What´s New - VRED 2021.1 Design & Professional

[Florian.Coenen]

Dear VRED Users,

We´d like to inform you that VRED 2021.1 Design & Professional has just been released. It is ready for installation through the Autodesk Desktop App and is available in your Autodesk Account. Here is a quick overview of what´s new and has changed:

GPU Raytracing​ Improvements and Bugfixes

In VRED Professional 2021.1, we worked on many improvements and bugfixes for the GPU Raytracer. It now takes less time to initialize the Raytracer, when activating GPU Raytracing for the first time. You’ll also find better utilization in the GPU Cluster and we added Lensflare support.

Quasi-Monte Carlo Sampling​

In VRED 2021.1, we introduced a new sampling method, called Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC), which creates more uniformly correlated samples, improves the speed to convergence, and interacts better with the AI Denoiser.

AI Denoiser Improvements​

In VRED 2021.1, we introduced new options for the AI Denoiser to improve real-time and offline denoiser quality. Users can choose Color only, Color & Albedo, or Color, Albedo & Normals. Color & Albedo significantly improves the quality of textures, while Color, Albedo & Normals also improves the quality of edges

New UV Editor​

In VRED 2021, we have re-written the UV Editor from scratch. It now comes with many new and improved features. The UV Editor has also been added to VRED Design. We replaced the old LSCM Unfold algorithm with the Unfold 3D library, which produces better results closer to Autodesk Maya and offers more layout and optimize features.

The Texture Editor Module was removed from the UI and all UV Projection modes are now available in the UV Editor.

The new “Preserve UVs on re-tessellation” and “Copy UVs” and “Paste UVs” from one object to another, found in the Scene Graph, and the UV Editor’s “Sew Islands on Unfold” are big timesavers for users.

Another great new addition is the ability to constrain edges horizontally and vertically to unfold objects, such as seat belts and tires, into a rectangular UV layout.

We have also improved our “Select Shortest Path” behavior and introduced a more intuitive zoom behavior that synchronizes the UV Editor with the 3D viewport.

The UV layout can now be exported as an image with alpha channel, thanks to Snapshot.

All UV Editor options, and selection colors, can be set in the preferences. Users who would like to work with their own custom checkerboard image can set this in the preferences.

Webserver 2.0

In VRED 2021.1, we implemented a new state-of-the-art Webserver backend that also offers more security features. In the Preferences Module, it is now possible to encrypt the communication port with https and use network certification to ensure data is transmitted in a secure environment. VRED supports the TLS 1.3 (Transport Layer Security) protocol to fulfill the latest standards for communication security over computer networks. Users who do not have a web certification signed by a CA (Certification Administrator) still can create their own self-signed certificate.

NOTE: Self-signed certificates do not provide the additional security that those generated by CAs do. This is because a client cannot verify that the server, he or she has connected to, is the one advertised in the certificate.

It is also possible to set username and password authentication in the Preferences Module. Users accessing the WebInterface (localhost:8888) to use VRED Stream, for example, are prompted by a browser dialog to enter a username and password.

Web Interface & Stream App Improvements

In VRED 2021.1, we also re-designed our Web Interface frontend and improved the VRED Stream App. The web user interface now comes in a clean and responsive look and scales on mobile devices. The VRED terminal now shows a message when devices connect and disconnect to the VRED stream.

The VRED Stream App got several new features and improvements. It is now possible to switch between the JPEG or H264 (if installed) codec from within the App and change either the JPEG quality or H264 bandwidth settings, depending on your connection speed.

It is now also possible to lock the resolution for one connected device. With this feature, users can lock the resolution to the size of their browser's viewport. If other users connect to the same stream by another device with a different viewport size, it will not change the stream resolution to the viewport of the new connected device.

Last, but not least, it is now possible to toggle downscaling when raytracing is activated.

Varjo XR-1 Support

In VRED 2021.1, it is now possible to use Varjo´s XR-1 headset in virtual and mixed reality. Users must download and install the latest Varjo Base runtime from the official Varjo download page (https://varjo.com/downloads/).

With the Varjo XR-1, it is now possible, for the first time ever, to seamlessly merge your virtual VRED content with the real world. When the device is detected, a button in the VR Menu easily allows switching between VR and MR on runtime. We do support mixed VR and MR multiuser collaboration, if all participants are in the same Lighthouse tracking space. When switching from virtual to mixed reality, the VR avatar representation is automatically hidden, while the billboard on top of the participant displaying the name and used device stays. In addition, it is possible to toggle “Hand Depth Estimation” in the VR Menu to cut out your real hands to appear in front of your virtual content.

• Requires installation of Varjo Runtime
• See your VRED model in real world environments
• Switch between VR & MR inside headset
• VR & MR Collaboration in the same lighthouse tracking space
• VR avatar representation automatically hidden in MR
• Billboard above real person
• Real hands in MR on top of 3D content

General Improvements

• We cleaned up the File Format Import dialog and re-ordered file formats by application
• VRED Go creates an additional data container when file size exceeds 4GB limitation
• The deprecated JT legacy importer was removed from the preferences. JT files can be imported using ATF´s Parasolid toolkit or JTOpen in the FileIO dialog.
• Added an option to only use the light spectrum for ray files
• Added support for AVX2 on AMD systems

Sincerely,

Your Autodesk VRED Team