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5.8.0.0 - Arnold for 3ds Max

26 March 2025

MAXtoA 5.8.0.0 is a feature release using Arnold 7.4.0.0.

Installation

Enhancements

  • Support for 3ds Max 2026 MAXtoA 5.8.0.0 is the first release supporting 3ds Max 2026, and therefore, support for 3ds Max 2023 has been dropped.

  • Use of the 'Hydra' mode in the USD Stage object procedural is now optional The use of the Hydra mode in the Max USD stage object introduced in MAXtoA 5.7.8.0 can now be turned off, by checking the new option Legacy Translation Mode (MAXTOA-1872, MAXTOA-1939)

  • The Arnold Render View updated: Arnold RenderView has been updated to the latest version, which includes support for OpenColorIO 2.4.1 (MAXTOA-1930)

  • OpenPBR conversion: A new preset for the 3ds Max Scene Converter let's you convert Physical Material, Standard Surface, and the Arnold OpenPBR Surface to the new 3ds Max OpenPBR Material introduced in 3ds Max 2025 update 3 (MAXTOA-1909)

  • Improved MaterialX support: MaterialX has been upgraded to v1.38.10-OpenPBR, this new version brings support for the OpenPBR MaterialX node, improved Lama support and new nodes such as the NPR nodes. See v1.38.10, v1.38.9 release notes for details. (ARNOLD-15659)

  • Imager run once mode: Imagers can now be set to run only once, at the end of a bucket or the end of a completed final frame. This can be useful for particularly expensive imagers and can be enabled via the ImagerProperties::run_once property. (ARNOLD-12191)

  • Lights in procedural instances: Lights in instanced procedurals are copied for each instance. For example, instances of ASS or USD assets with lights now render the lights properly. (ARNOLD-15657)- Use of the 'Hydra' mode in the USD Stage object procedural is now optional The use of the Hydra mode in the Max USD stage object introduced in MAXtoA 5.7.8.0 can now be turned off, by checking the new option Legacy Translation Mode (MAXTOA-1872, MAXTOA-1939)

  • The Arnold Render View updated: Arnold RenderView has been updated to the latest version, which includes support for OpenColorIO 2.4.1 (MAXTOA-1930)

  • OpenColorIO 2.4.1: OpenColorIO has been updated to v2.4.1. (ARNOLD-15681)

  • Update Autodesk Desktop Licensing installer Arnold now uses Autodesk Desktop Licensing installer version 15.1, which includes the following components: AdskLicensingService 11.16.6.5912, AdskLicensingAgent 5.20.12.4281, and AdskLicensingInstHelper 2.13.1.2514.

USD Enhancements

  • Distant Lights normalize support : Distant lights now support the normalize attribute, so you can now disable normalize (before it was always enabled and the normalize attribute was ignored). You can use the Arnold option usd_legacy_distant_light_normalize to roll back to the previous behaviour. (usd#2176)
  • USD 24.11: The USD procedural now uses USD 24.11.

API Additions

  • Replace AtImagerSchedule with AtImagerProperties: The imager_prepare API has a new AtImagerProperties structure that provides more control over how an Imager should run. (ARNOLD-15774)

    Setting Imager bucket / full frame schedules will now work like so:

     imager_prepare
 {
    if (run_imager_full_frame)
       properties.schedule_full_frame = true;
    else
       properties.schedule_bucket = true;
 }

  • Improved return values for device selection API: AiDeviceSelect and AiDeviceAutoSelect now return the AtDeviceSelectErrorCode enum instead of an int to better describe the error status of the API call. (ARNOLD-14652)

    AtDeviceSelectErrorCode
    SUCCESS Device selection was successful
    FAILURE_NO_DEVICES_FOUND No Arnold compatible devices found
    FAILURE_NAME No matches found for options.gpu_default_names regular expression
    FAILURE_MEMORY No matching device has free memory greater than options.gpu_default_min_memory_MB threshold
    FAILURE_INVALID_ID Invalid device id in selection
    FAILURE_UNSUPPORTED Unsupported device in selection
    FAILURE_UNKNOWN Generic error

Incompatible Changes

This version of Arnold breaks binary compatibility. Shaders, procedurals, and other plugins compiled against older versions of Arnold are not compatible with this version of Arnold and must be updated and recompiled.

  • Autodesk Network Licensing version: Arnold 7.4 switches to ARNOL_2026 licensing. (ARNOLD-15400)

    • Single-user subscriptions will work with Arnold 7.4. The plugin installers automatically register the new version. If you do not use a plugin, then after you download Arnold, open the Arnold License Manager and click Register.
    • Existing network licenses will not work with Arnold 7.4. Log on to your Autodesk account to generate your new ARNOL_2026 licenses.
    • If you do not run the installers, and you manually register Arnold, then use--pk C0PR1 --pv 2026.0.0.F with the AdskLicensingInstHelper command.

  • Removed sss_use_autobump option: Use the per-object autobump_visibility flag. (ARNOLD-15782)

  • Removed legacy_volume_albedo: This option is no longer available as the new volume albedo is more useful. (ARNOLD-15782)

  • Removed AiMsgSetCallback(), AiMsgAddCallback(), AiMsgResetCallback(): Use AiMsgRegisterCallback() and AiMsgDeregisterCallback() instead. (ARNOLD-15782)

  • Removed AiASSLoad(), AiASSWrite(), AiASSWriteWithMetadata(): Use AiSceneLoad() and AiSceneWrite() instead. (ARNOLD-15782)

  • Removed deprecated versions of AiOrenNayarBSDF() and AiMicrofacetSetThinFilm(): Use the version with the same function name but additional arguments. (ARNOLD-15782)

  • Removed AiLoadImage(): Use AiReadImage() instead. (ARNOLD-15782)

  • Deprecated enable_new_quad_light_sampler and enable_new_point_light_sampler options: The new samplers should always be better, so these options are marked as deprecated and will be removed in a future version of Arnold. (ARNOLD-15782)

  • Distant Lights normalize support : Distant lights now support the normalize attribute, so you can now disable normalize (before it was always enabled and the normalize attribute was ignored). You can use the Arnold option usd_legacy_distant_light_normalize to roll back to the previous behaviour. (usd#2176)

Bug Fixes

  • MAXTOA-1903 - Arnold Render View did not properly track which viewport to render when the viewport was maximized or minimized

  • MAXTOA-1908 - Fixed an intermittent crash when using the Pixel tab in Arnold Render View and pointing to an object after a production rendering has finished.

  • ARNOLD-15723 - No visible layering when layering a dielectric on top of a diffuse Lama shader, In MaterialX, layering of a Lama dielectric node on top of a Lama diffuse node was not generating the correct appearance of the diffuse surface coated with the dielectric. The OSL layering logic in Arnold has been improved to fix this issue.

USD Bug Fixes

  • usd#2201 - Hydra procedural should not modify the input usd stage with shutter range

System Requirements

  • Autodesk 3ds Max 2024, 2025, 2026
  • Windows 10 or later, with the Visual Studio 2019 redistributable.
  • CPUs need to support the SSE4.1 instruction set.
  • GPU rendering works requires an NVIDIA GPU with the Maxwell architecture or later. We recommend 560.76 or higher drivers.
  • Optix denoiser requires an NVidia GPU with CUDA Compute Capability 5.0 and above.
  • Intel OIDN GPU support is limited to:
    • Intel Xe dedicated and integrated GPUs
    • NVIDIA GPUs using Turing or newer architectures
    • AMD GPUs with RDNA2 (Navi 21 only) and RDNA3 (Navi 3x) architectures
Parent page: 5.x

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