MoonRay for Modo 0.4.3.1

A hotfix for 0.4.3 (Windows, Modo 16.1v9, experimental).

Fixed

• Adding geometry while MoonLightIPR follows the scene no longer stops or freezes it. Turning realtime on could wait on Modo without end (while Modo's colour picker was open, for one), Modo still answering but the preview never updating.
• "Render unavailable: Modo evaluated geometry: Polygon indices failed (0x8000001c)": Modo's fur now renders with Modo evaluated geometry. Under motion blur in the preview, fur that cannot be followed through the shutter is shown still, with a notice, rather than the render refused.
• Assign MoonRay Material on a whole mesh tags its polygons, as Modo's Polygon Set Material does. Its item mask had every reading of the scene go through Modo's render cache: one material on one sphere slowed a large scene's preview to seconds an edit. Polygons made in the mesh later keep the tag they are made with.
• Large scenes read faster: Modo's planar, cubic, cylindrical and spherical texture projections are worked out several times faster and kept between readings while a mesh is unchanged (a test scene with fur and a 324,706-face mesh, 45 s to 13 s, then under 2 s an edit), and moving an item with fur on it is followed at once.

Updating from 0.4.3

Only the kit changed (with its geometry adapter); the runtime is the same as 0.4.3's. If 0.4.3 is installed: close Modo, unpack MoonRayForModo-0.4.3.1-kit.zip, and copy its MoonRayForModo folder over %APPDATA%\Luxology\Kits\MoonRayForModo, replacing the files it asks about. The runtime and content you have stay as they are.

New installs, or updating from 0.4.2.1 or earlier: download the kit and the windows-runtime ZIPs (and the optional content ZIP) and follow INSTALLATION.md, as for 0.4.3.

Everything new in 0.4.3 is in the 0.4.3 release and in What's new.

What was checked

The fixes were tried in an isolated Modo 16.1v9 on the scene they were reported with (adding a sphere, realtime on and off, a MoonRay material and its colour changed, all followed to the end), and motion blur in MoonLightIPR still follows a moving object; the packaged ZIPs were unpacked into an empty folder and checked with tools/check_release_package.py; the runtime is file for file 0.4.3's; the project's unit tests pass.

MoonRay for Modo 0.4.3

A critical performance update (Windows, Modo 16.1v9, experimental), with a new runtime: install the kit and the runtime together.

Faster to start a render

• Scenes load far faster before a render starts, in MoonRay and in MoonLightIPR. A mesh's long lists (points, faces, normals, UVs, vertex maps) go to MoonRay in its own binary scene format beside the scene text, which MoonRay reads in a fraction of the time. The geometry adapter now joins the many pieces Modo's render cache hands over into one per surface (one test interior came in as 41,940 pieces of 16 surfaces), and what was read of a scene is kept from one reading to the next. On that interior, getting MoonRay ready went from about 107 seconds to 18, and MoonLightIPR's packing from 6.9 seconds to 2.3, with the same pictures. Preferences: Load geometry as binary (on).
• Low-latency rendering: MoonRay runs below Modo's priority and leaves one processor thread free, so Modo stays quick to use while it renders. Preferences (on).

MoonLightIPR

• Uses far less power: it stops once the picture is clean, square by square, spreads a render over about eight seconds rather than running the graphics card flat out, shows the picture less often once it has settled, and lets the processor sleep while it waits on the card. It is no longer sent the scene again for a change of frame alone.
• Draws more of a scene: Shader Tree displacement layers and every displacement node (Normal, Vector, Combine, Switch), with motion blur; Shader Tree stencils; light links from Object controls, a material's links or Modo's groups; and a material stack's rows with their own shine (a dull print over shiny metal). An edit is rendered once the mouse is let go.

Modo's materials nearer Modo's, in MoonRay

• Shader Tree Displacement and Stencil layers render in MoonRay.
• Principled sheen, and Principled highlights that keep their rise toward the edge.
• Anisotropy along Modo's UV map, its strength fitted to Modo's renders.
• Glass: a tinted solid takes Modo's colour once rather than at each surface, and rough glass blurs as Modo's does.
• Masks: material, Part, Selection Set and item masks colour the same surfaces as in Modo's own render.

Fixes

• Replicators render with motion blur (a replicator's copies that Modo gives in a different number a moment from the frame no longer stop the render; MoonLightIPR showed nothing).
• Export as MoonRay Scene's RDLB writes only the RDLB beside the scene.
• A light's picture that cannot be found is left out with a notice, not drawn in MoonRay's pink.

