Cinema 4D R18 is out

EXCHANGE

• Alembic
  • Alembic module is now based on SDK 1.5.8.
  • Support for vertex colors was added
  • The internal tags which represent the data streamed from *.abc files are exposed to the user on the Alembic generator now
  • There now is a placeholder tag for the Subdivision Surface Weight tag
  • The subdivision method is now written to and read from the Alembic SubD scheme
  • Alembic generator has a new option for Creases and Corners used for weights of SDS objects
  • Alembic generator has a new value to be able to scale SDS weights
  • New Import options
    • "Color Maps" option allows color information (RGB and RGBA) to be imported and Vertex Color tags to be created
    • Importing "Points" with "As Polygon Object" reads the color (RGB or RGBA) property and creates a Vertex Color tag per point mode for it
    • Importing "Points" with "As Particle Geometry" reads RGBA (vector4d) color arrays now
    • "Creases and Corners" - reads creases and corners as point and edge weights of SDS objects
  • New Export options
    • "Vertex Colors" - the RGBA data of all Vertex Color tags is exported
    • "Display Colors to Vertex Colors" - writes the display color of the object as vertex color information
    • "Vertex Colors" + "Points Only (Geometry)" options - exports also RGBA data from points mode only Vertex Color tags
    • "Subdivision Surface Weights" - writes point and edge weights of SDS objects as corners and creases
    • Export can now be canceled
• FBX
  • FBX module is now based on SDK 2016.2, now supports the 7.5 file format
  • New Import options
    • "Vertex Colors" - imports vertex color elements and creates a Vertex Color tag for each of them
    • "Convert Grayscale Vertex Colors to Vertex Maps" - in case there are only grayscale colors, a Vertex Map tag will be created instead of a Vertex Color tag
    • "Subdivision Surface" - an SDS Weight tag will be created if at least one crease layer was found
  • New Export options
    • "Vertex Colors" - color information of all Vertex Color tags is exported for every mesh
    • "Subdivision Surface" - if an SDS Weight tag exists, the weight information for points and edges is written as two crease layers
• Support for Allegorithmic Substance Engine
  • Substance archives (.sbsar) can be loaded
  • The Substance Asset Manager can be used to organize the Substance assets in the scene
  • The Substance Shader is used to reference Substance asset outputs in Cinema 4D's material system and all other parts of Cinema 4D that support shaders
  • New Substance Asset mode in the Attributes Manager
  • New Substance Engine section in the Preferences
  • New Substance Engine sub-menu in Pipeline menu
  • C++/Python API supports Substance
• Support for the DDS texture file format (loader)
• BP exchange supports 3ds Max 2017
• OBJ
  • Import and Export presets can now be saved and loaded
  • The Material Mix Mode can now be specified

MATERIAL

• Variation shader enhancements
• Support for more than one texture
• UV Rotation can now be quantized and UV can be flipped
• New "Invert Direction" option for Ambient Occlusion
• New parallax mapping support in the Bump channel
• New Shadow Catcher shader
• New Thin Film shader

MODELING

• New Knife tools
• Interactive modeling workflow using new on screen handles and gizmos
• Line Cut tool
• Cuts polygon objects and splines with polyline cuts
• Cut line can be interactively adapted via control points
• Cuts can be inside of polygons
• Several slice modes
• Supports snapping and constraints
• Plane Cut tool
• Planar cut for polygon objects

MOGRAPH

• New Effectors
• Push Apart effector Helps reduce or avoid clone overlap quickly
• New distribution modes for MoGraph Cloner and Matrix Objects
• Honeycomb Array
• New Voronoi Fracture generator
• Full dynamics support

TEXTURE BAKING

• Calculation of vector maps of all types has been improved
• Intensity based maps (intensity, intensity centered, red-green) now use a basic ray casting technique to measure displacement between the base and the sculpt mesh
• Baking normal maps only also uses the basic ray casting technique to sample normal vectors on the sculpt mesh

VIEWPORT

• Shading/Vertex normals can now be displayed in the viewport
• New "Screenspace Ambient Occlusion" option
• New "Reflections" option shows an approximation of the Reflectance Channel in the viewport
• Supports multiple layers, masks, fresnel and roughness
• New "Tessellation" option shows the effect of displacements in the viewport
• Can be set globally and per material

• More information on Cinema 4D site.
• Check out Cinema 4D prices in Evermotion Shop