V-Ray Next Update 3 available for download

[matanov]

V-Ray Next for 3ds Max update 3 is now available for download from our website.

This update is mainly focused at the support of the RT Cores through our new V-Ray GPU engine type "RTX", but there are a lot of other goodies and bug fixes added.

Mind that if you want to use the RTX engine, you'll have to update your driver to 441.28. Blog post / Updated System Requirements / Choose GPU device for rendering

Change log in the Docs (if you don't want to scroll )


Build 4.30.00 (V-Ray Next, update 3) (19 November 2019)
==============

New features:
(*) V-Ray: Add a renderer parameter "options_useColorSpaceForBitmaps" that tells all VRayHDRI maps to determine the color space from the file name;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Add support for RT cores of NVIDIA RTX cards;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Add support for disabled "Memory frame buffer";
(*) V-Ray GPU: Support for Deep EXR output;
(*) V-Ray Cloud: Add the Chaos Cloud client app installer to the V-Ray for 3ds Max installer;
(*) VRayHDRI: Add a sharp isotropic texture filtering method;
(*) VRayHDRI: Allow UVW coordinates to be controlled through another map;
(*) VRayHDRI: Add a "Filter mult" parameter to control the blur separately when mapping coordinates are taken from another texture;
(*) VRayOSL: Add the ability for normal texture maps to be a part of a shading graph in OSL for 3ds Max;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Added support for Volumetric and Mesh mode rendering of the new TexUVW Phoenix FD channel;
(*) vrscene exporter: Export material IDs of materials used in VRayBlendMtl;

Modified features:
(*) VRayLight: Improved sampling of directional lights;
(*) V-Ray: Adaptive dome VRayLight support for Light Cache from file;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Add GI contribution to the Isolate Selected objects in Debug Shading;
(*) V-Ray: Add "Animation" and "Still" presets for the Light cache;
(*) V-Ray: Change the default values of the Progressive image sampler: Render time - 0; Noise threshold - 0.01;
(*) V-Ray: Multi-threaded execution of OpenEXR compression and decompression to improve performance;
(*) V-Ray: Update Embree to v3.2.0;
(*) V-Ray: Update OpenEXR to v2.3.0;
(*) V-Ray: Render Raytrace material as black to mitigate problems with it;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Implement pre-multiplied Light cache that enables optimization of shading calculations on some scenes;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Implement debug shading for selected sub-materials;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Improved user-defined shaders (GLSL, MDL etc.) compilation;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Optimize mesh transfers to multiple devices;
(*) V-Ray Cloud/V-Ray Standalone: Optimize rendering of Multi/Sub-Object material;
(*) VRayALSurfaceMtl: Implement bump shadowing;
(*) VRayALSurfaceMtl: SSS is not computed for materials seen through glossy refraction;
(*) VRayStochasticFlakesMtl: Stochastic flakes are not visible through glossy refraction;
(*) VRayCompTex: Add "Mix amount" option to control texmap mix ratios;
(*) VRayDiffuseFilter/VRayReflectionFilter/VRayRefractionFilter: Remove the "color mapping" option;
(*) VRayExtraTex: Add an option to disable lossy DWAA/DWAB compression for a render element;
(*) VRayMtl: Rearrange the texmap slots;
(*) VRayOSL: Add tooltips on texmap buttons, spinners and combo boxes for shader tweaks;
(*) VRayOSL: Show shader description and help URL button if either is present;
(*) VRayProxy: Improve errors logging;
(*) VRaySamplerInfo: The render element should always be saved with lossless compression;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Speed up loading of VDB caches by reading their min-max channel ranges from metadata instead of calculating them;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Equalize UVW coordinates of Phoenix Isosurfaces with those of the corresponding Meshes;
(*) VFB: Add "Save in image" option to OCIO color corrections, to save the corrected image;
(*) VFB: Add sliders for Lens effects' "Intensity" and "Threshold" parameters;
(*) VFB: Enable setting of the render region via MAXScript outside the default resolution before rendering;
(*) VFB: Read the saved window position only for the initial render and use the last valid position afterwards;
(*) VFB: UI improvements for the VFB Lens Effects panel;
(*) V-Ray scene converter: Convert Raytrace maps to VRayColor;

