VRED 2027.1 What's New

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What's New in 2027.1

Click the cards below for further information on new features and improvements found in 2027.1. For technical details and bug fixes, see the 2027.1 release notes.

Reworked Variant Sets Module

Variant Sets 2.0 delivers a redesigned, modern UI with hierarchical organization, advanced search, and flexible thumbnail and content views to make complex variant setups easier to manage and navigate. Powerful workflow improvements, including cascading variants, metadata-driven control, multi-selection editing, real-time validation, and improved reference handling, help teams work more efficiently and confidently. Expanded scripting, XR, and automation support further enable scalable, production‑ready variant workflows across VRED.

VRED Material Improvements

VRED Material Improvements introduce Thin Film support, enabling realistic, angle‑dependent light interference effects such as oil slicks, soap bubbles, and coated glass across key material types. In addition, GPU raytracing now supports Shader Execution Reordering (SER), delivering faster convergence and significantly improved performance in complex, material‑heavy scenes.

MaterialX & MDL Improvements

MaterialX support in VRED continues to expand with improvements, such as Thin Film and Fuzz support in Vulkan and precomputed ray tracing, as well as new NPR (toon‑style) shading capabilities for non‑photorealistic visualization.

Vulkan Improvements

In VRED 2027.1, Vulkan shows ray-traced ambient occlusion and environment shadows in ray-traced reflections. The Vulkan renderer also adds Raytraced Diffuse Global Illumination (GI), bringing multi-bounce indirect lighting to the real-time pipeline for more physically accurate lighting and improved scene fidelity.

XR Improvements

XR workflows are enhanced with a more flexible XR menu that lets you detach, arrange, and re‑dock key panels side by side, improving navigation, interaction, and visibility during immersive sessions.

Camera Tonemapping Improvements

VRED 2027.1 introduces a modern, physically based camera tonemapper inspired by recent SIGGRAPH research, delivering more perceptually accurate and consistent results that better match real-world cameras and displays.

Faceter Version 2

Faceter V2 introduces a substantially reworked tessellation algorithm from the Autodesk ASM team and is now the default for file import and geometry editing, delivering more consistent and predictable mesh results. A new Grid Mode provides finer control over surface subdivision, producing more homogeneous triangle distribution, improving downstream workflows like UV unwrapping, and in many cases reducing triangle count without sacrificing visual quality.

General Improvements

New file export options now let you exclude physics and constraint attachments when exporting VPB/OSB files. Additional enhancements include a search bar in the Terminal, a Log Files option in the Help menu, interface improvements to Camera Editor Blending Frames, as well as various scripting enhancements and updates to the Material SDK.