Redshift 2026.9: New Features, Updates, and Performance Improvements

POSTED 11th OF Sep, 2026, Posted by Summer Magdaraog

Maxon released Redshift 2026.9.0 on September 9, 2026. The update adds new compatibility and workflow features while addressing rendering, memory, viewport, shader, IPR, and stability issues across Cinema 4D, Maya, 3ds Max, Houdini, Hydra, Vectorworks, Revit, and Redshift Live.

Redshift 2026.9 is primarily a compatibility, performance, and stability update rather than a major renderer overhaul. The release adds support for Houdini 22.0.368 and Solaris 22.0.368, expands USD and Alembic proxy support in Maya, adds new proxy controls in 3ds Max, introduces additional Hydra viewport rendering options, adds HDR compression and anisotropy to Redshift Live, and updates OpenColorIO to version 2.5.2.

The update also improves render preparation time and memory consumption and addresses issues affecting GPU memory, rendering, materials, AOVs, IPR, viewport behavior, and supported DCC applications.

Redshift 2026.9 at a Glance

Update	What it changes
Houdini 22.0.368 support	Adds compatibility with Houdini 22.0.368
Solaris 22.0.368 support	Adds compatibility with Solaris 22.0.368
Maya USD and Alembic proxy instances	Adds support for instanced USD and Alembic proxies
Maya USD proxies in nParticle	Adds USD proxy support for Maya nParticle systems
3ds Max Proxy Export control	Provides additional control over Transform Pivot to Origin when exporting proxies
Hydra hair render options	Adds hair rendering options to Hydra viewport render settings
USD 26.05 build	Adds a new USD build for use with Houdini 22.0
Redshift Live HDR compression	Adds HDR compression support
Redshift Live anisotropy	Adds anisotropy support
Render preparation improvements	Reduces render preparation time and memory consumption
OpenColorIO 2.5.2	Updates Redshift's OCIO version
Memory and stability fixes	Addresses memory leaks, out-of-memory crashes, rendering artifacts, and other stability issues

What's New in Redshift 2026.9?

Redshift 2026.9 includes several new capabilities in addition to its application-specific fixes and stability improvements.

Houdini 22.0.368 and Solaris 22.0.368 Support

Redshift 2026.9 adds support for Houdini 22.0.368 and Solaris 22.0.368.

The release also includes a new USD 26.05 build for use with Houdini 22.0 through the USD Procedural workflow.

Expanded Maya Proxy Support

Maya users can now work with instances of USD and Alembic proxies in Redshift. The update also adds support for USD proxies in Maya's nParticle system.

These additions expand Redshift's support for proxy-based and USD workflows in Maya.

New 3ds Max Proxy Export Control

Redshift 2026.9 adds a Proxy Export option in 3ds Max that controls whether Transform Pivot to Origin applies the pivot before or after a world-space modifier.

This gives 3ds Max users additional control over transform behavior when exporting proxies.

Hydra Hair Render Options

Redshift 2026.9 adds hair render options to Hydra viewport render settings, providing additional control over hair rendering in Hydra-based workflows.

Redshift Live Adds HDR Compression and Anisotropy

Redshift Live adds support for HDR compression and anisotropy in this release.

The update also improves Redshift Live's handling of multiple mesh lights in the same scene and improves its handling of catastrophic failures, including out-of-memory conditions.

Other Redshift Live changes address sprite-related issues, denoising behavior, and cloud rendering. Clouds have also been adjusted to more closely match Redshift production rendering.

Performance, Memory, and Rendering Stability

Redshift 2026.9 includes improvements to render preparation and memory usage across supported workflows.

Maxon improved the time required to prepare a render and reduced memory consumption during render preparation. The release also fixes several memory leaks.

The update addresses GPU and rendering stability issues, including:

Out-of-memory crashes when Metal kernels are compiled at runtime
Rendering artifacts caused by extensive hex tiling when all textures fit into GPU memory
Numeric instability in the Scratches shader when using maximum anisotropy values
Shadow cutoff threshold optimization not working correctly with dome and area lights
RenderView image position shifting when changing scale modes during IPR
Additional rendering and memory-related stability issues

These changes target the stability of Redshift when working with complex scenes, GPU-intensive materials, high-resolution textures, and production workflows.

Redshift 2026.9 also removes the previous need for the REDSHIFT_DISABLEIPRSERVICEHOOK environment variable. The problematic feature that required the variable has been removed.

