News from VRay.info

V-Ray 2.0 SP3 for 3ds Max available.

Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Some of the additions in this version are suport for 3ds Max 2013, Motion Blur support inV-Ray RT (CPU & GPU), CUDA support for RT GPU. New features: � Support for 3ds Max 2013 � Support for the new shading features of Hair & Fur in 3ds Max 2013 � VRayOrnatrixMod: support for Ornatrix 2.0 � Added a �Matte for reflection/refraction� option to the VRayWrapperMtl material and the V-Ray object settings � V-Ray RT and V-Ray RT GPU: support for motion blur (transformation and deformation) both in ActiveShade mode and as a production renderer � V-Ray RT GPU: added a CUDA engine, in addition to OpenCL (the CUDA engine requires a Fermi or Kepler card and the newest nVidia drivers) Modified features: � VRayOrnatrixMod: support for Ornatrix thickness maps � Added the possibility to specify a preview mesh for the vrayMeshExport MaxScript function � Support for motion blur of V-Ray mesh lights � Reduced memory usage and increased speed for dynamic geometry (proxies, displacement etc.) in specific situations � VRayHDRI: added crop/place options to VRayHDRI � VRayHDRI: added Output and curves rollout to VRayHDRI � VRayHDRI: added Output and curves rollout to VRayHDRI � vrimg2exr: added support for RLE compression method for OpenEXR files to vrimg2exr � VFB: the V-Ray VFB ICC color correction now takes into account the gamma value from the Color Mapping settings of V-Ray � VRayPtex: increased the default cache size for VRayPtex textures � V-Ray scene converter: now converts IES lights and Mental Ray Sun/Sky in a Daylight system � V-Ray RT GPU: support for sub-pixel filtering � V-Ray RT GPU: ability to use full resolution textures � V-Ray RT GPU: option to specify material texture bit depth to help control GPU memory usage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZmuI2xQp2M

ProEXR 1.7 brings V-Ray image support to After Effects and Photoshop

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Fnord software have released a free update to ProEXR bringing several new improvements. Among the new features in ProEXR 1.7 are: 1. Premiere Pro plug-in: ProEXR for Premiere lets you import and export OpenEXR sequences in Premiere Pro. It supports timecode, all the EXR compression options, and takes advantage of Premiere's native floating point pipeline. 2. After Effects performance boost: More work has been put into getting performance gains out of the AE plug-ins. In some tests, the new plug-ins are twice as fast as what was released in version 1.6, which was already an improvement over 1.5, the version currently shipping in After Effects. 3. ProEXR EZ is free 4. VRimg support - Many VRay users convert their multipass VRimg files to OpenEXR and then open them with ProEXR. Now they can skip a step and open VRimg files directly in Photoshop and After Effects. The latter point is perhaps the most exciting to V-Ray users, and vray.info's first tests show that it works well as long as the files are saved with a .vri file extension (instead of the default .vrimg extension). For more information: http://www.fnordware.com/ProEXR/ or http://fnordware.blogspot.com/

