The following sections present the new features, enhancements and changes for the AVxcelerate SensorsTM solution 2026 R1 release.
This section describes the new features introduced in AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator 2026 R1 release.
ASAM Open Simulation Interface (OSI) API is now available as an addition to the standard AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator API. This enhancement enables seamless integration with industry-standard simulation environments and toolchains, improving interoperability for ADAS and autonomous driving development workflows.
Benefits include:
Standardized Data Exchange: Supports OSI-compliant environment data formats.
Improved Compatibility: Easily connect with third-party simulation tools and ASAM-compliant platforms.
Future-Ready: Aligns with automotive industry standards for simulation and testing.
For more details on ASAM OSI and how to configure it, refer to the Ansys Developer Portal.
Using the AVxcelerate Sensor Labs application or the Sensors REST API v8, you can activate IP protection on any section of a camera or fisheye camera, namely Lens System, Imager, Default Post Processing or Sensor Output. It is now also possible to activate the Global Protection in order to protect all the sections of the sensor at once.
The following parameters however are always visible and editable even when protection is activated:
the Windshield parameters of the Lens System section,
the Native Resolution parameter of the Imager section,
the Frame Rate, Time Encoding and Diffraction Spike parameters of the Default Post Processing section,
the Output parameter of the Sensor Output section.
This section describes the enhancements introduced in AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator 2026 R1 release.
First released in 2025 R2, the new rendering engine for camera sensor simulation remains a beta feature in 2026 R1. The performance as well as the output quality of camera simulations with Light Propagation Engine have been greatly improved thanks to new features and various enhancements.
Instead of using the Screen Space Ambient Occlusion to compute ambient occlusion maps, you can now use Raytraced Ambient Occlusion, which calculates shadows and depth more accurately, therefore producing more photo-realistic output.
| Occlusion Map with Screen Space Ambient Occlusion | Occlusion Map with Raytraced Ambient Occlusion |
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You now have the possibility to enable the new Raytraced Reflections feature so that the specular materials reflect not only the sky, but also surrounding objects taking into account the different types of light sources in the scene.
When the Raytraced Shadows parameter is enabled, all the shadows are now raytraced, no matter the type of shadow configured in the properties of the point lights (static or dynamic). Thanks to this enhancement, GPU memory consumption remains moderate even when the scene includes many point lights. For more information on the above three ray-tracing features in LPE, see the Camera Simulation Parameters page in the User's Guide.
The fog beta feature delivered in the previous release did not simulate atmospheric scattering effects. Now, fog color accounts for sky radiance, producing more realistic variations based on the camera's angle to the sun.
The 2026 R1 release introduces a real‑time, physics‑based rain phenomenon to enhance the realism of camera testing. The rain dynamically interacts with the environment and lighting conditions, improving accuracy in sensor evaluation.
In addition to the rain intensity, the wind conditions can be set. The rain rendering depends on the vehicle's speed and is dynamically correlated to the camera sensor exposure time.
Note: Rain Simulation is released as a beta feature. Functionality may evolve in future versions.
From now on you can create, edit and manage thermal cameras from the AVxcelerate Sensor Labs application or its REST APIs just like any other type of sensors.
New sets of dedicated parameters let you configure each component of a thermal camera sensor so that the simulated model reflects the specifications of your Long Wavelength InfraRed (LWIR) camera.
If safeguarding your Intellectual Property is a concern, you can activate the IP protection on one or several specific components, Lens System, Imager, Default Post Processing, or on the entire sensor. The only parameters that are always visible are the imager's native resolution and the frame rate.
After creation and edition, thermal camera models can be downloaded as a file (with the lwircamerax extension) or added to a sensor layout that will be used in simulation.
Important note: Be aware that thermal camera sensors from any version prior to 2026 R1 are now longer supported in the 2026 R1 release of the AVxcelerate Sensors.
The Thermal Camera Editor tool, which was previously delivered as a beta feature, as well as the packer and unpacker executables are no longer delivered.
The GPU Direct Memory Access feature allows accessing raw sensor data directly on GPU, without going through the CPU & Memory. Fast GPU post-processing or fast data transfer for HIL injection are now possible.
Delivered as a beta feature, the DDMA Software Development Kit (SDK) includes the components required to develop your own custom library on Windows or Ubuntu operating systems, namely the DDMA extension, the ProcessSensorData.h header file, as well as samples (such as Camera GPU DDMA and Radar DDMA).