[matanov]

Bug fixes:
(*) V-Ray: Artifacts and flickering with "Hash map" Light cache in certain situations;
(*) V-Ray: Artifacts when using Adaptive dome light and VRayFur with VRayMtl on it;
(*) V-Ray: Artifacts with Adaptive dome and VRayToon;
(*) V-Ray/V-Ray GPU: Artifacts with Adaptive dome light with "affect reflections" disabled;
(*) V-Ray: Crash in scenes with meshes with Point Cache modifier that are used in Forest Pro in animated mode;
(*) V-Ray: Bright spots in VRayGlobalIllumination render element with Falloff map in Shadow/Light mode;
(*) V-Ray: Compositing results don't match with matte reflections if "Consistent lighting elements" is enabled;
(*) V-Ray: Lighting elements are not propagated through refractions with "Consistent lighting elements" enabled;
(*) V-Ray: Matte objects are present in the alpha channel when rendered through refractive objects;
(*) V-Ray: Memory tracking "GI" tag replaces "Misc." when rendering with Global illumination;
(*) V-Ray: Physical Material with black reflections has dark outlines;
(*) V-Ray: The UI menus are active during rendering in 3ds Max 2020;
(*) V-Ray: Unhandled exception when having a PF Source with Mapping Object operator;
(*) V-Ray: Using camera clipping planes makes the dome light invisible;
(*) V-Ray: VRayEdgesTex always draws hidden edges when used as displacement texture;
(*) V-Ray: Wrong 3ds Max Render output JPEG image with Test resolution;
(*) VRayProxy: Wrong defocusAmount denoise element on proxy objects leading to artifacts when denoising;
(*) VFB: Wrong resolution when rendering a sequence with Test resolution and DR;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Crash when adding materials with VRayHDRI to a material library;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Crash while scrubbing the timeline with VRayLightMtl in the scene;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Crash with VRayOSL shading graph and VRayLightMtl with Direct illumination on;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Crash with VRaySky texmap and Hair and Fur;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Debug Shading's Isolate Selected mode doesn't work correctly for objects with opacity;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Loops on building Light cache in a scene with VRayDistanceTex and Forest Pro;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Starting production rendering during Viewport IPR causes endless Light cache phase;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Unhandled exception with a Free Light and VRayLightMtl with Direct Illumination;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Artifacts when using Metalness with Glossy Fresnel;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Artifacts with Adaptive dome when objects are excluded from shadow casting in the light;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Artifacts with VRayALSurfaceMtl and Adaptive lights v2;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Bounding Box artifacts when rendering a VRayVolumeGrid;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Crash with hidden faces on subdivided geometry;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Crash during render with volumetrics;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Crash on stop during Light cache phase;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Crash when cancelling the render for scene with lights include/exclude lists;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Crash when using VRayClipper on an object with material containing VRayCurvature map;
(*) V-Ray GPU: defocusAmount denoise element is not generated with a standard cameras;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Gaussian image filter doesn't match the CPU one;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Hidden edges of VRayEdgesTex is always on with VRayProxy;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Hidden faces are being rendered during Light cache preview, creating wrong lighting;
(*) V-Ray GPU: IPR with multiple GPUs produces CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_HANDLE on stop;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Light cache doesn't work with DOF and perspective camera;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Nested refractive volumes are rendered wrong;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Noisier results with Adaptive lights compared to Light tree;
(*) V-Ray GPU: NVLink GPU allocations only done for Dynamic geometry;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Optimized distance estimation for geometry heavy scenes;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Random crash with tiled bitmaps;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Refractions are rendered darker since V-Ray Next, Update 2;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Unhandled exception when baking texture of a mesh with degenerate UVs;
(*) V-Ray GPU: VRayVolumeGrids are not rendered correctly in VRayNormals render element;
