cebas Visual Technology7 Inc has just begun shipping finalRender R2 for Maya, with includes full support for Maya’s Hypershade Editor and many of the native shader nodes.  It also includes a new ‘ShaderGrind’ concept to enable writing shaders directly within the MayaUI.  But if offers much more:

finalRender R2 for Maya incorporates the latest multi-core technologies and enhancements which leverage existing and future Hardware investments to the maximum possible extent. Scene translation times and rendering preparation times are easily reduced by half, or even more, depending on the hardware used and the amount of available cores in a system.

(Wow, you could win BuzzWord Bingo with a sentence like that).  The list of new features is extensive, covering everything from License models to GI to subdivision surfaces.  If you own finalRender Stage-2 For Maya then you can instantly upgrade from the website, otherwise you’ll need to create a cebas Account where a full version will cost $995.

via cebas News Text.