V-Ray 5

Build 5.20.06

Official release, update 2.5

Date - Apr 14, 2022

Download V-Ray for Rhino

Improvements & Bug Fixes

V-Ray Swarm is updated to version 1.4.7
Adaptive Bucket Splitting is implemented. This is a new method for adapting the render bucket size for optimal utilization. The method is enabled by default for both new and old projects
The GPU Light Cache preview is no longer missing when the rendered image is bigger than 4040 pixels squared
An issue causing the asset preview to fail in specific situations is resolved
An issue causing a crash in V-Ray for Grasshopper when interactive changes are applied in a rapid succession is resolved
The Keep Continuity option of materials using displacement is now respected in Grasshopper
An issue leading to black images being rendered, when using Depth of Field with Focus Source based on Rhino and the ‘No focal blur…’ option, is resolved
An issue causing .tx material library textures to be missing their viewport previews in specific situations is resolved

Build 5.20.05

Official release, update 2.4

Date - Mar 16, 2022

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Integration

The minimum required Rhino version is now 7.15
Chaos License Server updated to version 5.5.5
The viewport preview of disabled Fur and Clipper object modifiers is now correctly disabled
A new menu with links to three of the standalone tools that ship with V-Ray is implemented - V-Ray / Tools / External. It contains shortcuts for the GPU Device Select, V-Ray Denoiser and the VRMesh Viewer standalone applications
Decal widgets are now automatically created with an offset in the direction of the projector base. This avoids artifacts caused by overlapping faces when the decal is snapped to the surface of another mesh on creation
Changes to the UVW transformation of a Scatter host object now correctly affect the Scatter’s density texture placement
Changing irrelevant texture mapping parameters of an object no longer causes interactive rendering updates
An issue preventing Scatter from updating the guests placement when switching between density textures is resolved
A photon emission disk is now displayed for all custom Sun light sources in the scene. This greatly improves the process of choosing the correct radius for the caustic photons emission
A scripting method for acquiring the current V-Ray plugin version implemented
Information about the project’s unit of measurement is included when scene objects are exported as .vrscene files
A number of issues related to OSL materials and textures are resolved. Note that such assets are currently unavailable for creation via the Asset Editor
The following parameters are added to the vrayExportVRScene command - StripPaths, HexArrays and HexTransforms
An issue preventing the application of geometry modifier assets by drag and dropping them from the Outliner onto scene objects is resolved
The viewport previews of .tx texture files are no longer lost in specific situations. Relocating projects that use V-Ray library materials should no longer lead to white materials being displayed in the viewport
Downloading a Cosmos asset using the _vrayCosmos command (and its Download argument) is now possible
Uninstalling V-Ray for Rhino 8 now correctly removes all associated plugin folders
Changes to the UVW transformation of an object now correctly triggers an interactive rendering update
Infinite Planes in blocks are no longer rendered with an incorrect transformation
The installer now shows more detailed information on why V-Ray can not be installed for a particular Rhino version. There is a clear distinction between Rhino not being installed and not being updated to the minimum required version

V-Ray GPU

The GPU light cache no longer becomes slower when the output image resolution is increased
V-Ray GPU no longer crashes with scenes that contain materials with SSS or Volumetric translucency and Wrapper materials with the Matte option enabled
An issue preventing soft shadows to be cast from Omni light sources is resolved
An issue preventing soft shadows to be cast from Directional light sources is resolved
An issue causing incorrect Directional light intensity is resolved
The 2D and 3D texture preview swatches no longer render black in GPU mode

UI

An issue preventing scrolling with the mouse wheel in the Assets Outliner in specific situations is resolved
An issue preventing the minimum subdivisions quality parameter to be set correctly for the progressive rendering mode is resolved
The AppSDK bin path is no longer incorrectly set on systems where another V-Ray integration is also installed
An incorrect upper value limit of the VRayMtl / Refraction / Depth parameter is removed
The Cosmos Browser now appears on the left of the screen by default
Disabling the legacy Portal Light option of the rectangular light no longer leads to an error
Dropdown menu items are no longer being offset on mouse hover
A GUID automatically replaces the name of Scatter guests whose names are deleted in the host application
Attempting to update or download a Cosmos asset before logging in the Cosmos browser no longer opens a url with an incorrect port number
The asset preview no longer fails due to insufficient rights
An issue causing the asset preview to fail in specific situations is resolved

Grasshopper

Density Map parameter added to the V-Ray Scatter component
All changes to a Grasshopper definition now correctly trigger an interactive rendering update when RTX mode is selected
An issue causing a crash upon switching specific render elements in Grasshopper during Interactive rendering is resolved
Loading an invalid .vrscene or .vrmesh file in one of the proxy components no longer leads to an exception error

Vision

Movement in the Fly navigation mode is no longer horizontally constrained by default. Disable the Free Flight checkbox to back to enable the constraint when needed
The Medium shadow quality is selected by default
Vsync is enabled by default to avoid tearing when the camera moves quickly
An issue causing the Fly navigation mode camera to jump slightly in specific situations is resolved

Build 5.20.04

Official release, update 2.3

Date - Jan 28, 2022

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Integration

Experimental support for Rhino 8 is added
All the default VFB shortcuts are now correctly set
An issue causing materials assigned to blocks which are not instantiated in the project to be incorrectly purged, is resolved
The Decal viewport widget is updated to more clearly show the projection’s orientation
The Decal’s creation logic is updated to allow precise initial positioning and orientation. The first selected point determines the lower left corner of the Decal projection, the second determines the upper right corner and the third, sets the widget height
The Decal's material is no longer duplicated after its deletion is undone
Setting the Decal’s material to ‘None’ now correctly triggers interactive rendering update
Plane input is now used for positioning and orienting Rectangular Lights in Grasshopper. Legacy definitions can be migrated and will continue working as before
The Scatter’s density map is now correctly placed based on the object UVs
Camera FOV animations created in Grasshopper are now correctly exported to vrscene files
An issue causing a crash when V-Ray plugin is manually loaded in specific situations, is resolved
An issue leading to incorrect results when one of the Dome light options - Affect Specular or Affect Reflections is disabled, is resolved

Script Access

V-Ray Python script transaction wrapper implemented. Use the following statement ‘with vray.Scene.Transaction():’ followed by the changes that should be wrapped in a transaction, instead of the previously available ‘BeginChange()’ and ‘EndChange()’ functions
Four of V-Ray's Python scripting API functions are renamed. ‘PluginsByClass()’ that queries plugins by type name is changed to ‘PluginsByType()’; ‘PluginsByType()’ that queries plugins by category name is changed to ‘PluginsByCategory()’; ‘Plugin.Class()’ changed to ‘Plugin.Type()’; ‘Plugin.Type()’ changed to ‘Plugin.Category()’
Running one of ‘SaveSettings()’ or ‘LoadSettings()’ V-Ray Python API function now correctly returns a boolean result
An issue with the ‘PluginsByCategory()’ and ‘PluginsByType()’ V-Ray Python API functions is resolved. Setting their second argument to True now correctly returns only top-level V-Ray plugins

UI

Progressive Caustics implemented. The new mode can be enabled in the Calculation Mode/Disk Caching rollout. In Progressive mode the caustic effect is produced during rendering (progressive image sampler has to be used). There is no additional prepass required and no photon map is stored
A number of new parameters are exposed for the Curvature texture - Mode, Radius, Ignore Bump, Output Gain, Output Lift, Output Gamma, Output Pivot, Output Clamp
Backside Projection Decal option implemented. Enable it to see the Decal effect on a backside of a surface
Deleting a large number of materials at once is optimized. Deleting all the V-Ray Library materials (more than 300), for example, now takes less than a minute
Some of the default internal GPU engine (CUDA/RTX) parameters are updated to decrease memory usage and improve performance. Scenes saved with previous V-Ray versions are automatically migrated
All NeUI errors are now correctly logged in the Log Window
In issue causing a SettingsRTEngine.gpu_light_cache warning message to appear in the render log is resolved
An issue preventing the link in the new version update popup notification to work, is resolved
An issue causing the initial state of the SettingsOptions.ray_bias V-Ray parameter to be incorrectly set by default is resolved. The internal value that V-Ray uses now always corresponds to the UI state
An issue causing errors to pop up when the Material Library or Light Gen content download is interrupted is resolved. The message type is changed to a warning
The current project name is now automatically suggested in the Export V-Ray Scene window
The Scatter’s Seed parameter tooltip is updated
An issue causing long Scatter guest names to overlap in the guests list is resolved

Build 5.20.03

Official release, update 2.2

Date - Dec 21, 2021

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Integration

Rhino no longer hangs after using specific Rhino commands while V-Ray is installed and active. The commands that were causing this issue are - Intersect, IntersectTwoSets and Contour
Intel Open Image Denoiser engine added to the V-Ray Denoiser’s engines list
An issue preventing Grasshopper animations from being sent to Vantage via live link is resolved
An issue causing SubD geometry objects to be rendered incorrectly in the V-Ray Interactive viewport is resolved
The Render in Project component no longer throws an error when a multi-layered V-Ray material part of the definition is loaded via the Material from File component
Proxy Mesh materials are no longer duplicate when a proxy deletion is undone
The menu link Help / Plugins / V-Ray for Rhino now redirects to the correct web address
All V-Ray-specific Windows 10 Start Menu shortcuts are now located in a V-Ray for Rhinoceros Start Menu group

