Version: 8.1.1
Build Date: 2023.0515
Released: 17th May 2023
This is a minor update with no new features, but fixes an important issue that can lock HDR Light Studio start up.
If a referenced texture file in a Preset was missing, this would lock up HDR Light Studio 8.1.0 at start up during the creation of preset thumbnail cache files.
HDR Light Studio 8.1.1 now handles this gracefully and will generate a red thumbnail image indicating the referenced texture was missing, and then carries on to successfully start up HDR Light Studio.
This is the only change in this new build.
For more information on HDR Light Studio 8 and new features please see - HDR Light Studio 8.1.0
What's New?
7th December 2023 - new plug-in released
Houdini
Support added for Houdini 20. See release notes.
This build removes support for 18.5, for 18.5 please use Build 2023.0706
5th December 2023 - new plug-in released
New Unreal Engine Plug-in Connection Released
We are proud to release this new plug-in connection to Unreal Engine 5. Simply add the provided plug-in to Unreal Engine in order to connect HDR Light Studio to your Unreal Engine session.
Works with official major & minor releases of Unreal Engine 5.2.1 & 5.3.x (Windows only) - Plug-in build 2023.0921
Documentation for this new plug-in connection can be found here.
30th November 2023 - new plug-in released
Blender
Updated to support Blender 4+
2nd October 2023 - new plug-in released
Cinema 4D
Support added for Cinema 4D 2024.
8th August 2023 - new plug-ins released
Houdini
The Houdini connection now uses our new API for a far more responsive lighting experience.
The Houdini connection is now only compatible with Python 3 builds of Houdini.
Support added for Houdini 19.5 running on Apple Silicon.
Please note: The HDR Light Studio main application is still an Intel MacOS app and runs via Rosetta on Apple Silicon computers. However, this does not stop it from performing very well and communicating with our new plug-ins compiled for Apple Silicon apps.
Updated HDR Light Studio Connection UI.
Compatibility added for Area Light Spread (Redshift, V-Ray, Arnold, and RenderMan).
The path to the rendered HDRI lighting textures now uses $HIP file structure.
Bug fix: The HDR Light Studio connection now prevents users from creating more than one HDR Light Studio Connection Controller.
Omniverse
Support added for Support for USD Composer 2023.1+
'Refresh' button has been added to the HDR Light Studio Connection panel. The button re-scans the Omniverse stage and re-populates available dome lights in the Dome Lights list.
The name structure of the area lights created by HDR Light Studio now adheres to the latest naming conventions for paths. The name of any area light created by HDR Light Studio will now begin with 'hdrls_'.
