Page History

V-Ray 6, Update

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2 (6.20.00)

Official release

Date - Dec 7, 2023

Scatter

• The scattering toolset is extended in a number of ways. Major workflow changes like the new scattering modes, area modifiers, and lights scattering are combined with numerous small improvements
• Bounding box scattering mode is implemented. Note that it uses the object’s bounding box instead of the actual volume boundaries
• Curve scattering implemented. Scatter objects along a path with additional control over the instances’ spacing and positioning to help produce organic results
• UV Grid surface scattering mode is implemented. In this mode instances are distributed on the surface in a grid pattern. The grid position is determined by the texture/UV mapping of the host surface
• Area modifiers implemented. Limit the scattering area based on mesh or curve proximity. Note that the modifier’s projection onto the host’s surface is used instead of its actual physical location
• New transformation settings implemented. The new random transformation parameters provide finer offset, rotation, and scaling controls
• Light Scattering is implemented. Light sources can now be added as guests to Scatter and instantiated around the scene. Note that a big increase in the scene lights count may significantly increase render times
• The way Scatter is handled internally is updated. V-Ray scenes with scattering are now significantly smaller in size and can be uploaded for Cloud rendering in an optimal way

Cloud one-click submit workflow

• Cloud submit window is implemented. It enables a new and more intuitive workflow for submitting scenes to be rendered on the Chaos Cloud. There is no longer need to navigate to an external web browser window to submit the project for rendering
• The export and render steps from the Cloud submit process are no longer separated by a manual action

VFB

• Chromatic aberration effect implemented. This new feature is part of the Lens Effects and simulates the real-world phenomenon of light rays being focused at different points depending on their wavelength
• A shortcut that helps with enabling the VFB history feature is implemented
• Folders can now be added to the layers stack even when in Standard / RGB source mode. This helps with the layer organization and unlocks new compositing possibilities
• A plain color can now be specified in the Background layer
• Mask previews can be now copied from VFB to the clipboard
• A number of additional small UX improvements streamline the compositing workflow

IES Light improvements

• Cosmos light sources containing IES lights can now be imported
• IES Light intensity is now automatically derived from the .ies file at creation time or when the profile is changed
• The UI of the IES Light is simplified. The Intensity value is always enabled. Resetting its value (via the right-click menu) sets the intensity back to the one from the .ies file
• Light shape menu implemented. It specifies which aspects of the light emission and shadow casting are affected by its area shape and size

V-Ray GPU

• Enmesh assets can now be rendered with V-Ray GPU
• Animation texture caching is implemented. Bitmap files no longer have to be reloaded for each animation frame resulting in lower render times
• An issue preventing the rendering of Bitmap Image Sequences is resolved
• An issue preventing the render process from starting when specific materials are present in the project is resolved

Integration

• SketchUp 2023: The Scatter Viewer tool is no longer used. Instead a new Scatter Viewport Preview is available in the SketchUp Overlays tray
• SketchUp 2023: Both the Viewport Render and Scatter Viewer buttons on the toolbar now show a notification that the respective SketchUp overlay should be used
• The V-Ray Scene Importer converts all raw bitmap buffers to regular image files on disk before importing which speeds up the process significantly
• Decals can now be imported by the V-Ray Scene Importer. This feature can be disabled in the importer options
• An issue causing SketchUp to randomly crash on closing down is resolved
• The preview of Proxy Meshes contained within a Proxy Scene is no longer scaled incorrectly
• The Enscape to V-Ray material conversion logic is improved in a number of ways
• An issue causing the top parts of an Enmesh module to be incorrectly cut is resolved
• Scatter can now be applied to a selection of edges in one click - they are automatically welded and grouped for optimal results

Improved viewport materials

• A way for displaying most procedural textures as well as procedural texture corrections in the SketchUp viewport is implemented. This new default behavior substitutes the generic texture helpers previously employed for mapping adjustments. Differences between the rendered result and the viewport preview may occur due to the fact that only the texture confined within the 0 to 1 UV square is baked. This affects most procedural patterns and textures with non-default UV placement configuration. Raytraced textures are not supported

Curve editing enhancements (Spline and Bezier curves)

• An issue preventing the single-click selection of a curve point is resolved
• The Value tab of the Spline curve is now selected by default since it is the most commonly used one
• Points that precisely overlap in the corners are automatically merged. This avoids accidental stacking
• Spline and Bezier curve points are no longer deleted on right-click. Instead they can be selected and removed using the ‘Delete’ keyboard key or the new context menu option
• The Interpolation of the Spline curve points as well as the Tangent Type of the Bezier curve points can now be changed from the new context menu
• Continuously dragging a curve point or clicking in fast succession within the Spline and Bezier curve editors no longer causes slowdowns and lagging during interactive rendering
• Keyboard navigation between points is implemented in the curve editors. Use the Left and Right keys to change the selection

