What’s new in Cheetah 3D 7?

Note: this chapter lists the changes in Cheetah 3D 7; retitle it (e.g. “Changes in Cheetah 3D 7”) or add a chapter on Cheetah 3D 8.

Note: Cheetah 3D 8.1.1 also has native Apple Silicon support, a Metal-based editor view, USDZ/STL/glTF file support, and Falcon features such as Filmic tone mapping, reflective caustics, MIS for the HDRI and Sky lights, Shadow softness, and IES light profiles (manual: Render › Falcon; Objects › Light, HDRI Light, Sky Light), not yet covered here.

The headline feature of C3D7 is the new renderer, Falcon, but there are many important new user interface refinements and features under the hood.

User Interface Changes

• New look for Yosemite (e.g. “flat” icons)

• Support for “dark mode” in High Sierra and Mojave.

Note: macOS dark mode arrived in Mojave; High Sierra only had a dark menu bar and Dock.

• Uses default system font

• Smaller download size (about 27MB!)

• Vastly improved multi-object selection behavior

• Edit properties of multiple objects (e.g. lights) at once

• Assign materials to multiple objects at once

• Support for drag and drop of colors to/from properties

• Shortcuts (in preferences) divided into categories and much easier to find

• Many new shortcuts added

• Improved Object Browser

• Objects can be renamed inline (using return key)

• Object display, render, and other properties can be displayed and toggled directly

• Layer Manager

• Layer property added to mode tag

Note: needs checking in Cheetah 3D 8.1.1: the Layer Manager and the Mode tag’s Layer property (the 8.1.1 Mode tag manual page doesn’t list it).

• Layers can be displayed/edited directly in object manager

• Improved Properties Editor

• Too many tags problem solved

• Context menu added to tag selector (allows you to copy/paste/delete tags)

• Double-clicking a texture property with an image selected opens it in the default editor for documents of that type

• Improved Take Manager

• Takes can be duplicated, merged, split, reversed

• Reorder takes via drag and drop

• All operations support undo/redo

• Improved Render Manager

• More information provided for each render

• Context menu allows you to find scene that produced render

Editor View

• Reorganized and extended context menus

• Context menus work in all editing modes

• Integrated camera picker and view controls into 3D view

If you’ve ever fiddled with material transparency or wireframe display modes so you could see one mesh while working on another, you will love the new “Ghosted” display option.

• New “ghosted” display mode for objects

• Display Filters

• Support for multi-touch gestures

• Create Polygon has new intersect scene setting

• Vertex Soft Selection Support

• Works with all selection modes

• Falloff is displayed graphically

• Alt+scroll wheel adjusts falloff radius

• Polygon Brush

• Only works in vertex mode

Note: requires updating for Cheetah 3D 8.1.1: the Brush tool now works in point, edge, polygon, and object mode (manual: Tools › Polygon › Brush).

• Powerful falloff control

• Allows basic sculpting

• Can paint vertex colors

UV Editor View

• New view controls (consistent with 3D view controls)

• Support for multi-touch gestures

Rendering

• New “Falcon” rendering engine — Physical “uni-directional path tracer” (think: more realistic, requires less tweaking)

• Exposure control for renderer allows rapid global lighting changes.

• Falcon supports motion blur.

• Max render resolution increased to 8k.

• Max baking resolution increased.

• G-Buffer support in both renderers.

Reorganization of Render Controls

• HDR, Fog are now objects

• Radiosity, Caustics, DOF, and some camera properties are now renderer settings

Improved Booleans

• New boolean polygon tool

• New boolean modifier

• Booleans support ngons (outputs aren’t triangulated)

• Boolean tool maintains material assignments

New Merge Tool

Note: needs checking in Cheetah 3D 8.1.1: is this File › Merge (merging another file into the scene)? The 8.1.1 manual’s Merge tool (Tools › Merge) combines selected objects into one.

• Replaces import children

• Supports multi-object selections, hierarchy merging, parametric objects, folders,

• Retains material assignments

Misc. New Features

• Vertex color support.

• Simplify tool integrates polygon reduction of overly complex (e.g. scanned) meshes.

• Improved EXR support.

• Import/Export of G-Buffers.

• Improved Collada (.dae) support.

• Movie texture support.

• JPEG2000 texture support.

• Texture filtering property in Image node.

• Two new fractal types (Tetrahedron and Octahedron).

• “Developer mode” (in preferences) provides shortcuts helpful for users writing scripts.

• Many new Javascript APIs

Under the Hood

• Support for multiple renderers.

• Falcon uses a new “BRDF” material system.

• No more support for 32-bit (e.g. first generation Intel Macs).

• Greater memory efficiency.

• Performance enhancements throughout.

• The Falcon Renderer