V-Ray 1.5 for Rhino available

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Chaos Group have released the much anticipated upgrade to V-Ray for Rhino, enabling Rhino uses to use a lot of the features previously only available in the 3ds Max and Maya versions. Key Features V-RayRT� - a revolutionary rendering engine providing instant feedback and streamlining scene setup. Because V-Ray RT is built upon the same robust core as V-Ray, it is seamless to transition between V-Ray RT and production rendering. Dome Light - create simple, artifact-free image-based lighting using the Dome Light. Its powerful importance sampling analyzes HDR images and optimizes light tracing and GI precision. V-Ray Proxy - an indispensable tool for managing scene memory and efficiently rendering massive amounts of geometry. V-Ray Proxy objects are dynamically loaded and unloaded at render-time, saving vital RAM resources. Lens Effects (Glare / Bloom ) - simulate the natural lens effects that occur when photographing highlights. Dispersion - trace and refract light based on its wavelength. Retrace Threshold - reduce Light Cache artifacts and improve the appearance of glossy reflections and refractions when using the time saving feature - Use light cache for glossy rays. Ambient Occlusion - generate shading based on an object�s proximity, and enhance GI details without significantly increasing render time. VRayDirt - simulate shading around corners and crevices of objects based on a radial distance. VRayDirt can be used to produce a variety of effects, including ambient occlusion renderings. Interpolation (Reflections and Refractions) - accelerate rendering by approximating and caching the effects of glossy reflections and refractions. IES Light - use photometric data to provide accurate light definition. Sphere Light - create spherically shaped area lights. The full version and the upgrade are available from the vray.info shop: Full version Upgrade IMPORTANT: The V-Ray 1.5 for Rhino upgrade will be available until June 30, 2012; after this time, only the full version will be available. For a complete list of features in V-Ray 1.5 for Rhino go to http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/vray_rhino_features.html

V-Ray turns 10 years today!

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CDT

It's been a decade since the first version of V-Ray was released for 3ds max. Ten years ago today Peter and Vlado of Chaos Group released the very first version of V-Ray. The renderer amazed a lot of 3ds Max using early adopters with its speed, and the high quality of the output. Since then the number of V-Ray followers has been - and still is - growing steadily across an increasing number of 3D platforms. VRay.info wishes V-Ray and the Chaos Group team a happy birthday!

PSD Manager 3.1 - The V-Ray Release

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Cebas Visual Technology Inc. have announced the availability of psd-manager 3.1. The free update provides major workflow improvements and new features for use in combination with V-Ray. New Features: Full V-Ray Framebuffer Support: psd-manager can now directly access the V-Ray framebuffer. All psd-manager features are now supported in combination with the V-Ray framebuffer, including render elements export, mask generation for objects and materials and 8/16/32-bit HDR PSD export. V-Ray color corrections may now optionally be applied to the PSD file. psd-manager 3.1 also makes it possible to output V-Ray render elements when using the 3ds Max Batch Render tool together with the V-Ray framebuffer. MultiMatte � Automatic Splitting & Naming: New automatisms have been introduced for users relying on MultiMatte elements besides the MatteShooter powered built-in selection mask generation capabilities of psd-manager. These make V-Ray MultiMatte render elements much more convenient to work with. MultiMatte elements can now automatically be split into multiple PSD selections or layers automatically. This avoids the hassle of having to select a specific RGB channel in Photoshop each time. PSD selections/layers are also automatically named based on the object-IDs or material-IDs they are based on � thus making them easier to find. Lens Effects Bloom & Glare export as PSD layers: The V-Ray Lens Effects Bloom & Glare can now be saved as layers to the PSD file. psd-manager automatically places them at the correct position into the PSD file. Saving V-Ray framebuffer channels generated by 3rd party V-Ray plug-ins is also supported. For more information: http://www.cebas.com/index.php?pid=news_next&nid=475 PSD manager is available from the vray.info shop here.

V-Ray 1.5 for Softimage Released

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Chaos Group today officially released the first version of V-Ray for Autodesk Softimage, adding V-Ray to the list of options for Softimage users. A Demo build is also available. Key Features in V-Ray 1.5 for Softimage: Geometry * Render particles, strands, hair, and geometry produced by Softimage�s award-winning ICE system * Manage scene memory and efficiently render massive amounts of geometry with V-Ray Proxy * Render dynamic geometry such as displacement, proxy objects, fur, and hair * Use all geometry animation and deformations applied through animated parameters and key frames, the Animation Mixer, and ICE-based simulations Shading * Create materials based on physical properties using V-Ray's versatile shaders * Use built-in Render Tree procedural shaders, computational, and logic nodes * Simplify the texturing process and eliminate the need to assign UVs using Ptex * Simplify the creation of complex multi-layered automotive paints using the VRayCarPaintMtl * Render hair and fur with unprecedented control, quality, and speed using the VRayHairMtl Lights & Illumination * Create realistic illumination using physically-based lights, including IES lights and texture-mapped area lights * Emulate real-world atmospheric lighting conditions using the V-Ray Sun and Sky system * Create simple, artifact-free image-based lighting using the Dome Light Cameras & Optics * Render true 3D motion blur using the V-Ray Physical Camera * Create fast and accurate depth of field with bokeh effects using the V-Ray Physical Camera * Import displacement maps from Nuke to match lens distortion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC4YKDTWNVY More information: http://chaosgroup.com/en/2/vray_softimage_features.html

