Enscape 4.0 Adds 95% Parity for Mac in First Cross-Platform Release

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Architects Can Now Access More of Enscape’s Powerful Rapid Visualization Features Using Their OS of Choice; New Assets, Improved Lighting and More Round Out Feature Set

KARLSRUHE, Germany — March 27, 2024 — Today, Chaos releases Enscape 4.0, aligning its real-time functionality across operating systems. Architects can now design intuitively on any OS, using new assets, refined user interface elements and a powerful denoiser to push their designs wherever they want to go.

"With our new unified codebase, we are thrilled to deliver simultaneous feature releases for both Mac and Windows users, ensuring a consistent and optimized experience across all platforms, whenever possible,” said Petr Mitev, VP Product, Solutions for Designers at Chaos. “This strategic investment not only enhances the current user experience, but also lays a foundation for future stability and performance improvements, addressing valuable feedback from our community."

Used throughout the architectural world, Enscape is one of the easiest ways to visualize CAD/BIM data in real time. Perfect for daily design reviews, live demos and client coordination, Enscape moves projects forward via instant feedback, giving architects the ability to represent their work using the power of immersive 3D.

More Features for Mac

While Enscape for Mac has always been a powerful plugin, it has never achieved such high levels of feature parity with Windows until now. With new access to adjustable assets, collaborative annotations and more, Mac users can easily address key design decisions instantly with stakeholders. The list includes:

Adjustable Assets — Over 1,700 adjustable assets covering furniture, clothes, vehicles and plants are available for easy customization, making it easier to dial in the right feeling for a 3D scene.

Dynamic Asset Placement — Users can easily pick, place and edit assets using the Enscape rendering window. Any changes will be reflected live and can be quickly applied to multiple assets at a time.

Custom Asset Library — Teams can now bring bespoke assets into Enscape for more personalized libraries.

Custom Asset Editor — Custom assets can be assigned colors, materials and other key attributes to help tailor them to different projects.

Site Context — Architects can now see what their building will look like onsite, without topographic modeling.

BIM Mode — Users can now find all single or grouped elements in a scene with a click, making it easy to perform visual searches using the available BIM data attached to the scene.

Collaborative Annotations — Change requests, material suggestions and problems can now easily be resolved with live annotations, bringing more order and immediacy to global teams.

More People, More Animated Vegetation

Thirty-two unique people assets are now in the Enscape Asset Library to help architects easily add realistic entourage to 3D environments. With a variety of different poses, outfits and accessories to choose from, teams can quickly highlight the function/emotion of a space for clients and colleagues.

In addition, Enscape 4.0 adds 178 new variations of vegetation assets representing trees, bushes and flowers that grow in Mexico and various desert regions. Each of these can be animated, making it easy to add wind gusts and tree flutters to any landscape.

Enhanced NVIDIA Denoising

Users can now dramatically reduce noise in image, video and VR captures using the latest NVIDIA ReLAX Denoiser. The denoiser's effects are especially visible in enclosed interior spaces with minimal direct light — particularly on glossy or metallic surfaces — yielding smoother, cleaner visuals with sharpness and clarity in every detail.

Additional Features and Improvements Include:

Ray-Traced Artificial Lights (Windows) — A more realistic lighting experience is available as an experimental feature. The Enscape renderer can now consider the size of the light source when calculating shadows, resulting in more realistic sharpness variations. This will also yield softer shadows in scenes illuminated by large sources, providing more physically accurate lighting behaviors.

Improved Reflections and Global Illumination (Windows) — Render quality and accuracy upgrades for exports will help users ray trace more complex projects using their GPU’s full memory.

New VR Headset Support (Windows) — Enscape now includes official support for Meta Quest 3 and HTC Vive Pro 2, ensuring fast loading speeds and crisp details in Windows VR applications.

Rhino 8.3 Support — A direct path from Rhino 8.3 to Enscape is now open, making real-time visualization even more accessible to users of this popular design tool.

Sleeker UI — Enscape 4.0 features a refined UI that improves usability via curated shades of blue that make information easier to spot. More engaging iconography has been added, as well.

Revit Worksharing Optimization — Modifying views, visual setting presets and site context elements is now much more consistent when working with Revit collaboration tools.

Enhanced Integration with Chaos Ecosystem — A new V-Ray Scene Exporter is available, which will help users transfer key data from Enscape to V-Ray and other visualization applications, including 3ds Max and Cinema 4D.

To try Enscape 4.0, sign up for a free trial today.

Pricing and Availability

Enscape 4.0 for Windows and Mac is available now for Revit, SketchUp, Archicad, Rhino and Vectorworks. Subscription plans can be found at the Enscape pricing page.

About Chaos

Founded in 1997, Chaos is a leading global visualization technology company. Chaos is defining visualization by offering accessible tools, simplifying and accelerating workflows, and empowering visual storytelling for artists, architects, designers, and other creative professionals.

Chaos’ portfolio of visualization technologies for architecture and design, media and entertainment, and product e-commerce includes:

V-Ray, a physically based renderer that has been honored with an Academy Award and an Engineering Emmy
Enscape, a high-quality real-time rendering and virtual reality plugin
Corona, a high-performance photorealistic rendering engine
Cylindo, a 3D furniture product visualization platform for e-commerce
Anima, a 3D/4D animation software to add realistic people and crowds to visualizations

Headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, Chaos has nearly 800 employees and offices in 11 cities worldwide. For more information, visit chaos.com, chaos-enscape.com, chaos-corona.com, chaos-cylindo.com and axyz-design.com.