Updating

Close Modo. Unpack MoonRayForModo-0.4.3-kit.zip and MoonRayForModo-0.4.3-windows-runtime.zip and follow INSTALLATION.md: the runtime changed (MoonRay's scene loading and MoonLightIPR), so the kit alone is not enough. The content ZIP is optional and the same ten example scenes as before.

What was checked

The packaged ZIPs were unpacked into an empty folder and checked with tools/check_release_package.py (MoonRay renders in XPU and vectorized modes, the scene and VDB readers, the hair grower, the MoonLightIPR session, the content in the asset library); the project's unit tests pass. MoonLightIPR's new drawing was compared with MoonRay's renders scene by scene (the numbers are in moonlightipr/README.md), and Modo's materials with Modo's own renders. Run on one machine (RTX 3090) only.

MoonRay for Modo 0.4.2.1

A hotfix for 0.4.2 (Windows, Modo 16.1v9, experimental).

Fixed

• The graph editor's Live material preview renders again. With Live on, the MoonRay Widget refused the scene with "Minimum adaptive samples must not exceed maximum samples".

Updating from 0.4.2

Only the kit changed; the runtime is the same as 0.4.2's. If 0.4.2 is installed: close Modo, unpack MoonRayForModo-0.4.2.1-kit.zip, and copy its MoonRayForModo folder over %APPDATA%\Luxology\Kits\MoonRayForModo, replacing the files it asks about. The runtime and content you have stay as they are.

New installs: download the kit and the windows-runtime ZIPs (and the optional content ZIP) and follow INSTALLATION.md, as for 0.4.2.

Everything new in 0.4.2 is in the 0.4.2 release and in What's new.

What was checked

The fix was tried in an isolated Modo 16.1v9 (the widget rendered with Live on); the packaged ZIPs were unpacked into an empty folder and checked with tools/check_release_package.py; the project's unit tests pass.

MoonRay for Modo 0.4.2

Native Windows experimental release for Modo 16.1v9. Download the kit and the windows-runtime ZIPs and follow INSTALLATION.md. The content ZIP is optional: it adds MoonRay's ten example scenes to the asset library. All three unpack to a MoonRayForModo folder; merge them into one. The kit finds its bundled runtime folder by itself, so no paths or environment variables need setting.

0.4.2 needs its own runtime ZIP: install the kit and the runtime together, not the kit over the 0.4.1 runtime. MoonRay itself changed (display and pixel filters, the MoonRay Source Overrides, time per pixel), as did MoonLightIPR, and the runtime now carries MoonRay's scene converter for RDLB export.

The full list of changes, with pictures, is in What's new in 0.4, 0.4.1 and 0.4.2.

New since 0.4.1

• MoonRay's display filters (all 18), pixel filters (Gaussian, Triangle, Blackman-Harris), time per pixel, visibility and primitive attribute outputs, and switch displacement in the node editor.
• The compositor builds itself from passes or light groups, with a Grade on each; colour nodes take a mask; a probe reads values at the pointer; it runs on the graphics card.
• Cryptomatte: pick mattes in the preview, names and IDs on objects and materials, a Cryptomatte node in the compositor, and fog with mattes of its own.
• MoonRay's cameras are Modo cameras: looked through in the viewport by their lens, with Modo's resolution gate; Convert to MoonRay Camera replaces a Modo camera in place, animation kept; a Camera Sequence keys cameras to frame ranges; stereo and overscan from Modo's camera.
• Export as MoonRay Scene (MoonRay menu, and the preview's Options): RDLA, RDLB or both, with outputs, collected textures and each frame of the range optional. More of a MoonRay scene comes in on import: motion, creases, fog meshes, values by point or face, instancers of any size.
• MoonLightIPR: velvet, motion blur on by default, MoonRay's own cameras, hair toon and even fog; faster on scenes without its heaviest materials, and large texture sets fit on the graphics card.
• Saving pictures: PNG, JPEG, TIFF and Targa besides OpenEXR, a new Export AOVs window, and a choice of EXR compression.
• Eleven MoonRay Source Overrides: fixes to MoonRay's own source where it renders something wrongly for an artist (smooth toon edges, fog in Cryptomatte, images without alpha read as opaque, and more), each a checkbox in Preferences, on by default.
• Render settings: Global Switches, volume factors, presence quality and more; settings a sampling mode does not use are greyed; MoonRay LS samples adaptively or uniformly.
• Fixes: Modo's own light linking reaches MoonRay; HDRI environments reach MoonRay whole, match Modo's direction and turn quickly; glitter works in reference space; the Denoiser set to Off is off everywhere; ACEScg scenes render and look right, and an ACES 2.0 view sits beside ACES 1.3; scenes of more than 32,767 meshes render; a preview that fails on the GPU falls back to the CPU.
• A texture that cannot be found no longer stops the render: a notice names it, and the material renders without it.
• Change to Modo Camera: right-click a MoonRay camera to make it Modo's own camera again, framing as it did.
• The button greys while a render stops, saying Stopping, until MoonRay has finished with what it has.

