V-Ray 6

V-Ray 6, Update 1 (6.10.00)

Official release

Date - May 31, 2023

Download V-Ray for Rhino

Enscape compatibility (Chaos bridge)

• Added support for the new adjustable assets introduced in Enscape 3.5
• Some of Enscape’s visual settings can now be transferred to V-Ray. This helps with matching Enscape’s environment and illumination - Sunlight, Sky, and Camera exposure. The synchronization is done by manually performing the ‘Apply Enscape Settings’ action from the V-Ray / Tools menu
• Improved performance when loading and rendering Enscape assets in V-Ray
• An issue leading to incorrect transfer function of normal map textures in specific Enscape materials is resolved. This fixes many visual artifacts when rendering both Enscape materials and assets
• The conversion and rendering of emissive Enscape materials is improved
• An issue causing incorrect transparency of some Enscape assets is resolved

Decal

• Decal ‘Auto Resize’ button is implemented. Clicking on the button shows a menu with three possible actions - Fit to Mask, Fit to Material and Fit to Bitmap. All three ensure that the Decal aspect ratio matches the one of the corresponding image file. Fit to Mask only works when there is a texture in the mask slot. Fit to Material finds the first eligible bitmap in the Decal’s material shader while Fit to Bitmap can set the aspect ratio based on any file from disk
• Decal Length lock toggle is implemented. It allows the aspect ratio between Width and Length to be preserved while resizing. The ratio lock is automatically disabled when the Width or Length value is set to 0
• Decal Displacement is implemented. For fine control over the displacement appearance and quality a Displacement modifier has to be added to the base geometry
• Decal Bump control is implemented. Disable the ‘Decal Bump Only’ option to use the base surface bump. Use the Amount slider to blend between the base and decal bump effects
• Decal Bend implemented. Materials can now be projected onto curved surfaces with the help of the new Bend parameter. This for example allows for stickers to be added to cylindrical objects like bottles
• Decal's default Normal Angle value is updated to 90 degrees
• Decal ‘Projection Offset’ parameter is implemented. It offsets the projection away or towards its target
• Decal’s mask can now be disabled by toggling the checkbox on the right of the map slot
• Decal's Height parameter is renamed to Depth. In addition the parameter’s tooltip is improved

Procedural clouds

• Contrails added to the procedural clouds. Select the Sun Light in the project to change the appearance of the contrails
• The procedural clouds are now, by default, visually similar to the ones in Enscape (when configured the same way). Legacy projects can be migrated by enabling the ‘Enscape Compatibility’ checkbox in the Clouds parameter section of the Sun. Note that once enabled the checkbox will disappear

Cosmos (Enmesh patterns)

• Enmesh patterns can now be browsed and imported from Cosmos. If a scene object is selected the pattern is automatically applied on import

VFB (V-Ray frame buffer)

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

V-Ray GPU

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

Installation

• The Chaos Cloud Client application is now always installed with V-Ray

Integration

• An issue producing disconnected and orphaned materials when saving and opening Rhino files containing linked blocks is resolved
• A new RhinoScriptComputeDeviceInfo interface is implemented. Two new methods are now also available - RhinoScriptObject.GetDeviceList(engine) and RhinoScriptObject.SetDeviceList(engine, ids) in the V-Ray for Rhinoceros Object Model
• Indirectly used V-Ray materials are no longer considered unused and therefore are not purged in Rhino 7
• The vraySetMtlID command / action can now be applied only to the selected objects
• The performance of the Interactive Light Cache calculation is improved. Note that Interactive Light Cache is now enabled by default
• An issue leading to interactive GPU rendering errors when changing the Volumetric Environment toggle state is resolved
• The OCIO mode of the Display Correction layer in the VFB is no longer incorrectly switched to sRGB when a render is initiated
• The option for loading .vrmat files in the V-Ray Batch Render window is removed
• An issue preventing block instances from being excluded (or included) from a Clipper or a Decal is resolved
• An issue causing visual artifacts (intensity multiplication) in specific render elements when denoising with the NVIDIA AI Denoiser is resolved
• Changing the visibility of Rhino Layers containing lights now correctly triggers an interactive rendering update
• A change to the visibility of Scatter guests during interactive rendering is now correctly updated
• Using File / Import to load a .vrscene in Rhino now correctly assigns material slots to all Proxy Mesh assets contained within that file
• An issue leading to excessive render times in V-Ray Cloud in specific situations is resolved
• An issue affecting the UVW mapping of VisualARQ objects is resolved
• Manually changing the file extension from .vrmesh to .vrscene directly in the Proxy Mesh interface no longer leads to a crash
• An issue causing a crash upon opening scenes containing a linked block with a Scatter asset inside is resolved
• An issue preventing the use of projects containing Scatter with a Density textures by users with a single render node license is resolved

