I’m using D5 Lite together with Rhino for interior visualization work, and it’s been a great tool for real-time preview during modeling.
I’d like to ask about the roadmap for D5 Lite specifically — is it planned to receive more advanced material and rendering features in future updates, or is it intentionally kept limited as a “preview/sync” tool, with those features reserved permanently for the full D5 Render application?
Specifically, features I (and probably others doing interior/product visualization) would find valuable in D5 Lite:
- Ambient Occlusion (AO) as a material input/channel, not just a global render setting
- Triplanar mapping for materials, especially useful for procedurally applying textures to complex or curved geometry without manual UV unwrapping
- (Any other material/shading features currently exclusive to full D5 — happy to hear what’s already possible that I might be missing)
Could someone from the D5 team clarify:
- Is D5 Lite meant to stay a lightweight companion tool indefinitely, or is feature parity with full D5 (at least for material/shading capabilities) part of the long-term plan?
- If AO and triplanar mapping are on a roadmap, is there a rough timeframe, or is it more of an “eventually, no promises” situation?
This would help me and probably other users decide whether to plan around D5 Lite long-term or budget for the full version if certain features are permanently gated.