Release Notes

Iray for 3ds Max - 3.0
(3ds Max 2022/2023/2024/2025/2026)

• Updated to Iray 2025.0.1 (adding support for NVIDIA's Blackwell micro-architecture and all future generations of NVIDIA GPUs).
• Added enhanced support for Ambient Occlusion, with additional controls in the Iray+ renderer for range and strength of effect.
• Added support for Toon Shading, a post-processing technique to render images similar to traditional 2D animated cartoons.
• Added support for upscaling.
• Added displacement adaptive subdivision and tessellation triangle limit control.
• Fixed a potential bug with Iray Server render restarting before completion.

Iray for 3ds Max - 2.8
(3ds Max 2020/2021/2022/2023/2024)

• Updated to Iray 2022.1.6.
• Added support for Hopper-generation NVIDIA GPUs.
• Improved AI De-noising performance and guided sampling convergence.
• Fixed a long-standing bug with self-intersection code causing visible dark artefacts.

Iray for 3ds Max - 2.7
(3ds Max 2020/2021/2022/2023)

• Updated to Iray 2021.1.3.
• Rendering now uses guided sampling to speed up render convergence.
• General bugfixes and enhancements.

Iray for 3ds Max - 2.6
(3ds Max 2019/2020/2021/2022/2023)

• Updated to Iray 2021.0.0.
• Improved "Iray+ Interactive" performance with RTX cards.
• Improved CPU fallback when GPU memory is exhausted.
• General bugfixes and enhancements.

Iray for 3ds Max - 2.5
(3ds Max 2019/2020/2021/2022)

• Added support for 3ds Max 2022.
• Updated to Iray RTX 2020.1.5.
• Fixed intermittent "Access of invalid tag" bug.

Iray for 3ds Max - 2.4
(3ds Max 2018/2019/2020/2021)

• Added support for Ampere-generation NVIDIA GPUs.
• Updated to Iray RTX 2020.1.1.
• AxF importer now supports version 1.7.

Iray for 3ds Max - 2.3
(3ds Max 2017/2018/2019/2020/2021)

• Added support for 3ds Max 2021.
• Updated to Iray RTX 2020.0.3.
• Improved quality of AI De-noising with better preservation of brightness and details for low-sample images.
• Memory usage reduction on low-memory cards.
• Improved CPU rendering performance and CPU fallback stability.
• Bugfixes.

Iray for 3ds Max - 2.2
(3ds Max 2017/2018/2019/2020)

• Updated to Iray RTX 2019.1.5. This is a minor bugfix release.
• Added support for spectral rendering and different colour spaces. See the documentation for details.
• Fixed a crash when cancelling in Production Rendering Mode before the render has started.
• Fixed a bug where a render in Production Rendering Mode could restart if parameters were changed on Iray+ Lights or Section Planes.

Iray for 3ds Max - 2.1
(3ds Max 2017/2018/2019/2020)

• Updated to Iray RTX 2019.1.3. This version includes enhancements for rendering on RTX cards and significant speedups when using the Iray+ Interactive renderer on all cards.
• Fixed a crash when creating an Iray+ Physical Sky system or IBL environment while the Iray+ Frame Buffer was open.
• Fixed a crash when closing the Iray+ Frame Buffer after a completing a render in Production Rendering Mode which could be triggered in certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug where section planes were being duplicated each time the frame buffer was re-opened.

See this page for more information on RTX and GPU drivers.

Iray for 3ds Max - 2.0.1
(3ds Max 2017/2018/2019/2020)

• Fixed a crash when animations or multi-pass motion blur renders were performed with the 3ds Max frame buffer.
• Fixed artefacts in the Alpha channel when exporting AI De-noised renders to an RGBA image format.
• Fixed issue where the lighting analysis false colour processing was being wrongly applied to thumbnail images in the 3ds Max Material Editor.