(*) V-Ray Cloud/V-Ray Standalone: Extremely slow light cache for scenes with displacement texmaps;
(*) V-Ray Cloud/V-Ray Standalone: Matte reflections are not rendered;
(*) VRayALSurfaceMtl: Artifacts around geometries intersections and SSS density scale close to 0;
(*) VRayClipper: Holes in the clipped geometry when rendering with motion blur and the clipping mesh has animated skin modifier;
(*) VRayDisplacementMod: Cracks with 3D Displacement and Keep continuity;
(*) VRayDisplacementMod: Memory leak with 2D displacement;
(*) VRayDisplacementMod: Tangent Vector displacement mode clamps the texture's X and Y between 0 and 1 regardless of the Texmap min/max values;
(*) VRayGLSL: Function vr_textureSize returns (0,0) always;
(*) VRayHairFarmMod: Duplicated IDs in VRayCryptomatte element with more than one Hair Generate modifier;
(*) VRayHairNextMtl: Artifacts in raw render elements with Consistent lighting elements;
(*) VRayHairNextMtl: Diffuse component should go in it's respective render elements;
(*) VRayHairNextMtl: Shade data is stored in VRayGlobalIllumination when Consistent lighting elements is on;
(*) VRayLight: Different specular reflections when rendering directional disc light with V-Ray Cloud/V-Ray Standalone;
(*) VRayOCIO: Error in V-Ray messages when creating new instance;
(*) VRayOCIO: No scroll bar in the map color space selector;
(*) VRayOrnatrixMod: Some VRayOrnatrixMod hairs have wrong velocity data with "dynamic tessellation";
(*) VRayOSL: Broken OSO bytecode export of a shader via MAXScript;
(*) VRayOSL: Bucket artifacts with user attributes;
(*) VRayOSL: Crash in microfacet("ggx") when roughness is greater than 0.0;
(*) VRayOSL: Crash when detach and reattach a sub-texmaps;
(*) VRayOSL: Custom shaders cannot access user attributes with V-Ray Cloud/V-Ray Standalone;
(*) VRayOSL: OSL string mapper widgets should be displayed as dropdown choices;
(*) VRayOSL: Tooltips for combo boxes and extra texture buttons can become too wide;
(*) VRayOSL: Tweak's min/max metadata inhibits changing parameter values;
(*) VRayOSL: Wrong channel index read from the UV attribute;
(*) VRayOverrideMtl: Vignetting along concave edges with Light cache and many lights;
(*) VRayPluginNode: Crash when rendering with TexSurfaceLuminance;
(*) VRayProxy: Face/Material IDs are offset with one when loading Alembic files;
(*) VRayScannedMtl: Crash when loading a scene while the compact material editor open;
(*) VRayScannedMtl: Difference in the VRayBumpNormals render element when rendering with VRayBumpMtl;
(*) VRaySwitchMtl: Crash with undefined sub-material when displacement map is used in another sub-material;
(*) VRayToonMtl: Toon effect missing on non-excluded geometry when the excluded object is hidden;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Displacement scale in Isosurface mode is not the same as in Mesh mode;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Empty grids filled with density using the opacity curve render with different density in V-Ray Cloud/V-Ray Standalone;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Mesh mode with a 2D scalar Displacement map renders with artifacts;
(*) VRayZDepth: Refractive objects are white regardless of the Affect channels value with V-Ray GPU;
(*) VFB: Certain integer render elements are not displayed when loading EXR files;
(*) VFB: Crash when changing OCIO settings (View transform, Input colorspace) during Viewport IPR;
(*) VFB: History details comment is drawn over the previous one if changed via MAXScript;
(*) VFB: The scrollbar in the Color Corrections window hides some of the text;
(*) VFB: UI is not responsive with ICC color correction during IPR with V-Ray GPU;
(*) V-Ray Toolbar: MAXScript error in vrutils.ms when trying to create a physical camera from a camera view without target;
(*) .vrscene exporter: Animated FOV on standard cameras is not exported correctly;
(*) .vrscene exporter: Crash when exporting Forest Pro multiple instances with the same Surface with Boundary checking set to Edge;
(*) .vrscene exporter: Disabled VRayVolumeGrids in Volumetric mode are still exported;
(*) .vrscene exporter: Forest Pro object with VRayDisplacementMod is not exported to .vrscene file;
(*) .vrscene exporter: Negative displacement through textures is not exported properly;
(*) .vrscene exporter: OSL texmaps are flipped with V-Ray Cloud/V-Ray Standalone;
(*) .vrscene exporter: Random velocity data is exported for Forest Pro instances when camera is specified;
(*) .vrscene exporter: Some VRayMDL asset paths are not exported;
(*) .vrscene exporter: Support for animated visibility range of VRayAerialPerspective;
(*) .vrscene exporter: The VRayVolumeGrid's "lightsmultself", "gridreduct" and "mbgrid" parameters are not exported to *.vrscene;
(*) .vrscene exporter: VFB Color Corrections are exported even when disabled;
(*) .vrscene exporter: Wrong UVWs in scenes with OSL;
(*) Installer: VRAY4_FOR_3DSMAXXXXX_PLUGINS environment variable should be modified instead of overridden;

