Build 2024.0718
Updated to work with Blender 4.2 and Eevee Next.
Build 2024.0701
Supports 3.6.12+
Tested with:
Blender 3.6.12 - Cycles, Eevee
Blender 4.0.2 - Cycles, Eevee, Octane Add-on 2023.1.2 / 28.10
Blender 4.1.1 - Eevee, Cycles, Renderman 26
Blender Octane Edition 4.0 - 2023.1.3 - 28.15
New Workflow with Blender (New Minimum version supported)
The Blender viewport now streams into the HDR Light Studio interface. This is a superior workflow and means there is no longer a need to export the Blender scene into HDR Light Studio for LightPainting.
The new workflow works with Blender 3.6.12 and higher. See the new workflow here.
Fixed a bug where Blender can hang for some time when HDR Light Studio is stopped.
Octane - Add support for alpha on area lights.
RenderMan - Spread setting on area lights now controls Emission Focus.
Eevee - Blender Area Light emission brightness fixed.
Updated and improved shader networks for Area Lights - Mesh Emitter and Blender Area Light method colors should match now.
Area Lights are now named to match HDR Light Studio names.
Fixed bugs arising from running Blender in non-English language. For example, this affected shader parameter namings used in our code that would break when the language was changed.
Known Issues:
Blender Octane Edition issues:
This new add-on will not work with scenes already lit using an older add-on. Please only install in Blender Octane Edition to light new scenes using Blender Octane Edition 2023.1.1 (28.7) and newer.
Camera Visibility setting not working. We are looking at how to fix this.
RenderMan XPU in our testing has been prone to crashes - it is unclear if this generally or when used with HDR Light Studio only. RenderMan RIS has been very stable.
Build 2024.0327
Updated to support Blender 4.1+
Build 2024.0301
Updated to be compatible with HDR Light Studio 8.2
Build 2023.1116
Updated to support Blender 4+
Build 2023.0329
Performance improvements.
HDR Light Studio API updates.
Fix for Mesh Area Emitters - these broke in Blender 3.4
HDR Light Studio has moved to using a new version of QT. Plug-in updates were required as a result of this.
Build 2022.0913
Updated to support Blender 3.3+
Does not support Octane on Linux
Build 2022.0803
Fix for Octane area lights not working in the latest stable build of Blender for Octane 2021.1.5_26_3. For users working with Blender for Octane, the new build of the Blender Plug-in now requires 'at least' Blender For Octane 2021.1.5_26_3 (Windows only) or Blender for Octane 2022.1.BX2_27_1 (Windows & Mac OS X).
Build 2022.0525
Fix for blender API breaking change of cycles area light visibility after v3.x
Build 2022.0426
Blender Add-on updated to support Apple Silicon
The HDR Light Studio add-on for Blender has been updated to support Blender running on Apple Silicon. This new plug-in requires the latest build of HDR Light Studio (2022.0426).
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.
Build 2022.0324
Support added for Blender 3.1+
A change of python version in Blender 3.1 broke our connection. Our connection has now been updated to add compatibility.
Build 2021.0914
Added support for Octane Render and RenderMan
Fixed scene export failure with versions Blender 2.93.2 and higher
Single installer file for all versions
Build 2021.0504
On macOS, if HDR Light Studio environment variable is not found/work/set then default install location used to find HDR Light Studio main app. This allows users to use HDR Light Studio with their connection who were having technical difficulties due to macOS ignoring our environment variable.
Build 2020.0928
Fixed a bug when an invalid log path is set.
Known Issues / Behaviors
Undo in Blender
If you use the Undo in Blender whilst in a lighting session with HDR Light Studio, then this can really mess things up. So please use the Undo inside HDR Light Studio instead to undo your lighting changes.
For example: If HDR Light Studio is open, and you use Undo in Blender, and then export the Blender scene into HDR Light Studio using the re-sync button, it will crash Blender.
Screen based reflections in Eevee
If an area light front face is not visible in the view, it will not show in reflections when using Eevee. This is how Eevee screen based reflections work at the moment.
Export Limiations of Scenes into HDR Light Studio
We use Blender's Alembic exporter to send scenes into HDR Light Studio's Render View.
Currently we have noticed that these features are not exporting using this exchange format:
1) Instanced Geometry
2) Solidify Modifiers
3) Particle Systems
Area Light - Cam Visibility setting in HDR Light Studio
This setting in the HDR Light Studio properties panel has no effect in Eevee.
Blender 2.93 & RenderMan XPU:
Blender may crash when changing the Area Light Spread.