Iray for 3ds Max - 2.0
(3ds Max 2017/2018/2019/2020)

• Upgraded to Iray 2018.1.2.
• Added new Iray+ Frame Buffer.
• Extended Lighting Analysis options and enabled them for use in Production Rendering Mode.
• Added Anti-Aliasing filter controls.
• Can now set the viewport wireframe colour of Iray+ Lights.
• Viewport now shows the effect of Iray+ Lights' colour temperature (select 'High Quality' to see this).
• Added Firefly and Bloom filter to the network render information.
• Improved ActiveShade Mode update performance when editing light parameters when using IES profiles.
• Cloning an Iray+ Light as a "Copy" now works correctly when using IES profiles.
• Renders now show correct illuminance values when Tone Mapping is disabled.
• Fixed bug with the calculation of "Offset" values in 3ds Max texture maps when loading an Iray+ or MDL material.
• Fixed bug where final render update could be lost, particularly when rendering animations.
• Fixed potential bugs when converting Forest Pack materials.
• Fixed bug where textures could be lost when using the Resource Collector.
• Fixed bug where LPE layers could become unselected after editing.

Iray for 3ds Max - 1.9
(3ds Max 2017/2018/2019)

• Upgraded to Iray 2018.0.2.
• Fixed a bug where images were not saved correctly when rendering Render Elements/LPEs with backplates.
• Fixed a bug where the AI De-noise filter was not working correctly with Volta cards.
• Added controls to orient IES profiles that are applied to emissive Iray+ materials.
• Added the ability to flag Iray+ Lights as 'Matte', so they can be used in conjunction with Matte Objects.
• Support for camera clipping planes has been added.
• Bloom filter controls have been changed to be more intuitive.
• Bloom parameters are now exposed to MAXScript.
• Firefly Filter control has been re-added.
• Various minor bug fixes.

Iray for 3ds Max - 1.8
(3ds Max 2017/2018/2019)

• Upgraded to Iray 2018.0.1.
• The polygon/geometry bug has now been fixed.
• AI De-noise filter now works better with bright highlights.
• AI De-noise filter now works with HDR images.
• Added Bloom post-processing filter.
• Added Backplate Mesh option for geometry.
• Added new Iray for 3ds Max toolbar for quick access to dialogs and features.
• Bitmap cropping/placement parameters are now supported.
• Enabled binary compression for MI/IVM export resulting in faster re-load times.
• Stereo spherical camera parameters are now correctly communicated to Iray Server (see note).
• Multi/Sub-object material now correctly marked as compatible with Iray+.
• Fixed a crash when launching non-English version of 3ds Max with the plugin installed
• Iray+ Colour Correction map now has all parameters exposed.
• Fixed a bug where Iray+ procedural map previews were broken in 3ds Max 2019.

Iray for 3ds Max - 1.7
(3ds Max 2017/2018/2019)

• AI De-noising, available for both the "Iray+" and "Iray+ Interactive renderers".
• Support for 3ds Max 2019.

Iray for 3ds Max - 1.6.2
(3ds Max 2016/2017/2018)

• Issues with dark artefacts appearing on some geometry (particularly glass) have been fixed.
• MAXScript error when switching to the Iray+ (or Iray+ Interactive) renderer has been fixed.
• Reduced occurrence of GPU failure in some render scenarios.

Iray for 3ds Max - 1.6.1
(3ds Max 2016/2017/2018)

• Upgraded to Iray 2017.1.2.
• Some scenes showed significantly increased memory usage in v1.6. This has been fixed.
• Noise in renders has been reduced compared to v1.6.
• UI elements broken by 3ds Max 2018 Update 4 have been fixed.
• Several minor bugs with the Lighting Analysis mode have been fixed.

Iray for 3ds Max - 1.6.0
(3ds Max 2016/2017/2018)

• Upgraded to Iray 2017.1.1
• Added support for the latest Volta generation NVIDIA GPUs.
• New licensing mechanism (RLM).
• AxF importer now supports version 1.4.
• Added MAXScript support for MDL export.
• Iray+ Materials now work with XRef objects.
• Radio buttons in Iray+ Light ‘Color’ rollout now work correctly.

