Splutterfish has released version 1.2 of its Brazil Rendering System--a rendering package that works with Discreet's 3Ds Max and Autodesk's Viz 3D modeling and animation tools.
The Brazil Rendering System uses both global illumination and ray-tracing to achive extremely high-quality renderings, is multithreaded to take advantage of multiple processor workstations, and includes features such as sub-surface scattering, image-based rendering and HDRI support, as well as caustics, photon mapping, and bump-mapped shadow distortions.
Features new to version 1.2 include support for 3Ds Max 6, advanced shadow plug-ins, a skin shader, and the addition of support for IES files (to allow importing of the photometric data for actual lights).
