Cinema4D R18 is here! Check out the showcasing video ‘Versus’ below, along with the making of it.
Cinema 4D R18 Full Feature List
ANIMATION
New Quaternions workflow
There is now a Quaternions group in the Coordinates tab
The key attributes for Quaternion Rotations have a new option for Quaternion Interpolation types. The user can choose between different interpolation presets there.
Constraints workflow
Parent Constraint
The new “Local Offset” attributes field presents the internal offset that the constrained object will have with the “parent” targets
New Interactive Transform checkbox allowing the user to interactively edit the constrained parameters
New Record button provides an easy way to keyframe the Local Offset and Strength values of the targets
Negative scales and constraints are now supported
New Parent Constraint parameters
“Local Offset” are animatable parameters representing the offset the target (parent) has from the constrained object (child)
“Interactive Local Offset” is a checkbox that enables the user to interactively adjust constrained parameters and have the Local Offsets update to the new adjustments
“Auto-Reset (Legacy)” is the Auto-Reset mode which is now implemented as a Legacy mode, for compatibility reasons with old scenes
“Update Local Offsets” is a new cycle button that will allow to update the Local Offsets based on the constrained object’s coordinates, or setting one of the Targets as a new main target. This will allow for a seamless transition to that target.
“Record Optimized” is new cycle button which allows recording all the Weights and Local Transforms of all the Targets, in an optimized way
The new Shift Priority Tag can be used to shift priority values of expressions
The “Breakdown Color” option in the keyframe attributes of the Timeline now allows setting an alternative color for keyframes
The Timeline’s baking function is now able to bake an Alembic object to native PLA animation
EXCHANGE
Alembic
Alembic module is now based on SDK 1.5.8.
Support for vertex colors was added
The internal tags which represent the data streamed from *.abc files are exposed to the user on the Alembic generator now
There now is a placeholder tag for the Subdivision Surface Weight tag
The subdivision method is now written to and read from the Alembic SubD scheme
Alembic generator has a new option for Creases and Corners used for weights of SDS objects
Alembic generator has a new value to be able to scale SDS weights
New Import options
“Color Maps” option allows color information (RGB and RGBA) to be imported and Vertex Color tags to be created
Importing “Points” with “As Polygon Object” reads the color (RGB or RGBA) property and creates a Vertex Color tag per point mode for it
Importing “Points” with “As Particle Geometry” reads RGBA (vector4d) color arrays now
“Creases and Corners” – reads creases and corners as point and edge weights of SDS objects
New Export options
“Vertex Colors” – the RGBA data of all Vertex Color tags is exported
“Display Colors to Vertex Colors” – writes the display color of the object as vertex color information
“Vertex Colors” + “Points Only (Geometry)” options – exports also RGBA data from points mode only Vertex Color tags
“Subdivision Surface Weights” – writes point and edge weights of SDS objects as corners and creases
Export can now be canceled
FBX
FBX module is now based on SDK 2016.2, now supports the 7.5 file format
New Import options
“Vertex Colors” – imports vertex color elements and creates a Vertex Color tag for each of them
“Convert Grayscale Vertex Colors to Vertex Maps” – in case there are only grayscale colors, a Vertex Map tag will be created instead of a Vertex Color tag
“Subdivision Surface” – an SDS Weight tag will be created if at least one crease layer was found
New Export options
“Vertex Colors” – color information of all Vertex Color tags is exported for every mesh
“Subdivision Surface” – if an SDS Weight tag exists, the weight information for points and edges is written as two crease layers
Support for Allegorithmic Substance Engine
Substance archives (.sbsar) can be loaded
The Substance Asset Manager can be used to organize the Substance assets in the scene
The Substance Shader is used to reference Substance asset outputs in Cinema 4D’s material system and all other parts of Cinema 4D that support shaders
New Substance Asset mode in the Attributes Manager
New Substance Engine section in the Preferences
New Substance Engine sub-menu in Pipeline menu
C++/Python API supports Substance
Support for the DDS texture file format (loader)
BP exchange supports 3ds Max 2017
OBJ
Import and Export presets can now be saved and loaded
The Material Mix Mode can now be specified
HOUDINI EXCHANGE
Updated to use Houdini Engine 15.0.313
The internal tags which are generated by the Houdini asset are now exposed to the user
During Open Scene, if the asset path is absolute and invalid but an asset file with the same name exists in the C4D scene folder, then this asset file is used and the asset path becomes relative
Added vertex color support for both marshalled inputs and generated outputs
GUI improvements
INTERFACE
Support for OS X 10.11 El Capitan System Font added
MATERIAL
Variation shader enhancements
Support for more than one texture
UV Rotation can now be quantized and UV can be flipped
New “Invert Direction” option for Ambient Occlusion
New parallax mapping support in the Bump channel
New Shadow Catcher shader
New Thin Film shader
MODELING
New Knife tools
Interactive modeling workflow using new on screen handles and gizmos
Line Cut tool
Cuts polygon objects and splines with polyline cuts