Iray for 3ds Max - 1.4.0-121338
(3ds Max 2016/2017/2018)

• Added support for 3ds Max 2018.
• Upgraded to Iray 2017.0.1.
• Optimized Iray on Maxwell and Pascal architectures.
• Iray+ Interactive now supports subsurface scattering (SSS) materials.
• Light sampling has been improved, leading to improved performance in scenes with many lights.
• Added new Iray+ Brushed Metal, Checker, Colour Correction and Tiles material maps.
• Improved accuracy of IES Profiles.
• Added a Screen Space Shadows checkbox to Iray+ Interactive.
• Render layers now show the effect of cutout opacity maps applied to materials.
• Normal render layer now shows the effect of any bump/normal maps applied to materials.
• Noise levels for most environment lighting setups have been improved in Iray.
• Removed the limit on the number of light sources in Iray+ Interactive.
• Fixed thumbnail rendering in SME when stereo camera is enabled.
• Fixed bug where .axf files wouldn't load if their file names included certain characters.
• Fixed bug where normal maps were being not being listed in the Asset Tracker.

Iray for 3ds Max - 1.3.0-117513
(3ds Max 2015/2016/2017)

• Updated to Iray 2016.2.
• Support for Pascal GPU rendering.
• VR “Single Pass Stereo” provides support for rendering both left eye and right eye simultaneoulyl.
• Preliminary support for Forest Pack Pro plugin.
• Added support for rendering LPEs on Iray Server.
• Changed Tonemapping default Highlight Recovery value to 0.5.
• Added a menu option to remove the Analysis dialog that docks to the ActiveShade Mode window.
• Irradiance and Depth Render Rlements now also output 32-bit .exr files.
• Fixed a hang in certain scenes when submitting to Iray Server.
• Fixed memory leak when rendering thumbnails then launching ActiveShade Mode window.
• Fixed memory leak when closing ActiveShade Mode window while converting a scene.
• Fixed some artefacts in lighting and transparency apparent when using instancing.
• Fixed issue where rendering failed when Ambient Occlusion element was inadvertently left enabled.
• Fixed various issues with Tonemapping warning dialogs.
• Fixed issue where Light "renderable" property was incorrect.
• Fixed issue where changing IES file in the light lister didn't update the IES on the light properties.
• Fixed issue where saved light profile in old models was replaced with hof025.ies.
• Fixed issue with the ActiveShade Mode timer inaccurately displaying time.
• Fixed crash when adding photometric light.
• Fixed intermittent hang when submitting to Iray Server.
• Fixed issue with dialog layouts on high DPI displays.
• Fixed occasional crash when creating Section Planes.
• Fixed flicker in Iray+ section plane gizmo.
• Fixed issue where 'Visible to camera' check box wasn't working for lights.
• Fixed rendering issue when outputting scenes with IBLs to HDR format.
• Fixed issue with sun disk size.
• Fixed issue where custom MDL search paths and other settings couldn't contain Unicode characters.
• Fixed bug that prevented the rounded corner spinner from being disabled.
• Fixed issue where translated light parameter was rejected.
• Fixed issue where changing render completion criteria affected material thumbnail renderings.

Iray for 3ds Max - 1.2.0-115234
(3ds Max 2015/2016/2017)

• Updated to Iray 2016.1.1.
• Added spherical and cylindrical lens type in render settings.
• Added stereo camera render settings for left eye/right eye, eye separation, and focus distance.
• Added ability to hide/show material layers.
• Added separate frame completion criteria for each renderer.
• Added support for matte object properties.
• Added Section Planes.
• Improved render performance.
• Improved performance when transferring scenes to Iray.
• Improved performance when flushing scene from Iray (for example, when closing ActiveShade Mode window).
• Minor performance improvement when using materials that were converted from mental ray scenes.
• Fixed issue where displacement object properties were not scaled with scene units.
• Moved "Iray+" tab from the general Object Properties dialog to its own "Iray+ Object Properties Dialog".
• Added "Renderable" and "Visible to Camera" checkboxes to the Iray+ Object Properties dialog.
• Improved diagnostics when loading a scene with missing custom MDL.
• Fixed issue where Iray Server streaming was disconnected after queuing a job.