V-Ray 2.0 for Maya upated.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Chaos Group have release a free update to V-Ray 2.0 for Maya, bringing new Hair & Fur capabilities, V-Ray RT GPU enhancements and several other new features. What's new: New Hair and Fur Capabilities � A new VRayHairMtl shader to render hair and fur with unprecedented control, quality, and speed � Extra attributes to apply materials to Maya�s native hair V-Ray RT GPU Enhancements � V-Ray RT GPU now supports texture-mapped rectangle and mesh lights, simple light portals, and the VRayBlendMtl Additional Improvements � Optimized memory usage and multithreaded performance for dynamic geometry � Optimized Irradiance Map and Light Cache to reduce flickering when using time dependent option of the DMC sampler � New Flakes material � Improved support for standard Maya shading nodes Installation and Deployment Improvements � Now Mac OS users can benefit from the user-friendly GUI installer for both VLRService and V-Ray for Maya � Windows and Linux OS users can easily take advantage of the two installation options on our website: executable installation or an archive file for easier deployment on a cluster of machines This is a free update for V-Ray 2.0 for Maya users and is available in the download section on www.chaosgroup.com for registered users.

CGarchitect launches new and improved site!

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Our friends at CGarchitect recently turned 10 years, and have been hard at work developing a redesigned site for the ArchViz community. Go check it out! (read more is a direct link to CGarchitect) http://www.cgarchitect.com

