--- title: "16.0.0" canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/CRMAX/1436221661/16.0.0" format: markdown --- *Official Release* **Date** - November 04, 2026 ## **New Features** --- ### **Gaussian splats** - Option to relight Gaussian splats so they receive illumination from the scene. Added a clipping mask for Gaussian Splats, support for the highly compressed SPZ format for Gaussian splats, and support for rendering of native 3ds Max Gaussian Splats ### **VFB Background** - In the VFB, set a background image that isn't affected by post-processing (removing the need to use a Tone Map Control) ### **Vantage** - Export of Chaos Scatter to Vantage without exporting all the individual scattered instances, resulting in much faster export and live link; also, greatly improved support for a range of Corona materials (see later) ### **Parallax Displacement** - Parallax displacement mapping option in the Corona Physical material, which can take less memory to render than geometry displacement ### **Parallax Interiors** - Using just a flat plane, give the appearance of furnished an lit 3D rooms behind windows, using the new Parallax map - samples available in Cosmos ### **AI assistant** - AI assistant (beta) that offers help with product usage, suggestions for improving the rendering, mood matching based on an image, and scattering ### **Notifications** - Initial implementation of Chaos notifications; see [Notifications Management](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/1001291828) for how to manage notification settings ## **Improvements** --- - Improved the CoronaSky atmospheric shader (Volume Effect) significantly, including many bug fixes; scenes from earlier versions load with the Volume Effect in legacy mode to preserve their appearance - Updated Corona Gaussian Splats to show the crop box size after scaling - Extended Render Selection (render mask) with options to render reflections, refractions, and shadows of included objects - Added a Lighting Analysis render element - Changed Cosmos Browser to start on demand and to notify about missing assets - Changed new Corona cameras so that they no longer copy parameters in Tone mapping, Post-processing, Projection & VR, Distortion, Environment and Clipping, Overrides, DOF & Motion Blur, Tilt & Shift, Photographic, and Bokeh from an existing camera - Delivered support for ICC profiles in Color Management, introduced in 3ds Max 2027.2 - Enabled denoising of the CShading_Alpha element to improve compositing - Extended the VFB settings dialog with Performance and System sections - Implemented an Exposure (EV) control for Gaussian splats, next to the existing Intensity control - Integrated Collaboration, AI Enhancer, and Veras into Corona Image Editor (CIE) - Introduced an option to scale Bloom and Glare alpha intensity to match the Beauty Bloom and Glare intensity - Introduced Ctrl++, Ctrl+-, and Ctrl+0 shortcuts in the Cosmos, AI assistant, and cloud collaboration dialogs to zoom in, zoom out, and reset zoom - Optimized rendering speed of TyFlow volumes - Rolled out an option to preserve Translucency in the Material Override settings - Sped up material preview rendering and updates by changing the license type; users with only one interface license can now render material previews with the interface license they already hold - Updated Cosmos to prompt users to download incomplete assets again - Made VFB icon animation toggleable in VFB settings and Corona System settings ### **Live link** - Enabled export of multiple cameras in live link - Extended Vantage support to handle more MultiMap randomization modes - Enabled support for CoronaSlicerMtl - Implemented support for the Corona Ambient Occlusion map - Improved export of Roughness to better match between Corona and Vantage - Normal Map support - Metalness and refraction support - Legacy material support - Cellular Map - Scatter objects displacement (material and modifier) - Basic support for Vignette - Enhanced support for Corona Volume Grid rendering - Now supports the 3ds Max Composite map - Improved export of the CoronaMappingRandomizer map - Included support for CoronaDisplacementMod, scatter object displacement (material and modifier), and the cellular map - Added export of the rendering color space - Changed Vantage live link so it no longer stops after objects are merged into the scene - Improved error messages ### **Scatter** - Added an edge-trimming direction override, so the X, Y, or Z axis can be used instead of the surface normal for edge trimming - Changed preset distribution patterns to automatically