A new version of KeyShot and KeyShot Pro will be released on Monday 24th June, including some of the biggest features and updates yet. KeyShot 4.1 complements and improves on all the features introduced in KeyShot 4 as well as brand new features such as procedural textures, toon shading, focused caustics and color management. There are also additional updates to the Importer Material, Templates and KeyShot HDRI Editor.
What’s New in 4.1?
Focused caustics
The new Focused Caustics feature allows KeyShot users to accurately display the rays of light that reflect or pass through transparent or translucent surfaces. Users have the ability to toggle Focused Caustics in the render scene settings. This compliments the new physical lighting feature in KeyShot that allows any object to be used as a Point, Area or IES light profile with added functionality in KeyShot 4.1 to adjust the size of the light, allowing the user to control the softness of the shadow. The proprietary algorithm for focused caustics developed by Luxion co-founder and chief scientist Dr. Henrik Wann Jensen is one of the fastest algorithms in the industry, delivering results in seconds.
Procedural textures
New Procedural texture options are available for any material when applying a texture to an object. Six preset procedural materials allow a user to immediately apply a seamless texture to any surface with the added ability to scale, adjust bump height and sync to other textures. The six presets include Granite, Leather, Marble, Noise (Texture), Noise (Fractal) and Wood with more planned for future releases.
Toon shading
The non-photorealistic (NPR) toon shader is a new material type that allows users to apply solid colors, solid shading and contours to their objects for a flat, cel shading appearance. Users can apply this material from the material type selection box with options to adjust material color along with contour color, angle, width, quality and more advanced options to adjust contours and shadows. Since it is amaterial rather than a render mode, the toon material can be used in combination with any other material for still images, animations and KeyShotVR.
Color management
A new Color Management setting has been added to the KeyShot Preferences with this release. Color Management allows the matching and control of color representations across various devices. In the Color Management settings, users have the ability to enable Color Management selecting an ICC profile (.icc or .icm) available from various software and hardware manufacturers.
STL import
A new STL importer is now available as part of the 25+ 3D file formats supported inside KeyShot. This new importer allows .stl files to be imported directly into KeyShot.
Importer improvements
All importers have been significantly improved to better represent the geometry inside KeyShot. The order and exact structure is now maintained for all file formats. Geometry for many file formats is now properly represented.
Other features and improvements
Among the major features mentioned above, KeyShot 4.1 also contains additional features and improvements. iBook support for KeyShotVR is now available allowing the creation of an iBooks widget with the use of iBooks Author. Improvements to the HDRI Editor have been added with new Flat and Spherical Display types as well as Display Orientation for the Spherical display. In addition the user interface has been streamlined with the ability to rename pins and to copy and paste regions from the HDRI. Additional options have been added to the Material templates dialogue that allow users to add a template for a part or materials either automatically or manually and materials used for the scene have been moved to the Project Scene tab. The user can now create an unlimited number of render layers with the ability to create custom names for each layer. The animation capabilities have been made more robust, respecting now the order in which animations have been created, with the ability to change the order interactively in the scene tree.