Infrastructure

• gRPC communication implemented. The protocol used for synchronizing scene changes between the integration and the UI is updated. This improves performance and reliability

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

• Added support for Cubic Projection Mode of the Tri-Planar texture. It provides further control by introducing an optional division between positive and negative directions of each axis
• Chaos Cosmos materials can now be dragged and dropped in the Asset Editor
• The range selection between tagged assets in the Asset Outliner is improved. The range selection between members of the same group/tag is possible while range selection across groups and hierarchy levels is disallowed
• The Gamma texture user interface is improved. Note that this texture may appear after a Cosmos import or as a result of a V-Ray scene import
• An issue preventing the procedural clouds from appearing in the Sun/Sky asset preview in specific situations is resolved
• Clearing the V-Ray Log window no longer prevents it from displaying any further info
• An issue preventing the window resize arrow from showing up when using non-standard OS display scaling is resolved

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V-Ray 6, Update 1, hotfix 3 (6.10.03)

Official release

Date - Oct 16, 2023

Improvements and bugfixes

• Cosmos is updated to version 2023.10.09
• macOS: An issue preventing V-Ray from being used on macOS 14 Sonoma is resolved
• macOS: An issue causing the last imported Enscape asset to override all other Enscape assets in the V-Ray rendering is resolved
• Raw texture buffers stored in a vrscene file are now correctly imported by the V-Ray Scene Importer. This significantly improves the import of V-Ray Scenes exported from Enscape
• Fixed an issue with Decal assets causing abnormal render times
• An issue with SketchUp's colorization and materials assigned to faces is resolved
• The auto-generated UI of unsupported materials and textures is improved in a number of ways. The number slider range and step is updated to allow more flexible edits, string parameter values are now handled, parameter labels are better constructed, etc. Note that unsupported items can be imported using the V-Ray Scene Importer or in a number of other unconventional ways
• Enscape asset file paths are now successfully resolved on macOS
• V-Ray GPU: An issue causing colorful artifacts when rendering scenes containing multiple objects with a Subsurface Scattering material with RTX engine is resolved

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V-Ray 6, Update 1,

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hotfix 2 (6.10.02)

Official release

Date - Aug 28, 2023

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• Cosmos is updated to version 2023.8.15
• V-Ray GPU: An issue causing incorrect background texture placement when the environment texture multiplier is set to a value different from 1 is resolved
• macOS: An issue leading to a crash on startup and/or shutdown in specific situations is resolved

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V-Ray 6, Update 1,

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hotfix 1 (6.10.01)

Official release

Date - Aug 3, 2023

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• Masking for Lens Effects and Denoiser layers in the VFB is implemented. Use the standard masking workflow to utilize the feature
• A new Color transformation configuration is added to the Background layer in the VFB. Use it to apply a separate display correction to the Background layer
• Viewing stereo panorama images in the VFB using the Panorama View mode is now possible. Note that even though only the left-eye image is displayed in this mode, the stereo properties are preserved

V-Ray GPU

• Mesh Clipper support is added. Create complex section cuts fully renderable with both CUDA and the RTX (OptiX) engines
• Compressed Textures mode is implemented. When active all textures are loaded with compression to decrease their memory footprint without degrading their quality
• An issue leading to a crash when rendering specific Cosmos assets is resolved
• An issue causing a crash when rendering scenes with normal displacement and using CPU as a CUDA device is resolved

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• The Chaos Cloud Client application is now always installed with V-Ray
• macOS: Minimum required macOS version bumped from Mojave (10.14) to Catalina (10.15)

Integration

• V-Ray Viewport Render overlay is implemented in SketchUp 2023. The legacy viewport rendering feature is no longer available in the main V-Ray toolbar and menu (only applies to SketchUp 2023). Start interactive rendering and activate the ‘V-Ray Viewport Render’ overlay to initiate viewport rendering. Note that the VFB can be closed at any point which does not interfere with the VPR. Note that the opacity of the overlay is dynamic and depends on the progressive quality of the rendered image. Use the new V-Ray / Preferences / Viewport Render Opacity configuration to change the maximum overlay opacity
• The notification that a Batch Rendering process is initiated without an output image path is restored
• An issue causing specific SketchUp library materials to be rendered incorrectly in the Asset Preview Swatch and during interactive rendering is fixed
• An issue causing material assignment problems related to a naming conflict to occur during interactive rendering is resolved
• An issue leading to incorrect view on the last frame of an animation is resolved
• An issue leading to a crash when merging a Cosmos Asset while the asset's geometry is selected is resolved
• macOS: Pasting a text in the VFB’s history notes using keyboard shortcuts no longer leads to a crash