Cut line can be interactively adapted via control points
Cuts can be inside of polygons
Several slice modes
Cut
Split
Remove Part A
Remove Part B
Supports snapping and constraints
Plane Cut tool
Planar cut for polygon objects
Cutting plane can be interactively adapted
Several slice modes
Cut All
Split
Remove Part A
Remove Part B
Several plane modes available, defining which coordinate system is used
Free
Local
World
Camera
The number and spacing of parallel cuts can be defined
Supports snapping and constraints
Loop/Path Cut tool
Cuts new loops or path into objects
Loops/Paths can be interactively adapted
Loops/Paths can be searched bidirectional or not
Offset modes
Proportional
Edge Distance
The number of parallel cuts can be defined
Cuts can preserve the curvature of a surface
Cuts can be shaped using spline GUI
Support for Pixar’s OpenSubdiv
Baking
Greatly improved displacement map baking and rendering
improved accuracy for vector maps (tangent, object and world)
Using ray casting for intensity maps – new options available (intensity, intensity centered, red-green)
Also improved normal map baking
Ray casting also used when not baked in conjunction with a vector displacement map
Sculpting
Resolved issue with sculpting at small scales
Resolved issue with reproject mesh at small scale
MOGRAPH
New Effectors
Push Apart effector
Helps reduce or avoid clone overlap quickly
Supports several modes:
Push Apart
Hide
Scale Apart
Push Apart Along X,Y, or Z Axis
ReEffector
Can reset all MoData parameters to initial state within the Effector List it’s applied to
Can also blend back to the initial state in a deformer stack
Can re-apply multiple effectors to the “fresh” state and blend their effects into the Effector List per parameter
New distribution modes for MoGraph Cloner and Matrix Objects
Honeycomb Array
Clone on Axis
New behaviors for MoGraph distribution modes
“Object” mode allows to use a custom object to define the form of the cloning
Per Step mode for Grid Array and Honeycomb Array
New handles behavior for these modes to make dragging out fields of clones faster and more intuitive
Scale clones based on polygon size
Rewritten MoGraph Cache tag
Multiple MoGraph Cache tags can now be used and blended between on a single MoGraph object
MoGraph Cache tags can be saved to external files
New interface
New weights workflow
New MoGraph Weightmap tag
New MoGraph Weight Paintbrush tool
New XPresso node for weights
New Commands
Swap Cloner/Matrix – Switch selected Cloner objects to Matrix objects or switch selected Matrix objects to Cloner objects
Hide Selected – Automatically creates a non-destructive setup to hide the current MoGraph selection
Improvements to the Display options for MoGraph objects
Display Clone IDs in the viewport (both on the object and within Selection tags)
Depth Cue and Scaling for better display of MoSelection as well as all other points display modes (UV, Weights, etc.)
Voronoi Fracture
New Voronoi Fracture generator
Support for many different point generators (Point Generator, Object, Spline, Particles, MoGraph Matrix, Shader, …) to define the fracture pattern
The Voronoi Fracture generator is a MoGraph generator and brings full support for effectors and all other MoGraph features
Inside/Outside Selection tag lets you assign different materials to the outside and inside faces of fracture pieces
Full dynamics support
Face, point and edge selections can be created
MOTION TRACKING
New object tracking functionality
New “Lock View on Tracks” mode
New “Frame All” / “Frame Selected” commands
New “Nudge Track” command
New “Auto Update Tracks” mode
TEAM RENDER / TEAM RENDER SERVER
The “Add machine” dialogue now has a small button that presents a list of recently added machine IPs / hostname
New “Restart Jobs After Unexpected Server Termination” option
Monitor page:
The jobs and networks table are now multiselection aware and offer the same functionality as the multiselection bars on the Jobs and Networks page
Jobs can be reordered by clicking on the current position and entering another existing one
If there is input to an edit field, but the user navigates to another section, an information dialog is presented to inform about unsaved changes
The number of active and inactive jobs is shown in the header of the jobs table pane
The number of online and offline clients is shown in the header of the networks table pane
If logged in as an admin, there is now an option to show only the jobs of the admin instead of all jobs
Jobs page:
Jobs can be reordered by clicking on the current position and entering another existing one
If there is input to an edit field, but the user navigates to another section, an information dialog is presented to inform about unsaved changes
If logged in as an admin, there is now an option to show only the jobs of the admin instead of all jobs
Render Info in Jobs Details
In the jobs details page (if a master scene is selected) a new collapsable is shown with useful information from the render settings
These settings are: Render Settings Name, Take Name, Frame Range, Regular Image, Multipass Image, Renderengine, Frame Rate, Image Resolution
User page
When creating a new user or changing the password for the current logged in user, the TeamRender Server interface presents a single dialog instead of a wizard
New FAQ page
Questions can be filtered (full text search)
When hovering with the mouse over a question (in the overview panel) a short excerpt is shown with
the first couple of characters
characters before and after the entered filter term in case a filter string is found for the first time. The matched result is highlighted.
