Date – May 31, 2016
Download – Build 3.40.01
New Features
V-Ray
Add V-Ray Denoiser Render Element
ExtraTexInt / ExtraTexFloat Render Element similar to ExtraTex, but for integer/float textures
Support for integer user attributes
Add another deep fragment merge mode, "None", where fragments are not merged at all
VRayMultiSubTex texture like in 3ds Max
Add a section in the render settings for controlling the cache size for tiled textures
General
- Support for Maya 2016 Extension 2 (2016.5)
Rendering support for PartIO Visualizer (see http://www.disneyanimation.com/technology/partio.html)
Added support for spriteNumPP parameter of particle systems
Support for animating the "Eye Distance" and "Focus Distance" parameters of the V-Ray Stereoscopic Camera
V-Ray GPU
Initial support for bump mapping with procedural textures
Orthogonal camera support
samplerInfo node
- Added new float output that returns a random number by geometry shell for meshes
VRayStochasticFlakesMtl
Support for colored flakes texture
VRayAerialPerspective
Filter color for the VRayAerialPerspective
XGen
Per spline texture mapping
Bifrorst
Support for foam particles in Maya 2016
Modified Features
V-Ray
Faster rendering with the light cache
Faster rendering of objects visible behind multiple panes of glass
Enabled support for processor groups by default
Support for the -rep option of Maya batch rendering command
Made the 2016 Material Viewer to use low thread priority
The default tessellation mode for displacement/subdivision is now "pre-tessellated"
Better warning messages when unsupported texture is connected to some plug
V-Ray IPR
Faster light updates
More responsive updates
Region changes without restarting the render are now possible
Decreased the initial resolution for undersampling
V-Ray GPU
Improved auto texture resizing for better memory usage and quality
Support for the Bias attributes for VRayDirt
VRayStochasticFlakesMtl
Improved importance sampling algorithm, removed the "texture subdivs" parameter
VRayProxy
Try to preserve already attached materials when changing the proxy file
VRayScene
Hair preview
Support for visibility overrides
Support for render layer material overrides
VraySunSky
Added attribute for ground blending
Added vertical offset for the sky texture
VRayFur
Faster strand generation for fur
VRayFur styler
- Added option for symmetric painting
VRayMtl
Improved sampling for GGX BRDF
Exposed the opacity for VRayMtl for lookDev view in the Property Editor
V-Ray Object Properties
Warnings related to visibility lists now print more information
V-Ray Shelf
Extended the Create V-Ray Toon button to allow VRayToon node selections
VRayVolumeGrid
- Implemented auto-reduction of the VRayVolumeGrid preview
Material Viewer
- Added support for the new "tumbling camera" in Maya 2016.5
Texture Baking
Added dropdown for selecting UV set in V-Ray baking options
General
Added support for the Light Editor in Maya 2016.5
- Added elliptical filtering options to File node
Maya Hair
Added a parameter to limit the minimum width of hair strands
Bug Fixes
V-Ray
Fixed negative pixel values in specific scenes
Fixed random render results on a specific scene with Embree enabled
Fixed differently colored surface patches with 2D displacement mapping in specific scene
*.exr image files were saved with incorrect pixel aspect ratio metadata
The default OpenSubdiv depth is now 2
The Renderable camera list is not refreshed
V-Ray GPU
Using GPU as production with DR will print a warning
Fixed wrong shading for light cache with displacement, subdivision and VRayProxy
Fixed slow rendering of motion-blurred hair with light cache
Fixed high memory usage with proxies, hair, particles, displacement and subdivision in animation
Fixed crashes and leaks with displacement, subdivision and proxy
V-Ray IPR Viewport
Fixed V-Ray IPR viewport rendering only a region in the lower left corner
VRayScene
Fixed VRayScene node randomly failing to load IES files
Node visibility was not handled properly
Fixed error when loading files with "." in the name
VRayScene node was deleted with the Delete History command
Relative paths are only resolved for the first loaded .vrscene
Fixed fatal error with imported .vrscene files and Render Stats
VRayProxy
Fixed slow rendering for Alembic files with motion blur enabled (specific scene only)
The GPU preview didn't work properly with instancing
The GPU Mesh preview should disable the Alembic subdivision
Added support for V-Ray user attributes when displaced/subdivided
The shader names were not always set correctly with "use full names"
Fixed wrong hair vertices in GPU preview
VFB
Bucket rendering with Fixed/Adaptive sampler was very slow in MacOS ElCapitan
VRayAerialPerspective
Now shows up in the Atmospheric Render Element
VRayLight
Multiply by light color doesn't work in temperature mode
Multiply by the light color option always renders green light
VRayFastSSS2
Fixed infinite recursion with SSS2, raytraced single scatter and surfaceLuminance
Scene renders differently with render elements enabled vs. disabled
VRayStochasticFlakesMtl
Fixed wrong result with mapped Hilight Glossiness
VRayFur
Fixed very high memory usage while rendering in V-Ray IPR viewport
Fixed crash when deleting VrayFur properties node while rendering in IPR
VRaySky
- Fixed wrong parameter label in the VRaySky texture
VRayMeshMtl
Fixed not refreshing connections when a material is drag-and-dropped from Hypershade in 2016
Fixed material connections not refreshing with Copy Tab
Fixed issues with the Maya Attribute Editor
VRayTriplanar
The VRayTriplanar texture doesn't properly show it's UV placement attribute
VRayFalloff
Fixed issue with multiple VRayFalloff textures attached to a material
VRayVolumeGrid
The voxel preview did not update when changing loadNearest and flipUpAxis
Frame blending did not work properly with VRayVolumeGrid grid that changes size
Fixed animation rendering garbage after the cache sequence ends
Fixed wrong shading with Geometry Volumetric render mode in MultiMatte render element
Two VRayVolumeGrid in a vrscene sharing a cache with offset animation rendered the same frame
Miscellaneous
Fixed wrong Instancer primary visibility per particle override with specific scene
Fixed invalid colors with the Cook-Torrance BRDF
Fixed Material override extra attributes not updating properly in a specific case
Fixed Material override extra attributes not refreshing when accessed from VRaySwitchMtl
Maya Batch
Fixed wrong exit code when VRAY_TERMINATE_ON_FRAME_END is enabled and a license error occurs
Command-line width/height override flags were not taken into account
Bifrost
Fixed crash when trying to render as VRayMetaball
Better support for Bifrost Aero
XGen
- Animated Alembic archives were always looped