[M.Max]

Thank you!
Great update

[super gnu]

cool! nice fat update. cant wait to hear more about the new features.

just a quick question, i note you specify driver 441.28 for RTX support. do you know if this driver revision still supports 2+ pairs of gpus in nvlink mode? it was suggested that at some point this ability was going to disappear.. It would be nice if there was at least one driver revision where both RTX and multiple nvlink pairs was supported!

[matanov]

cool! nice fat update. cant wait to hear more about the new features.

just a quick question, i note you specify driver 441.28 for RTX support. do you know if this driver revision still supports 2+ pairs of gpus in nvlink mode? it was suggested that at some point this ability was going to disappear.. It would be nice if there was at least one driver revision where both RTX and multiple nvlink pairs was supported!

We haven't tested it. We've waited for some specific features in this driver to be able to have stable RTX experience and if that excludes NVLINK pairs on consumer cards - sorry but it's not up to us.

[muoto]

Add "Save in image" option to OCIO color corrections, to save the corrected image

>>> THANKS !

[brunonz]

What "(*) VRayHDRI: Add a sharp isotropic texture filtering method" means exactly? Faster render or sharper visibility of the hdri map?

[^Lele^]

Less blurring of the maps (think standard max bitmaps and the usual lowering of blur amount: this should avoid it.).
EDIT: of ALL map types. despite the name, that loader can load pretty much any format now.
EDIT #2: see attached images. Notice that sharper textures may make rendering ever so slightly slower, because their detail isn't blurred away, and so the sampler works around the contrast areas.
Edit #3: bah the forum compresses the images, so there is nearly no visible difference. Feel free to try it yourself, the new method is now the default one.

[brunonz]

Less blurring of the maps (think standard max bitmaps and the usual lowering of blur amount: this should avoid it.).
EDIT: of ALL map types. despite the name, that loader can load pretty much any format now.

Tks for the reply!

[Neilg]

Less blurring of the maps (think standard max bitmaps and the usual lowering of blur amount: this should avoid it.).
EDIT: of ALL map types. despite the name, that loader can load pretty much any format now.
EDIT #2: see attached images. Notice that sharper textures may make rendering ever so slightly slower, because their detail isn't blurred away, and so the sampler works around the contrast areas.
Edit #3: bah the forum compresses the images, so there is nearly no visible difference. Feel free to try it yourself, the new method is now the default one.

