Luxology modo 203

Luxology today released modo 203, bringing enhancements to UV editing tools, faster rendering speed and a new DXF translator plug-in as well as significant performance and workflow improvements. modo is a 3D modeling, painting and rendering application for creating high-quality 3D content for game development, design visualization, film visual effects, video production and graphic arts. modo 203 includes technology and user interface additions to accelerate the development of high-quality UVs. The UV unwrap tool has been improved so that UVs are laid out by the software with less angular and proportional distortion as compared to the geometric polygon volume and to help modo users interactively relax the UV data, the UV pinning function has been improved.

The modo renderer also features two additional speed injections, including ray tracing performance boosts of 1.4 times and optimization of irradiance caching has been optimized for faster global illumination performance on large resolution renderings.

Finally modo 203 also features a new DXF plug-in that reads and writes ASCII DXF files from inside modo. Architects and designers can now use modo to import a range of 2D and 3D entities from DXF files; including: polymesh, arcs, circles, lines, points, polylines and more. Layers in the incoming DXF files are automatically created as corresponding layers in the modo scene to preserve file organization. On export from modo, the new translator converts modo triangles and quads into a polymesh, with vertex connectivity maintained.

modo ships on a single disc supporting both Mac OS X and Windows, and sells for $900. modo 202 users are eligible to receive the modo 203 update as an electronic download free of charge. A free 30-day full-function evaluation version of modo 203 is also available and includes a starter pack of sample files and an interactive exploration guide.

by MacNN Staff