Here comes a detailed specification of all new functions and expansions to the new version of CyberMotion 3D-Designer 14.0 program. Use the help manual, chapter "What's new in version 14.0", for a quick and easy guide to all changed and new topics. The elimination of minor errors and repairs are not mentioned here. For demo pictures and animations demonstrating the new capabilities visit the gallery.

Attention - Due to changes in the file format project files created and saved with version 14.0 can not be loaded into older versions of CyberMotion 3D-Designer.

New features in version 14.0

  • HDR-Rendering - High Dynamic Range Data, Tone Mapping, Exposure and Adaption - High dynamic range images are coded in a special floating point format that represents a much higher dynamic range than a human eye can recognize or an ordinary display device can reproduce. Though former versions of CyberMotion already worked with floating point precision and high dynamic range data (when using HDR-Images for the Image Based Lighting), the raytracer did not make use of all the possibilities a high dynamic range renderer is capable of. For instance, all light sources provided in CyberMotion were limited to a maximum intensity of 1 (representing the 255 intensity steps of an ordinary RGB picture). In the new version you can extend the dynamic range of your renderings by assigning higher light intensities. This comes in combination with the new material brightness, which controls the amount of diffuse reflected light. Increasing the light intensities and reducing the material brightness will help to clearly separate the higher light intensities coming from visible light sources or sparkling reflections from the diffuse surfaces in the scene (don't forget, the HDR-data provides the light entering a virtual camera lens, not just colors of a picture). The high dynamic range data rendered is saved to a special buffer and serves as the basis for other HDR postprocessing effects, for instance, the Bloom effect, which creates a halo around overbright picture areas. Finally, a low dynamic representation of the high dynamic range data must be found for the output to the screen and for the storage to common file formats. The compression of high dynamic range data to a low dynamic range picture (LDR) is called Tone Mapping. The simplest way to convert an HDR-image to LDR is just to clip all HDR-values at the maximum value of the low dynamic range - all pixels exceeding this value will appear white in the LDR-image. More sophisticated Tone-Mapping functions use special filters to compress the whole high dynamic range to a lower dynamic range in a way that even details of overbright or very dark image areas become visible. For instance, an overbright cloudy sky, appearing just white if displayed with a simple Tone-Map-clipping, reveals again the structures of the clouds and a blue background if a compressing Tone Mapping function is applied. On the other hand, underexposed pictures will be automatically brightened so that details become visible again in formerly black parts of the image. Furthermore, the automatic exposure inherent to the Tone-Mapping functions can be animated. This way you can even simulate the behaviour of the human vision system that needs some time to adjust to changing light conditions. For instance, entering from a dark room to a brightly lit environment would result in an immediate overexposure of the scene followed by a slowly adaption to the correct exposure.
    In CyberMotion, you can now choose from a selection of new Tone Mapping, Exposure and Adaption controls if you press the top button of the new button bar located at the left side of the render window (also available in all preview windows). All Tone-Mapping and Exposure calculations are processed in realtime after the final rendering of the picture.
  • Saving to Radiance HDR-Files - The HDR-image - that is the raw high dynamic range data before the rendering of light effects and the tone mapping to LDR - can be saved now to Radiance-HDR-files. Just select the "File - Save Picture" menu entry from the Render Window and choose the "HDR" extension.
  • HDR-Light Effects - Bloom and Stars - the comprehensive set of parameters for lens flare reflections is replaced completely by the new realtime HDR-light effects. Since the HDR-data represents all light entering the virtual camera lens, it is not necessary anymore to specify a separate reflection pattern for each light source. Now, you can apply the light effects in realtime from a set of parameters accessible from the new button bar at the left of the render window. After rendering the picture you can decide to switch on or off the Bloom filter (creates a halo around overbright image areas - the light is flooding over darker areas) or a blooming Star filter. These new light effects will eminently benefit from the higher dynamic range of the image data because overbright areas (visible light sources, a glaring sky or strongly reflecting or glowing materials) are clearly distinguishable from the rest of the scene.
  • Material-Color Brightness - a new parameter controls the amount of diffuse reflected light for material colors (you just need to select the basic color from the color editor, darker or brighter gradients are controlled via the new Brightness parameter). Using lower values for the diffuse reflection especially makes sense in combination with higher light intensities and the new HDR-light effects. Example: In a simple scene a white surface (Brightness 1) is illuminated by a visible light source with a light intensity of 1. In the final rendering both objects - the white surface and the light object - would be stored in the HDR-data with the same intensities. If you apply now a HDR-Bloom light effect this would render a white light halo around both objects because there is no discernible separation between light sources and the scene objects. In our second try we change the Brightness of the white surface to 0.5 and simultaneously double the light intensity to 2.0. In the outcome the picture doesn't change - the now grayish surface appears still white (because illuminated with higher light intensity) as well as the light source. But when switching on now the Bloom-light effect, only the light source will produce a light halo because in the HDR-data it is stored with twice as much energy then the illuminated white surface.
    Color Brightness greater than 1 - Glow induced by Light Incidence - If you choose a value greater than 1 for the amount of diffuse reflected light then the light incidence will be intensified by the material brightness. This is comparable to a material that starts to glow when illuminated by light.
  • Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) - With Ambient Occlusion Rendering (AO) it is possible to render smooth shadows caused by ambient illumination. But the rendering of multiple shadow feelers to scan the three-dimensional scene for occluding objects is very time consuming. A similar, but much faster approach is Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO). In contrast to Raytraced AO, SSAO is rendered only after the final rendering as a postprocessing effect. Instead of scanning the three-dimensional scene for occluding objects SSAO uses the normal buffer and the depth-channel data accumulated during the rendering process as an interpretation of a height map. Now, scanning this height map for occluding neighbouring pixel-heights can produce similar results then Raytraced Ambient Occlusion. Because SSAO works only on the two-dimensional image data of a normal and a depth buffer the process can be calculated in a fraction of the time needed for Raytraced Ambient Occlusion.
    Note: Due to the limitation of a postprocessing effect, SSAO shadows can not be seen in mirroring- or behind transparent surfaces. But you can combine SSAO with Raytraced AO. If both options are activated then the time consuming Raytraced AO will only be applied for the calculation of ambient shadows seen in reflections and behind transparencies.
    All parameters for the SSAO shader can be edited in the Light Dialog if you select the AMBIENT object in the list of light objects
  • Ambient Occlusion (AO + SSAO)
    • The rendering of ambient shadows is now possible for all ambient light modes, even if only a constant factor is applied.
    • Optional Shadow Fading with Distance - now you can switch off the fading of ambient shadows. A limited shadow distance is often used for indoor scenes to only accentuate the structures and corners in a room and the details in the models while the main shadows are rendered from the light sources. But if the ambient light is used as the main illumination source (skydome illumination or Image Based Lighting), it is more advisable to switch of the fading.
  • Ambient Light in Viewports - The ambient light modes Skydome with Color Range and Image Based Lighting will be rendered now also for the viewport depiction.
  • Photon Mapping
    • Only Indirect Evaluation - the option to render the photon map directly has been removed. Now, the photon pool will be evaluated only as additional indirect illumination together with the direct incident light of the light sources.
    • Ambient Light as Photon Emitter - now also the ambient light source can emit photons into the scene. In this case photons are shot from an imaginary sphere surrounding the scene. Colors and intensity of the photons are dependent of the ambient light mode applied (Skydome with color range or IBL)
    • Plane - the scene object Plane is no longer excluded from the photon mapping process.
  • Optimized Machine Code - A great performance gain has been achieved by optimizing and transferring more code to assembler machine code. Depending on the scene and render effects applied the rendering speed could be doubled for some scenes, on an average a gain of 33% was achieved.
  • Fresnel Reflection - If a light ray hits a transparent material then - in dependence of the incidence-angle and the optical density of the medium - the light is partly transmitted and partly reflected (the Fresnel Formulas define the relation ship of transmitted to reflected light). The angle-dependant reflectivity of transparent materials becomes obvious when you look at a sharp angle on a glass panel, it will reflect almost all of the light appearing as a perfect mirror. But this behaviour is also valid for non-transparent objects that are coated with a thin film of a transparent material, for instance lacquer or enamel. To simulate this kind of surface you can specify now also a Fresnel Reflection value for non-transparent objects. The angle-dependent Fresnel Reflection will be added to the base reflection value of non-transparent materials.
  • Unsharp Reflections and Transparency - To be able to render unsharp reflections, now - instead of a single reflected or refracted ray - a whole bunch of rays is traced from a reflecting or transmissive point through the scene. In the material editor an additional reflection parameter defines the amount of Unsharpness for each material. In the render options dialog you can adjust the number of rays used to trace a reflection cone and with it the quality of the unsharpness effect.
  • Invert Bitmaps - All bitmap types controlling material properties with help of grayscale bitmaps (Bumpmap, Displacement Map, Transparency Map, Alpha Map) can now be inverted.
  • Visible Light Sources - Now, visible light sources are rendered as real light spheres or light cones (instead of a postprocessing lens flare effect). This way, light sources are visible now also in reflections and through transparencies.
  • Spot with Truncated Light Cone - Visible spot light cones are no longer pointed but correctly truncated in dependence of the light radius and the opening angle.
  • Additional Cameras and Viewports - The new version will manage up to 20 different camera settings (each of which can be animated separately). Use the menu entry "Objects - Camera" of the main menu to create a new camera object. To choose a particular camera for a viewport just select it from each viewport's menu list under "View - Camera". To be able to show more than one camera view at the same time now up to 6 viewports can be opened via the corresponding "View - Viewport arrangement" menu entries.
  • Selecting a Camera for the Final Rendering - Selecting a camera for the final rendering is very flexible:
    • click onto a camera viewport to choose the corresponding camera
    • or pick a camera from the camera list at the top bottom bar next to the zoom list box
    • or select a camera with a mouse click in the object selection window
  • Orthogonal Camera View - Now you can choose between an orthogonal or perspective camera view via the corresponding menu entries of the "View" menu. Orthogonal views are often necessary to produce final renderings without any perspective distortion, for instance, when rendering detailed views of models that are used afterwards as bitmaps to texture simpler versions of the same model.
  • Receives no Shadows - no shadows are casted onto objects with this object property switched on.
  • Removed Functions - Some obsolete functions were removed to facilitate code optimizations and conversion to HDR-rendering:
    • Field Rendering - since always a full picture has to be rendered to be able to calculate the new HDR-effects there is no performance gain anymore when rendering only half pictures for interlaced video. If you want to render an animation for interlaced video output simply double the animation length and convert the animation afterwards to an interlaced video with half of the original length using a common video processing software.
    • Lens Flares  and Material Halo - Now the HDR-data of the final rendering represents all light entering a camera lens. Therefore the comprehensive set of lens flare parameters has been removed from the light dialog. Use the new realtime HDR-light effects instead.
    • Point = Sphere - this object property has been removed.