Oof, the new caustics improvements in today’s DB are sounding tasty! Thanks devs. This is what we like to see. Hope we can test here soon.
Edit: devs, do you have any visual examples of the changes and the impact they have by any chance? Would be super cool to see your internal tests for this and how they’re impacting speed + quality.
I like the new distribution map presets, but i think in current implementation they are very limiting. We need controls for scale and also RW scale support. Instead of high-low variants of the same map, it would be much more useful if users could edit the balance (levels) and contrast. Rotation and perhaps offset would be very useful too. I know that most of those things can be achieved by other means, like adding UVW map and UVW xform modifiers to distribution object, but it’s much more convenient to have all controls in one place, especially since switching between scatter and other objects is not particularly snappy operation even in medium complexity scenes.
Oh, and why UV channel selection is disabled with custom maps? A bug perhaps?
Edit: one more request - an option to invert map.
I did some similar experiments and I think there is one upgrade you could add: duplicate the lenses, apply Corona Slicer Mtl to them, and slice the volume box (not the lenses). This way you will end up with no volumetric medium inside the lenses. If we imagine that the volume box is smoke, then in your scene there is some smoke INSIDE the lenses too and it affects light passing through them. 
Current roadmaps are at Trello for Max and Trello for C4D, though with a focus on 12 Update 1 and not what is planned for next year (ie big pool hasn’t been reviewed in a bit, as we’ll wait til the next release is done - an example there is we hope to add the rendering of Gaussian Splats into one of the releases next year, but it’s not on the map yet).
And yes, on release, this is being called 12 Update 1, not 13
An example of improvement, does not use the new volumetric caustics, both rendered for the same amount of time, no denoising to maximize the comparison, not run til clean to keep noise to maximize the comparison, between existing 12 Hotfix 1 and the 12 Update 1 daily:
PS they are all sat on a glass table, which is why the ground in the background also shows more cleaning up.
Example of volumetric caustics off and on, note when on the steam catches the light refracting out of the pool:
A VERY early test, should make clear what volumetric caustics are - the stuff on the bottom surface is “usual caustics” that any engine offering caustics does, the refracted rays through the volume of the water are what few engines do:
Given this is a very early test, please don’t share, but it will help here in case anyone is puzzled by just what volumetric caustics means (you can see the reflected or refracted rays of light pass through volumes, rather in the same way as you see direct light pass through volumes e .g. the “god rays” we are all familiar with)
PS I hope you don’t see these in your pool, since that would mean a lot of particulate matter in your pool and just ewww 
Thanks Tom! Great to see examples and encouraged by the results. More of this generally, please! I’m sure the user-base really appreciates it.
Cheers,
Thanks Alex! I figured the speed up here would be something y’all enjoyed as I know you have a lot of scenes that feature caustics Would love to hear how you get on with it when you get a chance to try it, you know where to find me lol!
I’ve started a playground thread for the new caustics as I believe they have a high fun factor.
https://forum.corona-renderer.com/ Faster caustics + volumetric caustics playground!
Something feels off with this release. As soon as i launch a IR render, imy system becomes almost unusable. everything seems more laggy.
Is this happening in any scene or only in some specific scene(s)?
just in general - while rendering, the VFB seems more laggy. Even in windows in general - browsing the net, the websites feel laggy to (ie mouse stutters). It just feels really off. It never used to do this. I am using a 5995wx TR if that helps.
I was able to get some lagging/stuttering which does not seem to happen in V12 HF1. It is especially visible when IR is running and you pan/zoom/move the camera. We will look into it.
(Report ID=CMAX-1322)
Yeah, I’m experiencing this lag with IR too. I thought it was just from heavy scatters, but now I think not…
Windows 10. Max 2025.1 Threadripper 7970x
I see we cant make any new posts under the new features thread so im gonna drop this here hoping we can see some similar features in future builds.
Gaussian Splats
Some cool VFB tools you could add to VFB 2.0
Luminaire Lights
This thread is only for daily build-related things. If you would like to submit a feature request or vote for an existing one, please see https://forum.corona-renderer.com/ But the board is read only, how do I post my suggestions and requests?
Yup I realised that after scrolling up and seeing Toms post.. thanks!
Just to continue misusing this thread briefly - I already predicted that gaussians and luminaires would be requests from Corona users once the V-Ray 7 feature set went public, so already have that down on the list of things to consider for next year OFC still add them to the Ideas Portal (unless they are there already, I am pretty sure gaussian splats are there if I remember right)
EDIT - For VFB 2 suggestions based on V-Ray 7, please list each feature separately rather than as an all-in-one request for multiple changes, thanks!