link a bitmap to the density map slot, enabling bitmap-driven scattering and editing for presets - Improved UI sync of the Scatter distribution map preview on preset or parameter changes and on renames of referenced maps - Introduced bulk enable/disable actions in Areas lists, also available in the right-click menu ## **Fixes** --- - Fixes for identified vulnerabilities - A crash could occur when switching renderers when V-Ray was also installed - A rare crash occurred in Corona materials - A sub-pixel render region stayed drawn in the VFB - Adaptivity wasn't deterministic; it now produces the same noise on every render, regardless of the number of cores used. - AI Enhancer render element rendered incorrectly with DR - Animated textures plugged directly into objects such as Corona Light, Corona Decal, Corona Volume Grid, or Corona Fractal didn't update between frames when "Fast animation parsing" was enabled - Auto Adjustment switched to defaults after material editor updates while IR was running - Chromatic aberration produced artifacts on CXRs rendered in a non-sRGB color space - Corona didn't properly parse scatters with modifiers or sub-object scatters - CoronaImageCmd mixed different images together when processing multiple images - Cosmos: Loading of HDRI now respects the Scene Environment source. - Cosmos materials had incorrect bitmap color space and triplanar scale - DrServer scaling and size flickered - Half-open SlicerMtl produced fireflies from the environment - Image Editor file associations (CXR, CEXR) didn't work - Interactive updates didn't happen when a CoronaDistance source node moved - Keyboard input didn't work properly when switching between spinboxes while Vantage live link was on - "License not available" previews are no longer stored in the material preview cache in the Slate Material Editor - Material preview didn't work correctly after a scene reset - NaNs in roughness/anisotropy textures crashed the physical material - OIDN denoised render elements less than the beauty pass - Opening the Veras/Collaboration dialog caused random crashes; the dialog's content no longer has to be reloaded when the dialog is closed and reopened. - Performance was worse with the physical camera and clipping - Refractive roughness didn't match between Corona and Vantage - Rendering animated RailClone with geometry motion blur caused a crash - Saving all render elements now stops after the first error, to avoid flooding the user with errors. - The Bitmap load dialog didn't open in 3ds Max QuietMode - The color management color swatch setting wasn't applied to the ColorTex result preview - The Corona Camera resolution override exceeded the 32768 limit when changing the width with a locked aspect ratio - The integrated web browser (Cosmos, Veras, and others) was too small on high-DPI monitors - The region tool discarded regions smaller than 20x20 pixels - The shutter curve editor no longer shows the "Histogram controls are available in VFB" label. - The Vignette value wasn't set correctly in Vantage live link; it's now taken from Corona's tone mapping settings. - Thin translucent objects (like curtains) showed splotches when seen in reflections - Tile rendering didn't work with Deadline - tyFlow sparse volumes showed seams at their borders - Widgets in all standalone applications were scaled incorrectly when opened on a secondary monitor with a different scale than the primary one ### **Scatter Fixes** - Cluster offset is now in scene units. - Instances above specific values were translated incorrectly - Labels are now colored when the instance count is clamped in the viewport or during generation. - Spinners didn't capture uncommitted edit-box values on selection change; input is now registered when clicking away without pressing Enter. - The object list didn't fill the available width - UI controls weren't disabled when a deleted object was in the selection ### **Live Link Fixes** - A sphere light with IES enabled pointed in the opposite direction - Corona Camera Tilt and Shift weren't exported correctly - Light intensity didn't apply when IES was enabled - Texture gamma and color space weren't exported correctly - The 3ds Max Color Correction map rendered incorrectly - The 3ds Max physical camera didn't export to Vantage - A color-corrected sky used as the environment map rendered incorrectly - Opacity rendered incorrectly when a bitmap used Image Alpha as Mono channel output - Triplanar mapping didn't work correctly in Vantage live link - The live link session stayed open after switching to a different renderer while it was running