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• SketchUp section plane transitions are now supported when rendering animations. Currently only available on Windows
• The rotation of Always face camera components containing regular SketchUp objects is now supported when rendering animations
• Animation support for object and tag visibility states is added. Dynamically hide camera obstructions, such as roofs, floors or surrounding buildings during your flythrough animations

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

• Self-illumination parameters are added to the V-Ray Material. The use of the Emissive material layer is no longer required when shading light emitting surfaces
• The term Contours is replaced with Outlines in all its UI occurrences. This applies to both the global effect as well as the material override
• The Interactivity slider is now correctly disabled when Interactive Light Cache is enabled
• Interactive Light Cache is now active by default
• The Trace Depth option is removed from the Interactive Parameters in the V-Ray Asset Editor's Settings
• Changes of the Brute Force GI Depth now affect both interactive and production rendering
• NVIDIA AI Denoiser Upscaling option is implemented. When enabled the image is rendered at half size to speed up its calculation while the image displayed in the VFB is at full resolution. Note that render elements without the 'Denoise' option enabled are upscaled using standard interpolation
• Denoise option is added to the Extra Texture render element
• Single File Output option is implemented. Set a file path in the Asset Editor / Render Output / Save Image / File Path field and enable the Single File Output to autosave only the main image channel (RGB color or effectResult)
• The UI theme configuration in the Asset Editor now automatically changes the initial UI theme of the Cosmos Browser
• Right-click action behavior in the Outliner is updated. A right-click on an item now automatically selects it. Any consecutive context menu actions are applied to the active selection only. Note that to apply an action to multiple items at once, they have to be selected and the right-click should be performed on top of any selection member
• Distance texture’s Distance value is now correctly respected when a distance texture map is also used
• The Sky texture now uses the Sun Light preview swatch scene which fixes the overexposed sky preview
• Right-clicking on a color variation in the Color Assistant now correctly sets it as a current color
• An issue with reapplying an already selected Light Gen scenario is resolved
• An issue causing multiple Asset Editor, Chaos Cosmos or Light Gen windows to appear on macOS is resolved
• Rectangle light's U Size parameter label is now correctly displayed in Chinese
• An issue preventing a Light Gen regeneration after a scenario has been applied is resolved
  
  

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• Live preview for Decals implemented
• Sphere swatch preview scene added for material assets. The preview is similar to the one used in Cosmos
• The automatic texture resize is disabled for the GPU asset preview. The material swatch no longer lacks details and appears blurry
• The Environment textures’ preview no longer appears incorrect when the GPU mode is enabled
• The V-Ray typography of the Generic material preview is updated to match the current company branding

VFB

• Panorama viewer implemented. Use the Panorama View toggle in the View menu to enable the new mode. Looking around in this view is done by holding the middle mouse button and moving the mouse. The field of view can be altered by scrolling
• Proportion Guides layer implemented to help you with the frame composition
• Batch image processing implemented. Use it to apply corrections to a set of pre-rendered images
• Flip buttons implemented. Use the quick flip feature to have a fresh eye on the image composition and verify it works in all settings
• Dither colors option implemented in the VFB settings / Render View rollout. Make sure it is enabled to avoid banding with low-contrast gradients
• The VFB configuration including the History state and folder location is preserved between installations
• The Exposure (display only) slider part of the Display Correction’s layer parameters no longer affects images saved from the VFB

V-Ray GPU

• Improved performance and reliability
• Added support for the Lighting Analysis render element
• Improved trace depth limit handling
• Improved round edges rendering quality
• The global trace depth logic used by the GPU engine now matches the one used in Production CPU rendering. Enabling the Render Parameters/Optimizations/Max Trace Depth checkbox ensures that the value specified overrides all corresponding max depth settings in the materials
• The standalone GPU Device Selection tool is updated. The new user interface allows specific devices to be selected for Denoising (should be considered when NVIDIA AI denoising is used). This can help boost rendering performance on systems with more than one GPU
• An issue preventing spotlights from being scatter by the Environment Fog is resolved

