V-Ray 6 beta opening thread

[matanov]

Hello and welcome to the V-Ray 6 beta!

Here you will find the latest builds for the beta - https://nightlies.chaos.com/main#/vraymax6/beta

Mind that the feature set that we'll start with will grow during the whole beta period, so stay tuned for anything new.

There will be separate threads for some of the new features and here is the change log with some highlights (bolded):

New Features

V-Ray

• Improved SSS translucency mode of VRayMtl (faster, on by default)
• Include Chaos Scatter as part of the V-Ray installer (Chaos' in-house tool for scattering)
• Deep output option for the Cryptomatte render element
• VRayProxy improved functionality with hierarchy and advanced overrides (3ds Max 2019 and up)
• Implement optimized auto-bump mode for displaced meshes

VRayEnmesh

• VRayEnmesh modifier in Max (no V-Ray GPU support for now)

VFB

• VFB panorama Viewer
• Proportion Guides Layer to help with scene composition in VFB
• Batch image processing in VFB2; Option to process exr files
• Flip button in the VFB

V-Ray, VRayDecal

• Displacement support for VRayDecal

V-Ray, V-Ray GPU

• V-Ray CUDA/GPU rendering for Chaos Scatter Surface map
• Support for VRayLightingAnalysis render element

V-Ray, VRayICC, VRayIES, VRayLUT, VRayMDL, VRayGLSL, VRayOSL, VRayPtex

• Add MaxScript alias "fileName" for all plugins that take a file name as a parameter

V-Ray, VRayMultiSubTex, V-Ray GPU

• Add "by user ID" random option in VRayMultiSubTex

VFB, V-Ray

• Add an option to remove resumable vrimg file after successful render

VRayVolumeGrid

• Display textures in the GPU preview
• Add tooltips to the 3ds Max UI

VRayMtl

• Add Thin Film rollout in VRayMtl
• Implement energy compensation for the GTR BRDF

Modified Features

V-Ray

• Method for listing files paths from a cosmos asset
• New icons for the V-Ray Toolbar
• Partial material override to work with animations
• Transport custom particle data for light instances in V-Ray Standalone
• Remove the Visible to GI option from VRayObjectProperties
• On drag&dropping HDRI the result dome should not snap to objects
• VRayProxy preview types are cropped on HiDPI
• Add a warning when rendering VRayVolumeGrid in CPU IPR
• Improve the data window values when using Auto mode for the VrayOptionRE
• VRayHairInfoTex animated parameters export
• Remove the Diffuse subdivs and Diffuse multiplier options for Photon Mapping GI from the V-Ray light properties
• Enable Probabilistic Volumetrics by default for new scenes
• Export VRayObjectSelect RE to a .vrscene file
• Change V-Ray installation environment variables
• Adding progress bar in Standalone VFB (mimics the progress bar in Max)
• Implement Qt UI of VRayEdgesTex
• Implement Qt UI of VRayMtlWrapper
• Implement Qt UI of VRayLightMtl
• Implement Qt UI of VRayUserColor and VRayScalar
• Implement Qt based UI for some of the V-Ray/GPU render settings dialogs
• Implement Qt UI of VRayFakeFresnelTex
• Implement image files drag and drop to texture slots in Qt UI
• Implement Qt UI of VRayCarPaintMtl and VRayFlakesMtl
• Implement Qt UI of VRayBlendMtl
• Implement Qt UI of VRayBump2Normal
• Implement Qt UI of VRayBumpMtl
• Implement Qt UI of VRayCompTex
• Implement Qt UI of VRayCurvature
• Implement Qt UI of VRayScatterVolume
• Implement Qt UI for VRayFastSSS2 Material
• Implement Qt UI of VRayCarPaintMtl2 and VRayFlakesMtl2
• Implement Qt UI of VRayHairInfoTex
• Implement Qt UI of VRayHairNextMtl
• Implement Qt UI of VRayOverrideMtl
• Implement Qt UI of VRayPointParticleMtl
• Implement Qt UI of VRaySamplerInfoTex
• Implement Qt UI of VRayStochasticFlakesMtl
• Implement Qt UI of VRaySwitchMtl
• Implement Qt UI of VRayNormalMap

