corona – what’s the latest?

We delve into Corona Renderer’s journey over the last year since the Chaos Group merger

Will Corona ever go GPU?

One of the most-asked questions is whether or not Corona will support GPU rendering in the future. Ondra did not stray far from the same response as the one on their webpages: while there are benefits in using GPUS for real-time and VR rendering, there are many issues with how a CPU and a GPU handle data. A GPU will always have bottlenecks connected to available VRAM and parallel processing, which can manifest for users in many ways – from Substance procedurals not working or slowing down, to limited map and plugin support.

To turn Corona into a GPU renderer would mean a lot of time spent on exploration, rewrites and testing, and in the mean time, they’d risk losing sight of what they are best at, which just isn’t feasible right now – and won’t be, unless there are significant changes on the GPU front. Instead, the Corona team will implement GPU support in the future, but for things a GPU is really good for – like post-processing elements such as bloom and glare, as well as denoising. This is easier to implement, as the operations that are needed for this kind of thing are compatible with how a GPU works, and can hence easily be sent over for processing.

So right now, Corona will stay a solid CPU renderer with GPU options, but of course, one can never say never.