Boxshot 5.2.1 Beta
29 May 2020
This update adds highly–customizable magazines and improves various aspects of rendering.
Magazines
The new magazine shape is done the same way as the paperback book in the previous update. It comes with some templates and you can manually configure it the way you need.
Some aspects of the new paperback books were also improved, like default page materials thanks to your feedback. A couple of visual glitches were fixed.
Book Editor
Compared to the previous version, the book editor now uses just one curve segment per sheet or block by default, but you can add more if needed. The user interface was also updated a bit:
Everything is now in the top toolbar, so the most important features are just one click away. Book elements are now also selectable with mouse click.
Hard cover books are next, stay tuned :)
Rendering Improvements
First things first, this update fixes the annoying shadow on the floor. The new “Environment shadow level” slider does the job and there shouldn’t be issues with that shadow anymore. It is still visible by default, but you can hide it more if needed:
Besides that we’ve got color shadows of translucent objects. Setup opacity and medium color and you get something like this:
Some other goodies on top of that:
- bump–related issues fixed;
- relief bump got separate parameters for normal and height maps;
- relief bump works faster in preview;
- plastic materials rendering improved for translucent plastics;
- floor reflection improved a lot;
- omni lights are now visible and get rendered much better.
Other Features and Fixes
Yes, there’s more:
- pharma blister fixed for unneeded shadows, materials improved;
- Collada loader got better integration with the latest Origami;
- modal windows work better on Mac;
- the focal distance of depth of field now follows the camera distance;
- mouse click selection improved;
- job manager now renders selected tasks in order.
Your feedback is very welcome :)
Have a nice weekend!