V-Ray 1.5 Technology preview

Here are some of the recent developments for V-Ray 1.5 for 3ds Max, expected this fall. Some of these features were shown at SIGGRAPH. Thanks to Vlado for sending us this preview!

Motion blur for Particle Flow systems
Image-based lighting (IBL)
Improved rQMC sampling
Improved photon mapping
Sun and sky system
Dirt shader and ambient occlusion
Fast SSS approximation
Physically based camera

Motion blur for PFlow systems

V-Ray now supports motion blur for PFlow systems. The particle motion blur takes into account both particle translation and spin. Together with support for multi-segmented motion blur, this allows the rendering of complex particle motions.

• Motion blur for both particle translation and spin;
• Multi-segmented motion blur for complex non-linear particle movements.

Click here for animation	Click here for animation

Image-based lighting (IBL)

The V-Ray dome light has been extended to support arbitrary texture maps that determine the amount of light coming from each direction on the virtual dome hemisphere. V-Ray then uses importance sampling to trace more rays in the directions where most of the light is coming from. This ensures speed and quality that were never before possible with pure gathering GI methods.

• Easy setup for image-based lighting (IBL);
• Importance sampling of the dome texture for fast and clean results;
• Support for photon mapping for fast and accurate caustic effects.

Improved randomized quasi-Monte Carlo (rQMC) sampling

The randomized quasi-Monte Carlo sampler used by V-Ray has been reworked to support true randomization based on Owen digit scrambling. This leads to reduced noise in certain situations involving multiple "blurry" effects.

• Based on Owen digit scrambling (implementations in previous V-Ray versions used rQMC sampling based on the HaltonRR2 sequence).
• Reduces noise when combining multiple "blurry" effects (e.g. AA, DOF, motion blur, GI).

Previous rQMC sampler	Previous rQMC sampler
New rQMC sampler	New rQMC sampler

Improved photon mapping

While the Light cache remains without doubt the most useable GI method as a secondary (and sometimes primary) GI engine, certain lighting situations - particularly those involving caustic effects - are easier to calculate with photon mapping. This is why we have worked on improving the photon mapping engine. One major step in this direction is the reduction of the darkening effect around corners which is so characterstic for the photon mapping method.

• Reduction of "dark corners" artifacts.

The photon map was used both as a primary and secondary GI engine in this image. Practically all of the light is coming from caustics.

Sun and sky system

The sun and sky system is a combination of an environment texure map (VRaySky) and a special light type (VRaySun). Both of them work together for creating a procedural environment that can be used for quick and reallistic lighting setup of daylight scenes.

• Quick setup of exterior daylight scenes;
• Sun can be placed anywhere in the scene;
• Blurry shadows for the sun light;
• Sky environment map and sun color are analytically computed based on the sun position.

		Click here for animation

Dirt shader and ambient occlusion

VRayDirt is a procedural texture that allows the blending of any two colors or textures based on surface occlusion. It has many uses, from simulating worn and weathered look of materials, to a quick-and-dirty replacement for global illumination when speed is a priority over physical correctness.

• Can be used for an ambient occlusion pass;
• Can be used to blend between any two texture maps.

Fast SSS approximation shader

The fast SSS texture map is specifically created for quick and easy rendering of translucent objects like characters' skin or different plastic material. Since no interpolation is used, there are no flickering problems in animation, while render times remain reasonable.

• Useful for skin and plastic materials.
• Flicker-free since no interpolation is used.

Click here for animation

Physically-based camera

The new physically-based camera is a completely new camera type inside 3dsmax. It simulates the internal workings of a real-world camera, complete with a film plate, aperture and lens system. This allows the simulation of many phenomena not possible with standard camera types (e.g. accurate DOF effects and image distortions).

• Accurate simulation of the refractive lens system of real-world cameras.
• Real-world parameters (focal length, f-stop etc).
• Non-linear DOF effects (e.g. different blur in the image center and edges).
• Accurate image distortions (e.g. fish-eye effects).