Redesigned Environment Tab
The Environment (Env) Tab in the Ambience panel has undergone a significant overhaul, providing a clearer distinction between the two primary lighting modes: Dynamic Sky and HDRI.
Key Features
Dynamic Sky Mode: Includes Sun, Sky, and Clouds settings, offering full control over natural lighting conditions.
HDRI Mode: Focuses on HDRI environment settings and Directional Light adjustments for more tailored lighting setups.
Shared Settings: Both modes share parameters like Season, Wind, Fog, Horizon, and Ocean, ensuring consistent usability across lighting modes.
Flexibility in Weather Control
Seasonal weather sliders have been split into individual controls, allowing users to achieve effects like rain without clouds or snowy landscapes with vibrant autumn foliage.
Limitation
In some cases, older environment configurations may not be fully compatible with the redesigned system, which could result in slight visual changes when opening older projects.
Introducing Presets
Twinmotion now allows the use and creation of Presets, enabling users to quickly toggle between preconfigured settings. The platform includes default presets while allowing custom preset creation to streamline workflows.
Availability
Presets are currently supported in:
The Environment tab
Volumetric Clouds
Confetti assets
Limitation
Presets are stored locally, and sharing them across systems is not currently seamless. When transferring projects to another system, preset names will default to "Custom," though their settings remain intact.
Volumetric Clouds
With Volumetric Clouds, you can add realistic, animated cloud formations that cast accurate shadows across your scenes. Key adjustable parameters include altitude, coverage, density, color, and puffiness, providing unparalleled realism.
Limitations
On AMD graphics cards, cloud quality is downgraded in Path Tracer rendering mode.
Minor artifacts may occur in real-time rendering when clouds interact with geometry.
Shadow imprecision may be observed during sunrise/sunset in real-time rendering.
Enhanced Fog and Sky Controls
Fog Improvements
New Height and Color sliders offer refined control over fog effects. The Density slider has been reworked, allowing for more impactful fog representation.
Sky and Sun Updates
Turbidity: Simulate atmospheric clarity, from pollution-filled skies to clean, crisp environments.
Atmosphere Density: Adjust sky color by varying the thickness of the atmosphere.
Sun Color/Temperature: Control sun tone directly or tweak Directional Light in HDRI mode.
Configuration Media Type
A new Configuration Media Type lets users set interactive triggers within the viewport, such as opening doors or switching materials. These triggers can store and switch between various states (e.g., material, visibility, or ambience) through 2D or 3D triggers.
Limitation
Configurations are not yet supported on Twinmotion Cloud.
New Lighting and Effects
Projector Light
A new Projector Light enables the projection of images or videos onto surfaces, complete with distortion correction and masking options.
Confetti Particles
A customizable Confetti particle system, complete with presets, is now available under Objects > Particles.
Limitations
Confetti Roll shapes are incompatible with Path Tracer rendering mode.
Flickering may occur with motion blur at certain camera distances.
VR Enhancements
Added support for configuration triggers via VR controllers.
Optimized teleportation and rendering performance using NVIDIA’s DLSS (DLAA).
Lumen support introduced for VR, though it requires manual activation due to high hardware demands.
Advanced Performance Features
Automatic LOD Generation
Twinmotion now includes automatic Level of Detail (LOD) generation to optimize performance in real-time 3D scenes. Users can choose between presets (Simple, Normal, Complex) to manage mesh detail based on camera distance.
Virtual Shadow Maps
Virtual Shadow Maps improve shadow rendering accuracy in real-time mode, offering consistency with Path Tracer mode.
Limitations
Not supported on macOS.
Performance impact when combined with weather particle systems (to be improved in future updates).
Expanded Import and Export Options
Alias .wire File Import: Geometry from Alias software can now be imported with tessellation options.
Datasmith Enhancements: Full support for Area and Spacing tools in Datasmith exports ensures seamless integration with Unreal Engine.
Workflow Enhancements
Media Multi-Selection
Adjust settings for multiple images, videos, or panoramas simultaneously using standard multi-selection shortcuts.
Smooth Camera Motion
Enhanced camera path controls now allow for eased motion adjustments, with tangents for smooth transitions.
Camera Updates
Action Cam Target: Precisely manage framing and depth of field with a look-at constraint.
Orbit Camera: Introduced a new rig to revolve around a pivot for dynamic scene exploration.
Materials and Modeling
New Materials
Tire Base Material: Automatic UV mapping for cylindrical objects like tires.
Car Paint Enhancements: Additional controls for pearlescence, imperfections, and clear coat roughness.
Coated Carbon Fiber: Four new automotive-grade materials in the Library.
Modeling Tools
A Modeling Panel introduces tools for editing faces, flipping normals, and using a new Mirror Tool to duplicate geometry seamlessly.
Additional Updates
Shadows in Orthographic Views: Shadows are now supported in real-time rendering for orthographic views.
Measure Tool Update: Includes new distance measurement and alignment features.
Legacy Direct Link Removed: Users must now use the updated Datasmith Exporter.
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