Dimension 5 has released D5 Render 2.10, the new version of its real-time visualization tool and GPU renderer for DCC and CAD software including 3ds Max, Blender and Cinema 4D.
It’s a significant update, adding support for real-time path tracing for more realistic renders, a new automated 3D city generator, and updates to the night sky system and weather effects.
A rapidly evolving GPU ray tracing renderer for architectural visualisation
First released in 2021, D5 Render is an increasingly powerful architectural renderer with linking plugins for a range of DCC and CAD applications.
As well as rendering scenes directly from a linked DCC app, users can import models in FBX, Alembic or SKP format, apply PBR materials, and assign HDRIs, lights and LUTs.
Other features include object scattering and shot dressing tools, support for volumetric and particle-based effects, and path-based animation tools for crowds or vehicles.
The software supports DXR-based hardware-accelerated ray tracing on NVIDIA, AMD and Intel GPUs, and is capable of rendering 16K still images, and 4K videos.
D5 Render 2.10: experimental support for real-time path tracing
The headline change in D5 Render 2.10 is the experimental new real-time path tracing system.
It’s based on NVIDIA’s ReSTIR algorithm, a modified version of which is used in existing real-time GI solution, introduced in D5 Render 2.4.
According to Dimension 5, the new method gets “closer to ground truth” references, particularly improving diffuse indirect lighting and indirect lighting in reflections.
You can read more about the implementation – which is still officially in alpha – in this blog post, which also covers the key settings for trading visual quality against performance.
New automated City Generator generates low-res 3D cities
The other major new feature in D5 Render 2.10 is the City Generator.
It automatically generates low-detail city models from real-world OpenStreetMap data or GIS data in .shp format, with users able to adjust the heights and materials of the buildings.
Updates to night skies and weather effects
Updates to existing features include a rework of the night skies generated by Geo&Sky.
The skies generated can now include the Milky Way, and users can now adjust settings including star intensity and the intensity, altitude and phases of the moon.
The update also improves the realism of D5 Render’s weather effects, with a new Water Mist effect to add atmosphere to rainy scenes, and more detailed raindrop and snowflake particles.
More new generative AI features: inpainting and motion blur
Dimension 5 has been adding generative AI features to D5 Render over recent updates, with version 2.10 adding two new AI features.
AI inpainting automatically fills in missing elements in renders, like the sky, water or vegetation, and is intended to reduce the need to place assets manually to fill those parts of a scene.
AI motion blur adds… well, motion blur to moving objects in images, but as a post effect, without the need to render it directly.
Workflow and performance improvements, and updates to the asset library
Workflow improvements include better control over the scale units used for assets, support for batch scene deletion, and new French and Japanese language localizations.
The software has also been updated to support DLSS 4, the latest version of NVIDIA’s AI render upresing and frame interpolation technology, also recently supported in Chaos Vantage.
The software’s accompanying asset library gets new object scattering templates, and over 240 new assets themed around hotels and holiday resorts, including characters and lobby decor.
Pricing and system requirements
D5 Render is available for Windows 10+. It requires a compatible GPU: Dimension 5 recommends a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060+, AMD Radeon RX 6400 XT+ or Intel Arc A3+.
Integration plugins are available for 3ds Max 2014-2016 and 2018+, ArchiCAD 21+, Blender 2.93+, Cinema 4D R20+, Revit 2018.3+, Rhino 6.1+, SketchUp 2017+ and Vectorworks 2024+.
The Community edition is free; the Pro edition, which includes AI features, frame sequence rendering, and access to the full asset library, costs $38/month or $360/year.
Teams subscriptions, which add further features including simultaneous editing and support for 3D Gaussian Splatting, cost $75/month or $708/year.
Read a full list of new features in D5 Render 2.10 in the online release notes
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