UI

Consecutive errors no longer cause the Log Window to pop up and take focus each time. Only the first error brings up the Log
Back to Beauty render element implemented. This is a single render element that expands to all beauty elements for the actual rendering. In the VFB, this render element creates a folder named BackToBeauty visible in the Composite output source containing all elements with their appropriate blend modes. The elements used for the beauty rebuild are - Background, Lighting, Global Illumination, Reflection, Specular, Refraction, Self Illumination, Caustics, Subsurface Scattering and Atmosphere
Ambient Occlusion render element implemented. Internally, the render element consists of an Extra Texture render element with a Dirt texture connected to it. The only difference is that its background uses the unconcluded (white) color instead of being black
An issue causing the Asset Editor to show that Custom quality is used even though all settings match one of the quality presets is resolved
Thin Mode option added to the Dirt texture. When enabled, it enhances the look of thin surfaces by casting less dirt on them. The option makes a difference only for the Inner Occlusion Mode of the Dirt
Ignore Bump option added to the Dirt texture. When enabled, bump maps are excluded from Dirt computations. The option is useful, when the bump effect is too strong and may produce undesirable effects such as holes
Streaks Density parameter added to the Dirt texture. It controls the density of the procedural streaks
The name of the Improved Sky model is changed to PRG Clear Sky
Switching the render engine from CPU to GPU and vice versa with the Interactive mode enabled no longer changes the GI engines selection
Affect Atmospherics option implemented for the Sunlight. It specifies whether the light influences the atmospheric effects in the scene. The value determines the strength of the effect
Atmospheric Shadows option implemented for the Sunlight. When disabled, the atmospheric effects in the scene no longer cast shadows from this light source
Switching the render engine from CPU to GPU and vice versa with the Interactive mode enabled no longer changes the primary global illumination engine to Brute Force. If another engine (such as Irradiance Map) was initially active it will remain unchanged
An issue preventing the automatic adjustment of the Max Subdivs value when switching between the CPU and CUDA or RTX render engines is resolved
An issue causing UI elements to be resized and aligned incorrectly when a material layer name is too long is resolved
An issue preventing the VRay Mtl’s parameter contribution detection from functioning correctly in specific situations is resolved. The rollout expand arrow in the VRay Mtl’s properties panel will no longer appear highlighted even though all material parameters in the rollout are set to their default values
A CUDA or RTX device can no longer be deselected from the Engine Select Device/s menu if it is the only available one

Core

An issue causing a crash when changing the rendered image size during interactive rendering is resolved
An issue preventing V-Ray from utilizing more than 64 threads in specific situations on Windows 11 is resolved
Decal materials no longer render incorrectly with the GPU engine when the On-demand mipmapping Resize option is enabled
GPU kernel compilation times are reduced by up to 60%
An issue with the GPU Light Cache leading to a memory leak is resolved
Increasing the GI Depth during Interactive CUDA or RTX rendering no longer causes a crash when the On-demand mipmapping texture resize option is also active

Build 5.20.02

Official release, update 2.1

Date - Nov 18, 2021

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Integration

An issue preventing in-app EULA acceptance is resolved. The V-Ray installer no longer fails to create and set access to the required directories
An issue preventing UNC paths that start with a double backslashes (\\networkLocation\...) from being automatically resolved is fixed
Rhino decals are now rendered correctly when the CUDA or RTX engine is used. The decal texture is no longer repeated outside of the decal projector
An issue preventing the Live Link from functioning correctly in specific projects is resolved. Scenes containing a Cryptomatte render elements can now be viewed and interacted with in both Vision and Vantage
The Rhino decal stack order is now respected by V-Ray. A restart of the interactive rendering process is required for any changes to have an effect
Creating a V-Ray Decal in the Asset Editor no longer leads to an invalid and invisible viewport gizmo to appear
An issue preventing spherical and cylindrical Rhino Decals from being rendered correctly is resolved
Scatter now correctly responds to changes of the host mesh’s normals direction
The V-Ray menu option Convert to Scatter Host now calls the correct command - vrayScatter
An issue causing incorrect rendering of Grasshopper surfaces is resolved. There is no longer need for a meshing node to be placed between the surface and V-Ray Geometry components
An issue preventing the Export Animation feature of the Live Link component from working correctly with Vantage is resolved
An issue caused by using the ‘Reset to Defaults’ function for a V-Ray material in Rhino’s materials list is resolved. Using the reset followed by changing the material’s type (to Custom for example) no longer leaves a corrupted V-Ray material (one that gets duplicated on application) in the Asset Editor

UI

The system that establishes a connection between the Asset Editor and the preview render process is improved. This avoids situations in which the preview is not working because of an unstable connection
An issue causing the File Path Editor to hang in specific situations when there is a missing file in the list is resolved
The Swarm Auto-Discovery option is now disabled by default. This avoids issues causing none of the Swarm tags to be listed, making it impossible to use the Swarm manager
An issue causing unnecessary scrolling to be automatically performed in the Assets Outliner is resolved. Selecting an asset in a long list no longer causes incorrect scrolling on systems with custom UI scaling
Deleting the Bump attribute of a material no longer deletes child textures instantiated in other material slots
The Log Window’s filter source labels are improved

Vision

Auto-Exposure is now applied when a Standard image is exported
Auto-Exposure is now applied when one of the VR Camera Type output options is selected
Output file names that contain Unicode characters no longer cause the Video export to fail

V-Ray Core

The render progress is now always displayed correctly in the VFB's status bar
An issue causing a memory leak with GPU Light Cache is resolved
An issue causing a misplaced render region to be rendered after loading images directly from the VFB history is resolved
An issue leading to a crash in specific situations when a Cryptomatte render element is used in a project is resolved
A number of interactive update issues caused by the new SSS and Volumetric translucency modes of the VRay Mtl are resolved
An issue preventing Light Mix from working correctly on GPU when the camera Auto Exposure is also enabled is resolved
An issue causing material bump maps to appear reversed when viewed in reflections is resolved

Build 5.20.01

Official release, update 2

Date - Nov 04, 2021

Vision

Performance

An optimized system for handling a large number of scene objects is implemented. This improves both scene loading and the interactive performance of Vision
Vision now completely stops rendering when there is no user interaction to decrease the load on the GPU
Loading of scenes with a medium to high number of complex meshes is optimized. This is done by disabling the scene optimizer which was originally combining meshes with shared materials
The internal handling of Vision safe frames is improved. This leads to better performance (higher FPS) in most projects

Lights

IES Light sources are now supported
A new Ambient Light Mode is implemented. The new mode can be enabled in the Settings panel. It replaces the project’s indirect lighting and reflection environments with a gray color. The value of this color can exceed 1 and is controlled by the Ambient Light Intensity slider. The new mode can be useful in closed spaces for removing the blue tint coming from the sky
The intensity of the Direct light source now correctly matches the one in V-Ray
Soft shadow for the Direct light source is implemented. Make sure that the High Shadows Quality option is selected in the Vision’s Settings panel to see the effect
The enabled/disabled state of Direct lights is now supported
Added support for the LightIESMax and LightSpotMax V-Ray plugins. This ensures that scenes containing IES or Spot light sources exported from V-Ray for 3ds Max or Revit can be successfully loaded in Vision
Sunlight no longer produces artifacts when the model is viewed from specific angles
The appearance of the Spotlight’s Penumbra Angle is improved to better match the V-Ray result

Animation

Sun animations are now supported and can be played back in real time in Vision
Temporal anti-aliasing is automatically disabled during animation playback to prevent ghosting artifacts
An issue causing the animation playback to be interrupted when the camera is stationary is resolved

Materials

A new temporal screen space reflection method implemented. Blurry reflections will improve in quality after the camera stops moving. Only opaque materials benefit from this new method
The Coat layer of the V-Ray Material is now supported. The Coat amount value is the only parameter which impacts Vision. The coat color, glossiness and bump are ignored
There is no longer a problem with transparent (and refractive) materials and specific mesh normals
The list of strings for the automatic ‘leaf’ material detection is extended. Vision is now better at determining whether a specific material is used for leaves shading and whether its alpha texture has to be treated as a cutout (ignoring grayscale values)

User Interface

The Vision toolbar can now be hidden. Use the collapse button that appears when hovering near the toolbar or the F12 keyboard shortcut to toggle the toolbar state
Fly mode navigation can now also be controlled with the arrow keys on the keyboard making it much more convenient for left-handed users. PgUp and PgDn keys can be used for moving the camera up and down
The Output panel options are rearranged. The Output Mode and the Camera Type parameters are now located at the top since their state controls the remaining parameters availability and behavior
The ‘Loading scene’ label is now replaced with just ‘Loading’ to avoid confusion for users unfamiliar with the term ‘scene’
A number of tooltips and parameter labels are updated
Clicking Cancel in the Save File browser window no longer resets the file type to .png
All the parameter panels are now automatically resized to fit in the Vision window. Scroll bar is also implemented to ensure all the parameters are accessible at all times
Camera movement is no longer possible while dragging a UI slider

Other improvements & Bug Fixes

Videos can now be exported directly from Vision. Select the Video Output Mode to save out a .webm file using the VP8 compression method
Standalone / runtime application export implemented. Use the Standalone Application export button on the toolbar to share the project with clients or colleagues via an executable file. Recipients of the file don’t require a V-Ray license and can enjoy the full functionality of Vision - navigation controls, color correction parameters, etc.
Preset Grass implemented. Add a V-Ray Fur modifier to any object and make sure that the word ‘grass’ is part of the Fur asset’s name to see grass growing on the object’s surface. The length of the V-Ray Fur determines the length of the grass in Vision (values under a specific lower limit are ignored). Beside the length and material all other Fur parameters are ignored
Auto Exposure behavior is improved. The target exposure is now much more balanced in dark scenes
Toggling the High-quality Cosmos Assets checkbox now automatically reloads the scene to ensure the option state matches the rendered result
V-Ray’s Instancer plugin is now supported in Vision. This ensures that Scatter results can be successfully loaded and previewed
The panorama image export is improved. Spherical and cubemap images will show a much higher quality. The camera orientation is also taken into account
The error message displayed when Vision fails to initialize is improved. It is now much more precise and can help with debugging various issues
The Vision icon is updated. The new icon is visible on the toolbar and is also used for the executable file of the standalone application
The default Tonemapping Curve is now set to Disabled. This makes Vision renders more similar to the V-Ray result out of the box
An issue causing ghosting artifacts to appear over transparent objects when the camera moves quickly is resolved
An issue causing the leaves of merged Cosmos trees to fade in a distance when the Proxy LOD option is disabled is resolved
An issue causing bump and normal maps appear flipped in Vision is resolved
Zooming in with an ortho camera no longer flips the entire model
Vision now correctly loads plugins with non-latin characters in their names
Multi Material assignments are no longer incorrect in specific situations
An issue preventing the output Size Multiplier from working when exporting animations is resolved
An issue causing objects from referenced Proxy Scene files to be misplaced is resolved
An issue causing Tri-planar textures to appear darker is resolved
Increasing the environment intensity using the multiplier value no longer causes issues in Vision
The Save File browser window now correctly lists existing supported files
Mipmaps are now generated even for textures embedded in the scene
An issue causing choppy camera movement in the fly navigation mode with very slow fly speeds is resolved
An issue causing a dark circle to appear on surfaces close and under the camera in specific situations is resolved
Cosmos assets are now considered when calculating the camera’s clipping planes. Cosmos assets are no longer cut out when away from regular scene objects

