Our Thea Render v1.1 edition (codename "Chameleon") is out since the end of September, so what is next? First of all, let us point out the big steps that we have made so far! Thea has grown to be the most versatile engine with exporter plugins for most modeling applications. The material system is unique in both terms of visual management and achieved quality. The render core has some "details" that cannot be found even in renderers - so called - acclaimed for their quality and accuracy; sun-pool caustics, terminator artifact treatment and true unbiased volumetric scattering to name a few. But besides quality, Thea speed has improved vastly and in the last edition, it is as fast as it can get on a CPU-based render solution.

There are two main directions that we will be moving on; the first is adding a GPU-based render method. There is already some work on a prototype and such solution will be based on the OpenCL standard; following the standard has the benefit that the solution is vendor independent. And this key feature, was of crucial importance for us when choosing between OpenCL and the alternatives. The second is tighter integration on modeling applications; work has already begun on certain modelers and more info will be disclosed later on.

So, how do we see the future of Thea? With a dedicated development team, a supporting community and a network constantly increasing, the future can only be bright!