VRayTriplanarTex

• "Use displaced surface" option in VRayTriplanarTex for diffuse
• Implement Qt UI of VRayTriplanarTex
• Make "By node handle" the default random mode for VRayTriplanarTex

VRayColor2Bump

• Implement Qt UI of VRayColor2Bump
• Optimize VrayColor2Bump to do 3 texture calls instead of 4

VRaySun/VRaySky/VRayAerialPerspective

• Implement Qt UI of VRaySky
• The VRaySky map as environment background should be available for preview in the viewport

V-Ray, VRayPluginNode

• Add output section to VRayNoiseTex

V-Ray, VRayScene

• Add preview mode options for VRayScene node

V-Ray GPU

• Support for "Result affect" in VRayDirt
• Change GPU clamp to work as CPU clamp
• Autovoxelize dynamic geometry in V-Ray GPU
• Use 16 bit quantization of float point value for NanoVDB

VFB

• Double-clicking the VFB to zoom the area round the cursor
• Dither colors in the frame buffer to avoid banding with low-contrast gradients
• Add the Sharpen/Blur layer in the VFB2 MAXScript layer manager properties

VRayDenoiser/vdenoise.exe, VFB, V-Ray, V-Ray GPU

• Add albedo RE for AI denoising

VRayDirt

• Grey out Streaks density and Blur in VRayDirt when the renderer is V-Ray GPU

VRayGLSL, VRayOSL

• Support for "null" widgets

VRayOSL

• AdvancedWood.osl export

VRayMDL

• Switch to MDL 1.5

VRayMtl

• Texture slots for fog depth and translucency amount
• Remove Glossy Fresnel option
• Introduce a more accurate metallic Fresnel

VRayPluginNode

• Add limited forward-compatibility to VRayPluginNode

VRayVolumeGrid

• Show the sizes on storage of the data in AUR files in the Standalone Preview and Cache Converter
• Make the Dynamics rollout Wetting checkbox animatable in 3ds Max
• Speed up render start with thousands of vrscene simulator copies
• Recognize by default Velocity(x), Velocity(y) and Velocity(z) channels from VDBs from thinkingParticles
• Increase the default Velocity Streamline Length from 5 to 20 for Max, Maya and the Phoenix Previewer
• Sparsify VDBs exported by the Phoenix simulation or the cache converter
• Update OpenVDB to the latest available
• Sequential Tab ordering of the dialog controls in 3ds Max

[matanov]

