What's New in VRED 2023

Video Captions: In VRED 2023.3, we added the completely new so-called Metadata Editor. Metadata is information that is attached to a node that can be used to extend workflows or pipeline scripts, while being object name independent. So, with the Metadata Editor, you can create, edit, and control metadata, which is information that is attached to objects, that is normally hidden. I can also use existing metadata that are coming from external CAD applications like Catia or Inventor, and within the Metadata Editor, I can create metadata sets to arrange them to my needs or to search for specific information.

Here is how it works: I can now search and filter nodes without knowing the name of the nodes, by using the metadata information. This can be done using our new advanced search widget, which uses simple Python expressions to search for metadata information. So, I can, for example, search for a specific owner or author. Like here, where I am searching for my name. Now, I see hundreds of nodes. But I can also specify it a bit more and add a date to my search. So now, I only see objects that I have created at this specific date.

And, this advanced search is now implemented in all corresponding editors like the Scenegraph, Material, Camera, Light, and Sceneplate Editor. Or I want to filter for a specific part, like here, the generative design wheels, and in case I need this filter more often, I can also save that query search as a favorite and use the same search within the Material Editor, to find out where the materials of that objects are. So, it’s all about a name independent advanced search and what I do with this, strongly depends on my workflows and also my creativity.

I give you a practical example: Here, I am creating a metadata set for a specific variant or version of the car by simply dragging and dropping the related nodes or materials into the metadata set. In this case, I am adding different wheels and several material switches to my sets. And for a better overview, I can change the color of the sets. Additionally, for future use, I can save the metadata sets or store them in the Asset Manager.

And now, I can use a Python script that controls the visibility of the nodes within the metadata set, and this gives me the possibility to show different car variants without the need to rearrange nodes within geometry switches. This can keep the scenegraph complexity very low, and this can be even more helpful when variant switches of a car are getting extremely complex.

Here is another example: When loading a Substance material into VRED, I can see that the texture size is still the default 100 mm. But in the metadata of the material, I can see the real values written in cm. Now, I can run a script that reads out this information, converts them into mm and writes that into the size field of the material and you will have instantly the right size.

And also a roundtrip with Maya is possible. So, I can read the VRED metadata from an exported FBX part within Maya, edit them there, reimport the parts to VRED, and I can see the new metadata entries from Maya in VRED, now as well. So generally, we have now an editor that can use this hidden metadata information and you can decide what to do with this new selection and filtering ability, depending on your workflows and needs.

We also decoupled the Scenegraph. This gives you the possibility to access the scenegraph via the Python API. Additionally, we added some more functionality to it. Now, you have access to many more important options directly at this icon bar and also the context menu is been reorganized. The Scenegraph contains also another section of columns that shows which nodes contain metadata, animation, transform variants, touch sensors, and annotations. This gives you a much better overview of your scene. But the best thing is, you have now direct access to this information. For example, I can double-click onto an icon, like the animation flag, and the corresponding editor will instantly open up. So, you have now direct access to all these values, which can speed up your workflow massively, as I can instantly find the animation curve of an object.

Last but not least, we give you now the possibility to download four brand-new 3D environments for free. Therefore, you need to go to Web Shops > VRED Library, and after logging in using your Autodesk account, you can choose between four different environments.

Just download them to your preferred directory. Be aware that some scenes need to be unzipped, before you open them in VRED because we added multiple light baking texture sets, which you can see in the separate folders. I will quickly introduce the four environments to you:

Simple Studio: First, we have the Simple Studio. This is a very reduced minimal dark studio setup, which you can use for Raytracing and OpenGL.

Another Studio is the modular studio. Here you have a set of three different studio types within one scene. You can switch them in the Variant Sets and they are working with OpenGL and Full GI Raytracing. You can choose, for example, a dark mode, with glowing letters. In the scene is also a complete alphabet. So, you can adjust the letters to your needs. Additionally, you can switch to a design studio scene, where you can switch on and off curtains, window blinds, and image walls. And also, a lounge style scene setup is included, so you have multiple options to play around and set it up to your needs and taste.

Please be aware that all three base setups have all different light baking texture sets, which have to be loaded. You can see them stored in separate folders.

City: Next one is the city environment. The city contains variant sets for OpenGL and Raytracing. And, for VR, you can hide some objects, if you are running into performance issues using the variant sets.