Scatter

Scatter implemented. Easily scatter objects from the project (including Cosmos assets) onto the surface of another object. Select an object to be used as a host mesh and click the toolbar Scatter button to begin the process. Objects that will be scattered, known as guests, can then be added using the Scatter UI in the Asset Editor

Decal

V-Rat Decal implemented. Project any material onto the scene objects with the help of the Decal viewport gismo. Use the Exclude parameters in the V-Ray Properties panel to restrict the Decal projection to specific scene objects

Materials

Thin-walled option added to the VRay Mtl Refraction parameters. Enable it to simulate single-sided refractive surfaces avoiding unwanted refraction distortions. When enabled together with the SSS Translucency mode of the material it simulates thin-walled translucent surfaces such as curtains or leaves
Fog Scattering renamed to Translucency to be consistent with the parameter label used in other V-Ray integrations
New SSS and Volumetric translucency modes implemented for the VRay Mtl. The previously available Hard and Hybrid models are considered legacy and can no longer be used in new materials. The Volumetric mode can be used for highly transparent materials that scatter light while the SSS one is good for non-transparent materials like skin, wax, marble, etc.
The Fog Multiplier parameter is now called Depth (by default). It has an alternative Scale mode when SSS Translucency is used
A logic that automatically sets the Color Space (sRGB or Linear) for bitmaps loaded in any of the VRay Mtl layer slots is implemented. Float textures as well as maps used for Bump are assumed to be Linear. The logic is only applied when the map is initially added to a parameter texture slot. Pasting an existing texture in a slots will not use this logic
Changes to the Reflection Glossiness of Metallic materials now work even when the Reflection color is not white
VRScans loaded with a script now have all of their parameters set correctly

V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB)

Batch Image Processing implemented. Batch-apply layer presets or color corrections to multiple images using a simple UI. The feature is located in the File menu
Log tab integrated into the right fly-off panel of the VFB. Only render process information is displayed in it
Color corrections can now be applied explicitly to the Background layer. Select the Background and then add a new correction layer to it
A confirmation dialogue is now correctly displayed when the 'Clear image' action is performed
The elapsed time info is now correctly displayed in the VFB stats panel during bucket rendering
An issue preventing V-Ray Next VFB color corrections to be loaded in V-Ray 5.1 and later is resolved
All the default VFB hotkeys are reintroduced
Color corrections can now be applied to all render channels when an image is manually saved. To enable the option go to the ‘Save all image channels to separate files’ configuration
The thumbnails in the VFB’s history panel are no longer duplicated when 'Use project path' option is enabled
An issue preventing the VFB from being restored (after being minimized) in specific situations is resolved
The behavior of the Lookup table correction layer is improved
An issue causing a crash when an image with Exposure correction is significantly zoomed in is resolved
An icon is now used for the visibility button of disabled layers

V-Ray GPU

Textured Spot Lights support added
Support for the Lighting Analysis render element added
An issue leading to artifacts when Adaptive Lights are enabled during Swarm rendering is resolved
An issue causing ‘firefly’ artifacts to appear on refractive materials in specific situations is resolved
The Compensate EV option of the Emissive material is now supported with VR cameras
The results in MultiMatte render elements now always match the CPU result
An issue causing visual artifacts in shadows casted by Fur strands is resolved
An issue with the On-demand mipmapping mode and .tx texture files is resolved
Light Cache is always calculated on the GPU when the CUDA or RTX engine is selected
An issue causing a discrepancy between Spot Lights rendered on CPU and the same light rendered by the GPU is resolved
An issue causing incorrect results with invisible lights viewed through blurry refractive surfaces is resolved
Dirt textures that are set to ignore invisible objects no longer produce occlusion from invisible lights
Metallic objects no longer render black when their reflection color is set to black
An issue causing the render process to stop midway when specific output resolution ratio is used is resolved

Cosmos

A new material library section added to the Cosmos browser. Choose from a selection of more than 200 render ready materials and import them to the project
Cosmos materials import implemented. Each material from the library can be imported directly to the project and edited when necessary. Enable the tri-planar option in the Cosmos browser if you prefer all material textures to use a tri-planar projection placement instead of the default UV mapping
The default size of the Cosmos browser is updated to better fit the Cosmos narrow UI
A drop shadow effect is added for the Cosmos browser’s navigation menu to visually separate it from background elements using the same color
Cosmos login is now performed in the default OS browser instead of in the Cosmos window itself
An issue causing unused textures to appear after specific Cosmos assets are merged is resolved
An issue causing the Update button next to the asset in the outliner to remain visible even after an asset is updated is resolved

UI

Scatter UI implemented. A new UI component that allows picking scene objects is included. It is used for picking guests to be scattered
Decal UI implemented
An issue causing the host application to crash in specific situations when shutting down the Asset Editor is resolved
An issue causing a visual glitch when an Attribute is added to a Blend material is resolved.
Assets which are automatically selected are now considered for a consecutive range selection. The automatic asset selection is performed when an asset is created, deleted, imported from the library, etc.
A default icon is now correctly used when an asset which does not have a pre-rendered preview is saved to a user defined library (in the left hand side panel) with the drag and drop action
An issue causing unnecessary scrolling in the asset parameters panel is resolved
An issue causing the random color generation for the Proxy Mesh asset to fail is resolved
Setting the refraction Depth / Fog Multiplier value with the slider no longer leads to inaccurate rounding of the parameter value
A number of issues causing Light Gen generation to fail are resolved
Loading a big number of materials as a batch from the material library (or a set of vrmat files) is now optimized taking significantly less time
The Light Gen info tooltip now indicates that a .lightset file is loaded
An issue causing the asset preview to stop working is resolved
V-Ray Log Window is implemented. The window will automatically pop up when an error is logged. Alternatively the window can be shown manually by clicking its shortcut in the Asset Editor. The new Log window allows filtering the log information based on the source or level, searching in the log, clearing the log data as well as a shortcut to the folder where log files are stored
Vropt render settings files can no longer contain material and light assets
The NVIDIA AI Denoiser option is automatically disabled on macOS to indicate that it is not supported
The Bump attribute’s Object and World space normal options are marked as legacy and can no longer be selected. The same goes for the bump mode of the Car Paint material
Right-clicking on a saved color swatch in the Color picker window now deletes the entry
Assets selected in the outliner now remain in view when switching between categories
An error message is displayed in the Cosmos Browser window in case the Cosmos service is down and needs to be restarted
Open Image Denoise is now used instead of NVIDIA AI in Light Gen. This ensures optimal denoising performance and quality independent of the available system hardware
The max control range of the Texture Placement / UV Channel parameter is set to 10 which is more convenient than 100 in most cases. Parameter values that exceed 10 can still be set in the number value field
An issue causing the remove button of the Swarm’s tags to disappear when the tag name exceeds a specific length is resolved

Vantage Live Link

A function that establishes a live link between V-Ray for Rhino and Vantage is implemented. The live link button is on the V-Ray Live Linking toolbar and can be used for starting Vantage and establishing a connection with a single click. The connection can be restarted at any time by clicking the same button once to stop it and a second time to reestablish it. By default, this new toolbar is not displayed and needs to be manually enabled. The same function is available in the V-Ray Rendering menu
The vrayLiveLink command allows a connection between V-Ray for Rhino and any external application using the V-Ray Server to be established. To use it start the other application (Vantage standalone or V-Ray for Unreal, for example), set the port it is running on as a command parameter and execute the command

Grasshopper

Sun and camera animations from Grasshopper can now be previewed in Vision. Use the Export Animation button from the context menu for the transfer
V-Ray Scatter component implemented. Easily scatter objects from the definition (including Cosmos assets) onto the surface of another object
The V-Ray Live Link component now includes a Start Vantage button in the context menu
V-Ray Spot Light component implemented
V-Ray Omni Light component implemented
V-Ray IES Light component implemented
A number of parameters are added to the Camera component. The list includes White Balance, Auto Exposure, Auto White Balance and Depth of Field Focus. The capabilities of the V-Ray camera in Grasshopper now match the ones in the V-Ray for Rhino camera
V-Ray Exposure Value component implemented. Calculates Exposure Value based on ISO, F-Number and Shutter Speed inputs
V-Ray Film Sensitivity component implemented. Calculates Exposure Value based on ISO, F-Number and Shutter Speed inputs
V-Ray F-Number component implemented. Calculates a F-Number value for a given Defocus value
All V-Ray components that produce geometry output now show a viewport preview
The Mtl Simple component in Grasshopper can now be successfully exported as a vrmat
V-Ray Cosmos component implemented. Easily add and manage Cosmos assets in the definition
An issue causing Grasshopper renders to come out black in specific situations is resolved
An issue causing a hang when a Material from File is used is resolved
Preview modes implemented for the Instancer component. The new options are - Bounding Boxes and Points
An issue causing objects produced by the Instancer component to move incorrectly in animations is resolved
A number of issues related to UV mapping of meshes referenced from the Rhino project are resolved
A new Group parameter is added to the Instancer component. When enabled, all input objects are treated as a group that is instanced at each point. When disabled, input objects are treated as separate items - а single object is positioned at each point