Bug Fixes

V-Ray

• Time reported by the progress for "Compiling geometry" is incorrect in Standalone
• Memory leak in TexLut
• Memory leak when saving multichannel/multipart OpenEXR files
• TexLut fails to read file on Linux when the path is specified with backslashes
• BitmapBuffer: <frame0*> support
• Diffuse artifacts with anisotropic reflections and sheen or diffuse roughness
• MDL displacement is not exported correctly
• VRayScannedMtl with triplanаr mapping and VRayBlendMtl renders differently when exported
• Metadata from VRayOptionRE is not saved in tiled exr
• Spurious crash when starting viewport IPR using V-Ray GPU
• V-Ray crash if there are very long strings in "Object Properies -> User Defined"
• VRayBlend's sub-materials are not exported with VRayMtlSelect RE
• Crash on scene save in 3ds max 2017 after Cosmos import and creating light or geometry from V-Ray Toolbar
• V-Ray proxy does not update the "preview override" correctly
• VRayDecal creation/material assignment not registered in RT IPR (RT CPU & GPU)
• IPR crash when render Proxy with bump material inside .vrscene node
• Animated Near and Far distance in Falloff Map with Distance Blending mode are not exported
• 3ds Max crashes to desktop when exporting specific scene with TyFlow
• Camera motion blur is always active on GPU in 3ds Max
• Crash during V-Ray CPU IPR if decal creation is canceled
• Difference in V-Ray Standalone with mapped GradientRamp for mapping values above 1
• VRayCarPaintMtl2's displacement is not exported
• TexFalloff used for opacity is rendering differently in IPR and production
• Render difference with Object Visibility in V-Ray Standalone
• Support for export of animated OSL shaders and MB
• Visibility option is ignored on RailClone object when using the original source material on export
• Discrepancy with Physical camera's DOF with empty custom texture slot
• Crash to desktop when using instanced shapes in Pflow with a normal mapped material
• Crash in 3ds Max when rendering VRayScene object with VRayUVWRandomizer used in its vrscene
• Artifacts when using "reflect on back side" with glossiness<1 and objects with the Bend modifier
• The 'Custom Scaling Size' Windows settings causes text and button overlays in the V-Ray Light Lister
• Gradient ramp as bump is not working in V-Ray Standalone
• Hair cache is not cleared with Ortnatrix .abc in VRayProxy
• Difference in VRayMtl with fog between opacity_mode 0 and 2
• tyFlow particles rendered with Particle Shader have too strong motion blur when rendered with V-Ray Standalone or V-Ray GPU
• LPE light tags support
• VRayNormalMap with a map in the Bump map slot doesn't render with Standalone

V-Ray, V-Ray GPU

• Crash in V-Ray GPU IPR with material editor and tyFlow's Position Raycast and Mapping operators
• Projections using Spherical camera are not rendered correctly with V-Ray GPU
• Instanced textured VRayLights don't share loaded textures
• tyFlow particles rendered with Particle Shader have wrong positions in V-Ray Standalone and V-Ray GPU

V-Ray, VRayDecal, V-Ray GPU

• Incorrect results with VRayDecal during IPR debug shading
• VRayDecal doesn't work with VRayFur and Ornatrix in V-Ray GPU

V-Ray, VRayDecal, VRayFur, VRayPhysicalCamera

• Composite map as a VRayDecal mask does not render on scene open

V-Ray, VRayEnvironmentFog

• V-Ray IPR crashes with VRayEnvironmentFog and Target Directional Light with Atmosphere shadows on

V-Ray, VRayHairMtl

• Incorrect default value of the IOR map multiplier in VRayHairNextMtl

V-Ray GPU

• Scene with Light Cache crashes if run in parallel on Linux
• The 3ds max Tiles textures stopped rendering with CUDA
• Cuda error 700 when rendering specific scene file with multi/sub materials
• VRayCryptomatte is not working with kernel 3
• Discrepancy in the Light cache when using Self illumination material
• Cuda error 700 when rendering specific scene file with deformable geometry and multi/sub materials
• Wrong render of VRayMultiSubTex on geometry with motion blur
• Incorrect render with VRayEdgesTex on subdivided geometry
• Incorrect render with Forest Color texture in Get ID from Element mode
• OOC related crashes in V-Ray GPU
• Artifacts on specific scene with VRayMtl SSS translucency
• Crash with Optix Nvlink and kernel3
• Crash with specific Forest Pro object and gpu light cache in hybrid mode
• Crash when rendering to texture and geometry with displacement
• Wrong fog color alpha results when refraction set to affect all channels
• V-Ray GPU crashes when rendering specific scene with RTX or OOC
• Wrong render with SSS2
• The alpha of a transparent VRayMaterial is not working correctly
• V-Ray Next GPU produces different alpha compared to the V-Ray in a specific case
• Regression with alpha of refractive materials in Beta 2
• Cache converter crashes with VDB grids which have vector velocity
• V-Ray GPU crashes on machines which physically do not have GPU

V-Ray Toolbar

• Error on undoing VRayToolbar Mesh light creation (regression)
• Create V-Ray Decal command is missing in the main menu