Improved native lights handling

• Rhino lights are no longer automatically converted to V-Ray light sources on creation. A conversion can be performed using the vrayLight command at any stage. Note that all native lights are rendered but their viewport contribution matches the one in V-Ray only if the physical Exposure is disabled
• The Sun intensity is now synchronized between the Asset Editor and Rhino’s Sun panel
• Shadows cast by native Rhino Point and Spot lights are improved to more closely resemble their appearance in the native Rhino renderer

Grasshopper

• Chaos Cloud is now integrated within V-Ray for Grasshopper. Right-click the V-Ray Render component to use the new 'Render on the Cloud' action. Note that when an animation is present in the definition it’ll be automatically submitted for rendering
• V-Ray Render component’s ‘Light Rig’ input is now divided into two - ‘Light’ and ‘Environment’. Light Rig components’ outputs are updated accordingly. This change provides more control by accommodating independent changes over the global scene illumination and environment
• V-Ray Environment component is implemented. It brings finer environment control and can be used as an alternative to the Light Rigs. Additionally volumetric environment effects like the V-Ray Outlines can be connected to its Volumetric input slot
• V-Ray Outlines component is implemented. Connect it to the Volumetric input of the Environment component to see the outlines rendered
• V-Ray Sky texture component is implemented. To control its appearance use a Sun input
• The V-Ray toolbar is reorganized. Two new panels are introduced - a Textures panel containing all available texture and texture placement components, and an Environment panel containing the Environment and Outlines components
• The V-Ray Bitmap component's icon is updated. Its Color Space parameter is renamed to ‘Transfer Function’ with its former ‘Linear’ option now corresponding to ‘None’
• V-Ray Texture Placement Environment component is implemented. It offers advanced texture mapping controls including projection modes such as Spherical or Screen suitable for environment textures
• V-Ray Texture Placement UV Channel component is implemented. Connect it to the UVW Placement input of a Bitmap or Gradient component to control the texture placement in the objects' UV space
• V-Ray Gradient texture component is implemented. It procedurally creates color gradients by blending multiple color inputs with specific interpolation rules
• V-Ray Simple Mix component is implemented. Use it to blend a texture with a color and connect its output to a material component
• A new Units parameter is added to most Light components in Grasshopper. It specifies the unit of measurement for a light’s intensity and can be helpful in simulating physically-accurate illumination
• The ‘Auto Export’ state of the V-Ray Exporter component is now preserved between sessions
• V-Ray Material from File component now supports direct browsing of all downloaded Cosmos materials (via its context menu)
• Object animations including dynamic creation and deletion of meshes can now be exported in a single .vrscene file
• Missing Proxy Mesh files no longer prevents Grasshopper definitions from being rendered
• The global illumination toggle of the V-Ray Light Rig Simple component is deprecated

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

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

 

V-Ray 6, hotfix 3 (6.00.03)

Official release

Date - Apr 18, 2023

 

Other Improvements

• The End User License Agreement (EULA) is updated.

 

V-Ray 6, hotfix 2 (6.00.02)

Official release

Date - 17 Feb, 2023

 

 

