Speed is an important factor in any production environment, and a renderer must always deliver results as fast as possible.

As a result, we are obsessed with speed! We like to hunt for milliseconds in our own code, and are always looking for ways to cut down parsing and rendering times without forcing users to buy expensive hardware, by focusing on creating smart algorithms under the hood. In every version we release, we look to boost the speed of rendering as much as possible as well as adding new features.

Chaos Corona uses Intel Embree Ray Tracing Kernels, making the CPU–only Corona as fast as many GPU renderers but without any of the limitations of GPU–based solutions…

Denoising

The denoising feature analyzes noise in the 3D space, so is not just a 2D post–process. You can use it to reduce the number of passes needed to get a noise–free image, with render time reductions of 50 to 70% reported to us by third parties in commercial usage (not in carefully crafted test scenes!). It will also remove fireflies (hot pixels) from an image, and can be used only in that mode if required.

Denoising is seamlessly integrated into the core as a one–click solution. The denoising level can be interactively adjusted in the VFB after rendering is complete, so that you are not locked in to the level set in the rendering options. This lets you check and adjust the blending between the regular and the denoised image without having to re–render. You can also calculate Denoising in the Corona Image Editor rather than at render time and without the overhead of working in a 3D application.

To learn more about it, you can watch the tutorial from when Denoising was released:

Interactive Rendering

Chaos Corona has a workflow that is second to none, so you'll be able to render faster. Thanks to its fully–featured Interactive Rendering, Chaos Corona brings you all the same advantages as a GPU render engine but without any of the drawbacks and limitations.

You can change materials, lights, and create or adjust geometry as well as see your interactive render respond almost immediately. As it runs entirely on the CPU, it is not limited by the graphics card you have.

You can change materials, lights, and create or adjust geometry and see your interactive render respond almost immediately. It runs completely on the CPU, so it has no limitations and won’t care what graphics card you have installed.

• NVIDIA GPU denoising

The NVIDIA OptiX denoiser is the only denoiser that you can use during Interactive Rendering, and it gives you a noise–free image in record time. You can see a short example of it in action in a complex scene in the video below:

GPU denoiser can be used for final renders as well, so you aren't limited to using it only for interactive rendering.

Note that this denoiser requires a compatible NVIDIA graphics card. Standard denoising uses the CPU only so can be used with any graphics card.

• Intel AI denoising

Experience enhanced results with the new Intel Denoiser. It has been updated to version 2, and can now run on the CPU or compatible GPU.

When selecting the Intel denoising for final rendering, Corona will use the GPU if it is compatible/available, or default to CPU otherwise. Also, in the Performance tab, you can choose to use the Intel Denoiser during rendering so that it will be used during IR.

Please note that for this implementation, the Intel Denoiser requires an NVIDIA GPU. If no compatible GPU is found, it will default to CPU.

• What You See Is What You Get

Our interactive rendering is an integral part of the Corona core and shares over 99.9% of the regular renderer code. This means that all features of Chaos Corona are supported, and that the results are exactly the same as your final render – you can render motion blur, DOF, create proxies, scatter systems and more, all with instant feedback.

• Compatibility

Because our interactive and regular renderer are almost identical, all types of geometry and proxies are supported, as are almost all 3ds Max maps and third party maps. Even advanced third party plugins, such as Itoo Forest Pack, hair and fur from Ornatrix and Hair Farm, and simulations from Chaos Phoenix are supported. You can find a full list of supported plugins in the Resources section.

Core V–Ray Lights and Materials will also work in Interactive Rendering, even if V–Ray is not installed. Check out which V-Ray features are supported – and support will be growing in the future.

Interactive Rendering also offers as many render regions as you like, which can be moved and resized as you choose. This means that so that they can act as a “sample brush”, letting you paint–in areas which you want to refine faster or inspect at better quality.

If you want to know more about the differences between CPU and GPU solutions, you can see here why we are proudly CPU based.

Efficient handling of many lights

Corona handles scenes with many lights without problems and with no penalty to render time, so that you don’t have to worry about trying to optimize your scene.

Adaptive Image Sampling

This calculates the lighting from any environment in the scene, such as an HDRI. Thanks to the efficiency and power of the Adaptive Environment Sampler, you no longer need to add any extra helpers to the scene such as Portals, simplifying your scene set ups and reducing the work you have to do in that step, while getting you the best possible result from your environment lighting.