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

Chaos Cloud client application updated to version 1.14.3
Cosmos client application updated to version 2021.10.28
Affect Atmospherics option implemented for all light sources. It specifies whether the light influences the atmospheric effects in the scene. The value determines the strength of the effect
A number of improvements are done to the V-Ray Object Properties panel
Opening projects saved with older V-Ray versions is optimized and is significantly faster when a big number of materials has to be migrated
An issue causing a crash when packing specific projects is resolved
An issue leading to a crash when closing Rhino in specific situations is resolved
The Light Gen button tooltip is updated to inform more clearly of the button’s function
Clippers contained within a Proxy Scene reference (vrscene) are now correctly transformed together with the scene
2D Displacement is now rendered correctly by V-Ray GPU even when the displacement’s texture U/V Placement is altered
An issue causing a discrepancy between CPU and GPU when rendering Rhino textures with WCS box mapping is resolved
An issue preventing specific scenes from being exported as a vrscene is resolved
Mesh Clipper materials are now preserved when the clipper is a part of an exported vrscene
Hidden Proxy Scenes no longer appear during interactive rendering
Assets added to the project via Insert or Import now correctly get their file paths automatically resolved
V-Ray object modifiers can no longer be applied to blocks by dragging them from the Asset Editor
Converting a V-Ray material to a Rhino one and back no longer breaks its viewport representation
Textures used in V-Ray objects (Fur, Mesh Light, Displacement, etc.) are now copied instead of instantiated when the special object is made unique
Multimatte Material render element can now be used for masking Fur
Rhino Ground Plane's material is now correctly updated during interactive rendering
Textures using the WCS Box style mapping are no longer flipped when used on mesh faces with flipped normals
The Batch Renderer can now successfully load and process read-only files
The rhVRay.py is no longer installed when V-Ray for Rhino 6 is not installed
The viewport display mode is now correctly reset when Viewport Rendering is interrupted
An End User License Agreement acceptance dialog appears when V-Ray for Rhino is activated for the first time in case the installer has been run without a GUI
An issue causing incorrect viewport preview of specific Cosmos assets is resolved
The V-Ray installer no longer ignores the host app version selection
An issue with the firewall exception for Vision is resolved
Hidden Cosmos assets are no longer visible during interactive rendering
An issue preventing the VFB history from being enabled in specific situations is resolved
An issue preventing the Asset Editor from functioning correctly in specific projects is resolved. Badly serialized material data is handled in a better way on load
A number of issues with the automatic texture path resolution logic are resolved
An issue causing a hang on render attempt when specific Cosmos assets are present in the scene is resolved
Specific scenes containing materials in the old-style material table (V-Ray 3 and earlier) no longer cause issues on load
Contour lines no longer disappear in orthographic close-up shots
Creating a Proxy Mesh from a single object with multiple materials no longer leads to incorrect material assignment
A license error is now correctly displayed when a render is attempted from a previously loaded Asset Editor when the license is no longer available
An issue preventing Infinite Planes and Proxy Scenes created in the Asset Editor from appearing in the viewport is resolved
An issue causing Proxy Meshes from specific V-Ray 3 projects to be rendered white (using default material) is resolved
Hidden V-Ray special objects no longer appear during interactive rendering
An internal optimization of geometry management is introduced (by internally setting the dynamic geometry flag for specific meshes). This makes rendering faster in specific situations
Support for the native Rhino focus distance feature implemented
The internal configuration of the Proxy Mesh voxelization (on export) is optimized. Newly created proxies will be faster to render and will not cause any delays when the render process is interrupted
Special objects like Fur, Clipper, Mesh Light, etc. are no longer removed from the project when their last instance is deleted. The object modifier remains in the Asset Editor and can still be reapplied
Full support for the native Rhino 7 sub-object materials implemented
Changes to the scene done with the help of the Record History option are now updated correctly during interactive rendering
Rhino Sun animations can now be viewed in Vision
Copy-pasting a special object no longer causes its material to be duplicated
Opening a project and migrating the V-Ray data in it no longer marks the project as modified. Closing the project right after no longer prompts the Save file confirmation

Build 5.10.06

Official release, update 1.5

Date - Jul 20, 2021

Installation

Chaos License Server updated to version 5.5.4
Chaos Cloud client application updated to version 1.12.0
Cosmos client application updated to version 2021.7.14

V-Ray Vision

Cubemap image export implemented. Select one of the new Camera Type options to enable it - VR Cubemap 6x1 or VR Cubemap 6 images
An issue sometimes causing an incorrectly lit patch (distorted rectangle) to appear in exported VR Spherical Panorama images is resolved

Light Gen

A custom set of HDR images can now be used for scenarios generation
An option that allows for scene lights to remain active on scenario application is implemented
The custom Sunlight orientation is no longer modified when a HDR scenario is selected

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

Asset Editor

Materials connected to an Attribute extension in another material are now correctly listed as sub-assets in the Outliner
Materials saved to a custom Library location before a valid preview image is generated now correctly use the default asset icon
Added support for OSL material and textures. Such can be loaded from a manually created vrmat containing TexOSL or MtlOSL plugins

Integration

Missing Cosmos assets no longer cause a crash or prevent the render process initiation
An issue preventing V-Ray Library materials preview from appearing in the rendered Rhino viewport in specific situations is resolved
Rendering a region in the viewport (using RenderWindow or RenderInWindow) right after starting Rhino no longer leads to a crash
Changing the render engine while the interactive rendering process is running no longer leads to a crash
Modifying the Ground Plane's material no longer leads to a crash
All files required by the OSL compiler are now included in the V-Ray’s installation folder. TexOSL or MtlOSL plugins loaded from a manually created vrmat can now be rendered

V-Ray Core

Proxy Meshes rendering is optimized leading to significantly shorter render times on machines with many cores
The VFB’s Display Correction mode now affects the history image thumbnails

Build 5.10.05

Official release, update 1.4

Date - Jun 02, 2021

Bug Fixes

An issue causing incorrect Proxy Mesh previews to be generated when opening a project is resolved. This also fixes an issue causing projects to load with no geometry visible in any of the viewports
Two issue causing a crash when opening specific projects are resolved

Build 5.10.04

Official release, update 1.3

Date - May 19, 2021

Improvements & Bug Fixes

The default and minimum widths of the Cosmos browser are both decreased to 480 pixels to better fit the new narrow UI layout
The size of the V-Ray Material Library is decreased to ensure faster downloads. This is done by applying a compression to most texture image files. An update of existing libraries will not be required. When a fresh instance of the library is downloaded, however, the compressed textures will be used
An issue causing the Material Library Download message to incorrectly appear in specific situations is resolved
Displacement textures using UVW Placement source no longer lead to an incorrectly displaced mesh to be generated when Normal Displacement mode is selected
The Rounded Edges effect no longer glitches on view change during interactive GPU (CUDA or RTX) rendering
Opacity textures are no longer rendered incorrectly on GPU when the On-demand mipmapping Resize option is enabled
Rendering a car paint material with flake size set to 0 no longer leads to a crash
Lowering the refraction glossiness of a VRay Mtl below 0.78 now correctly decreases the effect - in a linear fashion
The ‘Auto Save Completed Only’ VFB option now works as expected
Added support for Rhino’s render view selection option. All the available options including Specific View, Named View and Snapshot are now respected by V-Ray
Using Material from File combined with the Render in Project component in V-Ray for Grasshopper no longer leads to a crash
Transactions can now be used when writing scripts using the V-Ray API
Proxy Mesh previews are no longer scaled incorrectly on scene load
An issue causing Grasshopper definitions to get incorrectly updated during a live Vision session is resolved
VisualArq object changes are now supported during interactive rendering
The main VFB no longer sinks behind Rhino when the Grasshopper VFB is shown
A Rhino icon is displayed on asset import from Cosmos in case more than one Cosmos-enabled applications are running
Improved viewport representation of materials using the VRay Mtl’s built-in Self-illumination parameters
Rhino’s bitmap texture ‘Treat as linear’ option is now supported
Material changes affecting hidden block instances are now correctly updated during interactive rendering
Bongo 3 is now completely ignored by V-Ray to avoid confusion. Bongo 3 support will be added in the future
Scenes exported by the Batch Renderer are now compressed and smaller in size (the HEX array compression is used). The same applies to scenes submitted for Cloud rendering. This optimized the upload stage of the submission process
The texture multiplier values of the V-Ray materials are now correctly displayed in the Rhino viewport
The Node.primary_visibility option is no longer disabled when the Node.visibility is disabled in exported vrscenes since it makes no difference
The sunlight name is now consistent (Rhino Document Sun) in all the default vropt files that V-Ray provides - ‘Rhino Default.vropt’, ‘Studio_01.vropt’ and ‘Arch_01.vropt’
Rhino Document Sun in old scenes does not respond to Light Mix adjustments

Build 5.10.03

Official release, update 1.2

Date - Apr 12, 2021

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Cosmos client application updated to version 2021.3.22
The Chaos login url opened after installation is updated. The online licensing is automatically activated to prompt login right away
Added support for the PBR material in Rhino 7. PBR shaders can be rendered directly or converted to V-Ray materials either by changing their Type or using the ‘vrayMtlFromRhino’ command. Note that Displacement only works after the material is converted to V-Ray
Scenes created with V-Ray versions older than 1.4, later loaded and saved with V-Ray 5, update 1 no longer lead to a crash
Rhino material names are preserved when converted to V-Ray Materials. This applies to both changing the material Type or using the ‘vrayMtlFromRhino’ command
Sub-material references are now correctly preserved after the Rename conflict resolution option is selected on import
Deleted default environment texture is no longer recreated when opening a project
An issue causing the V-Ray data upgrade message to appear every time specific scenes are loaded is resolved
It is no longer required to save the 3dm file right after opening it in order to use the Pack Project function
The VRay Mtl built-in bump and self-illumination parameters are now used when rendering or converting Rhino materials
Changes in an object’s texture mapping are now correctly updated during an interactive GPU (CUDA or RTX) rendering session
An issue causing some objects with decals to render black is resolved
An issue preventing decals on multiple objects sharing a material from working correctly is resolved
Decals from V-Ray Next scenes are now rendered correctly
Material or light assets are no longer included in .vropt settings files
Changing the current renderer in Rhino while in a V-Ray interactive rendering session no longer causes issues. Setting Rhino’s current renderer back to V-Ray afterwards no longer fails
Rhino scripts are no longer wrapped in V-Ray transactions. This ensures that all V-Ray related scene changes are applied immediately and not after the script ends
Fixed a bug causing incorrect exclusion mode to be displayed for clippers assigned to multiple meshes

Build 5.10.02

Official release, update 1.1

Date - Mar 25, 2021

V-Ray Vision

The Vision window is once again parented to the host application (Windows only). The temporary workaround positioning the window on top of all other windows (always on top) is removed
A regression preventing V-Ray Proxy Scene references from being loaded in Vision is fixed
Rotating a Proxy Mesh or a Cosmos Asset using a scale different than 1 no longer distorts the object
Very small Proxy Mesh scaling factors no longer cause the mesh to appear incorrectly in Vision
macOS: Vision can now be used on macOS 10.14 - Mojave or earlier
The Tone-mapping Curve option state now persists between sessions
Navigation controls now work as expected when running Vision through remote desktop
Scene loading progress bar implemented
Deleting an object in a heavy scene no longer takes excessive time
Geometry scene data loading is optimized making heavy scenes faster to load and view in Vision
The Proxy Mesh LOD system no longer causes issues when a layered material is used. This improves Vision compatibility with some 3rd-party assets
The FreeImage library used for loading textures in Vision is replaced with OpenImageIO
The texture mip-map level variations creation is optimized making it faster to load scenes with many large textures
Textures containing built-in mip-maps are now loaded in a more optimal way. This applies to textures from the built-in material library and Cosmos
A number of issues related to .tx texture loading are resolved. Textures will no longer appear vertically flipped or with a black band at the bottom
The Orbit Navigation mode is improved in various ways. The Vision window size is taken into account when zooming, orbiting and panning to ensure consistency when resizing the app window
A number of issues causing an incorrect spherical panorama output are resolved