Improvements and bugfixes

• Point Clouds support added. Note that only point particles are currently supported and only a single material can be applied to a point cloud. The size all particles are rendered at depends on the value set in PointCloud object settings located in Rhino’s Display Modes options.
• V-Ray Decal assets can now be imported from Cosmos. Note that the Decals category is under Materials
• А number of issues with V-Ray Decals located within blocks are resolvedScaling of legacy Enscape assets is no longer set incorrectly
• An issue causing unnecessary mix textures to appear in textured environment slots after Light Mix changes are applied to the scene is resolved
• Starting a renderer that will overwrite the image output file now triggers a confirmation dialogue window
• An issue leading to incorrect texture mapping caused by specific meshes’ topology is resolved
• Improved Distance texture’s handling of hidden objects during interactive rendering
• Changing Rhino Decal mapping type during interactive rendering is now respected
• The workflow when using the vraySetObjectID command is improved. Assigning a single ID or random IDs is streamlined. Added the option to assign a sequence of multiple IDs from a defined number domain
• The workflow when using the vraySetMtlID command is improved. It now affects all V-Ray materials and ensure a Material ID attribute is applied to each one
• Environment Fog no longer produces incorrect render results when objects are moved during interactive rendering
• V-Ray GPU: Fixed an issue causing increased render time of specific scenes with the V-Ray CUDA GPU engine
• Mathematical calculations can now be performed in all number field inputs. This includes basic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (example: 100*0.2=20) but also more advanced operations like modulus, power, root, permutation, factorial, sine, cosine, etc.
• The Pick Focal Point button no longer enters an active state when clicked. Instead it activates the tool for picking the distance once and then returns to its initial state
• Errors caused by missing textures being replaced by raw bitmap buffers during Swarm rendering no longer cause the Log window to pop up
• Errors caused by an attempt to save a Host Material to a custom Asset Library in the left fly-off panel no longer cause the Log window to pop up
• Tag names are now respected when inputting a string in the outliner’s search box
• The GPU device selection is no longer reset each time its dropdown is expanded
• An issue causing all color slot sliders to move with an offset when the Sliders Color Space is set to Screen(sRGB) in the Configuration settings rollout is resolved
• The Collaboration window is no longer blank when opened with no internet connection. A ‘Try again’ screen is shown instead

 

Grasshopper

• Improved handling of changes to color nodes during Interactive rendering
• Scene changes, especially rapid ones, now update the interactive render process more smoothly
• Using the V-Ray Asset Editor to stop rendering an animation transferred via the Render in Project component no longer causes Grasshopper to lose responsiveness
• Adding a Dome Light no longer cause an error with the V-Ray Render in Project component
• Launching Grasshopper without a V-Ray license no longer leads to a crash
• Fixed an issue preventing Dome Light parameters from updating during interactive rendering

 

 

V-Ray 6, hotfix 1 (6.00.01)

Official release

Date - 03 Nov, 2022

 

Improvements and bugfixes

• Chaos Cloud is updated to its latest version
• The normal maps Intensity parameter of Enscape materials is now respected when they are rendered in V-Ray
• The Dynamic Clouds option can now be toggled during interactive rendering
• The Transfer Function of Enscape materials' Reflection Roughness map is now correctly set to None
• The V-Ray installer no longer copies plugin files for Rhino versions not selected for installation
• An issue related to Enscape materials with commas in their names is resolved
• An issue preventing the import of Cosmos assets right after updating the Cosmos Browser is resolved
• The Batch Render tool now contains an intuitive ‘Add Current Model’ button as an alternative to the already-existing context menu action
• Deleted Enmesh assets no longer remain in the object properties’ Enmesh modifier dropdown list
• A new way for ordering assets in the outliner is implemented. The new default method orders items based on their type first and only then alphabetically. This avoids mixing assets of different types and improves the project organization in some situations. There is a new configuration option that controls this behavior - Advanced Settings / Configuration / Order Assets
• An issue preventing shadow catcher materials set up using the Wrapper shader and its Matte option from being rendered with V-Ray GPU is resolved. Note that such materials saved with the beta or initial V-Ray 6 versions have to be re-created for the issue to be resolved
• Saving and loading .lighset profiles in Light Gen is once again possible
• The logic that orders tags in the outliner based on their names is improved. Tags using the same base name plus a number suffix are now ordered more intuitively
• Asset and tag names are no longer spell-checked during editing
• Creating an Asset tag now automatically selects the tag name for editing
• An issue preventing specific library assets from being imported to the scene using drag and drop is resolved
• An issue preventing Light Gen from working correctly after a manual modification to the Cosmos download folder is resolved. Note that under no circumstances should the user alter the contents of this folder
• Copying colors by drag and dropping one color slot into another no longer produces an imprecise result

Vision

• Procedural clouds support is implemented
• Clouds animation support is implemented
• A cap of 60 frames per second is reintroduced to Vision’s frame rate

 

 

V-Ray 6 (6.00.00)

Official release

Date - 04 Oct, 2022

 

