Corona 14: New Horizons in Visualization from Chaos

Key features

• Gaussian Splats Support — A new method for environment reconstruction via splats for more realistic surroundings: dense surfaces, volumetric detail, natural depth. Facilitates building placement and scene context.  
• Night Sky — Advanced sky system with moonlight, stars and the Milky Way, with geolocation, date/time control or manual celestial adjustment. Ideal for nighttime renders, time-lapses, cinematic scenes.  
• AI Tools:
  • AI Material Generator — Upload a photo of a surface and convert it into a render-ready PBR material.  
  • AI Enhancer Advanced Controls — Enhances images (foliage, people, terrain) without re-rendering.  
  • AI Upscaler — Upscales renders, sharpens textures and details with minimal extra time.  
• Procedural Fabric Material — Create fabrics procedurally with control over weave, threads, displacement and without relying on external texture maps. Particularly useful for textiles in interior scenes.  
• Workflow & UI Enhancements:
  • First phase of UI rewrite to QT framework.  
  • Virtual Frame Buffer 2 (VFB 2) and Image Editor updated for clearer, cleaner interface and improved usability.  
  • Dockable VFB in 3ds Max version — integrate the buffer into your interface layout.  
  • Triplanar mapping controls directly in Corona Bitmap; screen-space mapping for bitmaps enabling stylised effects like hatching/sketch look.  
  • Performance boost: optimized volume sampling for fog, light rays, smoke, etc.  
  • Automated high-resolution downscaling: render at double resolution and auto-downscale on save — saving time without losing quality.  

What it means for you as a visualization professional

As an architect-visualizer and interior designer, these updates bring tangible value. The Night Sky system allows you to quickly and precisely set evening/night lighting scenarios — crucial for both interior and exterior works. The Procedural Fabric Material dramatically simplifies work with fabrics (curtains, furniture upholstery, coverings) without spending hours on texture sourcing. AI Material Generator and Upscaler accelerate environment building and final image deliverables — especially essential when deadlines are tight. Gaussian Splats raises the bar for integrating buildings and scenes into realistic contexts with refined reflections and depth — a major advantage in architectural visualization.