Arnold for Maya 5.6.1.1

MtoA 5.6.1.1 is a feature release using Arnold 7.5.1.1. MtoA 5.6.1.1 includes a Tech Preview of Flow Render, custom AOVs for volume shaders, MIKKTSpace normal mapping support, and more.

See the MtoA release notes for the changes in each MtoA version.

Flow Render Tech Preview

MtoA 5.6.1 includes a Tech Preview of Flow Render, an Arnold cloud-rendering solution. We are providing 2400 minutes (per user, per month) of rendering time to Arnold users for testing and evaluating the service. Please report any feedback or issues in the Arnold feedback forums.

See the Flow Render Tech Preview documentation for more information, or check out this video tutorial.

Enhancements

Custom AOVs for volume shaders

The aov_write_rgb ,aov_write_float , andaov_write_rgba shader nodes can now be used in volume shader networks, just as they already work for surface shaders. Previously, custom AOVs were silently ignored in volume contexts. The volume raymarcher now collects AOV closures at each step and integrates them using Beer-Lambert weighting, producing physically consistent AOV outputs. (ARNOLD-6548)
  • Both flat (EXR, TIFF) and deep EXR outputs are supported.
  • A warning is logged when aov_write_rgb nodes with conflicting blend_opacity settings are connected to both surface and volume shaders writing to the same AOV name.
  • There is approximately a 16% overhead with two active volume AOVs at fine step sizes (step_size=0.01).
No Emission Custom 'temperature' AOV mask Beauty

New tangent_space_type option for normal_map

A new tangent_space_type parameter adds support for MIKKTSpace normal mapping. The standard mode preserves the previous behavior, while the mikk mode imports normal, tangent, and bitangent generated with MIKKTSpace in DCC tools such as 3ds Max and evaluates the normal map using MIKKTSpace for consistent shading across applications. (ARNOLD-8377)
Standard MIKKTSpace

Faster CPU renders on Windows

CPU renders on Windows have been optimized. Most, though not all, scenes show faster render times. (ARNOLD-17549)
Scene 7.5.1 speedup vs 7.5.0
OpenPBR shader ball 1.16x
gtc-robot 1.08x
Disney cloud 1.07x
ALab 1.04x
Intel jungle ruins 1.00x

Apply unit auto-scaling to linked shader parameters

Linked shader parameters are now auto-scaled to scene units when driven by links (for example,

subsurface_scale from a texture), ensuring unit-dependent values retain their expected magnitudes across different scene unit settings. (ARNOLD-17176)

Custom position for nearest_points shader

The nearest_points shader has a newquery_position parameter, which allows you to link to an input and customize the point where the point cloud is queried. When unlinked,sg->P (world-space shading position) is used instead. (ARNOLD-17360)

New interior_set string user data

The new interior_set attribute enables coherent scattering (such as transmission and SSS) across shapes that share the same set name. This allows smooth propagation of scattering between separate shapes, such as large ocean surfaces modeled as multiple tiles.interior_set replacessss_setname, although sss_setname remains supported for now. If both attributes are present on the same object,interior_set takes precedence. (ARNOLD-9038)
without interior_set with interior_set

OSL generalized Schlick Fresnel exponent

The OSL generalized_schlick_bsdf closure now fully supports the exponent parameter for both reflection and transmission lobes. Previously, Arnold ignored the exponent (effectively always using the standard Schlick value of 5) and approximated the transmission lobe by converting F0 to a dielectric IOR via the Gulbrandsen method. Both lobes now use a proper generalized Schlick Fresnel evaluation with configurable f0, f90, and exponent. Scenes using generalized_schlick_bsdf with a non-default exponent, or with significant transmission, may produce slightly different renders. (ARNOLD-16834)

Bloom driver luminance threshold

Bloom now uses a smoothed luminance-based threshold to avoid hue shifts from per-channel clipping. (ARNOLD-17443)

Improved maketx error messages

TX conversion error messages now include the target TX filename, which makes it easier to identify the cause of the error. (ARNOLD-17044)

Include options node and driver outputs in stats JSON

Stats output now records the top-level options node and, for each image driver, an entry with the driver filename and AOV and output details, improving the metadata available for diagnostics and downstream tools. (ARNOLD-16812)

Enable CER on Linux

Added support for the Customer Error Reporting (CER) library on Linux. (ARNOLD-15747)

USD Enhancements

API Changes

Bug Fixes

Incompatible changes

System Requirements

Parent topic: What's New in Maya 2027.1 Update