Enscape Compatibility

• Enscape compatibility. Scenes set up using Enscape will now render in V-Ray. Materials and even the Enscape assets will be automatically handled by V-Ray providing a great starting point when transitioning from the Enscape design stage to the high-end visualization in V-Ray
• A global Enscape Compatibility toggle is implemented. It disables the special handling for Enscape materials and assets
• * Note that Enscape assets provided by 3D PEOPLE are currently not supported

Rendering

• Resumable Rendering implemented. Incomplete renders can now be resumed where they left off from the previous session. Ensure that an output image path is specified to take advantage of the feature
• The interactive rendering workflow is updated. The Interactive UI toggle is removed and the production render settings remain visible at all times. Interactive rendering is enabled by using the Render Interactive button on the toolbar, the one in the asset editor or in the VFB
• Interactive Parameters rollout added to the Advanced Settings/Render Parameters section. A few parameters specific to interactive rendering can be changed there. One example is the Interactivity slider, another the toggle for Interactive Light Cache
• Interactive Light cache implemented. Toggle the 'Advanced Settings/Interactive Parameters/Allow Interactive LC' option and ensure that Light Cache is selected as a secondary GI engine to use it. When enabled the Automatic Exposure, Automatic White Balance and Adaptive Lights features will work in interactive sessions
• All rendering-related icons on the toolbar and in the Asset Editor are updated

Unified Login

• Chaos Unified Login implemented. This is a system that ensures a single Chaos login enables all Chaos products, services and product features that require authentication

Cloud Collaboration

• Chaos Cloud Collaboration implemented. This is an image-sharing platform available for free for all V-Ray users. Use the shortcuts in the VFB for a quick image upload. Note that the platform is still in beta

Cosmos

• Cosmos is updated to its latest version
• Cosmos is the new central and only remote assets provider. The legacy remote contents downloader is deprecated and is no longer part of V-Ray
• Material Library in Cosmos. The built-in V-Ray material library is no longer available in the Asset Editor. Use Cosmos to browse and import preset materials in your project. Note that the vrmat library panel will remain as part of the Asset Editor mainly for managing custom asset libraries
• A shortcut that opens the V-Ray Material Library in Cosmos is now available in the left fly off pane of the Asset Editor. Select the default Materials entry to see it in the contents pane
• The logic used for importing Cosmos materials is improved in numerous ways to accommodate the new library workflow
• Light Gen environments from Cosmos. Light Gen no longer uses a proprietary system for downloading its HDR environments and instead gets the images from Cosmos. Note that saving and loading .lightset files is temporarily disabled
• Cosmos materials are now automatically selected after import

Procedural Clouds

• Procedural clouds can now be enabled in the V-Ray Sky. Select the Sun Light in the project to change the clouds parameters
• Dynamic Clouds implemented. Enable the option in the sunlight parameters and the clouds will automatically move when the time of day changes. Use the Wind Speed, Direction as well as the Phase Velocity parameters to control the movement

Enmesh

• V-Ray Enmesh Implemented. Apply the Enmesh modifier to an object and then pick an item to cover the object’s surface forming a 3D pattern. Note that the base object's UV texture coordinates determine the items positioning
• Enmesh crop-box preview implemented. Changing the Spacing parameters in the Asset Editor reflects in the viewport preview showing the way the pattern-forming objects are spaced or cropped

Asset Tagging

• A new Tags system used for grouping the scene assets in the Asset Editor is implemented. Use the tags to organize and work more efficiently in complex projects
• Tag entry added to the assets context menu in the Outliner. Use it to create new tags, change the asset’s tag assignment or add multiple assets to a tag all at once
• Tag assignment via a drag and drop of an asset is implemented. Note that only a single asset can be added to a tag this way

Camera Clipping

• Camera Clipping options added to the Advanced Camera Parameters rollout. Use the feature to clip nearby objects in tight spaces