Known limits

As in 0.4.1. Also: now and then a preview with glitter in the GPU (XPU) mode fails on the graphics card; it is rendered on the CPU instead, with a notice. Open issues are on the issue tracker.

What was checked

The packaged kit and runtime ZIPs were unpacked into an empty folder and checked there with tools/check_release_package.py: MoonRay renders in XPU and vector modes, the scene reader, VDB reader and hair grower run, MoonLightIPR starts and quits, and the packaged scene converter writes RDLB. The content ZIP was checked for its layout and integrity, not installed from. Each change was tried in an isolated Modo 16.1v9 on one machine (RTX 3090) while it was built; the project's unit tests pass. No clean-machine install was tested.

MoonRay for Modo 0.4.1

Native Windows experimental release for Modo 16.1v9. Download the kit and the windows-runtime ZIPs and follow INSTALLATION.md. The content ZIP is optional: it adds MoonRay's ten example scenes to the asset library. All three unpack to a MoonRayForModo folder; merge them into one. The kit finds its bundled runtime folder by itself, so no paths or environment variables need setting.

0.4.1 needs its own runtime ZIP: install the kit and the runtime together, not the kit over the 0.4 runtime. The MoonLightIPR engine in it changed with the toon material.

The full list of changes, with pictures, is in What's new in 0.4 and 0.4.1.

New since 0.4

• MoonRay's toon material starts as a toon material: its diffuse ramp and toon highlight are on as soon as it is added. Either can still be set back in its form.
• MoonLightIPR draws the toon material, ramp and highlight.
• Ramps are edited with the mouse: drag a stop's handle, click the ramp to add one, double-click a handle for its color, right-click to remove it.
• A material's ramp shows in the preview as you edit it, with MoonLightIPR and RT On. OK keeps the change; Cancel drops it.
• The scene importer can import into a new scene, and has a Close button.
• Color management follows Modo's system preferences, and what you choose in MoonRay's render settings is remembered for new scenes and the next time Modo opens.
• MoonRay LS shows and renders the beauty alone.

Known limits

As in 0.4. Also: the live ramp preview needs MoonLightIPR with RT On, and is for ramps opened from a material's form; ramps opened in the graph editor or on light filters show after OK. In MoonLightIPR a toon highlight is drawn without its stretch and its indirect reflections. Open issues are on the issue tracker.

What was checked

The packaged kit and runtime ZIPs were unpacked into an empty folder and checked there with tools/check_release_package.py. The content ZIP was checked for its layout and integrity, not installed from. Each change was tried in an isolated Modo 16.1v9 on one machine (RTX 3090) while it was built; the project's unit tests pass. No clean-machine install was tested.

MoonRay for Modo 0.4

Native Windows experimental release for Modo 16.1v9. Download the kit and the windows-runtime ZIPs and follow INSTALLATION.md. The content ZIP is optional: it adds MoonRay's ten example scenes to the asset library. All three unpack to a MoonRayForModo folder; merge them into one. The kit finds its bundled runtime folder by itself, so no paths or environment variables need setting.

0.4 needs its own runtime ZIP: install the kit and the runtime together, not the kit over an older runtime.

The full list of changes, with pictures, is in What's new in 0.4.

New since 0.3.51.3

The preview window

• Three engines: MoonRay for the full render; MoonRay LS for a quick low-sample render; MoonLightIPR, which updates after each edit once you press RT Off to switch realtime on.
• Smart Render: MoonRay stops by itself once the picture is clean enough for the denoiser, and denoises it.
• Important Parts First: the buckets with the most detail render before the plain ones.
• Stop keeps a whole picture: MoonRay finishes the tiles it is on, so nothing is left dark or blocky.
• Denoised Beauty just works: choose it in the buffer list. Beauty is the default.
• The preview follows Modo's color management by default, and names the view and LUT at the foot of the window.
• Draft is much faster and follows the scene by itself; a Region is marked, then rendered when you ask.
• The status names the graphics card and processor; the Notices button is coloured when there is something to read.