V-Ray 2.0 SP2 for 3ds Max available

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:00:00 CDT

The second Service Pack of V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max, V-Ray 2.20.01 is out. This release adds several new features for rendering hair and fur, V-Ray Frame Buffer enhancements, PTex support, V-Ray RT enhancements as well as a long list of improvements and bug fixes. This is a free upgrade, and the build is available now from the download page on www.chaosgroup.com Seamlessly render hair created using Ephere�s Ornatrix plug-in with the new modifier - VRayOrnatrixMod. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaKYkvVZluM Build 2.20.01 official (4 December 2011) ============== New features: (*) VRayHairMtl specifically for fur and hair rendering; (*) VRayOrnatrixMod modifier for direct rendering of Ornatrix hair; (*) VRayHairInfoTex texture for additional hair shading effects; (*) VRayPTex texture provides support for PTex files; (*) MaxScript functions for access to the V-Ray VFB contents; (*) V-Ray RT: added "Real zoom" option to the ActiveShade quad menu to modify the rendered region (zoom, pan) directly in the ActiveShade window; (*) MetaSL support in VRayGLSLMtl and VRayGLSLTex; Modified features: (*) V-Ray RT GPU: initial support for VRayBlendMtl materials; (*) V-Ray RT GPU: rendering of VRayProxy objects; (*) V-Ray RT GPU: support for affect diffuse/specular/reflection for VRayLights; (*) V-Ray RT GPU: support for simple skylight portals; (*) V-Ray RT GPU: support for textured area and mesh lights; (*) V-Ray RT GPU: limited support for the Falloff map; (*) V-Ray RT GPU: support for Tiles and other procedural textures (through baking to bitmaps); (*) V-Ray RT: ability to use the 3ds Max bitmap proxy system for the ActiveShade; (*) V-Ray RT: support for 32-bit ActiveShade buffer; (*) V-Ray RT: add a "Reload" button for VRayHDRI that works with V-Ray RT; (*) Distributed rendering: option to specify a maximum number of render slaves; (*) Distributed rendering: when a slave completes a DR render, it will automatically try to join other running DR jobs; (*) ply2vrmesh: added support for .bgeo files in ply2vrmesh; (*) ply2vrmesh: added -info option to ply2vrmesh to print information about .vrmesh files; (*) Irradiance map format (*.vrmap) has changed - map files from V-Ray 2.20 cannot be opened by previous V-Ray versions; (*) imapviewer: added -incremental command-line option and "File > Incremental add" menu item for incremental merge of irradiance maps produced by V-Ray 2.20; (*) imapviewer: added ability to load and display light cache files; (*) VRayMtl: added "Affect channels" option for reflections; (*) VRayGLSL: split into a VRayGLSLTex texture and a VRayGLSLMtl material; (*) VRayGLSLMtl: support for built-in BRDFs; (*) VRaySun: added filter color for VRaySun; (*) VRayMultiSubTex: added option to specify the number of IDs in VRayMultiSubTex; (*) VRayMultiSubTex: reworked the VRayMultiSubTex texture to use lists of properties, rather than separate parameters; (*) VRayFastSSS2: ability to save/load illumination maps for VRayFastSSS2 material; (*) VRayHDRI: add the "time" rollout for controlling IFL files to VRayHDRI; (*) VRayHDRI: support for tiled mip-mapped TIFF files; (*) VRayHDRI: optimized VRayHDRI bitmap performance; (*) VRayIES: expanded the "Use light shape" option for VRayIES to allow the shape to affect light distribution; (*) VRayBPTracer: support for distributed rendering; (*) VRayBPTracer: support for the VRayLightSelect render elements; (*) VRayDisplacementMod: added option to smooth UVs for subdivision displacement; (*) VRayLensEffects: improved multithreading for VRayLensEffects; (*) Optimized memory usage and multithreaded performance for dynamic geometry; (*) Optimized the VRay2SidedMtl material for GI calculations when translucency is greyscale; (*) Add an option to the VRaySamplerInfo render element and texture to wrap the UVW coordinates in the [0,1] range; (*) VFB: added ICC color correction to the V-Ray VFB; (*) VFB: added right-click menu to the items in the V-Ray VFB history; (*) VFB: right-click menu option to add and edit comments in V-Ray History per image; (*) VFB: ability to do A/B VFB comparison with a rendered image in the V-Ray VFB; (*) VFB: the frame stamp is now saved to and loaded from the V-Ray VFB history images; (*) When writing a raw .exr file, V-Ray will attempt to produce a scanline version of the file instead of tiled one; (*) Added a glossiness render element, also for texture baking; (*) Added a Clear option for the Previous render list in the System rollout; (*) Changed the default image sampler to Adaptive DMC; (*) Exposed the irradiance map preview mode parameter in the UI; (*) Reduced flickering of the irradiance map and light cache when "Time independent" DMC option is disabled; (*) Disable any HSDS modifiers before saving the scene for DR; (*) SDK: switched to Intel C++ 12.1 compiler; (*) SDK: shaders can provide their own sampling rays for GI; (*) SDK: multithreaded expansion of dynamic primitives; Bug fixes: (*) Nitrous: VRayHDRI did not show up in Nitrous viewports; (*) Nitrous: support for the VRaySky environment texture in the Nitrous viewports; (*) Nitrous: the first time the user selects "Show realistic material in viewports" the objects with this material disappear; (*) The material texture maps were not shown in the Max2012 shaded viewport; (*) DR: fixed hanging buckets in specific cases; (*) DR: slaves with missing files continuously tried to re-join a DR render when "restart slaves on render end" was on and "Check for missing files" was enabled; (*) DR: if a render slave failed to receive the entire irradiance map from the client it still continued the render producing wrong buckets; (*) VRayBPTracer: region rendering did not work; (*) VRayFastSSS2 did not work correctly with light exclusion; (*) Assigning a texmap to material texmapslot caused a crash when the texmap was disabled; (*) Exclude from shadow casting did not work for VRayIES lights; (*) Fixed a crash when rendering with Particle Flow emitted from animated geometry; (*) Fixed a crash with VRaySun when the scene is rendered with the scanline renderer; (*) Fixed uneven motion blur for fast moving objects with many geometry samples; (*) Scrubbing the time slider created keys for the FOV parameter; (*) The .vrscene exporter script did not export the "cast shadows" property of lights correctly; (*) The .vrscene exporter script did not detect animated textures properly; (*) The .vrscene exporter script did not export correctly objects with animated topology; (*) VFB: Pressing the "set A" or "set B" button when the VFB history is empty lead to a crash; (*) VFB: Fixed a crash when importing specific .acv file; (*) Relative path names for raw image files did not work; (*) Crash with Particle Flow events in specific scene; (*) VRayFlakesMtl material did not work with the VRayMtlSelect render element; (*) Pixel Info window showed colors only for one image during A/B compare; (*) Fixed artifact with light portals; (*) The height parameter for VRayEnvironmentFog is now greyed out when there are gizmos attached; (*) VRayEnvironmentFog did not allow to pick multiple gizmos and lights through the "Select by Name" dialog; (*) Incorrect self-shadowing of hairs by themselves for VRayFur and the 3ds Max Hair & Fur modifier; (*) Mapped VRayLightMtl does not work as direct light if the color is set to black; (*) Hanging buckets with VRayBlendMtl material when one of the blend textures returns an invalid color; (*) VRayStereoscopic shademap files were not closed after reading; (*) VFB history did not display render times for history images; (*) Disappearing geometry when VRayVelocity pass is used; (*) Issues with the MAX.vray preset in 3ds Max 2012; (*) AA filter type not saved in V-Ray presets; (*) Loading a V-Ray preset does not respect the selected rollouts; (*) Scripted materials are not handled properly when assigned as sub-materials; (*) V-Ray RT: environment override slot in VRayMtl did not work with glossy materials; (*) V-Ray RT: DOF did not work with animated cameras; (*) V-Ray RT: gamma issues with the ActiveShade window; (*) V-Ray RT: IFL sequences did not work with VRayHDRI; (*) V-Ray RT: initialization error in stage 2 when Mix material is used as normal map; (*) V-Ray RT: differences in RT with 3dsmax Composite map; (*) V-Ray RT: environment override slot in VRayMtl materials doesn't work for glossy materials; (*) V-Rat RT GPU: OpenCL code failed to compile with the latest nVidia drivers; (*) V-Ray RT GPU: invisible dome lights were rendered as visible;

