e frontier, formerly Curious Labs, on Tuesday introduced a downloadable version of Shade 8, their 3D modeling and rendering software for Mac and Windows. New to this release is network rendering, new modeling tools and more. Shader 8 starts at US$199, with upgrades starting at $99.99.
Shade 8 is aimed at architects and interior designers, product designers and character modelers. The software imports popular CAD formats for rendering. Shade’s Pro version also works directly with e frontier’s Poser software.
Features of Shade 8 include Boolean and Bezier modeling, polygon mesh modeling and auto-smoothing of curves to detail projects; a global illumination render with photo mapping, path tracing, raytracing and “radiosity with physics;” “ShadeGrid,” a network rendering engine with support for an unlimited amount of nodes (in Shade’s professional version); 32, 64 and 128-bit image output support and much more