Autodesk unveiled Arnold 5.3 public beta with Arnold GPU. This highly-anticipated release provides artists with GPU rendering, as well
as the flexibility to choose between rendering on a CPU or GPU without changing renderers.

From look development to lighting, support for the GPU acceleration increases the interactivity and speed of the artist’s workflows, helping reduce iteration and review cycles. Arnold 5.3 also adds new features to help maximize performance and give artists greater control over rendering processes, including adaptive sampling updates, a new version of Randomwalk SSS, and improved Operator UX.

“We recognize the needs of Arnold users for increased speed and interactivity during the creation process,” claimed Chris Vienneau, senior director of Media & Entertainment Products department in Autodesk. “We’re excited to introduce this beta version of Arnold GPU because it gives our users a first taste of the performance gains they can expect to see, while keeping the great look they love from Arnold. We’ve worked closely with NVIDIA to optimize Arnold GPU to run on the latest RTX technology, and look forward to continuing to collaborate to bring our customers the highest quality rendering.”

Arnold GPU rendering allows artists and small studios to quickly perform iterations in a fast working environment and increase rendering capabilities in accordance with the requirements of the project. From the standard Arnold interface, users can switch between rendering on CPU and GPU in one click. Currently, Arnold GPU supports features such as arbitrary shading networks, SSS, hair, atmospheric effects, instancing, and procedural. Arnold GPU is based on the NVIDIA OptiX platform and is optimized to use NVIDIA RTX technology.

More new features in Arnold 5.3

• Major improvements to quality and performance for adaptive sampling, helping to reduce render times without jeopardizing final image quality.
• Improved version of Randomwalk SSS mode for more realistic shading.
• Enhanced usability for Standard Surface, giving users more control.
• Improvements to the Operator framework, including a new Include operator and a more artist-friendly way to apply them.
• Better sampling of Skydome lights, reducing direct illumination noise.
• Updates to support MaterialX, allowing users to save a shading network as a MaterialX look.

How to get Arnold 5.3 beta

The Arnold 5.3 public beta with Arnold GPU is available either as a separate subscription or as part of the end-to-end creative tools Autodesk Media & Entertainment Collection. You can also try the Arnold GPU with a free 30-day trial version. Arnold GPU is available in all supported plugins for Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, Houdini, Cinema 4D and Katana.

To test this renderer in Maya you can download excellent free shaders from VisualArt.