Phoenix Fluid Dynamics 2.0 Released

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 CDT

Chaos Group have released Phoenix FD 2.0. The new version brings � among other things � an improved simulation core, foam and splash simulation and a particle shader for liquids, as well as an improved GPU preview. Foam and splashes particle shader Phoenix FD 2.0 comes with a brand new shader for particles. It allows the user to have full control when shading foam and splashes particles generated by the new core. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYByRbFDjvU Simulation of foam and splashes With the new and improved simulation core, Phoenix FD is capable of generating particles where foam or splashes would usually appear in a simulation. This extraordinary new technology allows the user to further increase the realism of liquid simulations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vaAQEolQRE GPU preview improvements In version 2.0 the GPU preview fully supports lighting and diffuse color shading. Additionally, the renderings can be automatically saved as PNG files in the simulation directory. This seemingly simple upgrade will allow the user to quickly preview their simulation results without having to waste time rendering them on the CPU. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP5xuhBAngM PRICING 1. Upgrade to Phoenix FD 2.0 � 350 USD/ 250 EUR/ 210 GBP 2. Phoenix FD 2.0 � 960 USD/ 700 EUR/ 600 GBP All customers who have purchased Phoenix FD between 01 September and 21 November are entitled to a free upgrade. For more information: http://chaosgroup.com/en/2/phoenix.html