Render engine
- Biased and Unbiased solution
- Path Tracing: unbiased solution
- UHD and 4K (experimental) cache: two options for faster biased cached solution for interiors
- Denoising
- Reduces the number of passes needed to get a noise-free image, with render time reductions of 50 to 70%
- Easy to use and fast to render
- Corona High Quality denoiser, best quality, recommended for final renders
- NVIDIA AI GPU-based denoising can be used for final renders at the user’s discretion (requires a compatible NVIDIA GPU)
- Intel AI denoising can be used for final renders. CPU-only, and works with any CPU (not just Intel)
- Interactive amount adjustment
- Checkbox to enable/disable the result in the VFB
- Fast Caustics Solver:
- Easy to use, and fast to render
- Includes caustics from reflection, refraction, and dispersion (splitting light into separate colors)
- Enable or disable for specific light sources
- Works with LightMix
- Separate render element available for compositing caustics in post processing for even greater control
- Works correctly with motion blur
- Include/Exclude list for control over which objects receive caustics
- Adaptive Image Sampling
- Balances out the rendering calculations over the image to focus more processing power on tricky areas
- High Quality Image filtering, gives a more natural and “less CGI” look to noise, making it less noticeable to the eye
- Progressive rendering
- Max Sample Intensity (MSI): automatically removes fireflies - accuracy/render speed tradeoff
- Proudly CPU based
Interactive lightmix
- Adjust color and intensity of lights, during and after rendering
- Single-click set up (by instances, groups or individual lights, with memory requirements reported)
- Supports multiple suns and multiple environments for different times of day from one render (see Corona Sky and Corona Sun in the Lights section)
- Manual set up if required
- Controlled from the VFB
- Results can be pushed to the scene
- Can be used for anything from subtle adjustments, to turning day into night, without re-rendering
- Each light select pass can be denoised independently (this can be enabled during automatic setup)
- LightMix result can be saved to a CXR file and then adjusted in the Corona Image Editor, or saved for compositing in other post-processing software
- Lights can be selected in the scene from the LightMix tab
Interactive rendering
- 100% the same render engine as for the final frame
- All final frame rendering features supported, including Interactive LightMix, post-production effects such as bloom & glare, LUTs, etc.
- NVIDIA AI GPU-based denoising, for denoising during Interactive Rendering (requires a compatible NVIDIA GPU)
- Pick objects directly in the docked viewport
- Set DOF focus point directly in the docked viewport (for Corona Cameras)
- Image upscaling factor to allow rendering to a smaller resolution and upscaling (ideal for HighDPI displays)
- While zooming-in in the IR, rendering is focused on visible area only
- Subsampling lowers initial resolution at the beginning of rendering, for virtually real-time performance
- Blue Noise Dithering to give visually pleasing results in the first few passes, for quick assessment of a scene when using Interactive Rendering
- Results shown in 3ds Max viewport or Corona VFB
Chaos Cosmos
- Instant content for your scenes, including
- Models
- Materials
- HDRI Skies
- Scatter presets
- Accessible directly within 3ds Max or Cinema 4D
- Content is categorized and easily searchable
- Mark your favorites to find them quickly in other projects
- Drag and drop anything you have downloaded into your 3D application
- Content loads as Corona Proxies, with fully editable Corona Materials
- On-demand downloads, only download what you need, when you need it
- New content added between Corona releases
Chaos Scatter
- Ideal for adding grass, trees, rocks, traffic or parked cars, crowds or pedestrians, etc. to your scenes
- Can be used to scatter Decals
- Control the distribution of hundreds, thousands, or millions of objects
- Scatter on geometry, in a volume, or along splines
- Distribute randomly, or in patterns
- Limit distribution based on the steepness of a slope, e.g. prevent trees growing on cliffs etc.
- Use spline include/excludes with controllable near and far parameters, e.g. to carve a path through trees, or limit flowers to a flowerbed
- Associated texture map that colors scattered objects based on the colors of the object they are scattered on – ideal for created patterned rugs, variations in color on a lawn, etc.
