Older Versions Previous Years

2009

• Added Customize IRender Toolbar
• Fixed problem with Kanji characters in texture and image file names
• Fixed problem with Edge lines not rendering
• Fixed problem with RPCs not rendering
• Fixed a problem with Auto Load setting not being saved properly
• Plant Size was not working unless Use Binary Batch Format mode is checked. (Now fixed)
• Tree Editor returns "Tree Editor was Canceled", if File/Open is used during edit.
• Fixed bug where we were creating too many "sub lights" when making a light from a curved surface.
• Fixed bug with improper display of SketchUp Images
• Fixed problem with auto load not working when starting SketchUp

• Added new, optional, rendering settings dialog before rendering.
• Added new, simpler material editor for simple changes
• Panoramic Views
• Added Gather Indirect Lighting method
• Added MonteCarlo and Gather reflection to individual objects
• Added setting for Automatic Sky Saturation (used or Daylight portals)
• Cut the time required to extract a model by 50%
• Fixed Auto Daylight Portals to work properly (with Interior/W sun preset)
• Camera Lights
• Fix for Twilight plugin conflict
• Added new Icon selection to Setup dialog
• Fix for remote batch plotting
• Fix for groundplane materials
• Fix for Material Editor not closing correctly
• Material Editor now always a top-most dialog
• Fix for RPC objects, appearing upside down and opaque
• Fix for Material Editor not finding material with right click
• TreeEditor fix for some users
• Fix for Sandpaper Bump
• Animation fix for scene from top view

• Foreground images
• Clay Render Mode
• Auto load toolbar

Don't apply Quick Draft setting to animations

Allow folder for animations to be entered manually.

Fixed Material Editor selector to get the correct material when selecting a face which is displaying the group texture.

Fixed minimum and maximum height calculations for AR3 plants.

Fixed Material Editor selector to always get the correct material.

Fixed an error in the Select Material to Place or Edit dialog, when using the Edit button.

Added Tone Operator Lock for Animation, on settings tab, to help with lighting changes.

Fixed animation regression in Aug. 11 Beta.

Fixed saving rendering settings in saved jpegs.

Fixed a bug where animation transitions were skipped when there was a very small change in the view

• Fixes for these Animation bugs in the Batch Renderer:

Images were often corrupted

Saving each scene as a separate movie wasn't working

Loop to Start wasn't working

Saving Animation images will now name files using the original SketchUp transition number.

This allows the files to be generated by smaller animation batches, but still be automatically numbered correctly, so you can easily stitch them together in the proper order.

• Render progress bar fix
• Fix for material textures whose UV coordinates were more than 10,000 inches from the origin
• Fix for corrupted images when using Auto Save.
• Added support for 2-point Perspective

• Added ability to create a visible light path - See: Visible Light Paths
• Added thumbnails to the List mode of the "Select Material to Place or Edit" dialog.
• Fixed a bug where some materials would not import back into SketchUp after being edited in the Render Window, throwing a "Material not found" error. This affected materials like "Color_000", where the "real" name of that material is "[Color_000]", with brackets.
• Fixed an error being thrown when the Material Edit "Clear" button was used for SketchUp materials that did not have an IRender Material assigned to it.
• Fixed a bug where we weren't properly redisplaying the Material Editor after editing a material.
• Fixed for importing materials back into SketchUp which had characters in the material names which could not be used for file names.
• Fixed a regression, for distorted textured materials, where more that 1 distorted position was used for the same material. We were only picking up one texture image for all the faces using that material.
• Fixed the Season for Plants box on the Options/nXt dialog tab.
• Fixed problem with trial period ending July 1
• Added Self Glow to the Material Wizard
• Improved logic to reload changes made in Batch Renderer back to SketchUp
• Added displacement maps (In Advanced material editor)
• Fixed problem specifying Auto Image folder.
• Added feature to double click in Rendered Image to edit a material
• Added feature to read changed materials back into SketchUp
• Putting SketchUp version of the Material Wizard into the Batch Material Editor so they will be the same.
• Added Draft Render Quality which renders about 4 times faster with some loss of image quality.
• First Beta Test version of nXtRender
• Two new output formats - HDR and EXR which can illumination information and can be used in PhotoShop of other post processing editors for quick image adjustments (e.g. shadows and highlights) without re-rendering the image.
• Loads a dialog after saving a rendered image making it easy for you to launch the image with a special program.
• fix problem processing Edge lines
• added instancing for trees which are used multiple times - See Instancing
• created version of batch renderer which does not require Microsoft .NET
• New toolbar for Batch Renderer - See: IRender Render Toolbar Functions

• Improvements in lighting algorithm
• Added Glossy Reflection
• Added a slider for Fresnel Reflection
• Fixed bug where options settings were not always "sticking"
• Added checkbox to setups to toggle use of artificial lighting
• Fixed Translucency and lamp shade defaults

• Better processing of lights which are close to another surface
• Fix problem with alpha transparent faces which are lights. They were getting a black background
• Fix problem with large model extracts

Fixed to extract and process models about 3-5 times larger then previous version

• Make Batch the default rendering mode
• Allow Batch rendering for IRender Lite
• Fix problem with the bulbs in table lamps
• Fix problem with ceiling lights not working when lamps are turned off
• Fixed problem with lights set using Object Properties, in Batch Render mode.
• Fixed a problem with resampling PNG images, which incuded an alpha channel, when applying Image Size limits.
• Fix problem with daylight portals and daylight portals in batch mode
• Improvements to license and validation
• Added direction to diffuse object lighting - and made other fixes