Harbour: Last but not least, we have a harbour. Within this scene, you are able to set a night and day situation. Therefore, we created two different light baking texture sets. This will give you a perfect example how to deal with different baked texture sets for different light situations. You can also switch some container colors and activate a container door animation. And you can also switch between OpenGL and Raytracing. I hope you enjoy them. Thanks for watching the video.

Video Captions: In VRED 2023.2, we implemented several new features that will increase your visual quality and make your workflow faster and easier.

Now, we have updated the Camera Editor. The new editor is now decoupled, as well, and you can access all properties via the Python API.

You can also do a multi-selection on cameras like you are already used to, within the Light or Material Editor, where different values will be marked in yellow, and you can change values for multiple cameras in one go.

You can also use now the new filters for a faster and easier search.

And, close or expand the Tree View. Additionally, you can split the Tree View, which can be very helpful for navigating within a huge scene.

Also, the Aim and Aim Up of a camera is now displayed and you can find these nodes now very easy with a right-click.

Also, the Track View is now different and only the selected tracks will be visible. Additionally, you can update the preview thumbnails for a single track or for all tracks.

For a pixel correct result with self-intersecting transparent objects in OpenGL, we’ve added additionally to the Object Sorting, the so-called Depth Peeling. This can also solve the issue of wrongly sorted transparent materials. Use the slider to adjust the number of layers that should be taken into the calculation.

For Denoising, you can now select between the NVIDIA GPU denoiser or Intels Open Image CPU Denoiser. This can save you a lot of GPU memory when rendering a huge image.

Additionally, we have added now more advanced clearcoat options to all materials that can have a clearcoat. Now, you can achieve interesting satin paints in OpenGL using the new Roughness slider. Thanks for watching the video.

Video Captions: In VRED 2023.1, we have implemented several new features that increase your visual quality and workflows.

Within the new Material Editor, we added a new option for the Plastic material. Now, you can add an additional clearcoat layer. You can adjust several parameters like the thickness, color, or density of the clearcoat. With this new option, you can create, for example, a textured material with a layered clearcoat on top of it. And with the new decoupled Material Editor, you can also set a clearcoat for multiple Plastic materials at once.

We also added the support for the so-called LTC area lights (Linear Transformed Cosines). These lights work for OpenGL and precomputed modes and give you a much closer look to a Full GI rendered result. The changes affect only area lights in OpenGL and don’t affect the raytracing mode. They calculate the behavior of glossy reflections with less noise. You can clearly see the difference of the old and new behavior. This will massively increase your visual quality for real-time visualization. And also, the Visible in Reflections option is now working the same in OpenGL and Raytracing mode!

Also, for OpenGL, we now support render layers. So, you can disable, for example, Visible in Alpha. This is not only a nice to have render feature, this can be very helpful for augmented reality, for example. Now, you can easily make objects invisible and map a part of the virtual car onto a physical object for instance.

For all users of the Varjo XR3 AR headset, we added a static Marker option. In augmented reality mode, we can add markers to track the virtual model, and now you can change the tracking method from predicted, which is the old behavior, which constantly tracks the object, to a static mode, where the tracking is not done constantly.

You can trigger the new modes using the new Python commands. Now, you just need to add them within the script area of a variant set and you can trigger it from there within the VR menu. If you want to use these scripts, just go to the documentation or find them in the Comment area of the YouTube channel.

Thanks for watching the video!

Material Editor Rework Video Captions: In VRED 2023, we completely reworked the Material Editor. Now with the decoupled Material Editor, it is possible to access all properties via the Python API. This is very helpful for automation and also for accessing material properties using VRED Core, for example.

See also the Python documentation here: Help > Python Documentation > VRED Python API v2 documentation to learn more about new services and classes. In the new Material Editor, it is now possible to select multiple materials at the same time and change values for the complete selection in one go. You can, for example, change the diffuse color for all selected materials at the same time. Or you set an override for multiple materials.

By the way, changing a value of multiple entities at the same time is also possible in the light editor, since quite a while.

We also have now a tree view available, similar to the Scenegraph, which gives you a faster and better overview of complex materials. If you want to expand a tree view, you can also use the new slider on the bottom.

Additionally, we implemented a so called “breadcrump” navigation. You can see the sub materials and its parents organized in these tabs, which makes the navigation between the sub materials and its parents much easier now.

Please see more features and workflows of the Material Editor on the second video.