VFB

• ICC correction from env. variable does not work in VFB2
• Crash when loading image with saved OCIO correction and multiple display devices in the config
• The selected color space for OCIO is blank when using specific modified OCIO file in 3dsmax 2019
• The "All" LightMix parameters values are not saved to presets and history
• VFB settings are not used when rendering through BackBurner;

VRayClipper

• VRayClipper incorrectly clips refractive objects

VRayColor

• Wrong gamma applied when changing parameters in VRayColor
• VRayColor maps get created with wrong gamma if an old map is present in the scene

VRayDecal

• Crash when changing decal angle parameters in Max 2019

VRayEnvironmentFog

• Thinking Particles pLight (Omni) renders wrong inside V-Ray environment fog

VRayGLSL

• Inconsistent VRayOSLOutputSelector parameters count
• VRayMDLMtl: Missing tooltips

VRayGLSL, V-Ray, V-Ray GPU

• OSL bump maps that use object space coordinates don't work on GPU

VRayGLSL, V-Ray, VRayDirt, VRaySoftBox

• Crash with VRayDirt used as coat in VRayBlendMtl when IPR is running

VRayOSL

• OSL Map renders with default values of color parameters when exported
• Crash with MDL materials which rely on VDF functions
• OSL shaders as VRayDecal mask are not marked as graph_owner when exporting from Max
• Animation exporting for the OSL plugin in Max has stopped working
• Crash with export of animated HDRIEnviron.osl
• Missing mx_funcs.h file error when exporting max OSL Map
• OSL in VRayDisplacementMod is not exported
• Animated OSL renders with its default values on GPU when Мotion blur is enabled
• Shader graphs break at VRayOSLOutputSelector node
• Export of two and four-component color values
• The r component of color2 is not exported
• Crash with VRayOSLTex and trace() function
• Export of multiple shaders containing vector-like structures
• Crash with output selectors and missing VRAY_OSL_PATH
• SimpleOcean.osl doesn't get rendered with VRayOSLTex
• Scrambled parameter hints in OSL

VRayGLSL, VRayOSL

• VRayOSLTex doesn't accept negative values

• Support for "connectable" metadata
• Add support for screen space to OSL
• Surface tangents (dPdu, dPdv) render differently with VRayOSLTex and OSL Map

VRayMDL

• MDL displacement doesn't work with interactive rendering on the GPU

VRayMDL, VRayGLSL, VRayOSL

• Crash with VRayDirt applied to VRayOSLTex

VRayMtl

• 3ds Max doesn't match standalone with VRayMtl with stochastic opacity and fog color
• Several maxscript properties for VRayMtl are not following the material naming convention
• Unlocked Fresnel IOR is not preserved with Preserve Reflections in OverrideMtl when exported
• VRayMtl's animated map multipliers / color swatches are exported incorrectly

VRayOSL, V-Ray, VRayPhysicalCamera

• Crash when applying a copy of a camera shader during IPR

VRayPluginNode

• Crash when loading different plugins in VRayPluginNodeTex
• Warning for unsupported plugin pops up lately when opening a scene with VRayNoiseTex
• TexRemap (vray plugin node texture) only supports VRay GPU
• VRayPluginNodeMtl dialog has texture output
• Export of VRayNoiseTex animated texture blend factors is not working properly

VRayVolumeGrid

• Smoothed Velocity channel of VDB caches incorrectly has very large or very small scale
• Noise with Fire simulation and reflective material with glossy below 1
• AUR caches containing Particle Velocity increased in size between builds 20210311 and 20210312
• Light links don't work in Volumetric mode with V-Ray 6 in 3ds Max (regression after VMAX-11735)
• Random hang during the Optimizing Volumetrics phase with V-Ray 5
• Grid RGB gets broken when the grid size is above 1 billion voxels
• Тhe grid velocity from the vector "vel" channel of imported VDB caches is not the correct scale
• Grid previews disappear when switching to "Velocity" Grid Blend mode after changing the Input Play Speed to <1 while the Grid Blend mode was a different one
• Grid simulation with high velocity using Adaptive Grid and Precise Tracing Grid Blend mode appears chopped apart
• The 'Only if Selected' preview option does not work for the Velocity Streamlines in 3ds Max
• Maya viewport gets stuck when using a Particle Texture as a Surface Channel for meshing
• Shadow, Raw Shadow, GI, Raw GI, Light Select and Lighting render elements don't render correctly in Phoenix Volume Shader with enabled "Volume Light Cache" in Maya and 3ds Max