• Fixed default glass type (default is now Thin), and changed material and object overrides to say "Thick". This may mess up some existing models if they were using thick glass. See: Transparent Settings
• Fixed problem with materials where the back material was transparent - but not the front. It should work correctly now.
• Fixed some other problems rendering faces with different materials on both sides of the face.
• Fixed some problems with locating and creating SketchUp Components for RPC Objects. See: RPC
• Fixed a problem where value boxes were not intrepreting values without units (e.g. 12.5) in the current SketchUp units (e.g. cm)
• Add a compression vs quality factor for JPEG images to the Image Tab.
• Fixed some problems with texture positioning in groups and mirrored groups.
• fixed saving alpha-transparent files from batch mode

2008

• Fixed a problem with the Sun/Shadow location in Batch mode.
• Fixed a problem with Always Face components nested in Groups and Components.
• Added option to render 2 sided faces, to the Option/Special tab.
• Fixed a problem with the locations of the lamps in SketchUp Light Components, when they were rotated.
• glowing surfaces with materials now glow properly which can be used for illuminated signs or Stained Glass
• fixed problem where point lights were only shining down
• fixed a problem where neon lights were glowing too brightly.
• Added support for ArchVision RPC objects.
• Fixed problem with round ceiling lights.
• Added auto Daylight Portals

• Added layer on/off to animations. See: Animation
• Added default quality settings to Animations.
• Reworked some of the logic for ambient/lamp light balance. See: Light Setup .
• Added ability to load settings from a .JPG file
• Added Palm Tree to Tree Editor
• Fixed a bug with reflected HDRI skies not appearing

• Fixed a bug with ground planes in batch mode
• Added a default check box for opaque ground planes
• Added options to close batch rendering application, or animation, when done.

• Fixed a problem with smoothness in animations
• Added support for the Tree Editor
• Changed some of the tabs on the Options Wizard to make them easier to use.
  )Unfortunately it will make some things harder to find the first time you use the new version.

• Added circular ceiling lights.
• Ceiling lights are diffuse rather then directional for better light emission.
• Fixed a bug with views in animation
• Added saving notes and rendering parameters to JPG files.

• Fixed a problem with batch rendering clearing batch folder.
• Fixed a problem with section planes when 'none' was checked on the nXt setup dialog tab.
• Fixed a problem with Object Properties not setting properly.
• Fixed a problem with section planes in Batch mode.
• Fixed problems with finding textures in Batch Rendering.
• Added a separate batch file, "start_irender_batch_64_bit.bat", to launch the batch rendering on a 64 bit machine.

A Beta Test version of Animation has been included in this release. This can be used to create Movies and Fly Througs of your model.
(Not available in IRender Lite)

• See: Animation

A Beta Test version of Batch Rendering has been added in this release. This can be used to render larger models, or to render models on a different computer.
(Not available in IRender Lite)

• See: Batch Rendering

Got rid of the second and third extract passes which will speed up some renderings.

Other Bug Fixes

• Fixed a problem where mirrors from the mirror wizard weren't reflecting properly
• Fixed a problem where lights placed with the AR3 version weren't working properly

• We fixed a big problem with indirect lighting.
• You can now use SketchUp Section Planes to expose the ineternals of your model.
• See: Section Planes

• Added offset and scale to background images.
• See: Background Image

• Added ability to add textures, water ripple, etc. to the ground plane material.
• Added support for transparent and reflective ground planes.
• Added an alpha Channel ground plane for pasting shadows onto other images
• See: Ground Planes

• Fixed a problem where edge lines weren't rendering in the proper color.

• Added the ability to set, save and reload default values.
• See: Defaults

• Fixed a problem with skies
• Improved Background images - added cylindrical and spherical mapping,
• Fixed a problem with Daylight Portals and transparent materials

Place a Background image behind your model.

See: Background Image .

Also, you can save the rendering with a transparent background, and paste it over a background with a paint program.

See: IRender Alpha Images .

Object Properties are properties placed directly on SketchUp entities, using IRender to specify rendering properties of the entities.

See: Object Properties .

• Creates softer shadows from lights - see Soft Shadows
• Allows you to save the rendering with a transparent background - See IRender Alpha Images

• Has new defaults for spotlight field angles, and thick glass.

• Has a much improved options tab dialog - making it easy to set the options you need most - Lighting defaults and render paramaters, while still keeping the power of the other options available.

• See: IRender_nXt Options

• Tabs have been added to the Material wizard to make it easier to view and set IRender nXt Options .

• See: Material Wizard

• Allows you to easily create a new material from our Select Material to Place dialog.

• See: Select Material

• Improved the Material Editor Texture tab functionality, allowing you to set the Color Strength when using AutoBump.

• See: Auto Bump

• Fixed the watermark for Trial mode.

• The default materials and glow settings are set on the new IRender nXt Material Wizard.

Here is an Auto Bump example of a wall with SketchUp's stone material, and two spot light shining on the the material:
(Bump maps have their best effect when there is lighting at an angle to the material, because the bump map 3D effect is more pronounced when there is light shining on the material.)

• Glow is now working
• Glow can be implemented as a glow, or as a light source.

• The interface to place AR3 plants and materials has been temporarily removed.

However, you can place plants and materials using IRender and render the in IRender nXt

• These will be restored soon.

• We have rewritten the interface to handle materials better, and render more reliably (with fewer Bug Splats).