• New PolyPen tool replaces the Create Polygon Tool of previous versions
• Paint polygons, create point sequences or extrude edges intuitively
• Existing and newly created points, edges and polygons can be moved, extruded, deleted, subdivided, etc.
• Arcs can be created automatically
• With Auto Weld mode enabled, edges and points snap automatically to close polygons or edges and weld or bridge geometry
• Reproject Result projects polygons on existing surfaces
• New procedural Bevel Deformer bevels either whole objects or selections non-destructively
• Mesh Check checks geometry for isolated points, complex poles, non-manifold edges, boundary edges and bad or non-planar polygons
• UVW coordinates are now created automatically for generator caps
• Boolean object now creates a hidden Edge Selection Tag like other generators (C1,C2, …)
• New viewport filter added to turn on/off the base workplane grid
• New HUD element for grid spacing now available in the viewport preferences
• Viewport Solo Mode provides a clear overview and faciliates the work with complex scenes
• Most deformers now support falloff
• Symmetry Object now supports clamping of points to the symmetry axis and deletion of redundant points
• Automatically Flip function causes meshes to flip across the mirror plane depending on camera orientation
• Cogwheel Spline got a massive update: it creates accurate Cogwheels with many new generic tooth parameters and types, new inlay and center hole parameters, not only to create accurate cogwheels, but also a plentitude of fancy objects for other purposes

UV Editing

• New UV Peeler creates UV parametrizations for single or multiple UV islands on an object, each island corresponding to a continuous seam of selected edges along the length of a cylindrical portion of geometry
• All UV-related features now use the same logic to determine which UV tag is affected
• UV polygon and point modes now support tolerance parameters for rectangular and live-selection tools
• In addition to UV polygons, interactive mapping now works on UV points
• Support for Dolly to cursor in texture view
• Shift + double-click a texture tag to open a new texture view

Workflow & Interface

• A single click on the enhanced keyframe buttons now adds or removes keyframes without need to press additional keys, manipulation of multiple keyframes at once is also possible
• New setting to remove tracks without keyframes
• Texture Manager now shows or opens files in Finder/Explorer
• New status icon in the Texture Manager shows if an image can’t be found by the renderer and would trigger an asset error
• New “All Parameters” option in Timeline Baker will bake all Parameters of an object
• The Layer column of the Texture Manager now also shows the layer color
• New “Tweak” command is a global on/off switch to enable or disable tweaking throughout Cinema 4D
• Projection Tag has a new option to prevent accidental viewport duplication
• New Interaction Tag allows customized  interaction with the object the tag is applied to (e.g. mouse interaction with objects can be defined by scripts)
• New Annotation Tag allows annotations and comments directly in the viewport and can be attached to a specific point of the object.
• Unlimited number of Annotation Tags can be used per object
• Annotation Tag replaces former WWW Tag
• Multiline Edit Textbox now offers an undo functionality
• Script Editor now allows double-click operation to select and drag complete words like in a regular text editor
• Auto-add brackets and quotation marks while typing
• Selected text blocks can be comfortably commented out by pressing the * key
• Likewise typing a quotation mark or bracket with a text block selected will put the block in quotes or the bracket form chosen i.e. { [ ( ‘ “
• Code editors now use word wrap for better overview
• Cursor changes from caret to text cross symbol when held over line numbers for better orientation
• Clicking a line number will select the line next to it
• Drag&drop selected text between multiline edit fields, including duplication by pressing Ctrl
• Colored line flags next to the line number now indicate the edit state of lines (e.g. edited, edited but compiled, edited but saved)
• Error message if a preset can’t be written
• Warp Deformer now fits to object
• Open in Finder function in the Render Queue
• Statistics HUD renamed to OpenGL Statistics

Sculpting

• Assign materials to a link field in the Mask Brush options, press sample button to use the first UV tag found on an object and sample the material, applying the UVs of this tag to the currently selected layer
• Selection Brush now supports selection of points and polygons in the respective mode (either Point or Polygon mode)
• Brushes now respect the current polygon or point selections (in Point or Polygon Mode)
• Use materials as stencils or stamps
• Unsubdivide command unsubdivides quad-based high resolution meshes, extracting all lower level subdivision layers, reconstructing them as sculpt objects with all required layers to recreate the original objects
• New option in sculpting preferences now allows to constantly update the full polygon object while sculpting (with or without  Sculpt Tag)
• New brush modifiers now allow to apply and mix the effect of the currently chosen brush with one previously used (i.e. add smooth and inflate to a pull brush)
• Sculpt brushes now support snapping
• Stamps and stencils now support procedural shaders
• Python support has been added to sculpting, users can now create own brushes in Python
• Drop down to select the motion direction of vertices (average, normal, X, Y, Z, camera)
• Use the sculpting tools on Camera Deformer, Correction Deformer and Muscle Object
• Display stencil permanently via visiblity option

Motion Tracker

• Motion Tracker is a new matchmoving system in Cinema 4D
• Full Solve command runs a completely automated solve of the footage: it adds a Motion Tracker Object and several Constraint Tags (Mask, Position, Vector, Planar, Camera Orientation)
• Auto Tracking mode searches trackable points in the footage without user intervention
• Tracks can be filtered by Minum Length (Frames), Maximum Acceleration, Error Threshold and Smart Acceleration
• Manual Tracking allows for individual placement of track marks
• Reconstruction recreates the camera movement and creates 3D feature points from tracking points
• Mask Constraint Tag allows to exclude specific regions of the footage from 2D tracking
• Position Constraint Tag calibrates the 3D reconstruction by defining the coordinates of a reconstructed feature (e.g. origin)
• Vector Constraint Tag is used to calibrate a 3D reconstruction by defining the axis (direction) and/or distance of reconstructed features
• Planar Constraint Tag calibrates the 3D reconstruction by defining the plane on which three or more reconstructed features are located (this partially defines the orientation of the reconstruction within the scene)
• Camera Orientation Constraint Tag provides a different way of defining the scene orientation, based on constraining the camera rather than features

Exchanges

FBX:

• Import/export based on FBX SDK 2015.1
• Import/export of vertex color informations
• New export option to triangulate meshes
• New export option to export SDS subdivided meshes
• New import option “Single Material Selection Sets” to create selection tags even if only one material is assigned
• Shinyness (Glossiness) texture support
• Support for relative file paths
• Option to include/exclude lights, cameras and splines from export
• Option to include/exclude curves from import
• Export editor camera, if no other camera in the scene or no active camera defined
• Optimized import/export user interface

Alembic:

• Import and export based on Alembic SDK 1.5
• Polygon selection tags applied to a generator are copied down to the generated object
• Support of new Alembic (Ogawa) file format which can’t be read by previous SDK (1.0)
• Use the new cycle option and set file format to Alembic HDF5 (Legacy) to export compatible files (e.g. Cinema 4D R15)
• New option to export vertex maps as vertex color information

After Effects:

• The AE Plugin now exports image based 3D layers

Other

• Cinema 4D R16 now includes a user participation program which helps MAXON to improve future releases by gathering information about common usage scenarios
• User need to opt-in to participate
• Users can refrain from participating at any time and delete all provided data
• Data sent to MAXON include user statistics like used commands, project file size, usage time, preference settings and system specifications
• All data sent anonymized, no personal information will be collected
• Metaballs will load and render faster, viewport interaction will be better