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• A new system for evaluating V-Ray textures is implemented. Most of V-Ray’s procedural textures and texture corrections are now supported in Vision. This is achieved through ‘baking’ which leaves raytraced or camera-based procedural maps still unsupported (Dirt, Falloff, Distance, Edges, etc.)
• Measurement tool implemented. Use the toolbar button or the Z key to enable the tool, then select the two points to measure the distance between them
• Depth of field support added. Change the DOF settings in V-Ray to see an effect in Vision. Note that the defocus amount is limited in Vision
• The Orbit navigation mode hotkeys now match the ones in the host application
• A new handling for materials opacity is implemented. Visual artifacts no longer appear when multiple transparent objects overlap in the frame
• The V-Ray Infinite Plane is now supported in Vision. Note that in Vision the plane still has a finite size but will automatically resize based on the scene bounding box
• The overall stability and reliability of Vision is improved
• The parameters in the Settings panel are now organized in rollouts
• Hours can now be displayed in the timeline end label
• An issue preventing Vision from working on macOS is resolved
• The default range of the Ambient Light Intensity slider is increased to 200
• The active camera FOV (Field of View) is taken into consideration when calculating the mouse sensitivity. This improves the Vision navigation in specific situations
• Vision settings are now organized in rollouts that can be collapsed or expanded depending on the situation
• Tri-Planar textures using a plane color instead of a texture now work correctly in Vision
• Added support for the Self-illumination parameters of the VRay Mtl
• Parallax Displacement mapping implemented. Make sure that a displacement is set up in V-Ray to see the effect
• The V-Ray Decal is now supported in Vision
• Navigation shortcut keymaps implemented. The one matching the host application (SketchUp or Rhino) is automatically selected
• Bitmap texture’s Automatic Transfer Function support added. The transfer function selection in Vision matches the one in V-Ray
• Flipping face normals in the host application no longer leads to incorrect texture placement in Vision
• An issues caused by materials with similar names (same name but a different number suffix) is resolved
• The Output image File path can now be typed manually
• Deleting a Mesh Light no longer requires a live link restart to take effect
• Creating a Group or Component in SketchUp during a live session no longer misplaces the object in Vision
• Vision no longer hangs when a Cosmos asset is merged during a live session
• Grass strands (V-Ray Fur with ‘grass’ in its name) no longer get misplaced during a live session
• There is no longer a dark or bright circle artifact under the camera when the high quality shadows are enabled
• The Ctrl + O shortcut can once again be used for opening .vrscene files
• A number of issues affecting the fly navigation mode are resolved
• UI mouse and key interactions no longer affect the view
• A fly speed exceeding 200 can now be set
• The A and D fly navigation keys no longer unintentionally change UI slider values
• CarPaint2 material support added
• Cosmos asset no longer disappears if a merged version of the same asset exists
• The trunk material of the American Beech 002 Cosmos asset is no longer rendered black
• Support for Dome lights using a plain color instead of a texture is added
• A number of issues with textures instanced in multiple materials are resolved

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

• A number of issues related to the duplication of materials and textures in the Asset Editor are resolved
• the Refraction fog color Depth value can now be reset
• The warning that indicates that the Cryptomatte render element does not work in all rendering modes is removed since this limitation no longer exists
• A number of parameter labels and tooltips are updated to better indicate what the parameter does
• Applying Light Mix IES light edits to the scene now correctly enables the intensity override checkbox and sets the target intensity value
• The global Environment Texture no longer reappears after being deleted and the project reopened
• The VFB history images no longer appear twice when the 'Use project path' option is enabled
• A number of issues related to the .vrscene to .skp importer are resolved. The open File mode now works as expected
• An issue causing Proxy Meshes to take a long time to load and render unless the global displacement switch is disabled, is resolved
• Importing a .vropt settings file using the Ruby API no longer causes SketchUp to temporarily lose responsiveness nor does it create a duplicate Sun
• Using identical material names, that differ only in letter capitalization, no longer causes a synchronization issue between V-Ray and SketchUp
• A number of issues causing SketchUp to hangs on startup, on scene activation or when a first render is initiated are resolved
• macOS: The Cap CPU Utilization toggle is no longer missing
• macOS: An issue with the viewport render regions is resolved
• macOS: An issue causing a bug splat after closing Vision and then SketchUp is resolved
• macOS: Rendering a scene with an OSL plugins present on a M1 machine no longer leads to a crash

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• Live preview for Decals implemented
• Sphere swatch preview scene added for material assets. The preview is similar to the one used in Cosmos

VFB

• Panorama viewer implemented. Use the Panorama View toggle in the View menu to enable the new mode. Looking around after that is done by holding the middle mouse button and moving the mouse. The field of view can be altered by scrolling
• Proportion Guides layer implemented to help you with the frame composition
• Batch image processing implemented. Use it to apply corrections to a set of pre-rendered images
• Flip buttons implemented. Use the quick flip feature to have a fresh eye on the image composition and verify it works in all settings
• Dither colors in the frame buffer to avoid banding with low-contrast gradients

V-Ray GPU

• Added support for the Lighting Analyses render element
• Improved performance and reliability
• Improved trace depth limit handling
• Improved round edges rendering quality

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