Questions are tagged, and the tags can be selected to restrict the results and the overview panel according to the selected category. Q&A can have multiple tags
TEXTURE BAKING
Calculation of vector maps of all types has been improved
Intensity based maps (intensity, intensity centered, red-green) now use a basic ray casting technique to measure displacement between the base and the sculpt mesh
Baking normal maps only also uses the basic ray casting technique to sample normal vectors on the sculpt mesh
VIEWPORT
Shading/Vertex normals can now be displayed in the viewport
New “Screenspace Ambient Occlusion” option
New “Reflections” option shows an approximation of the Reflectance Channel in the viewport
Supports multiple layers, masks, fresnel and roughness
New “Tessellation” option shows the effect of displacements in the viewport
Can be set globally and per material
WORKFLOW
New preference settings
Phong tag: Now the default Phong Angle is 40º
Selection Tools: The setting “Only Select Visible Elements” is disabled by default for Rectangle, Lasso and Polygon Selection
Render Settings: the default render output size has been changed to 1280×720 and a new Screen preset with that size has been added
Viewport filter: now “Object Highlighting” is disabled by default
Weight Tool / Paint Tool: the following default settings have been changed:
Strength: 100%
Mode: Absolute
Falloff: None
Texture Manager: now all options in “View” menu are enabled by default
Scroll to First Active: this command has now been assigned the shortcut ‘S’
Extrude Tool: now the “Maximum Angle” setting is 91º by default
Figure object:
Now the default figure height is 180 cm
Now the figure axis is located at its feet
Soft Selection Tool: now “Mode” is set to “All” by default.
Split Command: (C4D main menu / Mesh / Commands / Split) – The newly created object name will have the “.1” suffix, e.g. “Cube.1”
Color Chooser
New preference: Remember Last Layout
New Compact Mode
Now the first swatch group is shared between all Cinema 4D documents
New contextual menu options handle the default swatch set:
“Reload Default Group”: current swatches in shared group will be replaced with the stored default swatch set
“Save this Group as Default Group”: the swatches in the clicked group will be saved as default group set
“Save Selected Swatches as Default Group”: the currently active swatches will be saved as default group set
Dragging single or multiple swatches over a gradient converts them to color knots
C++/Python API supports Color Swatches
Improved ALT key handling for left-handers on Windows
Metaball Solidity option makes polygonal metasurfaces solid
The Reflectance channel now supports multi edit for materials with the same layer setup
Pasting a Reflectance layer into a Reflectance channel with a selected layer now replaces that layer instead of adding a new layer
The previews in the Material Manager now indicate which materials have the same reflectance layer setup as the selected material
New “Select Materials with same Reflectance” menu command in the Material Manager
New “Set from Projection” command for UVW Tags to easily create new UVW tags or modify existing ones on multiple objects
OTHER
The Structure Manager has two new modes to show weights per vertex and weights per edge
Improved baking for multiple tags
Reduced file size for particle storage and improved speed
Loading/saving of large number of image sequences is now much faster
Cinema 4D startup speed increased
Mesa library is now used for viewport rendering on the CPU
Support for the RLM license manager
Support for vertex colors
New Vertex Color tag
Extended Paint Tool now can paint vertex colors
The Vertex Map shader now supports vertex colors
The Vertex Map shader supports OGL
New Vertex Color XPresso node
The Structure Manager now supports vertex colors
New Vertex Map Converter converts between vertex map and vertex color
C++/Python API supports vertex colors
Python API now supports custom nodes description methods, BodyPaint 3D UV commands and texture baking functions