That's a pretty significant difference to me. blurry textures at glancing angles are a huge thorn in my side and now we're leaning into .tx maps they're back (although not as bad as non-hdri).

How does it affect memory usage? is it 2x like eliptical filtering, or only an increase in proportion with the appropriate mipmap level?

[Vizioen]

Less blurring of the maps (think standard max bitmaps and the usual lowering of blur amount: this should avoid it.).
EDIT: of ALL map types. despite the name, that loader can load pretty much any format now.

It's funny you've "excused" the name of the VrayHDRI map a few times before, and I've yet to find a person in the office that uses VrayHDRI for anything else than .hdr or .exr files for lighting, even though I've been almost preaching the use of a VrayHDRI due to it's better filtering among other things. I don't know why but somehow because of the name (I think it's psychological) they fail to use it instead of the standard max bitmap.

On the topic of the update: Thank you Chaos for your hard work. Although I feel a bit left in the cold, and I don't want to sound ungrateful or arrogant but I feel like there's nothing groundbreaking coming to Vray in terms of achieving better faster results visually for me, speaking as a digital artist, in the last year or 2.

I'm not sure but I feel there's a lot of features that could really speed up our creation workflow by a lot and I know (or hope) it's being worked on but it's just soooo hard to wait

VFB 2.0 (lightmix,...)
Stochastic Texturing
Fixing Bump
UVW Randomization with a map
Material Override 'preserve' option
Better material preview (together with the material library even)
Better color mapping options

To only name a few of the wishes of this community (well at least the ones that post here), I'm sure you're tired of reading these by now

Anyhow thanks again for the update!

[Nicinus]

I must echo Vizoen's sentiments. I was at the Siggraph presentation and was under the impression that for example the material library with better preview was imminent and that the VFB with lightmix was getting close. Lightmix would be very welcome in my personal workflow and it's a shame if stuff like this is being held back to fluff up a version 5 release.

[^Lele^]

Some things are late, indeed, but it isn't for lack of trying, nor to pimp a future release.
You will recall the V4 was called "Next": some of that deep code restructuring has taken place, and that took a lot of effort.
To use an analogy, while we knew the shape of the plugs (a light mixer, f.e.), we had to build the sockets to fit them in (the way V-Ray renders, the new VFB with all the myriad ancillary tech that go with it, so to make the workflow solid...).
That it took what it took (and how long it's going to take still) is merely coincidental, not the fruit of deliberate planning on timed release of new features.
Service packs at some point have to get out to also fix bugs, so it's a bit of a catch 22 in that respect.

[vlado]

That's a pretty significant difference to me. blurry textures at glancing angles are a huge thorn in my side and now we're leaning into .tx maps they're back (although not as bad as non-hdri).

The sharp filter works for .tx files too.

How does it affect memory usage? is it 2x like eliptical filtering, or only an increase in proportion with the appropriate mipmap level?

A more detailed mip-map level needs to be loaded, so memory usage could be somewhat higher, but I haven't made exact comparisons.

Best regards,
Vlado

[vlado]

It's funny you've "excused" the name of the VrayHDRI map a few times before, and I've yet to find a person in the office that uses VrayHDRI for anything else than .hdr or .exr files for lighting, even though I've been almost preaching the use of a VrayHDRI due to it's better filtering among other things. I don't know why but somehow because of the name (I think it's psychological) they fail to use it instead of the standard max bitmap.

I realize that; the name needs to change and it will happen at some point.

VFB 2.0 (lightmix,...)
Stochastic Texturing
Fixing Bump
UVW Randomization with a map
Material Override 'preserve' option
Better material preview (together with the material library even)
Better color mapping options

A lot of these things are being worked on (VFB 2.0, light mix, stochastic texturing, UVW randomization, better material preview, full ACEScg support are all in various stages of completion).

Best regards,
Vlado