnosis capabilities. Designed to leverage large clusters, the module provides improved load balancing and performs two to three times faster. The bigger the cluster the bigger the gains compared to previous versions of VRED.
The Raytracing Cluster is located under
.In this release, we added a new Display Cluster that leverages the technological innovations introduced in VRED Professional 2016 SR1. The Display Cluster enables high performance raytracing presentations in Powerwall or Cave environments, for ultra realistic immersion. You can now set up each cluster configuration using an arbitrary combination of nodes for raytracing calculations and display options.
In a realtime raytracing cluster scenario, each display cluster node also performs raytracing calculations including load balancing, and thus requires a Render Node license. Because of this requirement, display clustering with realtime raytracing is not possible in VRED Design.
The nodes for OpenGL display clustering are free of licensing for both VRED Professional and VRED Design.
Set up the Display Cluster from the Cluster dialog box. Click Display Setup.
VRED 2016 SR1 enabled you to work more seamlessly with Shells and Components.
Instead of rearranging parts of the Scenegraph to apply functions from the Optimization dialog box, you can now simply paste, drag-and-drop, or merge.
If components are dragged or copied from a Shell to the Root node (or any other group), a new shell is created as a parent of the components.
Surfaces can be transformed, components cannot.
Surfaces have their own material, components always have the material of their Shell.
Shells and components are imported by the Base CAD formats.
When merging two or more shells or groups together, the new shell uses the name of the first selected shell or group. If the selection is made using rectangle selection, then the name of the selected element that is highest in the Scenegraph is used.
Now when you Merge Geometry in the Scene Graph, the Merge Geometry dialog box opens, where you can select how to merge geometries with different materials and visibility.
Two new commands were added to the Scenegraph that keeps a pasted node at the same position in the world as the originally copied or cloned node:
We added support for HDR Light Studio 5, which includes Sun Softness control and Live LightPaint.
VRED Products no longer ship with DirectConnect, but instead include new, built-in translators that give higher quality results.
We added a UV editor that helps to create and manipulate UV coordinates for surface geometries. Using the editor you can cut, sew, unfold and transform UVs.
For more information, see To Edit UVs.
There is now only one node in the scenegraph which represents the positioning and orientation of the light. Local lighting is now done by light linking. You no longer need to place the light sources in certain places of the scenegraph.
To set up a light link, create a new set and assign the geometry nodes and the lights to the set.
When you open an scene from VRED 2016 and earlier in VRED 2017, the lights are converted to the new lighting.
The following example shows a scene with a point light that is locally lighting three boxes. The images on the left show the lighting setup in VRED 2016, the images on the right show how the lighting setup is transferred when you open the same file in VRED 2017.
Left: Scenegraph VRED 2016, Right: Scenegraph VRED 2017
Left: Light Editor VRED 2016, Right: Light Editor VRED 2017
When performing a stand-alone installation, you no longer provide the serial number and product code during the installation process. Instead, you enter this information when you first launch the software. For more information about licensing Autodesk products, see Manage Licensing.
You can now provide a list of IPs or hostnames that are allowed to connect to the WebServer.
We improved the performance of web browser streaming.
The color chooser now supports the creation of Blackbody and CIE D spectra, third party functions that define the spectral behavior of a body.
Convert to Mesh performance has been significantly improved.
You can now choose to hide warning messages for functions that cannot be undone.
Changed the O hotkey for toggling navigation in Presentation mode to Ctrl+Alt-drag.
Use Ctrl+Shift+M (Merge) to create a shell from the selection.
When you use Ctrl+Shift+G (Group Selection) on multiple surfaces which are not yet under a Shell, the surfaces are grouped together and no shell is created.
When you use Ctrl+Shift+G on multiple components (surfaces under a shell), a new Group node is created, and under that, a new shell with the components in it.
In the VRED product, you can now set the Start and Stop Frame in the Animation section of the Render Settings dialog box.
For a list of VREDPro.exe command line options, use the -h, -help, or /? option.
For example, type the following at a Windows command prompt:
VREDPro.exe /?
When a render is cancelled, the message "Render job cancelled." is added to the render log file.
New samples threshold option to define at which sample the still antialiasing render update starts. A value of 16 typically prevents grainy-looking progress samples from displaying. The render continues to calculate in the background.
When rendering multiple render jobs with Cluster enabled with the Sequencer or Render Queue, you can now cancel them all at once.
We added the following options for positioning overlays: Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Center, Top Left, Bottom Left, and Bottom Right.
[The Create Strips and Create Fans options in Optimize editor are no longer used, so they have been removed.]
Set the hotkey in the Animation Properties dialog box for the Viewpoint.
If you try to interact with a node that is set to be unselectable, and therefore the interaction is blocked, you are now informed in the Terminal.
Blocked interactions on unselectable nodes are: Select in the Render window, drag-and-drop Materials in the Render window, and fix normals in the Render window.
VRED no longer freezes when switching normals with Alt+Box selection.
Added undo redo to tasks such as creating, deleting and moving sequences. However, you cannot undo a sequence "run".
Added the ability to close all open variant set groups in the Variant Sets dialog box. Right-click in the Variant Sets panel and choose Close Groups.
Added the ability to show all variant sets connected to a variant and vice versa. Both the Variants and Variant Sets dialog boxes must be open.
In the Variants dialog box, right-click on a variant and choose Show Connected Variant Sets. The connected variant sets are selected in the Variant Sets dialog box.
In the Variant Sets dialog box, right-click on a variant set and choose Show Connected Variants. The connected variants are selected in the Variants dialog box.
When exporting FBX files, Diffuse textures are now exported.
When importing files, your settings for Unshare Nodes and Flush Transformations in the Import Options dialog box are now retained for the VRED session.
Also, you can now set these options in
.We added the Import Animation Curves and Import Clips options to the Merge Project Options dialog box. If you do not want the curves or clips in your project, you no longer need to delete them from the .vpb file before adding the file.
We added support for importing NX 10.0 files.
You can now open FBX 2016 files in VRED.
We added the ability to import curves and make them visible in the viewport.
When you import a plmxml file, a dialog box now displays at the completion summarizing the import (listing any parts that did not load properly) and providing the location of the log file (c:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Temp\VREDPro\log).
You can now reorder Overlays in the Overlay Editor using drag-and-drop.
enableSurfaceAnalysis(bool)
setSurfaceAnalysisMode(int)
setSurfaceAnalysisShowDirection(bool)
setSurfaceAnalysisDirection(Vec3f)
setSurfaceAnalysisSetToXAxis()
setSurfaceAnalysisSetToYAxis()
setSurfaceAnalysisSetToZAxis()
setSurfaceAnalysisPickNormal(bool)
setSurfaceAnalysisUseCamVec(bool)
setSurfaceAnalysisLineType(int)
setSurfaceAnalysisLineCount(int)
setSurfaceAnalysisLineColor(Vec3f)
setSurfaceAnalysisSurfaceLightingMode(mode)
setSurfaceAnalysisSurfaceBaseColor(Vec3f)