New tools

• Compositor: a node graph over a finished render's buffers, in Options > Compositor. Its result is the Composite buffer.
• MoonLightIPR Playblast: renders an animation on the graphics card and plays it back.
• File > Open reads MoonRay scenes (.rdla, .rdlb), of any size.
• The MoonRay menu is regrouped by what each entry is for.

Closer to Modo

• Modo fur without a limit: every fibre Modo would grow, each as thick as the Fur material says. Remove Base Surface is followed.
• Keep Fine Detail when denoising: fur, hair and curves stay sharp over a denoised surface.
• Bump and normal images show on subdivision surfaces; an image layer's Low Value and High Value are followed.
• Cellular, Wood, Weave and Ripples layers render; a layer under the Render item shows on polygons with no material.
• Hidden items stay hidden: an item, or a light's material, with its eye off does not render. A preference chooses whether the environment lights the scene always or only with Modo's Global Illumination on.
• Rough Principled materials are no longer dark at low angles; imported MoonRay lights are no longer far too bright.

MoonLightIPR closer to MoonRay

• Shiny surfaces in bounced light, tinted glass, clearcoats and see-through shadows.
• Subsurface on small, thin and backlit shapes, and random walk subsurface as a real random walk.
• Per-ray visibility, Sample Clamp, and Blinn, Ashikhmin and GTR roughness.

Known limits

Windows and Modo 16.1v9 only; XPU and MoonLightIPR need an NVIDIA GPU and have been run on an RTX 3090 only. MoonLightIPR is an approximation of MoonRay, and updates after you let go of a drag, not while you drag. Smart Render and Important Parts First work on MoonRay renders in the preview window, not on Render EXR or animations. The compositor works on finished MoonRay renders. Random walk subsurface in MoonLightIPR is about 9% brighter than MoonRay's. Very smooth highlights are still dimmer than Modo's. A glowing VDB volume, or a light with a cookie filter, renders in MoonRay's slower scalar mode. Open issues are on the issue tracker.

What was checked

The packaged kit and runtime ZIPs were unpacked into an empty folder and checked there with tools/check_release_package.py. The content ZIP was checked for its layout and integrity, not installed from. The new features were each tried in an isolated Modo 16.1v9 on one machine (RTX 3090) while they were built; the project's unit tests pass. No clean-machine install was tested.

MoonRay for Modo 0.3.51.3

Native Windows experimental release for Modo 16.1v9. This is 0.3.51.2 with Safe Denoising no longer holding a render back. Download the kit and the windows-runtime ZIPs and follow INSTALLATION.md; the content ZIP is optional and adds MoonRay's ten example scenes to the asset library. All three unpack to a MoonRayForModo folder; merge them into one.

If you already have 0.3.51, 0.3.51.1 or 0.3.51.2, only the kit ZIP is different: the runtime and the content are the same.

Fixed since 0.3.51.2

• A safe render keeps pace with a normal one. MoonRay stops rendering while it saves, and a heavy scene's save is long: with 26 buffers at 1920 x 900 each save took about ten seconds, and at a save every three seconds most of the render's time went to saving. Saves are now spaced by how much there is to write: every three seconds for a small picture, up to every two minutes for a large one with many buffers, so that saving takes about a sixth of the time at most. Under Safe Denoising the view is brought up to date at each save, so on a heavy scene it changes less often than a normal render's does, and a stop keeps the render as it was at the last save.
• Stop keeps the picture with Safe Denoising off too. A normal MoonRay preview stopped by hand (Live off, a denoiser on) is kept as it stood and denoised, at no cost while it renders. Only the beauty and its denoised picture are kept this way. Safe Denoising is now only needed for Continue, and to keep every buffer of a stopped render.
• A new render starts from an empty view, whatever buffer is shown. With Denoised Beauty chosen, the last render's denoised picture stayed up while the new one rendered, which looked like a render that had stopped improving. The beauty is now shown as it comes on, and the denoised picture takes its place when it is ready.
• A stop under Safe Denoising ends at once when MoonRay is between saves, and waits only for a save that is being written.

