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 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, and use the standard Cinema 4D transform widgets on them
- 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 Corona VFB or docked viewport
Chaos Cosmos
- Instant content for your scenes, including
- Models
- Materials
- HDRI Skies
- Scatter presets
- Decal 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
- Edge Trimming to control and tidy the edging of scatters
- Associated texture map that colors scattered objects based on the colors of the object they are scattered on – ideal for creating 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
- 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 Scatter Lister plugin to easily access and control all scatters in a scene
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 Shader
- 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
- Corona Physical Material
- Default material since Corona 7
- Base Layer for diffuse, 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
- Corona Legacy Material
- Uses Lambertian shading model
- Legacy material, to preserve identical results from scenes created in earlier versions of Chaos Corona
- Corona Select Material
- Store multiple materials for one object, and select between them via radio buttons
- Current Index parameter can be keyframed
- Corona Skin Material
- Dedicated material for skin
- Three independent Subsurface Scattering layers
- Two independent Reflection layers
- Corona Hair Material
- Dedicated material for hair and fur
- Colored and Colorless reflection layers
- Color controls via melanin amounts, or directly
- Adjustable random Glints
- Usable alone or in combination with Cinema 4D Hair Material for Cinema 4D's native control over the hair growth properties
- Corona Layered Material
- Alternative to Cinema 4D Texture Tags layering
- Combines multiple materials
- 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
- Corona Light Material
- Identical performance to Corona Light
- Various non-physical settings
- Textured emission (useful for backplates)
- Corona Ray Switcher Material
- Uses different material for different ray types: direct, GI, reflections, refractions
- Corona Shadow Catcher Material
- Use custom backplate texture or show the environment map behind
- Supports glossy surfaces
- Bump mapping
- Lights work additively (illuminators) or subtractively
- Corona Volume Material
- Simplified material for volumetric scattering and absorption
- “Inside Mode” allows for true 3D volumetric materials
- Cinema 4D Materials
- Cinema 4D Material
- Cinema 4D PBR Material
Material Library
- Over 520 ready-to-use high quality materials
- Drag-and-drop from the Library to an object in the Object Manager, viewport, Corona Node Material Editor, and Material Manager
- 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
Corona Node Material Editor
- Global/World view of shaders and materials and how they are connected
- Use views to organize materials and shaders by type, category, etc.
- Handles all Corona and most Cinema 4D shaders and materials; also works with Substance shaders
- Connect one shader to any number of channels, or materials
- Works with native Cinema 4D Layer shader
- Switch at any time between the Corona Node Material Editor, or the native Cinema 4D editor
- Supports drag and drop from the Cinema 4D Asset Browser
- Select by selection box
- CTRL + Drag to copy selected nodes
- Option to turn Corona Shared Shaders into regular shaders on saving the scene
- Independent of Cinema 4D version – works in all versions of Cinema 4D supported by Chaos Corona (R14-R25)
Shaders
- Corona Curvature
- 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
- Corona Distance
- Gradient based on distance to other objects, including Cameras
- Supports textures
- List of objects to calculate distance from
- Can be used with Cinema 4D Effectors to control placement of scattered objects
- Wide range of other creative uses, e.g. ripples on water around objects, controlling light intensity and color, etc.
- Supports splines
- Works as an input to bump mapping, displacement, etc.
- Corona Mixture
- Advanced mix shader
- Texture or color inputs, different blending modes
- Works as an input to bump mapping
- Corona Multi Shader
- Randomly assigns colors/shaders to instances, mesh elements, or decals, which can be enabled separately or via checkboxes which allow multiple randomization modes at once
- Frequency spinners
- Hue and Gamma randomization
- Features advanced blending modes
- Global blur multiplier to affect all multi shader elements
- Supports up to 100 inputs
- Can be used with just one input, applying gamma and hue randomization
- Corona UVW Randomizer
- Apply random offset / rotation / scale to shaders by instance, material id, mesh element, etc., which can be enabled separately or via checkboxes which allow multiple randomization modes at once
- Options to allow randomization of seamless textures, e.g. to avoid visibly obvious tiling
- Corona Select Shader
- Store multiple shaders, and select between them via radio buttons
- Current Index parameter can be keyframed
- CoronaSky
- Duplicates the functionality of the Corona Sky object (see the Lights section), except for the Volume Effect.
- Corona AO
- Ambient occlusion shader
- Supports textures
- Includes/Excludes
- Additional controls: spread, directionality, inverted mode, etc.
- Cinema 4D Normal Direction
- This supported native Cinema 4D shader fully replaces the CoronaFrontBack texmap from the 3ds Max version
- Corona Color Correct
- 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, green-magenta tint, etc.
- Cinema 4D Filter Shader is supported and can be used as an equivalent for other tone mapping capabilities such as gamma, curves, etc.
- Corona Tonemap Control
- Specify whether a texture map should be affected by VFB Exposure, Tone Mapping, etc.
- Corona Color Mix
- Adds the Cinema 4D native color mixing settings to the shaders which normally don't have them
- Corona Ray Switch
- Same as RaySwitch material, but on shader instead of material level
- Cinema 4D Color
- This supported native Cinema 4D shader fully replaces the 3ds Max version's CoronaColor texmap
- Corona Wire
- Wire shader
- Allows to set edge/vertex size in world or screen coordinates
- Includes Falloff option
- Can be used as an input to bump mapping
- Corona Bitmap
- UV Tiling, Crop / Placement, Channel outputs
- Can load .tx files
- Corona RoundEdges
- Rounded corners shader
- Works as an input to bump mapping and other material slots
- Cinema 4D Variation
- This supported native Cinema 4D shader fully replaces the CoronaMultiMap known from the 3ds Max version
- Corona Triplanar
- Apply textures without explicit UV mapping, with no stretching or seams thanks to the in-built blending
- Corona Normal
- Automatic detection of incorrect input gamma