Cinema 4D Updates

Redshift 2026.9 includes multiple fixes and workflow improvements for Cinema 4D users.

Materials and UV Workflows

The release fixes an issue where the Steps slider in the Scratches shader node could remain stuck at 0 on macOS.

It also improves the performance of material tag changes when procedural UVW projections are used.

Several UV-related issues have been fixed, including:

UV AOVs not rendering correctly during full RenderView rendering
UV Context nodes not connecting correctly in Cinema 4D shader materials
Incorrect UV Context node naming in Cinema 4D shader materials

The update also fixes an issue involving the Start Offset of Image Animation when the offset was greater than 0.

RenderView, IPR, and Viewport

Redshift 2026.9 fixes an issue that could prevent RenderView from opening correctly on Windows ARM systems.

For viewport IPR snapshots, the update adds an option to make snapshots respect viewport safe frames.

It also fixes an issue with copying snapshots from the Picture Viewer.

Other Cinema 4D Fixes

The release fixes a problem with generating light material previews and addresses a crash that could occur when a material referenced itself.

It also fixes an issue where Redshift object tags could influence particle groups hierarchically.

Maya Updates

Redshift 2026.9 includes new proxy capabilities and fixes for rendering, shaders, cameras, fluids, viewport controls, AOVs, and color management in Maya.

USD, Alembic, and nParticles

Maya users can now use instances of USD and Alembic proxies with Redshift.

The update also adds support for USD proxies in the Maya nParticle system.

Shader and Rendering Fixes

Redshift 2026.9 fixes an issue where the Distorter shader did not work correctly in Maya.

The release also fixes an issue with the RedshiftDistorter node not working.

Other rendering fixes include:

Cameras not being parsed correctly when the camera shape shares its parent
Redshift Night Sky's Night Color parameter not working correctly
Maya Fluids sometimes rendering incorrectly
Incorrect AOVs being displayed in RenderView when switching between Progressive and Bucket rendering

Moon and Viewport Fixes

Several issues affecting the Moon position gizmo have been fixed.

These include cases where:

The gizmo did not update correctly after changing time or location
The gizmo showed the wrong direction in Directional Vector mode
The gizmo displayed incorrectly when loading an older scene
Changing the Moon position mode did not properly disable certain UI elements

The release also fixes a crash that could occur when a custom OCIO configuration was used on Linux.

3ds Max Updates

Redshift 2026.9 adds a new Proxy Export control and an OCIO-related output option while addressing IPR, Hair and Fur, proxy, EXR, viewport, and undo issues.

Proxy and Color Management

The new Proxy Export option controls whether Transform Pivot to Origin applies the pivot before or after a world-space modifier.

Under Environment & Effects, Redshift 2026.9 also adds an option to force Redshift OCIO file output when 3ds Max OCIO color management is being used.

Rendering and IPR Fixes

The update fixes a problem where the Hair and Fur modifier always used viewport settings instead of render settings.

It also addresses an issue that could cause an unnecessary IPR refresh immediately after a render started.

Another fix prevents rendering meshes from being drawn in the viewport during IPR.

Proxy, EXR, and Undo Fixes

Redshift 2026.9 fixes several proxy-related issues, including an error in the Proxy Export dialog when selecting objects and a potential crash when exporting a proxy during IPR.

The release also fixes a problem where the configured File Number Base was not being honored by Redshift EXR Output.

In addition, actions using a Remove button to clear an image or object parameter can now be undone in cases where this previously did not work.

Houdini and Solaris Updates

Redshift 2026.9 adds support for Houdini 22.0.368 and Solaris 22.0.368.

The Houdini update also fixes issues that could affect:

RenderView's Isolate Selected feature after rendering finished
IPR updates for nodes affected by ROP bundle lists

For Solaris and Hydra workflows, the release adds a new USD 26.05 build for Houdini 22.0.

Hydra and USD Improvements

Redshift 2026.9 adds hair render options to Hydra viewport render settings.

The update also addresses several Hydra and USD stability issues, including crashes that could occur while extracting instances from multiple threads.

Additional fixes include crashes involving shaders with many enabled variadic parameters and problems when disabling or enabling Physical Sky.

Redshift 2026.9 also fixes issues that could fill USD log panels with messages such as attempts to retrieve values using an incorrect type.