Earlier fixes

0.3.51.2 fixed renders that did not refresh after a stop; 0.3.51.1 fixed Draft and Stop.

New in 0.3.51

Everything in 0.3.51. The full list, with pictures, is in What's new in 0.3.51.

What was checked

On an origami cheetah scene (1920 x 900, 26 buffers) in a separate test copy of Modo:

• Before the fix, a safe render showed 3 pictures in four minutes against 33 for a normal render, and its estimate was about three times as long. MoonRay alone, with and without the saves, comes to the same picture for the same samples; the cost was the saving.
• With the saves spaced (every 100 seconds in that test; the release saves a little more often, every 56 seconds for that scene), a safe render's estimate was in line with a normal render's, and a stop at 200 seconds ended at once, kept and denoised, with Continue on offer.
• A normal render stopped at 80 seconds was kept and denoised.

On a light two-ball scene, a normal render and a safe render were each stopped at 25 seconds and each was kept and denoised. In the normal one, very faint marks can remain in the denoised picture where MoonRay was part way through a pixel as the picture was taken.

Not checked: Continue after the change in how often MoonRay saves, beyond its being offered; the final spacing of the saves on the cheetah scene; a stop of a normal render with Live on (it is left as it was). The packaged kit and runtime ZIPs were unpacked into an empty folder and passed the release check. One machine, as before.

MoonRay for Modo 0.3.51.2

Native Windows experimental release for Modo 16.1v9. This is 0.3.51.1 with fixes to renders that did not refresh in the preview window. Download the kit and the windows-runtime ZIPs and follow INSTALLATION.md; the content ZIP is optional and adds MoonRay's ten example scenes to the asset library. All three unpack to a MoonRayForModo folder; merge them into one.

If you already have 0.3.51 or 0.3.51.1, only the kit ZIP is different: the runtime and the content are the same.

Fixed since 0.3.51.1

• A render could show an old picture after a stop under Safe Denoising. If MoonRay came to the end of its pass by itself, or a new render was started, while a stop was still waiting for MoonRay's save, the next render to finish was taken for a stopped one: its picture was replaced by an older save, or it was reported as stopped. A stop now ends with the render it was asked of.
• A safe render shows its progress. With Safe Denoising on, the view stood still until a pass ended, most noticeably after Continue. Each of MoonRay's saves, every few seconds, is now shown as it is made.
• The view is cleared when a render is begun by hand, so an old picture is not mistaken for the new one. A render that is continued keeps its picture, and the view keeps its zoom. Live updates do not clear.
• Restart Render... replaces Render from the Start in the picture's right-click menu, and asks before it lets a stopped render go.

In 0.3.51.1

Draft switched off before anything had been rendered no longer leaves its outlines up as a picture, and a stop cannot leave the window waiting. See 0.3.51.1.

New in 0.3.51

Everything in 0.3.51. The full list, with pictures, is in What's new in 0.3.51.

What was checked

The stop fault was found by reading the code and was not reproduced beforehand; with the fix, a MoonRay preview under Safe Denoising was stopped, continued and stopped again in a separate test copy of Modo, and kept and denoised each time. The view was seen to change during the long pass, though less often than MoonRay saved. In the last two of those runs the window stayed on Beauty after the stop rather than moving to Denoised Beauty, the list being marked as chosen by hand; whether that was stray input in the test or a fault is not settled. The packaged kit and runtime ZIPs were unpacked into an empty folder and passed the release check. One machine, as before.

MoonRay for Modo 0.3.51.1

Native Windows experimental release for Modo 16.1v9. This is 0.3.51 with fixes to Draft and Stop in the preview window. Download the kit and the windows-runtime ZIPs and follow INSTALLATION.md; the content ZIP is optional and adds MoonRay's ten example scenes to the asset library. All three unpack to a MoonRayForModo folder; merge them into one.

If you already have 0.3.51, only the kit ZIP is different: the runtime and the content are the same.

Fixed since 0.3.51

• Draft switched off before anything had been rendered left its outlines on the dark ground, and the raw line picture (white on black) could then be shown as if it were a render, most easily by changing the preview engine. The window now shows no picture until one is rendered, and a draft's lines are never taken for a render or kept as one.
• Stop during a draft's lines no longer goes on to render the draft's region.
• A render asked to finish with what it has is stopped outright if it does not answer within a few seconds, so the window cannot be left waiting with the button reading Stop.
• In Draft with no region, the status line says again to press Region and drag.

