New Approach to Channels

Filter Forge 7.0 introduces a completely new approach to configuring, rendering and exporting Channels (formerly referred to as Render Maps):

Here’s what’s new, compared to older versions of Filter Forge:

1. Render Maps are now called Channels, in accordance with widely-accepted use of the term in various industries related to image and video processing.
2. Thanks to the rewritten renderer, all Channels are now rendered simultaneously and in parallel with the final image, without taking additional time.
3. You can preview all active Channels during rendering, via the new Channel selector shown in the picture above. There’s no need to restart rendering anymore!
4. All active Channels can now be exported to files at once via the new Export dialog.

To sum up, the new changes make working with Channels much more streamlined. And, in addition, these changes open up new possibilities for future versions of Filter Forge, such as Custom / User Channels, or implementing new kinds of Result Components with different rendering algorithms and Channel sets (for example, Unity PBS Shader or for Unreal Engine shader).

Note: The new Channels are only available in the Professional Edition of Filter Forge 7.0.