[im.thatoneguy]

• Remove the Visible to GI option from VRayObjectProperties

Is this just necessary for performance and feature tuning or is this being offered via a different UX option? E.g. the standard Generate GI option in the standard object properties?

[JonasNöll]

[*]Remove the Visible to GI option from VRayObjectProperties

Yes, please don't remove this, it's essential for several setups.

[vlado]

For some time now the "Visible to GI" effect is tied to the "Cast shadows" option for an object; the "Visible to GI" option doesn't really do anything by itself so it doesn't make sense to have it anymore. Turning off "Cast shadows" for an object will automatically make it invisible to GI as well. This already happened several releases ago.

Best regards,
Vlado

[JonasNöll]

For some time now the "Visible to GI" effect is tied to the "Cast shadows" option for an object; the "Visible to GI" option doesn't really do anything by itself so it doesn't make sense to have it anymore. Turning off "Cast shadows" for an object will automatically make it invisible to GI as well. This already happened several releases ago.

Best regards,
Vlado

Thanks for the clarification! That should be fine then
And while we are at it: Remove Glossy Fresnel option just means that Glossy Fresnel will be always on without option to disable it or that there is no support for Glossy Fresnel anymore?

[matanov]

Always on

[racoonart]

Will this also disable them when I load old scenes/assets or do I need to script it? We have tons of old assets that are regularly used.

[vlado]

The difference between glossy and non-glossy Fresnel is mostly visible on materials with low glossiness; in many cases there won't be a significant difference in how the materials render. The code for the non-glossy Fresnel is removed as the logic of the VRayMtl material was becoming way too complicated. If you have cases where there is a large difference, let us know and we might consider adding the code back in.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Pixelcon]

Should there be nightly updates visible under the 'latest builds' section of the nightlies.chaosgroup page?

Currently for me there is just a section called 'V-Ray 6 for 3ds Max - beta' and a single build from March 3rd.

edit: spelling

[matanov]

You are looking at the right place. It's just one build for now.

[matanov]

New beta build (31407) - https://nightlies.chaos.com/main#/vr.../beta/20220510

New features:

V-Ray: Cosmos importer support of textures and materials for MtlLib porting; (for moving the V-Ray Material Library to Cosmos)
VRayMultiSubTex: Implement Qt UI of VRayMultisubTex;
V-Ray: Implement Qt UI of VRayMtlWrapper;
V-Ray, MultiMatteElement: Cryptomatte and Multimatte in Volumetric mode on CPU;

Modified features:

V-Ray: Expose the deleteResumableFileOnSuccess option in the V-Ray for 3ds Max interface;
V-Ray, V-Ray GPU: Displacement support for VRayDecal; (fixes)
V-Ray/V-Ray Bitmap to VRayBitmap converter/V-Ray scene converter: Support conversion of the CoronaPhysicalMtl through the V-Ray scene converter;

Bug fixes:

V-Ray: VRayDecal with material displacement doesn't work properly when projected on excluded displaced object;
V-Ray: Discrepancies between max and standalone with VRayMultiSubTex's Random by Instance ID when VRayProxies are instanced by VRayInstancer;
V-Ray, V-Ray GPU: VRayMtl with translucency is not rendered properly after resuming a render using RTX mode of V-Ray GPU and Light cache. ;
VRayDenoiser/vdenoise.exe, V-Ray GPU: No device available error on test machine with AMD card only ;
VRayDenoiser/vdenoise.exe, V-Ray GPU: Compiling kernels for not selected device ;
VRayOSL: Scrambled parameter hints in OSL;

[matanov]