- Camera Clipping to limit scattering to within the camera field of view
- Extend view parameter allows expanding the camera view culling to allow correct shadows or reflections from instances outside of the field of view
- Edit or even delete individual instances after scattering
- Random translation/rotation/scaling of instances, with optional discrete stepped values
- Optionally avoids objects intersections, with tweakable inter–object spacing
- Supports aligning instances to local normal
- Control density and scale by maps
- Different modes for using maps to control scatter scale, including RGB mode to define x, y and z scaling independently in one map
- Several display modes and limits, to keep viewports responsive
- Included Lister plugin to easily access and control all scatters in a scene
- Fully replaces the older Corona Scatter
Materials
- Corona Decal
- Easily add surface details or imperfections, which can include displacement
- Control scaling, positioning, and rotation using a 3D object in the viewport – no need to fiddle with complex UV mapping and placement
- Stack Decals on top of each other, intuitively controlled by positioning in the 3D space
- Decals apply to all objects they overlap, with an include/exclude list for fine control
- Can take a mask from the input material, or a dedicated Map
- Option to replace base displacement and base bump
- “Fit to Bitmap” and “Fit to assigned mtl” to get correct aspect ratio for the Decal object
- “Max angle limit” lets you avoid the decal being applied to backfaces, etc.
- “Max angle blur” softens the transition from the “Max angle limit” control
- Option to display the material as a preview in the 3D viewport
- Corona Slicer Material
- Used to cut away sections of geometry at render time
- Cut with any shape that has the Slicer material applied
- Cuts through all objects overlapped by the slicer, customizable via exclude/include lists
- Option to cap resulting exposed surfaces
- Caps can have their own material, or take the material from the object being sliced
- Can preserve interior lighting of a house with cutaway by combining with the RaySwitch Material
- CoronaPhysicalMtl
- Default material since Corona 7
- Base Layer for diffuse, roughness, reflection, bump, and translucency controls
- Base layer uses Oren-Nayar shading model
- Clearcoat Layer for adding a layer of varnish, lacquer, etc., featuring separate bump from the Base Layer
- Sheen for creating realistic fabrics
- Choice of Roughness or Glossiness workflow, both per-material and as scene default
- Choice of IOR or Disney Specular workflow, both per-material and as scene default
- Metalness workflow, where Metalness can be mapped
- Metals can be controlled by simple Edge Color, or by Complex IOR
- UI interactively enables or disables parameters based on whether a material is Metal or Non-Metal
- 35 presets built-in to the material, as starting points, or to ‘reverse engineer’ to learn in creating your own materials
- Refraction, including dispersion, caustics, and thin absorption (for Thin Mode)
- Anisotropy correctly affects both Refractions and Reflection (both correctly affect caustics)
- Thin mode for glass correctly blurs reflections and refractions
- Opacity
- Adaptive displacement with low memory requirements
- Vector displacement
- SSS mode for wax, marble, and other materials that do not use Thin Mode or full Refraction
- Volumetric scattering and absorption mode for fog, mist, and for colored glass, liquids and other materials that use Refraction without Thin Mode
- Self-illumination
- Adjustable PBR reflection tail
- CoronaLegacyMtl
- Uses Lambertian shading model
- Legacy material, to preserve identical results from scenes created in earlier versions of Chaos Corona
- CoronaSkinMtl
- Dedicated material for skin
- Three independent Subsurface Scattering layers
- Two independent Reflection layers
- CoronaHairMtl
- Dedicated material for hair and fur
- Colored and Colorless reflection layers
- Color controls via melanin amounts, or directly
- Adjustable random Glints
- CoronaLayeredMtl
- Similar to 3ds Max Blend material
- Combines multiple materials instead of just two
- Individual layers can be toggled on/off
- Displacement from the individual materials can be combined via blend or additive modes, or taken only from the base layer
- CoronaSelectMtl
- Store multiple materials for one object, and select between them via radio buttons
- Radio buttons can be keyframed, and accessed via MAXScript
- CoronaLightMtl
- Identical performance to CoronaLight
- Various non-physical settings
- Textured emission (useful for backplates)
- CoronaRaySwitchMtl
- Uses different material for different ray types: direct, GI, reflections, refractions
- CoronaShadowCatcherMtl
- Custom backplate textures
- Screen, spherical, or no projection
- Supports glossy surfaces
- Bump mapping
- Lights work additively (illuminators) or subtractively
- CoronaVolumeMtl
- Simplified material for volumetric scattering and absorption
- “Inside Mode” allows for true 3D volumetric materials
- Drag and drop bitmaps from Windows Explorer directly into Corona material slots
- 3ds Max materials
- Standard
- Blend (including nested blend materials)
- Multi/Sub-Object
- XRef
- Shell
- Double Sided
- Top/Bottom
- DirectX Shader
- Support for 3ds Max physical material
Material library
- Over 520 ready-to-use high quality materials
- Drag-and-drop from the Library to the viewport, slate material editor and compact material editor
- Real World Scale or Triplanar mapping used where possible, to reduce tiling and give expected scaling
- Materials organized by category
- Set favorites, with display favorites only option
- Sort by name, favorites, or most used
- Select all objects in the scene that use a particular material
- Resizable material previews
- Open standalone large preview windows for materials
Texmaps
- CoronaSky
- See the Lights section
- CoronaCurvature
- Add wear-and-tear or dirt to an object, based on the curves of the surface
- Identify concave areas, convex areas, or both at once
- Ray directionality to control how “focused” the effect is
- Distance to control how far the effect extends
- Color spread to control smoothness of blending between colors
- CoronaAO
- Ambient occlusion shader
- Supports textures
- Includes/Excludes
- Additional controls: spread, directionality, inverted mode, etc.