Iray for 3ds Max - 1.1.0-114663
(3ds Max 2015/2016/2017)

• Updated to Iray 2015.3.11.
• Added 3ds Max 2017 support.
• Added online documentation from Help > Additional Help menu.
• Added offline documentation link to Windows Start menu.
• Added displacement mapping support.
• Added support for rendering bitmap sequences with Iray+ materials, standard Max materials, backplates and IBLs.
• Added support for Bitmap Output Parameters in Material Editors.
• Added Iray+ Light Lister tool.
• Fixed crash when loading a scene on Windows 8.1.
• Fixed issue with ActiveShade Mode images not refreshing in sync with timer when using Iray+ Interactive renderer.
• Fixed crash when clearing the Override material.
• Stopped Material Override from affecting Material Editor renders.
• Fixed minor issue where ActiveShade Mode window didn't update when changing a Material/Map type in Max 2016 onwards.
• Fixed crash when you Remove All missing external dependencies when loading a model.
• Fixed issue with instanced geometry not rendering.
• Fixed minor bug with lighting analysis dialog not updating after undocking the ActiveShade Mode window.
• Fixed bug with camera position of frame 0 when sending a sequence to Autodesk Backburner.
• Fixed issue where Color Correction map was diminishing render quality of textures.
• Reduced the default frame completion criteria to 1000 passes/frame and 5 mins/frame.
• Expanded Iray menu along the top.
• Improved the design of the Render Setup… > Render Elements LPE dialog.
• Added message box when creating a new Physical Sky system with Tone Mapping disabled.
• Updated to Iray License Manager 2.1.
• Added Play/Pause menu option to the ActiveShade Mode quad menu.
• Added Ray Depth spinner to the Iray+ renderer.
• Added new texture compression option to Render Setup… > Settings > Materials.
• Changed naming convention of sequences sent to Iray Server.
• Changed naming convention of Render Element file names.

Iray for 3ds Max - 1.0.1-112378
(3ds Max 2014/2015/2016)

• Updated to Iray 2015.3.7.
• ActiveShade Mode now updates immediately when changing an environment's "Shadows" or "Roughness" parameters.
• Added a default IES file to the Iray+ Light type, which is disabled by default.
• Fixed an Iray+ Material memory leak.
• Fixed issue where environments weren't updating in an already open Render Setup dialog when renamed.
• Fixed issue where maps (excluding bitmaps) weren't displayed correctly in the viewport when set to the diffuse colour slot.
• Fixed issue where maps weren't displayed correctly in the viewport when set to the opacity slot.
• Fixed issue where not all particles were being rendered in the ActiveShade Mode window.
• Added partial support for bitmap sequences in material parameters, IBLs and Backplates. (ActiveShade Mode still doesn't update with the appropriate bitmap in the sequence when moving the time slider).
• Removed the unsupported Iray+ Metal and Iray+ Ocean materials from the Iray+ Scene Converter.
• Switch ActiveShade Mode over to using a machine's own hardware if a streaming connection to a VCA or Iray Server is lost.
• The ActiveShade Mode window now renders the render mesh, not the viewport mesh.
• Fixed issue with displaying enum parameters when importing MDL.
• Fixed crash with CONSTANT particle type.
• Fixed issue with some values not being displayed correctly when importing MDL.
• Fixed crash when trying to use a missing custom sample object in the 3ds Max Material Editor.
• Raised maximum bitrate when video streaming from 10Mbps to 100Mbps.
• Fixed issue with material Decal layer rendering incorrectly.
• Fixed crash when listing properties of an MDL-based material using MAXScript.
• Fixed issue where DOF renders differently in Production Rendering Mode to ActiveShade Mode.
• Added controls to set gamma on network renders.
• Use machine names in addition to IP addresses when connecting to Iray Server.
• Updated Iray License Manager to v1.37.
• Fixed issue with light analysis tool maximum sometimes being clamped to 40 Lux.
• Fixed issue where 3ds Max environment/background maps didn't appear in Iray Server renders.
• Reduced the amount that a file size grows when run through the Iray+ Scene Converter.

See Also:

• Getting Started with Iray for 3ds Max

Last edited: