5.6.5.0 - Arnold for 3ds Max
4 October 2023
MAXtoA 5.6.5.0 is a minor feature release using Arnold 7.2.4.0.
Installation
- Download Arnold for 3ds Max.
- Follow these installation instructions.
Enhancements
Alpha in PNG AOV output: AOVs saved to the PNG format now include an alpha channel, and you can choose between unpremultiplied and premultiplied alpha (MAXTOA-1632)
Update of Qt Library: The Qt version of MAXtoA now matches the Qt version of 3ds Max (for example, MAXtoA for 3ds Max 2024 uses the same Qt version as 3ds Max 2025). (MAXTOA-1637, MAXTOA-1631)
Arnold RenderView (ARV) framerate improvements: ARV is tuned for faster interactive updates. (ARNOLD-13997)
Auto-TX generation disabled for Material Editor renderings: The Material Editor no longer generates tx files when it creates the swatches for a material library (MAXTOA-1615)
Toon shader - improved detection of internal edges: The toon shader now does a better job of detecting angle threshold silhouettes that are internal to a single object. This is most apparent in the regions between nearly parallel surfaces of an object that are at different distances to the camera. (ARNOLD-10560)
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7.2.3 | 7.2.4 |
![](https://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/ENU/AR-3DSMax/images/brick-montage.jpg)
Improved mesh-lights sampling and update: Improved time to first pixel (up to 10% for scenes containing many large meshes) and overall render time (up to 5% for scenes with multiple flat mesh lights). (ARNOLD-13639)
Improved interactive performance: Multiple optimizations to make interactive renders snappier by improving the interruption rate when modifying the scene. (ARNOLD-9833, ARNOLD-14077, ARNOLD-14083)
Improved Global Light Sampling behavior around flat lights: Reduced noise with Global Light Sampling for surfaces near or behind flat lights (disk or quad lights). (ARNOLD-13192)
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7.2.3 | 7.2.4 |
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Use dependency graph automatically for interactive renders: For interactive renders (IPR), the dependency graph is always enabled, regardless of the value of
options.enable_dependency_graph
. Interactive rendering updates for scene changes are improved by (and in some cases require) the dependency graph, so enforcing this setting avoids potential crashes. (ARNOLD-10732)Added support for alpha channel output in PNG driver: Added new boolean parameters
skip_alpha
andunpremult_alpha
to thedriver_png
node. They behave in the same way as in the TIFF driver, withskip_alpha
ignoring the alpha channel, andunpremult_alpha
selecting either unassociated alpha (on) or associated alpha (off). Please note that PNG files with associated alpha are not supported by the PNG standard. (ARNOLD-10540)OpenColorIO Alias support The OCIO color manager now supports the use of OCIO color space aliases. (ARNOLD-13998)
USD Enhancements
- Custom MaterialX node definitions MaterialX node definitions placed under a folder defined by the environment variable PXR_MTLX_STDLIB_SEARCH_PATHS are now supported when rendered with Arnold, through USD or Hydra usd#1632. There is no longer any restriction on the node definitions prefix and naming convention usd#1603.
- ArnoldProceduralCustom support in Hydra Primitives ArnoldProceduralCustom are now supported inside of Hydra, and allow to render 3rd party Arnold procedural nodes usd#739.
API Additions
- AiMaterialxGetNodeEntryFromDefinition: Given a MaterialX node definition, returns the corresponding Arnold node entry. Arnold searches for node definitions in the materialx directory in the Arnold distribution and in any directory listed in the ARNOLD_MATERIALX_NODE_DEFINITIONS environment variable. The function returns the relevant Arnold node type if the node has a native Arnold implementation, or the OSL node type if the node has an OSL implementation only, so you can safely call AiMaterialxGetOslShaderCode with the same node definition. (ARNOLD-13957)
Incompatible Changes
- AiUniverseGetOptions() no longer returns "sanitized" threads count:
AiUniverseGetOptions()
returns the options set by the user, whileAiRenderSessionGetOptions()
returns the options actually used by the render. Previously this behavior was not followed foroptions.threads
, and both the universe and render session's options contained a "sanitized" version of the thread count. For example, a thread count of 0 was interpreted as "autodetect" and sanitized to be the number of logical cores. Now, querying the universeoptions.threads
can return 0 or other values that do not reflect what is being used. If the sanitized version is needed, replaceAiUniverseGetOptions(universe)
withAiRenderSessionGetOptions(AiUniverseGetRenderSession(universe))
. (ARNOLD-14083)
Bug Fixes
- MAXTOA-1577 - In 3ds Max 2024, the curve editor for the ramp widget gives the editing handles zero size on some displays
- MAXTOA-1620 - Cannot run the Arnold denoiser (noice) from 3ds Max
- MAXTOA-1630 - Hide warnings about the "opaque" flag being deprecated
- ARNOLD-14051 - ARV renders black on some integrated GPUs
- ARNOLD-12005 - Hang when toggling denoiser ('N' key) in kick
- ARNOLD-12205 - [GPU] Rare crash when process is terminating
- ARNOLD-13709 - Invalid render when new OSL shaders are created interactively
- ARNOLD-13823 - Correct scene scale conversion for nested procedurals
- ARNOLD-13983 - Crash in IPR when enabling the OptiX denoiser, light mixer, or Arnold denoiser imagers
- ARNOLD-13995 - Incorrect motion range in the instancer
- ARNOLD-14065 - Artifacts with thick curves when scaling is applied
- ARNOLD-14067 - Arnold MaterialX node definitions do not expose multiple outputs
- ARNOLD-14074 - shidx not being gathered for alembic.material_attrbute string attribute
- ARNOLD-14099 - Wrong separator used in the materialx paths
- usd#1693 - Fix regression with Geometry lights in Hydra
- usd#1696 - Fix regression with Cryptomatte in Hydra
- usd#1613 - Invisible Hydra primitives should ignore arnold visibility
- usd#1641 - Ensure nodes created by the render delegate have the correct parent procedural
- usd#1673 - UsdUvTexture ignores missing textures in hydra
- usd#1675 - Fix UsdUvTexture default wrap modes and uvset coordinates.
- usd#1657 - Fix a motion blur sampling bug happening when a mesh has facevarying indexed normals and different number of indices per key frame
- usd#1634 - Support curves orientations identically between USD and Hydra / Prevent errors due to bad curves orientations count
System Requirements
- Autodesk 3ds Max 2022, 2023, 2024
- Windows 10 or later, with the Visual Studio 2019 redistributable.
- CPUs need to support the SSE4.1 instruction set.
- GPU rendering requires an NVIDIA GPU of the Ada, Ampere, Turing, Volta, Pascal, or Maxwell architecture. We recommend using the 528.49, or higher, drivers. See Arnold GPU for more information.
- For GPU rendering, the cache also needs to be re-populated after installing a new Arnold version, updating to a new NVIDIA driver, or changing the hardware configuration of GPUs on the system. More information can be found here.
- Optix™ denoiser requires an NVidia GPU with CUDA™ Compute Capability 5.0 and above.