New beta build (31438 ) https://nightlies.chaos.com/main#/vr.../beta/20220602

New features:

VRaySun/Sky: Implement clouds for the V-Ray sky;
VRayLight: Finite radius for the dome light with option for ground projection;
V-Ray: GPU Add support for V-Ray Perfect Sphere to V-Ray GPU;
V-Ray: Toolbar Add a V-Ray menu item in the main 3ds Max menu bar;
VRayMultiSubTex: Implement Qt UI of VRayMultisubTex;
VRayScene: Ability to use a sequence of .vrscene files and load them automatically on frame change;

Modified features:

V-Ray: Expose the deleteResumableFileOnSuccess option in the V-Ray for 3ds Max interface;
V-Ray: Implement Qt UI of VRayMtlWrapper;
V-Ray: MultiMatteElement Cryptomatte and Multimatte in Volumetric mode on CPU;
V-Ray GPU: Scatter Surface Map support for noise/procedural maps and XYZ uvwgens in Std CPU;
V-Ray GPU: Support unlimited number of user attributes per node;
V-Ray Implement Qt based UI for V-Ray/GPU render settings dialogs;
V-Ray GPU: Autovoxelize dynamic geometry in V-Ray GPU;
V-Ray GPU: V-Ray Displacement support for VRayDecal; (fixes)
V-Ray scene converter: Support conversion of the CoronaPhysicalMtl through the V-Ray scene converter;
VRayEnmesh: VRayEnmeshMod should work with texture randomizations;
VRayHairMtl: Implement Qt UI of VRayHairNextMtl;
VRaySwitchMtl: Implement Qt UI of VRaySwitchMtl;

Bug fixes:

V-Ray GPU Excessive memory usage on GPU LC, plus decreased performance on some scenes;
V-Ray ChaosScatterSurfaceColor map does not work properly when applied to VRayProxy;
V-Ray VRayDecal with material displacement doesn't work properly when projected on excluded displaced object;
V-Ray Light position wrong for lamps imported from cosmos;
V-Ray Wrong viewport preview with visibility overrides in VRayProxy loading same mesh file;
V-Ray Wrong translucency with Multi/Sub-Object material on instanced objects when original geometry is hidden;
V-Ray Crash with ChaosScatter during IPR when deleting/undoing random instances while Instance mode is selected;
V-Ray Crash with ChaosScatter when having mapped transformations scale slot with Legacy mode chosen;
V-Ray Discrepancies between max and standalone with VRayMultiSubTex's Random by Instance ID when VRayProxies are instanced by VRayInstancer;
V-Ray, V-Ray GPU Disable glossy Fresnel for ior<1;
V-Ray, V-Ray GPU VRayMtl with translucency is not rendered properly after resuming a render using RTX mode of V-Ray GPU and Light cache;
V-Ray GPU Crash with GPU Light cache subdivisions set to 2000 and sample size >0.1;
V-Ray Toolbar Rare case of broken registry disables Vantage toolbar;
VFB Setting V-Ray log verbose level to 4 from Render Setup is not displayed properly in VFB;
VRayDecal IPR crash with V-RayDecal;
VRayDecal GPU IPR doesn't update over animated parameters for map used as mask in VRayDecal;
VRayDenoiser/vdenoise.exe, V-Ray GPU No device available error on test machine with AMD card only;
VRayDenoiser/vdenoise.exe, V-Ray GPU Compiling kernels for not selected device (regression);
VRayEnmesh Picking VRayProxy should not be allowed when picking objects for VRayEnmesh object list;
VRayOSL Scrambled parameter hints in OSL;
VRayEnmesh Crash when picking objects with no geometric data for VRayEnmesh objects list;
VRayEnmesh Crash when pressing the Remove button on VRayEnmesh with empty objects list;

[pmrenner]

Peter, I don't see that build available on the Nightlies site. Should we wait longer to check?

[matanov]

Sorry, we had to delete those builds because of a minor issue. New ones should appear in the folder soon.