Foundry releases Mari 8.0 with Hex Tile and Tri-Planar Tiled nodes

Foundry has released Mari 8.0, the next major version of its 3D texture painting software. The update adds over 50 new nodes to the Node Graph, mostly for math, along with nodes for A/B comparison, color grading and hex tiling. It also brings new mask options and workflow changes. CG Channel first reported the beta on 2 July 2026 and updated its story for the final release.

The Tri-Planar Tiled node projects a single 2D image along the X, Y and Z axes. It suits models with UV distortion, awkward seam placement, or no UVs at all. The existing Triplanar Projection node can use up to three separate images. The new node offers a Smart blend mode to preserve high-frequency detail, noise-driven blending, and adjustable falloff ranges and curves. The Hex Tile node tiles and blends textures on a hexagonal grid instead of a rectangular one to minimize visible repeats. CG Channel notes hex tiling is also supported in Houdini, Redshift and RenderMan.

Other new nodes include Compare, for A/B wipe comparisons between node streams, and Color Remap, which puts hue, saturation, exposure and gamma adjustments in one node. New Transform nodes include Coordinate Transform, which can drive any node with a Position input, and UV Radial Transform for manipulating UV coordinates. There are also 49 new math nodes, covering arithmetic, trigonometry, conditional logic and what CG Channel describes as advanced randomization.

Mask workflows get several additions. You can create color ID masks from active canvas selections or from Selection Groups. Color Mask isolates a single surface color, and Multi Color Mask stacks multiple target colors. Any node in the Node Graph can now have a mask port. Workflow changes include trackball-style camera rotation as an alternative to the Orbit tool, a visual indicator on thumbnails for archived projects, and logical operands in the Shelf search box.

For pipeline planning, Mari 8.0 moves to the CY2025 VFX Reference Platform spec. CG Channel points out that newer CY2026 and CY2027 specs exist, but that Mari 7.5 was five versions behind. The release also adds read-only support for cameras in USD files. Mari 8.0 supports Windows 11 and Rocky Linux/RHEL 9. It is rental-only: individual subscriptions are $86/month or $689/year, and team subscriptions are $1,289/year, up $60/year since Mari 7.5. Foundry's online release notes carry the full feature list.