Caustica - Real Photon Caustics for Cycles

Henrik Soeltzer in Render Setups


Do I have to change my materials or set anything up?

No. Glass, water, metal, car paint, tinted liquids, bump and normal maps are detected automatically. Open a scene you finished last year, tick one checkbox under Render Properties > Light Paths > Caustics, and render.

Is this an add-on? Do I have to replace my Blender?
It is a complete Blender 5.2 LTS build, not an add-on. Unzip it and run blender.exe - it sits next to the Blender you already have and does not touch your installation. Because it is Blender 5.2, your add-ons, preferences, theme and keymap are already there. You can make it your everyday Blender, or keep working in your usual one and open the same .blend here just for the final render.
Do my add-ons and settings still work?
Yes - everything works exactly as it always has. Every add-on you use keeps working, and so do your shortcuts, your theme and every preference you have set. Nothing is disabled, nothing behaves differently. You do not even have to set them up again. Because this is Blender 5.2, it reads the same settings folder your Blender already uses, so your add-ons and preferences are simply there the first time you start it. Nothing to reinstall, nothing to import, nothing to configure.
What happens when I switch the checkbox off?
You get ordinary Blender. Every add-on, shortcut and workflow stays exactly as it is, and your renders come out the same as they would from an official build. There is no project to migrate and no decision to undo.
Which hardware does it need?
Windows and an NVIDIA RTX 2000 series card or newer. Both CUDA and OptiX are supported and there is nothing to switch. AMD, Intel and Apple Silicon are not supported. Cycles only - EEVEE has no caustics. Note that the photon solver currently uses a single GPU: if you have several cards enabled, enable exactly one under Preferences > System. Multi-GPU support is in development and will be a free update.
$59

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Details
Sales 100+
Rating
16 ratings
Published about 2 months ago
Blender Version 5.2
Render Engine Used Cycles
License GPL