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5.9.1.0 - Arnold for 3ds Max

25 March 2026

MAXtoA 5.9.1.0 is a feature release using Arnold 7.5.1.0. Arnold 7.5.1.0 includes a Tech Preview of Flow Render, custom AOVs for volume shaders, MIKKTSpace normal mapping support, and more.

Installation

Flow Render Tech Preview

MAXtoA 5.9.1.0 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 forums.

See the Flow Render Tech Preview documentation for more information.

Enhancements

  • Custom AOVs for volume shaders: The aov_write_rgb, aov_write_float, and aov_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 new query_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 replaces sss_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

  • USD warnings and errors in Arnold logs: The USD composition warnings and errors when loading a file are now included in the Arnold log usd#2435

API Changes

  • volume_double_henyey_greenstein OSL support: The double Henyey-Greenstein phase function volume_double_henyey_greenstein, which corresponds to AiClosureVolumeDoubleHenyeyGreenstein, is now available in OSL. (ARNOLD-16701)

Incompatible Changes

  • OSL generalized_schlick_bsdf rendering change: Scenes using the OSL generalized_schlick_bsdf closure with a non-default exponent value (other than 5) or significant transmission may produce slightly different renders due to corrected Fresnel evaluation. (ARNOLD-16834)

  • Renamed enum AI_CLOSURE_DEBUG to AI_CLOSURE_AOV: Code referencing AI_CLOSURE_DEBUG must be updated. (ARNOLD-6548)

Bug Fixes

  • ARNOLD-15273 - Rare GPU artifacts with certain scene, GPU, and driver combinations
  • ARNOLD-17465 - Crash when a node turns invalid in IPR
  • ARNOLD-17498 - Fixed incorrect volume mipmap selection in certain situations
  • ARNOLD-17500 - Crash with invalid "idxs" user data
  • ARNOLD-17553 - Crashes with empty arrays in polymeshes
  • ARNOLD-17561 - [GPU] Matte value not inherited by child nodes
  • usd#2547 - Changing material terminal is not updated with Hydra 2
  • usd#2558 - Indexed user data shouldn't author the idxs companion to USD
  • usd#2563 - Incorrect region renders in Hydra when one axis is not cropped
  • usd#2566 - Fixed crashes when a render delegate is deleted while another is rendering
  • usd#2568 - Changing the root shader in IPR is not updated when it was present in the previous shading tree
  • usd#2572 - Arnold product types not working if drivers:parameter:aov:name is not defined
  • usd#2580 - String per-instance primvars cannot resolve indices

System Requirements

  • Autodesk 3ds Max 2025, 2026, and 2027
  • Windows 10 or later, with the Visual Studio 2019 redistributable.
  • CPUs need to support the SSE4.1 instruction set.
  • GPU rendering and OptiX denoising require an NVIDIA GPU with the Maxwell architecture or later.
  • Intel OIDN runs on all CPUs. GPU support is limited to:
    • Windows
      • Intel Xe and Intel Arc dedicated and integrated GPUs
      • NVIDIA GPUs with Turing, Ampere, Ada Lovelace, Hopper, and Blackwell architectures
      • AMD GPUs with RDNA 2, RDNA 3, RDNA 3.5, and RDNA 4 architectures
Parent page: 5.x

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