Official Release

Date – February 15, 2018

Download – Build 3.60.02

Optimization and Workflow Improvements

• Implemented two new modes for calculating the camera focus point. The focus distance can now be determined based on the distance between the scene camera position and target or between the camera position and a fixed point in 3d space. This way the focus can dynamically change during batch or animation rendering
• The V-Ray UV Tools can now be used to apply a material and set the mapping at the same time. This can be achieved by executing the V-Ray UV Mapping function with a material selected and the Paint Bucket (SketchUp tool) active
• The V-Ray UV Tools / Spherical Projection modes have been improved
• Implemented Remove Materials button (in the V-Ray UV Tools sub-menu). It removes materials applied to the current selection (group, component or face) and all its child objects
• Camera Exposure can now be disabled with a toggle. This way the image exposure can be preserved while changing the distance between the camera and its target
• Implemented Multi Matte render element. It works together with the V-Ray Object ID assignments in the scene. The number of unique IDs assigned determines the number of Multi Matte elements that will be created at render time. Each element can store three (R, G, B) masks. The new element is supported by the GPU (Hybrid) engine
• Enabling the Interactive rendering mode no longer switches the progressive image sampling toggle. Changing Bucket Production Rendering to Interactive and back no longer requires additional steps
• Implemented Use Camera path option (for the Irradiance Map and Light Cache engines). The option becomes visible once Animation is enabled. It calculates the global illumination for the entire camera path and significantly speeds up the process of rendering camera fly-through setups
• Batch and Animation rendering have been improved. Using small Scene Transition and Scene Delay values and rendering animation now leads to much more predictable outcome. Batch camera positions now completely match the pre-defined scene views
• The Water texture can now be used as bump or displacement map for animated waves with the help of the new Movement Rate parameter. It speeds up or slows down the movement of the wave
• Implemented Replace Material functionality in the Asset Editor’s material list. A material can be selected and used as a replacement. A second material can then be replaced with the first one automatically changing the scene shader assigned. The Copy / Paste functionality has been removed due to its potential to cause discrepancies and is no longer needed thanks to the replacement functionality
• Materials from the Library can now be applied directly to the selected scene objects by Right-click / Apply to Selection
• Rendering animations without an output image file path specified is now possible

User Interface

• The Camera settings have been reorganized
• Exposure toggle has been added to the Camera parameters
• Implemented Camera Focus Source drop-down menu
• Enabling Interactive Rendering mode now automatically hides the Progressive toggle. The Interactive mode always renders progressively, so the option is not needed
• The Irradiance Map, Light Cache and Caustics Disc Caching options have been re-designed and simplified
• Use Camera Path checkbox has been added to both Irradiance Map and Light cache
• The VRayBRDF material layer Environment Override roll-out has been rearranged and simplified
• The Layered Material / Material Options / Raytrace Properties section has been added. Cast Shadows and Only in Secondary options (previously available in V-Ray 2) have been exposed
• The Camera Stereo toggle can no longer be used while Interactive Rendering is on
• The Animation roll-out is now located outside of the Render Output roll-out (top-level) for easier access
• The Render Interactive (and its Stop version) Asset Editor icons have been redesigned so that the teapot image position matches the Render Production one
• Multi Matte added to the list of Render Elements
• Implemented Water texture Movement Rate slider

Improvements & Bug fixes

• V-Ray no longer prevents SketchUp 2018 from saving its toolbar layout
• Multiple issues with Skatter for SketchUp have been resolved
• Face material assignments now get properly updated during Interactive Rendering
• Discrepancy between the render progress bar and the actual render process can no longer occur
• The render progress no longer continues after the image has been completed when using small bucket size
• The file path auto-resolve logic has been improved and is now more reliable
• Renaming a sub-material, saving the SK file and then loading it no longer leads to two copies of the material with different names
• The Light Intensity Tool can no longer be incorrectly used for changing IES lights’ intensity/power. Most often than not, the IES intensity is derived from the IES file itself and changing the intensity value will make no difference. The tool is now automatically disabledwhen custom IES light intensity is used
• Enabling and disabling the Volumetric Environment effect multiple times during Interactive Rendering no longer makes the volume denser
• Multiple issues with the VFB styling have been resolved
• The Fit V-Ray UV Mapping method no longer causes mapping errors with some meshes
• The Online License Server (OLS) has been updated to version 4.5.1
• The Environment Fog lights list handling has been improved and is now more stable
• Renaming a material during Interactive Rendering no longer stops the interactive updating of the material
• VRScenes can now be hidden using the SketchUp visibility controls
• Material diffuse texture files with non-latin characters in the filename now correctly sync and properly display in the SketchUp material editor
• Attempts to create an instance of a deleted Proxy component no longer causes a crash
• Visual Studio 2015 Redistributable is now automatically installed
• UTF-8 character in the OS (operating system) username no longer prevents V-Ray from rendering
• MacOS: The Light Intensity Tool value displayed is now properly scaled on screen and can be clearly read
• A dot(.) character in the project name no longer prevents the Pack Project utility tool from functioning
• The OLS (Online License Server) installer no longer gets copied to the ‘.\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray for SketchUp’ folder. The V-Ray installer can be used to install the license server at any point without having to re-install V-Ray itself
• Some V-Ray standalone utility tools (Irradiance Map Viewer, Proxy Viewer, ...) are no longer located in ‘.\tools\tools\...’ folder (one folder deeper than intended)
• Procedural textures saved with a SketchUp component are no longer imported as Texture Helper bitmaps
• SketchUp Materials with transparent textures (.png with alpha, for example) no longer appear on top of the VPR (View Port Render overlay)
• Water texture tooltips have been added
• SketchUp 2015: Importing .vrscene files no longer causes a crash
• SketchUp 2015: Deleting special V-Ray objects from the Asset Editor now correctly deletes them from the SketchUp components list