Cosmos Integration

Asset download progress indication implemented. See the Asset Editor section for details
Asset upgrade function implemented. See the Asset Editor section for details
A number of Cosmos asset issues in Vision are resolved. See the vision section for details

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

Installation

Chaos License Server updated to version 5.5.3
Chaos Cloud client application updated to version 1.10.0
Cosmos client application updated to version 2021.03.15

Asset Editor

Cosmos assets Upgrade function implemented. An Upgrade icon appears on the right of the asset name in the outliner when a new version is available on the Cosmos servers. Use it to download the new version and replace the outdated one in the scene
Cosmos asset status indicator implemented. A small icon appears on the right side of the asset properties header to indicate whether the paths to the textures and other external reference files used by the asset are valid. Hover over the icon for more detailed information
Cosmos asset download progress is now displayed in the outliner. The progress percentage appears while an asset is being downloaded or upgraded
Custom camera type user interface implemented. When a non-standard camera type is selected with a script the appropriate UI controls (like FOV and Height) are listed in the Camera settings rollout
Camera clipping user interface implemented. When the camera clipping is enabled with a script the appropriate UI controls (Clipping Near, Clipping Far) are listed in the Camera settings rollout
Renaming an environment Bitmap texture no longer changes its Texture Placement mapping to spherical
An issue preventing VRScan material parameters from being set correctly on load is resolved. Properties like the Coat IOR are derived from the built-in VRScan parameter block and set as soon as the material file is loaded
Double-clicking on a Light Gen swatch no longer creates two LIGHT_GEN_DOME lights in the project

Integration

3D Preview for Proxy Mesh, Scene and Cosmos assets placement implemented. Importing a Cosmos asset (or a proxy) activates the placement tool and attaches the preview to the mouse cursor
Image preview is now displayed when a Cosmos asset is dragged over the Rhino window
The Cloud Batch rendering feature is re-enabled. Use the Cloud button in the V-Ray Batch Window to submit a selection of scenes, views and snapshots together as a batch to the Chaos Cloud. A new web wizard guides through the rest of the process. All the scenes are analysed in advance and potential issues are reported
The VFB state is preserved when the Current Renderer engine in Rhino changes
Cosmos assets not containing light sources no longer appear in the VFB’s Light Mix list
An issue with the WCS (box style) texture mapping used in the Rhino materials is resolved. Scenes containing textures mapped this way no longer crash on render
The custom orientation of the Rhino Document Sun in the Asset editor is now synchronized with the manual Sun control in Rhino
The ‘Ctrl + [‘ and ‘Ctrl + ]‘ can now be used by default to toggle the side panels of the V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB). The VFB is now consistent with the Asset Editor in this regard
A number of issues with face material assignment combined with default or unnamed materials in Rhino 6 are resolved. The custom material no longer overrides the unnamed ones when rendered or when the object is exported as a Proxy Mesh
Sun animation from Grasshopper can once again be rendered in the Rhino project
Duplicating a Plane Clipper in the Asset Editor now makes a copy in Rhino
An issue causing some Cosmos asset materials to be duplicated after Merge is resolved
Assigning a Python list object to a V-Ray array parameter using the Python syntax no longer leads to a crash
Newly created Infinite Plane, Proxies, Cosmos Assets and Lights are now correctly added to the active Rhino layer (instead of the first one in the layers list)
The Rhino document no longer gets flagged as ‘modified’ after a Save, SaveAs, New, Export or AutoSave command is used
The ongoing viewport rendering process (VPR) is now correctly interrupted when the current renderer is changed in Rhino
Importing the ‘rhVRay’ module into ‘RhinoPython’ no longer requires manually adding the V-Ray for Rhino installation directory to Rhino Pyhton's search directories
Photon mapped caustics from the Sun no longer render incorrectly in specific situations
Pack Project is no longer allowed before a modified document is saved
Deleting a material applied to a Fur or Clipper from the Rhino’s material list during interactive rendering no longer leads to a crash
Materials assigned to individual faces are no longer deleted by the V-Ray Purge function
Custom camera types (spherical, cylindrical, fish-eye, pinhole, etc.) can now be selected via script. The corresponding camera parameters are automatically displayed in the Asset Editor / Camera rollout
Custom camera clipping can be enabled via script. The near and far clipping plane options are automatically displayed in the Asset Editor / Camera rollout
Materials assigned to a Proxy Mesh, Clipper, Fur, etc. are no longer duplicated when imported or pasted in a project containing materials with the same name
An error is automatically displayed (in the V-Ray Progress window) when a render is initiated and no render node license is available
Cosmos assets can now be used with Rhino Nature
An issue preventing Cryptomatte’s Material Name masks from being populated in the rendered image is resolved
Lighting Analysis render element changes are now automatically updated in the VFB
Instanced lights are now presented with unique names in the Light Mix UI (when the Individual Lights mode is used). This avoids issues when the Light Mix adjustments are sent To Composite

V-Ray Core

An issue causing a crash when a V-Ray Clipper is cutting specific mesh shapes is resolved
The way Sphere Light scale transformations affect the light intensity (in the Luminous and Radiant Power modes) is updated. Scaling up a light makes its dimmer to ensure the combined light emission from the surface remains constant. Note that old scenes with scaled Sphere Lights might render differently

Build 5.10.01

Official release, update 1

Date - Feb 23, 2021

V-Ray Vision

Screen Space Reflections for transparent materials implemented
Cosmos assets support added
Implemented a Level of Detail (LOD) loading and display system for all Cosmos assets. When available the Medium asset representation is loaded close to the camera. Zooming out fades the model to its Low version. If the Medium representation is not available Vision uses the Low version directly. Enable the High Quality Cosmos Assets option to load their High representation close to the camera. Note that this will increase scene load times and may affect performance
Cosmos assets interactive transformations support added
The way Automatic Exposure works in Vision is improved. Pitch black areas in the image are now handled more reliably. Image over-exposition is avoided in most cases
Temporal image anti-aliasing method implemented. Make sure that the corresponding option in the Settings panel is enabled. This method requires a couple of frames to resolve to final quality but the result is significantly better compared to the old one. Temporal anti-aliasing is automatically disabled during the export of Spherical Panorama images
Added support for the Clip Opacity Mode of the VRay Mtl. Make sure that this mode is selected for leaves and other cutouts
The Clip opacity mode is automatically enabled for materials whose names contain 'Leaves_mtl' and whose opacity is mapped with texture files containing 'Leaf' in their name
Tri-planar texture support added. Only the One Texture Mode is currently supported. The Randomization parameters are ignored. World is the only Projection Space supported
Vision no longer stops responding when picking an output image file location two times in a row
Added support for the Stochastic texture randomization parameters of the UVW Placement map. The other randomization modes are not supported yet
Super Sampling option removed from the Image Export panel. Use Temporal Anti-aliasing combined with a longer Frame Delay to improve the output image aliasing/quality
Frame Delay option added in the Image Export panel. Increase its value to allow accumulative effects to resolve before the image is saved. The Temporal Anti-aliasing for example requires approximately 30-40 frames to resolve to final quality. Note that changing the Frame Delay might increase the image export time significantly depending on your hardware
High Quality Cosmos Assets option implemented. Use it if you want to see the High Cosmos representations close to the camera. Vision will fade to the Medium and then Low versions of the model based on the distance between the camera and the object and the area the object occupies on the screen
The logic for selecting a UV set for a material is improved. Note that Vision currently supports only one UV set per object
A number of issues with Multi Material assignments are resolved. Non-consecutive IDs are now handled correctly
The Sun Light Size Multiplier value is now linked to the one in Vision. Changing the sun size in V-Ray will change the Sun disk in Vison's sky. If the Shadow Quality option in the Settings panel is set to High the Sun size also affects shadows softness
Shadows Quality parameter implemented. The Low preset corresponds to enabling the Optimize Shadows parameter available in older versions. It uses a lower resolution shadow map during scene interactions and switches to the full resolution one once the interaction ends. Medium enables high resolution cascading shadow maps with Medium filtering quality. High is similar to Medium but enables High filtering quality for the shadow maps, enabling soft shadows from the Sun Light
Soft Sun shadows implemented. Increasing the Sun Light Size Multiplier in V-Ray will now result in softer shadows in Vision as long as the High Shadow Quality option is selected
The Vision window is now ordered on top of all other windows (always on top). This is a temporary workaround that prevents a host-app hang caused by the previous window parenting approach

Rebranding

Updated installer logos and styling. Installer splash screen implemented
Asset Editor and Chaos Cloud toolbar icons updated
The About Window is redesigned completely and now matches the UI color theme selected in the Asset Editor Configuration
New Chaos Black color theme implemented. It uses the new Chaos brand colors and matches the Cosmos Browser appearance
V-Ray icon of the Vision application updated