- CoronaDistance
- Gradient based on distance to other objects
- Supports textures
- List of objects to calculate distance from
- Can be used in Chaos Scatter density map to control placement of objects
- Wide range of other creative uses, e.g. ripples on water around objects, controlling light intensity and color, etc.
- Supports all geometry including Corona Proxy, Chaos Scatter, and 3ds Max particle objects, as well as Cameras and other objects
- Works as an input to bump mapping
- CoronaColorCorrect
- Adjust brightness, saturation etc. of a texture map (and still have it affected by VFB post-processing)
- Unique tone mapping capabilities (not present on other output nodes), including LUTs, gamma, curves, green-magenta tint, etc.
- Mode available so that one CoronaColorCorrect controls multiple other CoronaColorCorrects, allowing you to apply the same adjustments to multiple maps and adjust those from one location
- CoronaTonemapControl
- Specify whether a texture map should be affected by VFB Exposure, Tone Mapping, etc.
- CoronaUvwRandomizer
- Apply random offset / rotation / scale to textures and maps by instance, material id, mesh element, etc., each of which can be enabled via checkbox to allow multiple randomization modes at once
- Options to allow randomization of seamless textures, e.g. to avoid visibly obvious tiling
- CoronaMix
- Advanced mix shader
- Texture or color inputs, different blending modes
- Works as an input to bump mapping
- CoronaRaySwitch
- Same as RaySwitch material, but on texmap instead of material level
- CoronaColor
- Allows to input single constant color using a color picker
- HDR numerical values, Kelvin temperature, web hex input
- CoronaTriplanar
- Apply textures without explicit UV mapping, with no stretching or seams thanks to the built-in blending
- CoronaBitmap
- Works similarly to 3ds Max bitmap, but faster (10-20%)
- Can load .tx files (via drag and drop into the “Load File” section of the UI in the Corona Bitmap)
- Spherical, Dome, Cross and Mirrorball modes for use as an Environment
- Rotation via degrees or U Offset (for environments)
- Asynchronous loading (start work on a scene without wait for all textures to load)
- CoronaSelect
- Store multiple maps in a material, and select between them via radio buttons
- Radio buttons can be keyframed, and accessed via MAXScript
- Batch load option to load multiple maps at once
- CoronaMultiMap
- Randomly assigns colors/maps to instances, mesh elements, or decals, each of which can be enabled via checkbox to allow multiple randomization modes at once
- Frequency spinners
- Hue, Gamma and Saturation randomization
- Features advanced blending modes
- Global blur multiplier to affect all multimaps elements
- Supports up to 25 inputs directly, with another 75 accessible via MAXScript
- Can be used with just one input, applying gamma and hue randomization
- CoronaRoundEdges
- Rounded corners shader
- Works as an input to bump mapping and other material slots
- Fast mode for faster rendering and no noise, with no parameters needed
- Precise mode for blending across other objects / elements / materials
- CoronaNormal
- Automatic detection of incorrect input gamma
- CoronaBumpConverter
- Converts RGB maps to be compatible with the Bump channel (e.g. 3ds Max native Marble, Wood, ColorCorrect, etc.)
- CoronaFrontBack
- Shows different colors/texmaps on front/back sides of a material
- CoronaWire
- Wire shader
- Allows to set edge/vertex size in world or screen coordinates
- Falloff between Base and Edges / Vertices color
- Can be used as input to bump mapping
- CoronaUserProperty
- Assign a numeric value to a node, for use with MAXScript
- CoronaOutput
- Legacy only, used in scenes created before Chaos Corona 2. Replaced by CoronaColorCorrect and CoronaToneMapControl