In addition, the new GPU RDMA sample, which is an alternative to the already existing CPU RDMA sample, allows for the transfer of some types of camera sensor output data from the GPU memory using an RDMA sender.
For more details, especially on the supported data formats, refer to Raw Data Output for DDMA and Raw Data Output for RDMA.
In this release, an additional step is required to use DDMA or RDMA, the Data Access Settings section in the simulation parameters of your radar or camera sensor must be configured with the new Data Direct Memory Access parameter, in which you can define the Target to either GPU or CPU according to the memory domain you want to use.
AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator is now also compatible with CarMaker version 14.1.
The complete list of CarMaker and CarMaker HiL versions supported by AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator 2026 R1 are listed in AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator System Requirements.
Part of the Radar Simulation Parameters, this optional parameter indicates whether or not to consider the curvature of a surface for bouncing rays. The curvature of the surface being always considered for the back scattered power calculation at the receiver antenna.
Two new tracks from 3D Mapping Solutions are available for the library, which correspond to real locations in Germany:
A8 Leonberg - Germany (highway): This is included in the installation library.
Downtown Ingolstadt - Germany (urban): Available for download at the Ansys Download Center, found on the Current Release page in the AddOn Packages section.
For other tracks corresponding to different locations, contact 3D Mapping Solutions at 3D Mapping. They will provide an environment in Ansys AVxcelerate .track data format with physics-based augmentation.
NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) assets and track are now provided during product installation for use in simulations.
Asset files provided are located in the [Library Installation Directory]/AVX_Library_v261/Assets_Standalone folder.
Track file provided is located in the [Library Installation Directory]/AVX_Library_v261/Tracks_Standalone folder.
The dimensions of the NCAP assets are based on NCAP specifications. Refer to Euro NCAP AEB LSS VRU Test Protocol - v4.5.1.
Enhanced security settings have been implemented to enable secure-by-default settings in gRPC.
To ensure security, AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator now uses the UDS transport for internal communication across its processes on the same workstation.
If you are distributing AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator processes across multiple workstations (see Multi-machine Simulations), AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator must be configured to use the mTLS transport mode instead of UDS.
To pilot AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator or to collect sensor data via its API, you have to select the appropriate transport mode depending on whether it is done from the same workstation or not:
UDS transport mode when it is done from the same workstation,
mTLS transport mode when it is done from a remote workstation.
An insecure option remains available, but its use is not recommended.
For more details, refer to Transport Modes.
With the default communication configuration, the Asset Preparation server now only accepts connections from client applications using the Unix Domain Socket (UDS) transport mode.
You should then modify your client applications so that they use the same transport mode.
Alternatively, you may use the insecure transport mode.
For more details, refer to the Transport Modes section in the AVxcelerate Asset Preparation API Documentation.
This section describes the changes introduced in AVxcelerate Sensors 2026 R1 release.
In the 2026 R1 release, the AVX internal gRPC server supports two versions of the AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator API: v0 and v1.
The AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator API v0 delivered in 2026 R1 is identical to the version delivered in 2025 R2. This version of the API will be officially discontinued in 2028.
In the AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator API v1, new features have been added and deprecated fields have been removed. The comprehensive list of changes can be found in the Changelog section of the API documentation available in the AVxcelerateSensors/APIs/VSS_API/Documentation/v1 folder or on the Ansys Developer Portal.
To benefit from new features introduced in 2026 R1, any custom applications or scripts must be updated to use AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator API v1. Additionally, Ansys strongly recommends to update your simulation parameters json files.
The CarMaker connectors, the samples illustrating the usage of the AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator API, as well as the simulation parameters example files provided in the AVxcelerate Sensors Library or in the AVxcelerate Sensors Library for LPE now use the AVxcelerate Sensors Simulator API v1.
The packer and unpacker executables are no longer delivered.
The Binary Data Transfer sample is discontinued.
SCANeR connector and co-simulation is no longer distributed as part of the installer. It has to be requested from the support team.
In the 2026 R1 release, all references to Windows 10 have been removed from the product documentation. This change aligns with Microsoft's official end of support for Windows 10, ensuring the product remains consistent with current platform standards and supported environments.