New in 0.3.51

Everything in 0.3.51: Draft and Region, Safe Denoising and Continue, the fur extras, the picture asset library with MoonRay Content, MoonRay's materials in Add Layer, the MoonRay page in Preferences, and the MoonLightIPR preview's hair, skin, volumes and light filters. The full list, with pictures, is in What's new in 0.3.51.

What was checked

The fault was reproduced by script in a separate test copy of Modo (Draft on with nothing rendered, engine changed, Draft off, engine changed, Render) and the same steps pass with the fix; the Draft with engine changes after a render, and Draft with a region, were run again and pass. The packaged kit and runtime ZIPs were unpacked into an empty folder and passed the release check (tools/check_release_package.py). The report that Render then showed nothing new was not reproduced on its own; the fixes above remove the states that could have caused it. One machine, as before.

MoonRay for Modo 0.3.51

Native Windows experimental release for Modo 16.1v9. Download the kit and the windows-runtime ZIPs and follow INSTALLATION.md. The content ZIP is optional: it adds MoonRay's ten example scenes to the asset library. All three unpack to a MoonRayForModo folder; merge them into one. The kit finds its bundled runtime folder by itself, so no paths or environment variables need setting.

The full list of changes, with pictures, is in What's new in 0.3.51.

New since 0.3.50.2

The preview window

• Draft: the scene as clean outlines, with nothing rendered until you press Region and drag; then only that part is rendered, among the lines.
• Region is a button you drag with; R, G, B, A channel buttons; a colour probe under the pointer; EV and Gamma with one-click resets; Export AOVs as Images.
• The tick that keeps the preview following the scene is now called Live.

Rendering with MoonRay

• Safe Denoising: stop a MoonRay render at any time and keep it, with all its buffers, denoised. Continue then takes a stopped preview up where it stood.
• Bake Selected Mesh to Texture, deep EXR output, more render settings and one-click outputs, light path presets with checking as you type.
• Mesh lights are seen glowing; MoonRay light items can be linked; an object can cast no shadow onto chosen objects; Subsurface Neighbours on a material.

The MoonLightIPR preview (the GPU preview engine, shown as "MoonLight" in 0.3.50; the name echoes DreamWorks' earlier rasterizer MoonLight)

• Hair, skin and curves shaded with MoonRay's own materials; fog and VDB clouds with their glow; volume bounces.
• Rod, barn door, cookie and VDB light filters; textures on every kind of light; render regions.

Materials and scenes

• Modo's Fur material grows fur, with its curls, clumps, kink, frizz, strays and weight maps.
• Blinn and Ashikhmin highlights match Modo's from a roughness of about 0.2 up; smooth GTR highlights are closer; a material's smoothing angle is followed.
• MoonRay's materials are in the Shader Tree's Add Layer list under Custom Materials; a material can go on selected polygons; OpenPBR and glTF surfaces import from MaterialX.
• Imported MoonRay scenes keep their light, shadow and shadow receiver sets, and show progress while they open.

Working with the plugin

• The asset library shows pictures of things to use, each with one button for what it is for.
• MoonRay Content: MoonRay's ten example scenes (CC0 and CC-BY, each with its licence), as the content ZIP.
• A MoonRay page in Modo's Preferences, including having the M key open MoonRay's Assign Material.
• Dense hair grows and re-renders several times faster.

Known limits

Windows and Modo 16.1v9 only; XPU and MoonLightIPR need an NVIDIA GPU and have been run on an RTX 3090 only. MoonLightIPR is an approximation of MoonRay. Very smooth highlights are still dimmer than Modo's, and Principled diffuse does not brighten with roughness as Modo's does. A glowing VDB volume, or a light with a cookie filter, renders in MoonRay's slower scalar mode. Safe Denoising and Continue are for MoonRay with Live off. Fur guides and the fur vector and width maps are not read. Open issues are in the issue tracker.

What was checked

The packaged kit and runtime ZIPs were unpacked into an empty folder and, with a bare environment, MoonRay rendered from there in XPU and CPU modes, the scene reader, VDB reader, hair grower and MoonLightIPR session started, and a mesh with a volume on one part rendered (tools/check_release_package.py). The content ZIP was checked for its layout and integrity, not installed from. The new features were each driven by script in a separate test copy of Modo on one machine; several were not looked at on screen, as the per-feature notes in the repository say. No clean-machine install, other GPU or other driver was tried.