Material and Texture Improvements

• Distance Texture implemented. The texture outputs color values based on object proximity and can be utilized for restricting Fur generation or even be used as a displacement map
• Dirt texture Exclude and Affected By options implemented. Exclude objects from the dirt effect or make sure they are ignored when calculating the proximity
• GTR energy compensation is enabled for all V-Ray Materials. The option ensures more accurate reflection values for most blurry reflective materials using the Microfacet GTR (GGX) BRDF model
• Thin Film parameters added to the V-Ray Material. Toggle the advanced parameters to see the Thin Film rollout
• Car Paint 2 material implemented. It replaces the legacy Car Paint in the UI and comes with an improved flakes and coating layers
• The rendered appearance as well as the UI of V-Ray Materials using the SSS Translucency are improved
• The Bitmap texture’s parameter previously known as Color Space is now correctly renamed to Transfer Function. It determines the gamma correction curve applied to the bitmap
• Automatic Transfer Function mode added to the Bitmap texture. It automatically determines the color transfer function. If a bitmap file name contains the suffix ‘_srgb’ the transfer function is sRGB. If a bitmap file name contains the suffixes‘_lin_srgb’ or ‘raw’, no correction is applied. For bitmap files with 8 bits per color component and 3 or 4 color components (like png, jpg and other), the transfer function is set to sRGB. In all other cases, no correction is applied
• Mix Amount parameter is added to the Mix (Operator) texture. It specifies the degree to which the two input textures are blended
• The slider precision for the Reflection Glossiness, Metalness and refraction Glossiness parameters of the VRay Mtl is increased
• Local Space Bump mode is added to all materials that support bump mapping. Enable it to measure bump amount in local texture space instead of in world units. This mode was previously called Bump Texture Channel and should be selected when an Edges texture is applied for a Round Edges effect
• Special handling for rotated normal maps is implemented. Normal maps rotated manually or by the UVW Placement randomization feature no longer render inverted
• The upper limit of the Intensity parameter of Emissive materials is removed

Color Management

• ACEScg color space management implemented. Select the ACEScg RGB Primaries in the color management settings to ensure that V-Ray is rendering in the new color space. Most standard RGB bitmap textures should use the sRGB Primaries option in this workflow
• ACEScg color space support is added to the Color Picker

Finite Dome Light

• Finite Dome parameters added to the Dome light source. It limits the size of the Dome shape and introduces a ground projection that can be adjusted using the Projection Height and Ground Blend parameters

Assets Preview Swatch

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

VFB

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

V-Ray GPU

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

Integration

• Rhino 8 is now supported
• V-Ray scene importer implemented. Import any .vrscene file for editing in Rhino. V-Ray shaders are also added to the scene. ‘Unsupported’ shading nodes use an auto-generated UI - still remaining editable. Note that this feature is still in an experimental stage
• Implemented support for Double-sided material in Rhino 7 and Rhino 8
• An issue causing materials from legacy scenes to not get loaded correctly in the current V-Ray version is resolved
• Materials can now be assigned to object faces in Rhino with the Apply to Selection context menu action in the Asset Editor
• An indication of VPR initialization is displayed at the bottom of the viewport
• Displacement modifiers no longer disappear when exporting a Proxy Scene
• The handling of V-Ray data from linked blocks is improved
• The handling of V-Ray data when using Rhino worksessions is improved
• Copying a light in Rhino now results in the copy being selected in the Asset Editor
• IES lights intensity is read from the file on import and is automatically set as the Intensity (lm) number
• The vrayCosmos command is updated. It is now more convenient for an asset ID to be used as a selector. Exact asset names can also be used instead of the ID
• V-Ray textures which are inverted or multiplied are now displayed correctly in the Rhino viewport
• Changing the Focal blur options in Rhino (with the V-Ray’s Depth of Field / Focus Source set to Rhino) is now supported during interactive rendering
• The way Rhino Linear Lights are rendered is improved. The resulting Rectangle light has its Double Sided option enabled
• A number of issues regarding the LODs (levels of detail) of Cosmos assets are resolved. Note that the LODs are only used in V-Ray Vision
• Chaos Vantage is no longer automatically stopped when Rhino is closed
• The vrayMtlFromRhino command is improved to account for per-face material assignments
• When a Binding texture is used the viewport material representation now ignores all other parameters
• V-Ray materials without a Rhino counterpart can now be preserved when opening the project thanks to a new warning message that presents this option. Note that this is a corrupted state which by design should not occur. It is most often achieved when the project is edited without the V-Ray plugin being loaded or in specific rare cases when the File/Import or File/Insert Rhino actions are performed
• The local Environment texture that can be added to native Rhino materials is now supported by V-Ray
• The ‘Reset To Defaults’ material-specific action that can be performed in Rhino’s materials list is now supported. Note that all V-Ray shaders are reset to a gray Generic material

