Up to 4X faster thanks to DLSS

Dear Maverick users,

Speed has always been one of the defining ideas behind Maverick. The whole point of an interactive renderer is that you can work with your image instead of waiting for it.

With Maverick Render 2026.3 we have taken another rather big step in that direction. The IPR feels faster, navigation is smoother, and a new NVIDIA AI upscaling mode can make both interactive and final rendering up to 4X faster.

A much faster IPR

We have spent quite some time reviewing what happens every time you move the camera, edit a material, adjust a light or make any other change that restarts the render.

The result is a considerably more responsive IPR. Navigation starts faster, reacts better while you are moving around the scene and wastes less time moving information back and forth unnecessarily.

This is one of those improvements that is difficult to explain with a long list of features. You simply notice that Maverick gets out of the way and lets you work more comfortably, especially with large images and demanding scenes.

Navigation and rendering are now independent

Until now, one undersampling setting had to serve two different purposes: keeping navigation responsive and defining how the image rendered once you stopped moving.

In 2026.3 these are separate controls:

• Navigation US controls the first, fast and blocky stage shown while you interact with the scene.
• Render US controls the resolution used once the IPR settles and continues rendering.

This gives you much better control over the experience. You can favor very fast navigation without forcing the final IPR image to use the same setting, or keep both at full resolution whenever that is what the job requires.

Denoiser 2x: up to 4X faster

The new Denoiser 2x mode renders one pixel for every 2x2 area and uses NVIDIA's AI technology to reconstruct the full-size image. In other words, Maverick has roughly one quarter of the pixels to calculate before producing the image at the requested resolution.

Strictly speaking, Maverick uses the Upscale2x mode in the NVIDIA OptiX denoiser, not the DLSS technology found in video games. However, both belong to the same family of NVIDIA AI algorithms and pursue a similar idea: producing a larger, cleaner image from less rendering work.

That is where the potential 4X speed increase comes from.

The IPR toolbar now makes the three available modes very clear:

• Denoiser 2x (4x faster) for maximum speed.
• Denoiser 1x for native-resolution denoising.
• No denoiser when you want to inspect the untouched render.

Of course, "up to 4X" does not mean that every scene and every operation will become exactly four times faster. But when rendering time is dominated by tracing the image, the saving can be enormous. It is particularly useful while lighting, framing and making the many small decisions that shape the final result.

AI upscaling in Batch rendering

The same 2x upscaling option is available for Batch rendering. It can be used with still images, animations, turntables, spinners and Gaussian jobs.

This is not merely a way to make a small finished image larger. Maverick renders fewer pixels and reconstructs the requested output resolution as part of the rendering process. For many jobs, this means that you can keep the output size you need while cutting render times dramatically.

As always, there is no single setting that is perfect for every image. Very fine typography, tiny patterns or unusually delicate details may still benefit from native-resolution rendering. But for a surprisingly broad range of product-visualization work, the 2x mode provides a very attractive balance between quality and speed.

Faster where it matters

We did not want this release to be about a benchmark number alone. The real goal was to improve the complete working experience:

• Faster reaction when the render restarts.
• Smoother camera navigation.
• Independent quality choices for navigation and settled rendering.
• A simple 2x mode directly in the IPR toolbar.
• The same speed advantage available for unattended Batch jobs.

The best renderer is not simply the one that eventually produces a beautiful image. It is the one that lets you reach that image with fewer interruptions along the way.

We hope Maverick Render 2026.3 makes that difference very obvious from the first time you move around a scene.

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As always, thanks for watching!