LuxRender full changelog

LuxCore new features since v1.6RC1:
Fix for OpenCL fresnel textures
Fix for light source updates when defining a new material
LuxRender new features since v1.6RC1:
Build improvements:
LuxBlend new features since v1.6:
Fix a motion blur bug
Fix border rendering spanning the whole image
Improved UI formatting:
LuxCore new features since v1.5.1:
Optimized Sobol sampler
Adaptive radiance clamping
Improved convergence test for BIASPATH
Ability to see the active tiles
Fix for heterogeneous volumes
Dynamic editing of the film pipeline
Add scaling to the radiance groups
Improved spectrum to RGB conversions for textures using spectra (blackbody, fresnel, lamp, ...)
Fast pixel filtering for PATHCPU and OpenCL modes
Fix filtering radius in BIASPATH
Fix a bug when deleting an object emitting light
Fix OpenCL compilation of RT modes
Fix for the glossy materials
New luxcoreconsole and luxcoreui interfaces
Build system fixes and improvements

We had almost forgotten to announce a quick fix release after v1.5.1 for a few annoying issues with glossy materials when using the new LuxCore rendering modes. So here you are, and in case you experimented some weird results this release should fix them.

bumpmapping fix with instanced meshes
biaspath incorrect path length handling fix
huge memory leak fix

new biased path tracing renderer to allow for fast and noise free, but less accurate, renderings, it is available in both CPU and OpenCL flavours with a special realtime mode (Dade can you make a list of current features, tuning knobs, and what's supported in LuxBlend? There is a thread about it, but not sure it is up to date: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=10529)
Arbitrary Output Values support enabling output of Z buffer, position, material, normal, ... data (Dade, is there a full list? Is it fully supported in LuxBlend?)
support for light groups

fix bump map rendering with missing UV information
area light fixes regarding the use of power and efficiency
fix lxs parsing issues

fixes for latest OSX versions UI updates
fix bloom filter used in an animation (the configuration of filters in the scene files was a new feature of v1.3)
fix an issue with camera response
improvement to the OpenCL version of the QBVH accelerator
fix carpaint material node in LuxBlend
fix export of glare maps parameters

· incorrect rendering of architectural glass with bidirectional path tracing
· broken motion blur export with Blender 2.66
· imaging pipeline inconsistencies with Blender 2.66

· fix a memory leak in the GUI
· fix display of .flm statistics
· fix rendering artefacts when the scene is very small
· fix for incorrect rendering of environment lights with large black areas
· fix for severe regression introduced in bidirectional rendering when optimizing dispersion code
· fix a long standing bug in bidirectional which made renders with bidirectional appear darker than with path
· fix lots of issues with hybrid path rendering, it should now match normal path rendering
· fix wavelength mutation in metropolis
· fix for image filters having a width less than 0.5
· removed the annoying message box when loading a queue file
· fix display of negative numbers in statistics
· lots of fixes for SLG3
· hybrid rendering modes are now available even on non OpenCL builds
· SLG bidirectional implementation with vertex merging or hybrid mode
· fixes to SLG sun light
· fixes to bounding boxes causing instances objects to sometime disappear or be clipped
· tile rendering with SLG

· huge speed up with CPU rendering (measured from 10 to 40% improvement, mostly noticeable when using instances)
· new sky2 light using Hosek and Wilkie just released model
· render queue fixes when using network rendering
· fix haltspp when using SPPM
· new nsamples parameter to the distant light to match other lights and be adjustable with advanced light sampling schemes
· don't add an extra extension when saving jpeg or tiff files
· fix light groups LDR saving
· use a new cache directory in the user temp directory for network rendering to prevent denied accesses when downloading files
· prevent out of bound interpolation with the mix material
· network rendering fixes
· fix area lights consisting of several 100000 faces
· updated luxrays to support more LuxRender features in core
· architectural glass fix in SLG
· render noise threshold halt condition in SLG
· various fixes and improvements

· Exporter fixes and packaging
· New GUI options to save render on demand (most file types are supported), with or without separate light groups, statistics overlay, ...
· new glossytranslucent material, initially developed for better leaves rendering
· film response curves to emulate traditional cameras color response (some curve are for black&white films too)
· GPU acceleration for path tracing when sampling one light at a time
· render queue to process several files in batch mode from the GUI
· support for split vertices in mesh subdivision (mesh will no longer open up in the presence of UV/normal seams when subdivided)
· new light groups color handling for better accuracy when adjusting light color
· outlier rejections (this will eat slightly more memory and slow the render a bit, but the noise level will be reduced significantly)
· finally usable exphotonmap integrator
· new band texture to enable complex gradients