Other USD and Hydra fixes address:

Global and object-level displacement settings
Shader translation from VOP network nodes
Physical Sky stability
Multi-threaded instance extraction

Vectorworks and Architectural Visualization Updates

Redshift 2026.9 includes multiple fixes for Vectorworks and architectural visualization workflows.

Vectorworks

The update fixes issues involving Vectorworks group representation in Redshift.

Additional fixes address:

Crashes when editing a scatter object and starting Redshift Live less than two seconds later
Objects remaining invisible after editing symbols and groups
Vectorworks window resizing stopping synchronization with Redshift
Some lights being synchronized too brightly
Grass materials not being synchronized into Redshift
Crashes when closing properties windows
Unnecessary hierarchy being created when duplicating compound objects
Renderworks render styles not working without a Redshift license

Architectural Visualization

The release fixes several ArchViz-specific issues.

These include:

Freelook navigation becoming stuck when initiated using WASD controls
The Asset Browser immediately closing when opened from an undocked Scatter popup
Scale and rotate gizmos appearing when multiple read-only objects were selected
The application becoming unresponsive after rendering certain scenes
Crashes after closing the render-finished popup following a plugin restart
Camera FX preview images failing to render
Night Sky parameters not resetting correctly
Scatter exclusion not resetting when using the Reset button
The material sampler stopping its material override behavior

Redshift 2026.9 also fixes an issue where Send to Cinema 4D could include the wrong Auto Exposure setting for cameras.

Revit Updates

The Revit-related changes in Redshift 2026.9 include localization, sun settings, object orientation, and camera-related fixes.

The release improves Traditional Chinese localization by using English where appropriate.

It also fixes:

Sun Year always being set to 2025
Objects appearing vertically flipped in Redshift
Incorrect Auto Exposure settings being sent for cameras through Send to Cinema 4D

OpenColorIO 2.5.2 Update

Redshift 2026.9 updates OpenColorIO (OCIO) to version 2.5.2.

The release also fixes an issue where OCIO could display the wrong monitor name for a display profile.

For workflows using OCIO-based color management, this keeps Redshift's color-management component current while addressing the identified display-profile issue.

Additional Rendering and Stability Fixes

Beyond the DCC-specific changes, Redshift 2026.9 includes fixes that apply across supported workflows.

These include:

Several memory leaks
Shadow cutoff threshold optimization with dome and area lights
Rendering artifacts caused by extensive hex tiling when textures fit within GPU memory
Numeric instability in the Scratches shader at maximum anisotropy
Render preparation time and memory consumption
OCIO display-profile monitor-name handling

These changes are part of the broader stability work included in the 2026.9 release.

Who Should Update to Redshift 2026.9?

Redshift 2026.9 is particularly relevant to users who need the latest supported DCC versions, proxy and USD capabilities, Redshift Live features, or recent rendering and memory fixes.

The update is worth evaluating if you:

Use Houdini 22.0.368
Use Solaris 22.0.368
Work with USD or Alembic proxies in Maya
Use USD proxies with Maya nParticle systems
Use Redshift with 3ds Max proxy workflows
Use Hydra viewport rendering
Work with Vectorworks or Revit for architectural visualization
Use Redshift Live
Work with OCIO-based color management
Experience memory, IPR, viewport, shader, or rendering stability issues addressed in this release
Want the latest Redshift performance and compatibility improvements

For production environments, test Redshift 2026.9 with existing scenes, third-party plugins, scripts, and pipeline tools before moving active projects to the new version.

Is Redshift 2026.9 a Major Feature Release?

Redshift 2026.9 is best described as a feature, compatibility, performance, and maintenance update.

It introduces new capabilities, including Houdini and Solaris version support, Maya proxy functionality, a 3ds Max Proxy Export control, Hydra hair rendering options, and HDR compression and anisotropy support in Redshift Live.

A substantial portion of the release is also focused on fixes, stability, memory usage, rendering behavior, and application compatibility.

For users already running Redshift, the value of this release will depend largely on whether their workflow is affected by the new compatibility support or the specific fixes included in 2026.9.

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Motion Media is an authorized reseller of Maxon products, including Redshift.

If you're evaluating Redshift for Cinema 4D, Maya, 3ds Max, Houdini, architectural visualization, or other supported workflows, explore Redshift licensing and purchasing options through Motion Media.

Explore Redshift through Motion Media and find the licensing option that fits your production workflow.