Cosmos Integration

Chaos Cosmos added to the installer. The Cosmos service will be automatically started after the V-Ray installation
Downgrade of Cosmos is prevented in the installer. If a newer Cosmos version is already installed, V-Ray installer will skip the Cosmos installation step
Cosmos Browser window implemented. It presents a web interface for user account management, asset browsing and import
The Cosmos Browser window as well as all other V-Ray specific windows (Asset Editor, File Path Editor, etc.) are automatically hidden when an asset is imported to allow for its easier placement in the scene
Importing Cosmos assets in the scene automatically enables an asset placement tool. Placing an asset will keep the tool active making it easier to place multiple asset instances around
Drag and drop import of Cosmos assets implemented. It does not hide any of the windows currently open unlike the standard import function
Geometry Cosmos assets support added. Such assets are displayed and managed as blackboxes - the object and its materials are hidden in a single item listed in the Asset Editor. Merging the asset with the scene for editing is also an option
Merge function implemented for the geometry Cosmos assets. It converts the blackbox asset to a Proxy Mesh with associated materials that can be edited or changed completely. Note that exploding an asset will also remove the Medium geometry representation used in Vision and might affect scene load time and performance (only in Vision)
Cosmos asset scene replacement function implemented. Right-click on a source asset in the Asset Editor and select Use as Replacement. Right-click on the one to replace and choose Replace in Scene
Added support for light sources as part of Cosmos assets. The lights are by default part of the blackbox asset until it is merged. After that point the light sources become independent and editable
Simple light management implemented for Cosmos assets containing light sources. Intensity and Color multipliers are available for changing the contained lights’ appearance
Cosmos lights Light Mix support added. When the Group Instances Light Mix mode is used light changes can be transferred to the scene even for blackbox assets
Cosmos environment assets support added. The HDR environments are imported as global textures in the Asset Editor that can later be connected to a Dome light or directly to the scene environment
Cosmos asset file references are now resolved to the local Cosmos repository when opening a file. This allows users to share scenes without packing the Cosmos assets as they are available for download on both systems
Cosmos file references can now be packed (Pack Project). A prompt message appears when invoking it. Packing the assets ensures that textures and other external files referenced by Cosmos assets are collected and included in the archive. As a result, the project will be loaded and rendered correctly on other systems even if the same Cosmos assets are not downloaded there. Use this option when submitting projects to a 3rd-party render farm. Cosmos assets will still be available for download on the destination computer even if they are not included in the archive
Use Material Override feature implemented for geometry Cosmos assets. It allows them to be individually excluded from the global material override effect

V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB)

Stamp layer implemented. It allows showing the render time information on top of the rendered image similar to the stamp in VFB1
The Display Correction, Lens Effects and Denoiser layer icons are updated to be more distinguishable from those of the correction layers
Integer, Cryptomatte and MultiMatte layer masks added. Each of the mask types require a specific render element to be present in the rendered image. Masking can be done for both Render Element and Correction layers in the Composite image editing mode. Multiple masks can be applied to a single layer
Shortcuts editor added to the VFB Settings panel. The default hotkeys can now be reconfigured to better match a specific user workflow or avoid conflicts with the host application

Material Library

The Material Library can now be downloaded by users that don’t have permissions to read from the Windows registry. The default library location is used in this case - `C:\%UserProfile%\Documents\V-Ray Material Library`

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

Notifications

New V-Ray version notification is now displayed in the V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB)
New V-Ray version notification is now available in the About Window

File Path Resolving

The file path resolution logic executed when opening a new file is updated. Files with duplicated names located in different folders are now resolved correctly
The file path resolver search depth is increased to five (5 subfolders)

Asset Editor

New Intel Open Image Denoise engine implemented. It can be selected from both the quick access menu in the Render rollout and the Denoiser rollout in the advanced settings panel. It is a new denoiser engine perfect for interactive rendering. It does not depend on a specific hardware - runs on any CPU (including AMD models). Can be used as an alternative to the NVIDIA AI denoiser. Make sure to set the Update Effects slider to Rapid for best interactive experience
Cosmos geometry asset type implemented. A preview image is loaded for each asset and a set of parameters that control the preview, material override and lights are exposed
Cosmos assets download implemented. It is detected if a Cosmos asset is missing in the database and a Download button is displayed in the Outliner
Scale parameter implemented for Proxy Meshes. Can be used for quick unit conversions in case the mesh was exported from an application or a project using different scene units
Normal Map texture implemented. This is a texture utilized by some Cosmos assets for Normal Map assignment. It can not be created from the UI. It may be created only when a Cosmos asset is merged
Explicit Normal bump mode implemented for the VRay Mtl material layer. It can not be selected from the UI but will appear if a Normal Map is used in Cosmos assets (after Merge)
Normal Map Flip texture implemented. It can not be created from the UI. Added to handle specific Cosmos materials
Self-illumination of the VRay Mtl implemented. It can not be controlled from the UI. Added to handle specific Cosmos materials
An issue preventing V-Ray from running on Apple machines with the new M1 CPUs is resolved
The Submit to Chaos Cloud icon is updated
Chaos Cosmos shortcut added to the Asset Editor Toolbar (in the VFB drop-down menu)
Adding a Translucency attribute to a material no longer prevents the Raytrace Properties from functioning correctly on GPU
Blend, Bump and Contour materials now work correctly with sub-materials which names start with an underscore (e.g. _Name)
An issue with the HDR rotation (Bitmap Spherical Rotate H) value of Light Gen textures is resolved
The V-Ray logo in the material library is updated
The GPU Memory Management option Resize is now set to Full-size textures by default. This is a temporary solution that avoids artifacts caused by the on-demand mip-mapping mode in specific situations
Renaming a material no longer causes index numbers (such as 001) from its name to be removed
The Camera Vignetting maximum value limit is removed. Higher than the previously allowed values might be useful in scenes with narrower field of view

Integration

V-Ray object properties icon updated
V-Ray Render Grasshopper component icon updated
Auto Export context menu item added to the V-Ray Exporter component in Grasshopper. Enable it to automatically export a vrscene every time a definition change occurs
An issue preventing animated .vrmesh files from being exported by V-Ray for Grasshopper in specific situations is resolved
An issue preventing camera animations from the Grasshopper definitions to be rendered in the Rhino project is resolved
OS user names with non-latin symbols no longer prevent the installation of the Chaos License Server, Chaos Cloud and Swarm
An issue preventing some Proxy Mesh files from generating previews in Rhino 7 is resolved
Proxy Meshes part of a blocks are now reliably updated during interactive rendering when the path to the .vrmesh file is changed
Converting the contents of a block to a V-Ray Proxy Mesh no longer prevents the objects from being rendered
A number of issue preventing V-Ray from working correctly on Windows 8.1 are resolved

Build 5.00.02

Official release, Hotfix 1

Date - Dec 15, 2020

V-Ray Vision

Pen tablets can now be used for navigation in Vision
Vision can now be interacted with fully through a remote connection
An issue with loading 16-bit .tiff textures is resolved

Material Library

Custom location for assets library can now be specified. Set the path in the ‘Asset Editor / Advanced Settings / Configuration / Remote Assets / Download Location’. Rhino restart is required for the new location to be used. Releasing the V-Ray license can be used as an alternative
The initial assets update check can now be disabled using the ‘Asset Editor / Advanced Settings / Configuration / Remote Assets / Check for Updates’ checkbox. The setting remains disabled even between sessions until manually toggled or until V-Ray is reinstalled. It is recommended that Check for Updates is disabled in case a network location is selected for the assets
A correct message now appears in case a lack of permissions is preventing the library from being downloaded or updated
A warning icon no longer appears on the left of the ‘Materials’ library entry when the library folder does not exist on disk
The default ‘Materials’ library is now automatically expanded to reveal its subfolders on initial load. The user-defined state persists between sessions from then on
A number of issues caused by non-Latin characters in the library path are resolved

Light Gen

The custom assets library location specified in ‘Asset Editor / Advanced Settings / Configuration / Remote Assets / Download Location’ is also used for Light Gen assets
Disabling the ‘Asset Editor / Advanced Settings / Configuration / Remote Assets / Check for Updates’ checkbox also affects Light Gen. It is recommended that Check for Updates is disabled in case a network location is selected for the assets
A correct message now appears when a lack of permissions is preventing the HDR environments from being downloaded or updated

Light Mix

IES light adjustments can now be applied to the project. Note that the ‘To Scene’ function only works when the Group Instances Light Mix mode is used

Grasshopper

Implemented Contours support. Toon Override materials loaded from the Rhino project or vrmat files can now be rendered in Grasshopper. A global contours option will be introduced in a later update
Added a context-menu option to quickly set numeric values to V-Ray components’ color parameters

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

Notifications

V-Ray Version Notifier implemented. It uses the native operating system notification system to give you information when a new V-Ray update is available
A way for disabling the update notifications implemented. To do it disable the ‘Asset Editor / Advanced Settings / Configuration / Update Notifications’ checkbox

Migrations

V-Ray Next scenes saved with CUDA or RTX engine selected or the interactive rendering mode enabled are no longer loaded incorrectly in V-Ray 5

Asset Editor

The ‘Select Objects in Scene’ function can now be performed with multiple assets selected
‘Data Window’ dropdown menu added to the exr output Image Options. It determines the way the VFB render region selection is handled when an output image is automatically saved
The lower limit of the Temperature slider in the Color Picker is changed to 900 to better reflect the starting point at which solid bodies begin emitting visible light
An issue preventing the Volumetric Environment settings to be reverted is resolved
The advanced camera Shutter Speed parameter value can no longer go below 0
An issue caused by quickly adding slots to the Multi-Sub texture is resolved
A speed optimization is done for the Material Preview Swatch in case Contour attributes are not used in the selected material
The Asset Editor no longer appears blank or empty when opening specific scenes

Integration

The ‘Select Objects in Scene’ function can now be performed with multiple materials selected
Animated two-point perspective camera no longer mismatches the Rhino view
Fixed issue with camera updates during interactive rendering when a fixed focus distance is adjusted
An issue preventing images from being saved when the output file path contains non-standard characters is resolved
A number of issues caused by OS user name containing non-Latin characters are resolved
Enabling material’s ‘Can be overridden’ option during interactive rendering no longer leads to a crash
Scene upgrade message once again correctly appears when opening projects saved with V-Ray 4.2
Proxy bounding box calculation is optimized. This results in faster proxy preview objects creation in both Rhino and Grasshopper
Rhino no longer crashes when a Bitmap texture creation is canceled before a valid file path is selected
Separate V-Ray Vision instances can be started for multiple Rhino instances
Clippers loaded in a worksession file no longer cause Rhino to hang
Adding or removing an attribute during interactive rendering no longer turns black

V-Ray Core

Custom operating system display scale no longer causes the VFB to appear outside of the monitor bounds in some situations

Build 5.00.01

Official release

Date - Nov 19, 2020

V-Ray Vision

General

V-Ray Vision real-time viewer implemented. It works like a V-Ray Interactive Rendering session but uses a different engine (rasterizer) to visualize the V-Ray scene. Project changes will be immediately reflected in the Vision viewer. Note that there are still many unsupported V-Ray features and effects
Vision toolbar icon and menu entry added. It opens the Vision window and starts an interactive session. If the Vision window is already open the toolbar button just enables the live link

Geometry

Standard geometry support added. Only one UV set per object is currently supported
Geometry visibility state support added
Proxy Mesh geometry support added. Changing the Proxy Mesh file, transformation or material assignments during interactive rendering is also supported
Proxy Scenes (.vrscene references) support added
Automatic geometry optimization implemented. Small objects sharing a material are automatically merged in Vision to improve performance