Grasshopper

• Dome light implemented
• Sun light implemented
• Mesh light implemented
• The items in the V-Ray Render Toolbar section are now better organized
• The default file type of the Proxy Mesh component is now correctly set to .vrmesh
• All Color inputs of the V-Ray components now accept color values that exceed 1.0
• Rapidly changing the current frame in the Timeline component during interactive rendering no longer leads to a crash

Vision

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

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

• A number of issues related to the duplication of materials and textures in the Asset Editor are resolved
• the Refraction fog color Depth value can now be reset
• The warning that indicates that the Cryptomatte render element does not work in all rendering modes is removed since this limitation no longer exists
• A number of parameter labels and tooltips are updated to better indicate what the parameter does
• Applying Light Mix IES light edits to the scene now correctly enables the intensity override checkbox and sets the target intensity value
• V-Ray objects in a linked block are now updated correctly after the block is edited separately
• The Progressive rendering toggle’s state is now correctly restored after stopping viewport render
• Decal's material is no longer incorrectly duplicated after its deletion is undone
• Rhino no longer becomes unresponsive upon fast materials import from Cosmos
• Rhino no longer becomes unresponsive after a Decal widget is exploded and then rendering is initiated
• Duplicated Decals are no longer incorrectly translated
• Cosmos assets’ preview is no longer incorrect after import using the vrayCosmos command
• The render result is no longer black when using Depth of Field with Rhino’s Focus Source set to ‘Autofocus on selected objects’
• Mesh Lights in blocks with multiple instances are no longer incorrectly classified in Light Mix
• The Engine options of the Grasshopper V-Ray Render component are now correctly listed as CPU, CUDA and RTX
• An issue with the material conflict resolution when inserting or pasting files containing V-Ray materials is resolved
• A V-Ray material applied to more than one special object no longer gets duplicated when imported into a new project
• Importing a vrmat material using a drag and drop action into a project where a material with the same name already exists no longer causes issues
• An issue causing materials to get incorrectly duplicated in specific situations is resolved
• Manual Cloud rendering of multiple views no longer results in multiple renders of the same view to be performed on the Cloud
• The native Rhino material names are now correctly considered when renaming V-Ray materials in the Asset Editor. Duplicated material names are avoided in all situations
• An issue leading to incorrect material duplication after a forward slash (/) is used in a native Rhino material’s name, is resolved
• Cosmos Assets in blocks are now correctly hidden when their corresponding block is hidden
• The V-Ray Displacement object modifier no longer disappears when the geometry is exported as a Proxy Scene
• Undoing a light deletion is now correctly reflected during interactive rendering
• Circular references are now correctly eliminated when opening a corrupted project
• An issue causing specific legacy materials (pre RDK) to get deleted when the project is loaded, is resolved
• Renaming a material in the Rhino materials panel no longer prevents the material from being updated further during interactive rendering
• Loading a scene with badly serialized (disconnected) materials and selecting the Delete option now works correctly
• Duplicated material names are no longer allowed even when one of the materials is a Rhino sub-material
• A number of issues preventing interactive updates of material assigned to a layer are resolved
• Applying a material to a object with existing face material assignment (and choosing to preserve the face assignment) during interactive rendering no longer makes the object black

 

Build 6.00.b1

Beta release

Date - Aug 23, 2022

 

Enscape Compatibility

• Enscape compatibility. Scenes set up using Enscape will now render in V-Ray. Materials and even the Enscape assets will be automatically handled by V-Ray providing a great starting point when transitioning from the Enscape design stage to the high-end visualization in V-Ray
• Enscape material properties are now respected even when Enscape is not installed. Note that these properties matter only when Enscape Compatibility is enabled
• The Enscape Compatibility toggle state now persists between sessions

Rendering

• Resumable Rendering implemented. Ensure that an output image path is specified to take advantage of the feature
• The interactive rendering workflow is updated. The Interactive UI toggle is removed and the production render settings remain visible at all times. Interactive rendering is enabled by using the Render Interactive button on the toolbar, the one in the asset editor or in the VFB
• All rendering-related icons on the toolbar and in the Asset Editor are updated

Procedural Clouds

• Procedural clouds can now be enabled in the V-Ray Sky texture. Select the Sun in the project to change the clouds parameters
• Dynamic Clouds implemented. Enable the option in the sunlight parameters and the clouds will automatically move when the time of day changes. Use the Wind Speed, Direction as well as the Phase Velocity parameters to control the movement

