A new development build of World Machine is now available that adds the ability to create automatic lakes and rivers, drive new texturing tools based on soil wetness, and allow the software to "recraft your terrain by breaking through ridges and creating new drainage basins according to hydrodynamic principles." Find out more on the World Machine blog. 

Wysilab has announced that is has switched it's licensing model from subscription to perpetual licensing. Instant Terra, the node based terrain modelling software, is now available starting at $149 for users earning less than $500k limited to 8kx8k maps, a version with unlimited resolution for $199, and a new Pro edition for users earning over $500K which adds algorithms for working on huge environments, faster imports, API access and premium support. Find out more on the Wysilab website. 

The Khronos Group, an open consortium of hardware and software companies, has released the OpenXR 0.90 provisional specification. OpenXR is a royalty-free, open standard that aims to deliver high-performance access to augmented reality and virtual reality platforms and devices. The new specification can be found on the Khronos website and is released in provisional form to allow affected parties to provide feedback.

SideFX has released a new reel of work created using Houdini by artists from game studios. Watch it on Vimeo.

Christopher Nichols talks to Blur  VFX supervisor Jerome Denjean discuss Love, Death & Robots and more in the latest CG Garage podcast. Listen to it on the Chaos Group blog.

Crytek has posted Neon Noir, a demo recorded in Cryengine that shows real-time raytracing effects that are not dependent on a particular API or hardware. The scenes were rendered in real-time in-editor on an AMD Vega 56 GPU using an experimental ray tracing feature based on Cryengine’s Total Illumination technology, expected to be released later this year. Despite being hardware agnostic, the technology will benefit from performance enhancements of the new generation of graphics cards and APIs like Vulkan and DX12. Watch it on YouTube.

Paul Caggegi has released a new version of Manga Shader , his NPR rendering add on for Blender. The new release adds the ability to render output with both Cycles and EEVEE. Find out more on Gumroad.