General Improvements

Find improvements, such as headlight support for GPU raytracing, better update speeds when transforming multiple nodes, increased light source performance, as well as support for renaming multiple nodes, and more.

Here is a list of the general improvements found in 2024.2:

Headlight Support - We've added support for Headlight in GPU raytracing. Now, whether using OpenGL, CPU raytracing, or GPU raytracing, objects will have the same illumination.
Transforming Multiple Nodes - In GPU raytracing, we have improved the update speed when transforming many nodes.
Renaming Multiple Nodes - You can now rename multiple nodes at once, using multi-selection in the Scenegraph, Light Editor, Material Editor, Camera Editor, and Sceneplate Editor. Once the nodes are selected, use either Ctrl + R or Edit > Rename, then modify the name to see it changed across all selected nodes.
Help Improvements - We have made two improvements to the online help, beyond the usual updates:
- Table of Contents - The What's New and Release Notes sections are now further divided into dot releases. See, at a glance, the new features, improvements, bug fixes, and known issues for each dot release.
- Tutorials - With the modernization of VRED, we are updating the tutorial videos, their graphics, and adding more content. This is an ongoing project, so look forward to updated content each release. For 2024.2, check out the new Quick Start videos.
AOV Denoiser - We increased quality by enhancing Albedo calculations. The default optix denoiser is now an AOV denoiser, which provides more accurate results that are closer to the final images. It can be combined with Albedo and Normal buffers.
Albedo Buffer - We improved the Albedo buffer to contain specular reflections for better denoising quality.
Create Environment and Create Volume - We added these options to the Scene menu for specifying and creating either an environment or volume.
Increased Speeds - For the Scenegraph, we increased the speed at which a node is created in a scene that has many nodes, as well as when a large number of nodes is selected. You will notice that Scenegraph operations like Show/Hide, Cut/Paste, and drag and drop are now faster.

For the Reference Editor, the Reference Graph/List updates much faster when loading a file with many references.
Better Light Source Performance - When animating the intensity of light sources with constant photometric parameter values, there will be a noticeable improvement in their performance.
MaterialX - We updated to MaterialX 1.38.8.
AxF - We updated to the AxF 1.9 SDK.
MDL - We updated to the MDL 2023.0.2 SDK.