Enmesh

• V-Ray Enmesh Implemented. Apply the Enmesh modifier to a geometry and then pick items to cover its surface. Note that the base mesh UV texture coordinates determine the items positioning

Asset Tagging

• A new Tags system used for grouping the scene assets in the outliner is implemented. Use the tags to organize and work more efficiently in complex projects
• Outliner tags can now be assigned to multiple assets all at once via the context menu
• Right-clicking on a tag icon now shows a context menu with options for the tag to be deleted or renamed

Camera Clipping

• Camera Clipping options added to the Advanced Camera Parameters rollout. Use the feature to clip nearby objects in tight spaces

Material and Texture Improvements

• Distance Texture implemented. The texture outputs color values based on object proximity and can be utilized for restricting Fur generation or even be used as a displacement map
• Dirt texture Exclude and Affected By options implemented. Exclude objects from the dirt effect or make sure they are ignored when calculating the proximity
• GTR energy compensation is enabled for all V-Ray Materials. The option ensures more accurate reflection values for most blurry reflective materials using the Microfacet GTR (GGX) BRDF model
• Thin Film parameters added to the V-Ray Material. Toggle the advanced parameters to see the Thin Film rollout
• Car Paint 2 material implemented. It replaces the legacy Car Paint in the UI and comes with an improved flakes and coating layers
• The rendered appearance as well as the UI of V-Ray Materials using the SSS Translucency are improved
• Automatic Transfer Function mode added to the Bitmap texture. Note that the parameter previously known as Color Space is now correctly renamed to Transfer Function. It determines the gamma correction curve applied to the bitmap
• Mix Amount parameter is added to the Mix (Operator) texture. It specifies the degree to which the two input textures are blended
• The slider precision for the Reflection Glossiness and Metalness parameters of the VRay Mtl is increased

Color Management

• ACEScg color space management implemented. Select the ACEScg RGB Primaries in the color management settings to ensure that V-Ray is rendering in the new color space. Most standard RGB bitmap textures should use the sRGB Primaries option in this workflow
• ACEScg color space support is added to the Color Picker

Lighting

• Finite Dome parameters added to the Dome light source

Assets Preview Swatch

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

VFB

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

V-Ray GPU

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

Cosmos

• Cosmos is updated to its latest version
• The materials from the standard material library are now in Cosmos. The legacy material library will be phased out and Cosmos will remain the central, unified asset provider
• The import of specific Cosmos materials is improved

General

• Rhino 8 is now supported
• V-Ray scene importer implemented. Import any .vrscene file for editing in Rhino. V-Ray shaders are also added to the scene. ‘Unsupported’ shading nodes use an auto-generated UI - still remaining editable. Note that this feature is still in an experimental stage
• Implemented support for Double-sided material in Rhino 7 and Rhino 8
• An issue causing materials from legacy scenes to not get loaded correctly in the current V-Ray version is resolved
• Materials can now be assigned to object faces in Rhino with the Apply to Selection context menu action
• An indication of VPR initialization is displayed at the bottom of the viewport
• Displacement modifiers no longer disappear when exporting a Proxy Scene
• Inverted V-Ray textures are now correctly displayed in the Rhino viewport
• The handling of V-Ray data from linked blocks is improved
• The handling of V-Ray data when using Rhino worksessions is improved

Grasshopper

• Dome light implemented
• Sun light implemented
• Mesh light implemented

Vision

• A new system for evaluating V-Ray textures is implemented. Most of V-Ray’s procedural textures and texture corrections are now supported in Vision. This is achieved through baking which leaves raytraced or camera based procedural maps still unsupported (Dirt, Falloff, Distance, Edges, etc.)
• Measurement tool implemented. Use the Z key to enable the tool, then select the two points for a distance to be measured between
• Depth of field support added. Change the DOF settings in V-Ray to see an effect in Vision. Note that the defocus amount is limited in Vision
• The Orbit navigation mode hotkeys now match the ones in the host application
• A new handling for materials opacity is implemented. Visual artifacts no longer appear when multiple transparent objects overlap in the frame
• The V-Ray Infinite Plane is now supported in Vision. Note that in Vision the plane still has a finite size but will automatically resize based on the scene bounding box
• The overall stability and reliability of Vision is improved
• The parameters in the Settings panel are now organized in rollouts
• Hours can now be displayed in the timeline end label
• The output image file path can now be manually edited
• An issue preventing Vision from working on macOS is resolved