Lights and Environment

Rectangle, Sphere, Omni, Spot, Sun and Direct lights support added. Note that only the natural Inverse Square light decay is used
Dome Light support added. Spherical texture placement is required
Multiple Dome lights handling implemented. Vision ignores disabled lights from the scene’s list and picks the first enabled one
Support for Dome lights without a texture added. The light color is used in this case
Partial Environment Override support added. A maximum of two separate environments can be visualized - one for Background and Refractions and another used for GI and Reflections
Partial Mesh Light support added
Partial Volumetric Environment support added

Materials and Textures

VRay Mtl support added. Note that not all V-Ray parameters have an effect
Bump and normal maps support added. The Bump material attribute or the built-in bump parameters can be used to enable the effect
Emissive material support added. Mapping the Transparency of the material is also supported
Material Translucency support added. This includes the Two Sided material as well as the Translucency material attributes
Multi Material support added
Basic Layered and Blend materials support added. Note that Multi Materials combined with material layering may produce incorrect results
Bitmap texture support added
Color Correction texture support added
Spline and Bezier Curve correction textures supported
Color and Temperature textures supported
Mix textures support added
Falloff and Fresnel textures supported
Global material override support added
Automatic mipmap generation implemented for all bitmap textures. It optimizes the rendering speed and removes moire effects when viewing detailed textures in a distance
Each new slot added to the Multi-Sub texture now presents an unique random color by default

Camera and Navigation

Standard and Orthographic (Parallel Projection) cameras support added
Support for Two-Point Perspective cameras added
Two navigation modes implemented in the Vision window. Orbit enables camera movement based on orbit, pan and zoom manipulations. In Fly mode the keyboard W, A, S, D, Q, E buttons are used for moving while mouse left click + drag can be used for looking around. The camera is automatically leveled (roll transformation is removed) once fly or orbit navigation is initiated in the Vision window

User Interface

Toolbar UI implemented in the Vision viewer
Live Link indicator added to the toolbar. It shows whether a live session is ongoing or not
Live Link parameters added. Camera and Sun synchronization can be disabled. Click on Vision’s Live Link button to manipulate the live link options state
Open button added to the toolbar. Opens an existing .vrscene file for viewing. The button is disabled while in a live session
Resolution Mode toggle added to the toolbar. Different modes change the image framing in the Vision window. When Fit in Window is selected the image matches the Vision window size and aspect. When Match Scene Aspect is selected the image matches the aspect ratio specified in the V-Ray render settings. The size of the image is still determined by the window size
Camera Navigation Mode toggle added to the toolbar. It switches between Orbit and Fly mode. The ‘Tab’ keyboard key can be used as well
Auto Exposure toggle added to the toolbar. Use it to quickly toggle the effect
Save button added to the toolbar. Use it to display the Image/Animation Export panel
Settings button added to the toolbar. It opens the Settings Panel where various Vision-specific options can be changed
Info button added to the toolbar. It shows the Info Panel where some useful keyboard shortcuts are listed
Color Correction button added to the toolbar. It opens a panel with various color correction settings
Exposure, Saturation, Contrast, Temperature and Tint color correction controls implemented
A way for saving, loading or resetting the color corrections implemented

Settings

Geometry level of detail implemented. Activating the Enable Proxy LOD option replaces the full proxy mesh with the proxy preview when the object is in a distance or occupies a small portion of the screen. Note that most proxy preview meshes don’t have material ID assignments and hence the first material in the list will be used for the whole preview
Shadow optimization implemented. Enable the Optimize Shadows option to use lower resolution shadows while moving the camera. Once the camera stops moving the high quality shadow will be displayed. This option only applies to Sun and other Direct lights
Auto Exposure implemented
Auto Exposure Compensation implemented
Fly Mode parameter implemented. Enables the fly navigation mode similar to the toolbar Navigation Mode toggle
Fly Speed and Mouse Sensitivity options added. Both affect only the Fly Navigation Mode
Fly navigation mode motion smoothing implemented. Increase the Smooth Movement Delay to explore or present the model in a more fluent manner
Automatic Image Based Lighting Sun option implemented. Automatically adds a directional light based on the brightest spot in an HDR environment image. The option has no effect if the project Sun is enabled. It is also not recommended when there is no single distinct bright spot in the image used for lighting

Animation

Camera animations can now be transferred to Vision. The animation can be played in real time or exported as a sequence of images. Set up a camera animation using the Rhino native tools or V-Ray for Grasshopper, enable the Animation toggle in the V-Ray render settings and run Vision for a live preview

Image and Animation Export

Image and Animation export options panel implemented
File path and type controls implemented
Spherical panorama image export implemented
Image resolution control implemented. Use the Resolution Mode, Resolution slider and the Size Multiplier to change the size of the output images. Adjust the Size Multiplier value to render images bigger or smaller than the one shown on screen
Export function implemented. A still image or an animated sequence will be exported based on the Animation checkbox state. The Animation FPS value can be used for animation retiming

Other

Quick controls for modifying the Sun position and intensity implemented. Check the keyboard shortcuts in the Info Panel for more information
Quick camera exposure controls implemented. Check the keyboard shortcuts in the Info Panel for more information
Loading screen implemented. It is displayed when a scene is being transferred to Vision
A license error screen implemented. It is displayed when no V-Ray License is available
The Vision application is automatically closed after Rhino closes
Some of Vision’s preferences are stored between sessions
A logic for determining the initial Fly Speed on scene load based on the scene size is implemented
Shortcuts for manipulating the Fly Speed implemented. Use ‘Ctrl’ and ‘+’ to increase it and ‘Ctrl’ and ‘-’ to decrease it
HDR images bigger than 15K are automatically downscaled when loaded to avoid video memory issues

New V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB)

The entire VFB is redesigned. The style and appearance of all UI elements is improved
Layer Compositor implemented. The right fly-off panel of the VFB now presents a full-featured layering system that can be used for image editing - without the need for a separate post-processing app
Image Source control implemented. Choose between RGB, Light Mix or Composite depending on your needs. The RGB mode enables color correcting the Beauty (RGB) image. The Light Mix source allows light intensities and colors to be modified after rendering. The Composite mode lets you access, comp and modify the individual render elements for more advanced post-effects
The color correction system is updated. Color corrections can now be added, removed and reordered at will. Multiple instances of the same correction type are allowed
Blend Mode as well as Weight controls added to each correction layer
Color Channel Curve corrections implemented. Use the new Curves UI to remap the values in the individual R, G and B image channels
Filmic tonemap layer implemented. Use the preset curve profiles and their parameters to quickly achieve impressive results
Color correction layers can now be applied to individual render elements. For example, changing the saturation of the Diffuse element only is done by selecting it first and then creating a Hue Saturation layer from the menu. The arrow indicates that the correction is applied only to the item below
Render element layers can also be grouped and organized in folders
Save layer tree preset function implemented. Save layer configurations as part of a preset library. The library can then be referenced by the VFB for easier access
Advance VFB configuration implemented. Change visual as well as functional properties of the window and save them between sessions
The way the Denoiser and Lens Effects elements are presented is updated
Keyboard shortcuts implemented in VFB. Check the VFB Settings / Shortcuts section for more details
Four image comparison modes implemented as part of the History panel
Render regions can now be moved or resized after they are drawn
The render buckets’ colors can now be changed in the VFB Settings window
The pixel info is now located in the footer section
The pixel info can sample more than one region and print information about the average value. Use the drop-down menu (1x1) to change the sample size
Stats tab added in the right fly-off panel. Useful information about the project complexity and size (memory allocation) from a V-Ray standpoint is interactively displayed there
Undo and Redo functions implemented
Render Interactive button added to the VFB. It behaves the same way as its toolbar and Asset Editor counterpart

Light Mix

Light Mix render element implemented. It extracts light’s contribution and stores it in a separate element. Lights can also be grouped based on the mode in the element parameters. Use the Light Mix source mode in the VFB to change light intensities after or even during rendering
Individual Lights mode implemented - Each light instance is stored on a separate element/layer
Group Instances mode implemented - Light instances are grouped together
Layers mode implemented - Lights are grouped based on the Rhino layer they are associated with
Light IDs mode implemented - Lights are grouped by their V-Ray Light ID assignment. Change the ID in the V-Ray light properties panel in Rhino
The Rhino Document Sun is listed separately in all Light Mix group modes

Light Gen

Light Gen (Generator) tool implemented. It automatically generates a big number of lighting variations for the currently active project. It can illuminate exteriors or interiors with natural light using the V-Ray Sun & Sky system or a Dome Light (named LIGHT_GEN_DOME) for an image-based lighting (IBL) setup. The resulting lighting scenarios are presented as thumbnails that can be interactively applied to the project.
Exterior Sun & Sky mode implemented - The scene will be lit with the V-Ray physical Sun & Sky system
Exterior HDR (IBL) mode implemented - The scene will be lit with a Dome light and one of the high quality HDR images that come prepackaged with the software
Interior Sun & Sky mode implemented - This mode is best used for illuminating closed spaces with openings letting some natural light in. A pre-pass stage picks the most notable light angles and then the scenarios are generated
Light Gen preset management implemented. Light Gen results can be saved and loaded with no need for re-generation. Use the results screen Save button to save a .lightset file and load it back at a later stage using the Load button in the generate screen. Note that the HDR images used by the tool might change in the future which will deprecate previously saved .lightset files
On-demand download for the HDR images implemented. All the images are downloaded the first time Light Gen is started. They are then stored locally (as part of the V-Ray Library) and reused in consecutive sessions. Note that custom V-Ray Material Library location specified in V-Ray for 3ds Max will also be used for storing the HDR images used by Light Gen in V-Ray for Rhino
An HDR content set check is performed for every new session. In case some of the assets are missing or have been updated on the Chaos servers the updated content will become available for download. Each file is validated separately to avoid unnecessary downloads
A notification system is implemented. Info and error notifications will pop up in case something goes wrong with loading Light Gen preset files (.lightset). If, for example, the HDR images used in a specific lightset are missing locally but are available on the Chaos servers a notification with a direct link to the download screen will appear
Generation can not be initiated while there is an ongoing render process or a Vision live session

