Art And Animation studio released the final version of their GPU based renderer FurryBall 4. FurryBall is a unique real-time GPU based renderer with advanced rendering techniques which can be directly implemented into Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max featuring network rendering, standalone renderer and multi GPU support. GPU based render engines are the future of rendering and comparing to CPU based renderers consume less power and are faster. FurryBall uniquely combines raytracing with rasterisation and can be used like UNBIASED renderer for realistic results and also like BIASED renderer for fast cartoon like rendering, previz and animations.  FurryBall 4 has OptiX™ Physically-based full global illumination and supports unbiased and as well biased techniques.  From this moment FurryBall not only offers high quality rendering but a complex studio solution. The new version is featuring Multi-GPU support where only nVidia GPUs are supported for unbiased rendering and AMD/ATI/INTEL GPUs can be used for biased rendering. Also, various new FurryBall materials, Maya materials and rendering options where added to expand the possibilities of this fabulous renderer. Comparing to FurryBall 3, a new approach for the trial version was started.

E-on Software announced the releasing and the immediately availability of Plant Factory, their revolutionary new technology for creating and rendering high-quality 3D plants. Plant Factory was designed and offers solutions custom-tailored to fulfil the needs of the CG, SFX, Architecture and Gaming industry. The technology available in Plant Factory represents the culmination of e-on software's decades of expertise in the field of digital nature and delivers unsurpassed realism and performance. Using Plant Factory users can create any kind of vegetation, from simple grass to super elaborate hero trees by painting it, assembling simple building blocks, or completely graphing all plant properties. Generating procedural geometry and materials of unlimited detail and animating all plant aspects using precise wind and breeze algorithms. One of the key features of The Plant Factory is its ability to dynamically set global plant characteristics such as plant age, health, and seasonality. These characteristics can drive any node or set of nodes in the TPF graph to add more complete plant definition and realism.

Chaos Group has announced the beta program for V-Ray 3.0 for 3ds Max - the most complete lighting, shading and rendering toolkit on the market. V-Ray for 3ds Max is the core development of Chaos Group, which allows users to quickly and easily create realistic images while giving them full control over the 3D production process. V-Ray is a complete rendering solution used widely by the biggest VFX studios, 3D Artists and architects around the world. Between the most noticeable improvements below the speed, most users will notice as ray tracing calculations are running up to 5 times faster. Also, a new simplified „UI“ user interface design is introduced which provides quick access to common controls and settings. With all the Production Presets and Quick Settings right up front, users can fine tune quality and speed from the start of their design process, helping them to be more efficient and improve their workflow.

Basefount Technology has shipped Miarmy 2.5, another impressive update to its Maya crowd-animation system. New features in the update include the option to make crowd agents avoid one another automatically without the need to set up logic states; and the option to scale either entire agents or individual bones within the rig. There are also new readymade physics systems to enable agents to react to gunfire, missiles and bombs; and the options for making agents follow 3D paths and for driving agents with particles have been improved.