Implementation of Arion Renderer
Integrating new software and solutions into production environments is common today. Using new solutions provides users with more options to complete tasks and increase productivity. For 3ds Max® some of these solutions include more sophisticated renderers that allow us to produce better content in shorter time. One of these is Arion Renderer, from RandomControl (www.randomcontrol.com). Arion Renderer for 3ds Max allows us to render physical-based digital content directly through the 3ds Max framebuffer, making it simple to work with and easy to implement. I’ll discuss a few of the features of Arnold Renderer as well as implementation.
A few features of the renderer are:
Speed – The renderer takes advantage of both the CPU and GPU simultaneously, as well as advanced coding to take advantage of processors and cores.
Motion Blur – Perhaps my favorite feature is that the motion blur is automatically applied to the render, accounting for camera settings and the movements of objects as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
Particle Flow – The renderer utilizes geometry instancing in conjunction with the CPU and GPU, an important feature allowing us to control production.
Network Rendering – One of the best qualities of the plug-in is that it allows us to use an unlimited number of slaves without licensing issues.
Displacement Mapping – The renderer works with hardware to ensure precise displacement mapping in real time.
Spectral Unbiased Rendering – One of the most advanced spectral simulators available on the market, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2
Updates – With consistent improvements, Arion Renderer continues to develop into a real workhorse. Recently added are Roughness and Fresnal Channels to the AOVs (compositing channels).
More – Arion Renderer supports Hair and Fur, Physical Camera Simulation, Physical Atmospheres, Image-Based Lighting, Mesh Emitters, Hardware Acceleration, Interactive ActiveShade, and much more.
Implementing a renderer can be important to providing the best quality content in a more efficient fashion. While integrated renderers continue to advance, having alternative solutions provides users with the flexibility to produce content the way it fits into their production environment and suits their individual needs.
Implementing Arion Renderer for 3ds Max is incredibly simple. RandomControl’s website provides complete and clear instructions to install the Arion Renderer plug-n for 3ds Max. To get started, users only need to understand a few of the options available with the renderer. I’ll cover these options below.
In the Setup tab, we should see the Hardware Configuration button shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3
Here we select the CUDA processors available to us, shown in Figure 4. In case you’re unfamiliar with it, CUDA is essentially parallel computing and an interface created by NVIDIA to use GPUs for processing; a powerful tool to increase render times and calculations.
Figure 4
Next is the Render Setting. Here we have the option to choose the number of passes or dedicate a specific amount of time per frame while it refines the render. This allows us to refine our render infinitely or get the best quality possible while meeting a specific deadline.
Finally, RandomControl has a series of tutorials available on the website that outline the steps to accomplish most day-to-day challenges users might face.
