2026.1
Thank you for downloading Visionary Render 2026.1. This release introduces motion-tracked manikin control, improves ambient occlusion for VR headsets, and brings a range of workflow and quality-of-life enhancements driven by customer feedback.
What's New in This Release?
Manikin Control (Immersive License Only)
Static manikin posing has long been the standard approach for ergonomic and serviceability assessments, but it requires painstaking manual adjustment and can’t capture the subtleties of real human movement. Transitional motions between positions, the natural arc of limbs during a task, and the cumulative space a person needs to complete an operation are all lost. Engineering teams have told us that ergonomic issues found late in development cause costly rework, and that they often fall back on rulers and tape measures because the digital tools are too slow or rigid.
Motion-tracked manikins change this. In VR, you can select a manikin and take control of it in real time using body trackers. Crawl underneath a machine, reach for a component, test whether a maintenance platform gives enough clearance. Issues that would never surface in a traditional CAD review or with static posing become obvious in seconds.
This release delivers:
- The ability to control a manikin through the immersive context menu using VIVE body trackers.
- A calibration wizard that guides you through body-tracking setup and stores offsets so calibration only needs to happen once.
- Full scripting support through two new Lua functions (vrControlManikinTargets and vrReleaseManikin), so the capability can be integrated into bespoke workflows.
- Support for PICO motion trackers in the OpenXR layer. Connection between PICO trackers and manikin control is still in progress, so for now, manikin control works with VIVE trackers only.
This is the first production release of manikin control. Planned follow-on work includes recording and playback of manikin motion, and handling of size differences between the user and the manikin. Support for PICO motion trackers will be also added in the near future.
Your avatar is hidden while controlling a manikin, and other users in a collaborative session cannot control the same manikin simultaneously.
Ambient Occlusion Improvements
Ambient occlusion, the soft shadowing that gives 3D scenes a greater sense of depth, has been improved for VR and stereo rendering. A new sampling method delivers more consistent shading from frame to frame, removes previously seen artefacts, and produces a cleaner result both in-headset and on screen. Shadow quality is noticeably improved, and in some cases performance may also be improved.
Headset Output Image Stabilisation
When projecting a VR headset view onto a shared screen for group training or review sessions, the instructor's natural head movement causes the projected image to shake, making it difficult for the audience to follow. This release adds image stabilisation and zoom settings for headset output, so the projected view remains steady even when the instructor moves. The up direction remains fixed even if the headset tilts.
Runtime Audio Device Switching
Previously, Visionary Render would only play audio through whichever device was set as the Windows default at startup. Switching to headphones or a headset audio output meant closing and reopening the application. You can now change the audio output device at runtime without restarting. Positional audio on AudioSound nodes has been corrected so that sounds play from the node's position in the scene rather than always from the origin.
OpenXR Controller Visuals
Controller visuals are now shown for Meta headsets when running in OpenXR mode.
Licence Management Improvements
This release introduces improved licence validation. Subscription licences grant access to any version within a fixed period. Maintenance licences grant version updates for a fixed period and then allow continued use of any version released during that window. These changes ensure that the correct entitlements are applied at startup.
The licence server has also received a full user-interface and usability refresh.
Importers and Exporters
| Importer | Version Support Added |
|---|---|
| Solidworks | 2026 |
| Revit | 2026 |
| ACIS | V34-V35 (2024-2025) |
Resolved Issues
We continue to focus on addressing issues reported by customers and improving overall quality. Key fixes in this release:
| ID | Summary |
|---|---|
| FUS-3340 | Show Properties context menu option fails with Lua error |
| FUS-3697 | No text visible when typing into password field of ActiveView Light |
| FUS-3725 | Positional audio does not work on AudioSound nodes |
| FUS-3741 | Lua package.path does not allow use of absolute paths with require |
| FUS-3883 | Snap Home tool does not restore correct transforms after file load |
| FUS-3948 | Camera property to control whether world settings are used with render-to-texture |
| FUS-4041 | Networking connection problems when joining collaborative sessions |
| FUS-4114 | Joystick and button inputs in the new OpenXR tracking node structure |
See the Changelog for a complete list of resolved issues and changes.
Documentation Improvements
The settings and observers API documentation has been improved and hyperlinks have been added to the API changelog, among other improvements.