It’s beginning to look a lot like… a new release of Twinmotion! Ok, maybe not a full release. However, the 2022.1 Preview 1 build is out now and its new features hit in all the cozy spots! Let’s take a look at a few of them:
HDRI Skydome:
A long-requested ability to add dynamic skies to Twinmotion is finally here! But this isn’t just your average skydome. No, why would we do that? The over 280 new skydomes also have the option of matching your sun lighting to that of the skydome- without any extra work! But wait, 280+ isn’t good enough for you? You can easily download your own from places like Poly Haven or Poliigon and add them to your User Library- more on this in the future, for sure!
Path Tracer:
A new raytracing engine has been introduced called Path Tracer, for even more photorealistic renderings! It can be enabled/disabled via a button on the toolbar. When the Path Tracer is activated, a progress wheel appears to indicate the convergence of the rendering depending on the current Path Tracer quality settings. You can use the new Path Tracer tool for not just still images, but also panoramas and videos too. You could use it for “Real time rendering”, however many current PC builds may go up in smoke when trying, as this process very resource heavy. Speaking of current PC builds, there are a few things to note regarding the tool:
- Requires DX12
- Requires a video card that supports raytracing
- Not supported on macOS
- Performance will vary depending on video card
- There is currently no “time to complete” estimation
The following features are not yet supported for the Path Tracer:
- Twinmotion Cloud Presentations
- Caustics
- Decals
- Weather height fog
- Volumetric light shafts
- Light haze
- Point clouds
- Flag animation
- Sun shape visibility
Point Cloud Support:
That’s right. Time to whip out your favorite Leica laser scanner and be prepared to be amazed! This build now supports Point Clouds! Point cloud files can be imported from the Import dock and are managed like any other import item:
- Point cloud objects are added as a new object type.
- Point cloud objects have collision volumes (invisible to the user) that permit selection, dragging and dropping of assets, and object painting. They receive shadows and lights and have properties that enable you to change their appearance, regenerate collisions, cast shadows, etc.
Material Substitution Table:
This release has now integrated a definable mapping table for substituting materials using the Datasmith workflow. It is fully customizable and enables you to replace source materials with Twinmotion-quality materials (even from the user library) and to define all settings such as scale, color, etc. in the table. This includes those from Revit, Sketchup, Rhino, and other source softwares that use the Datasmith Plugin!
New Quixel Megascans assets:
Now an even more direct link into the largest, and growing, library of ultra-quality scanned assets of its kind! This build will now link directly to the 3D Plants and Decals libraries from Quixel. No more having to convert them for use. Simply download and place like everything else you’ve been getting from Quixel. Do remember though that since they are not “native TM assets”, the 3D Plants cannot be used with the Paint Vegetation or Scatter Vegetation tools. They also do not have the very snazzy weathering effects seen in the OOB foliage.
New Furniture Assets:
Speaking of new assets, hundreds upon hundreds of new OOB furniture assets have been added. These assets are mainly located in the following categories:
- Furnitures/Home/Livingroom/Chairs/
- Furnitures/Home/Kitchen/Chairs/
- Furnitures/Home/Livingroom/Tables/
Snow has seen a revamp:
We now have more realistic snow materials and appearance masks to make the wintery weather effects far more credible!
Panorama Sets:
Now what good would vast vistas of enriched renderings be if you couldn’t share them with your friends and clients? Twinmotion has now included Panorama Sets to help give your viewers curated, lightweight, and high-definition lenses into your project. Oh, and up to 100 such 360-degree panoramas can be added to each set.
These are just a few of the enhancements that have already been added to this release. Again, this is not even a full build for 2022. This is just a sneak peak!! So stay tuned as IMAGINiT will be covering these and more in the coming months in blogs, webcasts, and training classes!
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