V-Ray Sun & Sky

Improved Sky Model implemented. Reproduce the subtleties of twilight when the sun is below the horizon with the new Sun and Sky model
Custom sun orientation controls added. Use the new widgets to override the host apps sunlight angle. The custom sun orientation is also used by the Light Gen tool
Interactive preview for the custom Sun orientation implemented. Change the sun horizontal or vertical angle while receiving visual feedback in the light preview swatch

Contours

Global Contours control implemented. Apply contours (V-Ray Toon) to the entire scene with a single click
New Toon Material implemented. It exposes new controls and fixes some of the issues of the old V-Ray Next shader
New Contour material attribute implemented. Easily add contours to existing scene shaders without the need of material re-assignment
Inner Line Control added to the global Contours as well as to the material properties
Contours render element implemented. It stores a mask for both the global and material based contours in a separate render element. Note that the contour color and exposure compensation are ignored
The Compensate EV option of all contours is enabled by default

Materials

VRay Mtl Coat layer implemented. Add reflective coatings directly in the updated V-Ray Material, saving you both material creation and rendering time vs. using Blend/Layered material
VRay Mtl Sheen layer implemented. Create soft microfiber fabrics like velvet, satin and silk with the new Sheen options in the updated V-Ray Material
VRay Mtl built-in Bump layer implemented. There is no longer need to add Bump attributes to a material - use the built-in parameter section instead
Glossy Fresnel is now enabled for all materials and no longer available in the UI
The Normal opacity mode option is removed. Stochastic is used for all materials that were using it which ensures faster render times in scenes with many opacity-mapped objects
Metallnes and Use Roughness options added to the VRay Mtl parameters. Use them if you have Metallness and Roughness textures prepared
PBR material layer removed. The PBR and regular VRay Mtl functionality is combined and the two separate shaders are no longer needed
Highlight Glossiness parameter removed. This simplifies the material control and increases realism
An indicator highlighting which rollout options affect the final shader is added to the VRay Mtl layer. Rollout carets become blue in case the parameters inside contribute to the look of the material

Textures

Multi-sub texture randomization options implemented. Select one of the Random modes (Get ID from) and change the Hue, Saturation and Gamma values to achieve variation. Note that a single slot and one texture can be used together with the randomization parameters despite the number of scene IDs
Dirt texture Streaks implemented. Weathered streaks and dirt in crevices are now easy with the enhanced V-Ray Dirt, which now employs both ambient and inner occlusion
External Mapping Source support added for all textures. Use it to easily instance Texture Placement parameters between unique textures
UV Randomization implemented. Select a custom Texture Placement source for any texture and connect the new UVW Placement map. There is a randomization section to help you achieve procedural variations
Stochastic Texture Tiling implemented as part of the UVW Randomizer. Automatically remove texture tiling artifacts with the new Stochastic tiling option of the UVW Placement asset
Added support for .tx file format for bitmap textures
A way for displaying .tx texture files in the Rhino viewport implemented

Material Library

The built-in material library is updated in various ways to take advantage of all new functionality in V-Ray 5
All the materials in the library now use GGX BRDF type. The Glossiness as well as the GGX Tail Falloff values are adjusted accordingly
Materials previously using the Bump attribute now use the built-in Bump
Materials previously using Reflection Coat layer now use the built-in Coat
Fabric materials previously using Diffuse Coat layer now use the built-in Sheen
Textures that require identical texture placement in the scope of the material now use a single instanced UVW Placement map
The randomization feature of the UVWPlacement is utilized where appropriate to avoid visible texture repetition patterns
The resolution of all library textures is increased up to 4K
The library is now downloaded on demand. With the increased texture resolution it is no longer practical to have it as part of the installer
The library assets/textures are now shared with V-Ray for 3ds Max. If the maps have been downloaded by 3ds Max already they will be reused by V-Ray for Rhino and vice versa. If a custom library location has been specified by V-Ray for 3ds max, V-Ray for Rhino will also use it
A library content check is performed for every new session. In case some of the assets are missing or have been updated on the Chaos servers the updated content will become available for download. Each file is validated separately to avoid unnecessary downloads

Asset Preview

GPU (CUDA) Asset Preview mode implemented. Select GPU from the menu to activate it. It shows a more accurate preview in case V-Ray GPU is used for the final project rendering
The engine selection (CPU / GPU) for the Asset Preview Swatch is now preserved between sessions
GPU Preview Devices option added to the Configuration settings. Use either the global GPU Devices configuration or just the CPU in CUDA mode. The second option is preferable when all the GPU computational resources are required for rendering
Custom texture preview scene selection implemented. Choose between 2D, 3D, Environment, Falloff and Dirt scenes depending on the situation. If, for example, an environment texture is being color corrected, the Environment scene can be selected for the Color Correction map for a more accurate preview
Each asset preview render is temporarily stored for the active session. This temporary preview will be saved out with the asset without the need of re rendering

Updated Displacement Workflow

New Displacement object modifier implemented. Select an object in the scene and apply Displacement using the V-Ray toolbar button. The same can be done via the new displacement parameters in the V-Ray object properties panel in Rhino. This new workflow is clearer and much closer to the V-Ray Core displacement handling
The Displacement material attribute is now deprecated. It will be removed in the future. It is recommended to use the object modifier instead
Displacement section added to the V-Ray Object Properties panel

V-Ray GPU

2D Displacement is now supported
Cellular textures are now supported
Wrapper material’s ‘Environment Projection’ matte mode is now supported
Out of Core memory management implemented in an experimental state. It enables evicting triangle meshes out of the GPU memory when they are no longer needed in order to make room for other resources, once the renderer has run out of memory. This option is available only for CUDA and is not yet supported for RTX
Textures slotted in a Tiles texture now render correctly on GPU
V-Ray Infinite Plane mapping is no longer rendered incorrectly on GPU. The scale of the Plane widget now correctly affects the texture size

Grasshopper

Live Link component implemented. It interactively shares the input V-Ray scene on the port specified. V-Ray instances running in other applications can make use of the data. This component is most commonly used for V-Ray Vision sessions inside Grasshopper. Right click and select 'Start V-Ray Vision' to do so.
V-Ray Vision support added. Use the Live Link component to open the Vision window or start a session
U and V size parameters added to the Light Rectangle component
Shape parameter added to the Light Rectangle component. Choose between Rectangle and Disk
Instancer component objects can now be successfully rendered as part of the Rhino scene with the help of the Render in Project component
V-Ray Clipper component implemented. Use it for section cuts or procedural boolean mesh intersections
Stereo camera mode implemented. Choose one of the ‘Side by Side’ or ‘Top Bottom’ options in the V-Ray Camera component to enable it
Material edits in the Asset Editor now correctly update during an interactive rendering session in Grasshopper
Directionality parameter added to the V-Ray Rectangle Light component
Relative texture paths containing ‘..’ (parent directory) are now resolved correctly

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

Full support for Rhino 7 implemented
A new scene management system is now in place to ensure stability. It also makes finding and solving technical issues much easier and safer
Dome lights created in the Asset Editor are now automatically instantiated in the scene
Blue Noise sampling implemented. When enabled, reorders the DMC samples in screen space to produce a more pleasing result for low sample counts
V-Ray Scene export window implemented. It exposes some useful options when exporting the project. The file reference paths can now be stripped (made relative). HEX compression can be disabled for both transformation and mesh parameters
Scripting documentation updated. A new example tab is added showing how the new Python Wrapper Module can be used. This is a short and intuitive alternative to the standard Python syntax
Environment Fog light list is now respected even while adaptive lights are enabled
The V-Ray Sun no longer disappears when changing Environment Fog parameters during interactive rendering
A number of issues with decals rendering are resolved
The V-Ray Live Link Grasshopper component name and descriptions are updated
Nested bitmap textures are now correctly displayed in the Rhino viewport. V-Ray ignores the procedural maps and shows the first bitmap it finds within the texture shader main texture slot
The visual style of the V-Ray installer is updated
A number of issues preventing materials with special characters in their names from being loaded (from vrmats) are resolved
Pack Project now archives Rhino materials’ textures together with the V-Ray ones
Regions can now be manually selected in the viewport when using the ‘vrayRenderWindow’ command
The logic for loading sequences of files in the Batch Render tool is improved. Multi-file selection can now be successfully recognized as a sequence and loaded as such
A number of issues with the V-Ray Python script API are resolved. Setting plugin parameter values no longer leads to errors in specific situations
An issue related to changing Texture Mapping of objects during an interactive RTX rendering session is resolved
The scene name parameter exported for Nodes and lights in a vrscene file, also used by the Cryptomatte render element, is improved
Lock Camera Orientation button added to the V-Ray Utility toolbar. Use it to temporarily lock the camera position and orientation during interactive rendering. The new command ‘vrayLockCamOrientation’ can be used as an alternative
The Shape and Diameter parameters of IES lights now correctly update during Interactive Rendering
Lens effects no longer prevent the Denoiser from updating the VFB image
Lens effects are no longer incorrectly masked by the image alpha
A File Path Editor shortcut is added to the Asset Editor’s toolbar
Changing the active asset category in the Asset Editor no longer collapses previously expanded asset trees
The number of interactive rendering updates when dragging the handle of a Curve Correction texture is reduced
The animation settings toggle is no longer grayed out during interactive rendering mode. This allows animations to be viewed in Vision without having to switch to production rendering mode beforehand
Added support for Proxy Scenes in Rhino Nature

Content

Space Tools

V-Ray 5

Build 5.20.06

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Build 5.20.05

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Integration

V-Ray GPU

UI

Grasshopper

Vision

Build 5.20.04

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Integration

Script Access

UI

Build 5.20.03

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Integration

UI

Core

Build 5.20.02

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Integration

UI

Vision

V-Ray Core

Build 5.20.01

Vision

Performance

Lights

Animation

Materials

User Interface

Other improvements & Bug Fixes

Scatter

Decal

Materials

V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB)

V-Ray GPU

Cosmos

UI

Vantage Live Link

Grasshopper

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

Build 5.10.06

Installation

V-Ray Vision

Light Gen

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

Asset Editor

Integration

V-Ray Core

Build 5.10.05

Bug Fixes

Build 5.10.04

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Build 5.10.03

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Build 5.10.02

V-Ray Vision

Cosmos Integration

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

Installation

Asset Editor

Integration

V-Ray Core

Build 5.10.01

V-Ray Vision

Rebranding

Cosmos Integration

V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB)

Material Library

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

Notifications

File Path Resolving

Asset Editor

Integration

Build 5.00.02