V-Ray 6, update 1 - now available!

[matanov]

Hello!

V-Ray 6, update 1 is now available for download from our website.

[What's new page]

Here are the spotlight videos for some of the major new features:

As usual, I've bolded the most important entries in this part of the change log (excluding bug fixes).

New Features

VFB

• Add masking support for Lens Effects and Denoiser layers in the VFB;
• Support for comparing VFB History images with their own Layer Stacks;
• Add custom color space options for the VFB Background layer;
• Add Light Mix Render Element from the VFB directly;

VRayDenoiser

• Integrate upscaling denoiser mode from NVIDIA into V-Ray;

V-Ray

• Initial support for MaxUSD Exporter and USD Stage; - please check the docs for more info
• Deferred loading of the VRayBitmap viewport previews; - major improvements on loading scenes with a lot of bitmaps
• Support for exporting VrayRawRefractionFilter and VrayRawReflectionFilter RE in Chaos Cloud;
• Support for exporting VRayRawDiffuseFilter RE in Chaos Cloud;
• Add an option for Intel Open Path Guided Rendering in the Light Cache rollout; - experimental

VRayLightMix, VRayLightSelect

• Material support for VRayLightSelect RE (LightMix);

VRayDecal

• Cylindrical projection functionality for V-Ray Decal;
• VRayDecal to respect surface bump;

VRayLight

• Custom light decay for V-Ray lights;

VRayPhysicalCamera

• Override resolution per VRayPhysicalCamera;
• Add proportion guides to VRayPhysicalCamera;

VRayVolumeGrid

• Deform Volume Grid in Volumetric, Volumetric Geometry and Isosurface modes when Bend, Skew, Taper, Twist, Melt, or Stretch modifiers are applied to them. No support for streamline and GPU viewport preview yet. No support for .vrscene rendering and Cloud rendering yet;
• Button for converting the currently shown velocity streamline preview into native 3ds Max splines;

V-Ray GPU

• Add support for Compressed Textures mode on V-Ray GPU;
• Mesh mode support for VRayClipper;
• Port the "Uniform" illumination mode of the VRayMtl Translucency on GPU;
• VRayCryptomatte support for objects seen through refraction/reflection;
• Integrate VolumeInstancingTree and VolumeGrid instancing optimizations into V-Ray Standalone CPU;

V-Ray Sphere Fade

• Add an "invert" option to the VRaySphereFade atmospheric, similar to the one in Maya;

Modified Features

V-Ray

• Make the VRayDecal mask blend for displacement;
• Instancing 3ds Max .vrscene export support for VolumeGrid;
• Export of animated film gate of VRayPhysicalCamera;
• Warning in the Scene Analyzer for scenes with Irradiance map;
• Silent installation changes the .xml file values;
• Ability to specify channel numbers for UVs and other alembic arbGeomParam data;
• Improve context menus of material and map buttons;
• Improve VRayLightMix's right-click menu;
• Expose the DeleteResumableFileOnSuccess option in the V-Ray for 3ds Max interface;
• Progressive caustics performance improvements
• Optimize OSL headers loading;
• Improve the machine info printed in the log in V-Ray Standalone or by the -version flag;
• Support for long error messages;
• CPU IPR should read the mtl_maxdepth settings;

VRaySun/VRaySky

• Improve V-Ray Sky procedural clouds by adding parameters for density, seed and contrails;

V-Ray, V-Ray GPU

• LightMix during Light Cache building and progressive undersampling; - no more black VFB during LC when you have LM active
• Support for user attribute modes of VRaySamplerInfo RE in V-Ray GPU;

VRayPlane

• Add option to VRayPlane to use real world scale;

VRayDecal

• VRayDecal works even if it is hidden;

VRayLight

• Improve light sampling for VRayEnvironmentFog; - up to 30% faster rendering of scenes with Environment Fog
• Update light linking in IPR, when user updates light exclude/include list;
• Draw a viewport preview for VRayLight decay options;
• Lights scattered by VRayInstancer should be controlled by their sources in VRayLightSelect elements (LightMix);

VFB

• New color for the pressed state of "Test resolution" in VFB;
• Increase the maximum of the Glare Size parameter from 100% to 200%, while keeping the soft maximum to 100%;
• Add light selection functionality in LightMix;

V-Ray .vrmat converter

• Redesign the VRmat Exporter; - this will need an update on the V-Ray for SketchUp/Rhino/Revit side to work

VRayVolumeGrid

• Faster rendering of VolumeGrid instances in V-Ray Standalone CPU;
• Make the 3ds Max "Export and Render in V-Ray GPU as VRayVolumeGrid" also affect the Ocean, Grid, Foam and Particle Phoenix textures;
• Option to turn off the smoothing of the mesh normals;
• Add "Do not show this message again" checkbox to the dialog asking to enable Static Default Geometry for Ocean Mesh mode in 3ds Max;
• Allow manual creation of the VolumeGrid atmosphere, but no more than one instance;
• Visibility and self-shadowing checks for VolumeGrid, instaced by VRayInstancer;
• Recognize by default the "velocity(x)", "velocity(y)" and "velocity(z)" grid channels and the "particles_velocity" from VDBs from Blender;
• Slice Preview Width option;
• Own Light Scatter Mult and External Scatter Mult are not greyed-out when Scattering mode is Disabled or Ray-Traced in 3ds Max;

VRayMtl

• Shadow opacity optimizations;

VRayMtl, VRayLight

• Detect missing Cosmos assets and auto-download them on user choice;

VRayOSL

• Embed standard OSL header files into the OSL library;
• Add frame index as OSL shader attribute;
• Expose access to shutter time in camera shaders;

VRay GLSL, V-Ray GPU

• Expose time global variable in camera shaders for GPU;

VRaySun, VRaySky, VRayAerialPerspective

• Add an Affect Alpha option in the VRayEnvironmentFog and VRayAerialPerspective;
• Replace VRaySun's .enabled parameter with .on (maxscript);

VRaySwitchMtl

• VRaySwitchMtl's nodes and properties Materials to be with the same numerations;
• Show the VRaySwitchMtl sub-material in the viewport in respect to the current switch value;

QT UI Implementation - the list here is very long, but almost everything V-Ray related got a new Qt version that loads the GUI very fast


[FULL CHANGE LOG] [Wishlist forum section]

[matanov]

New semi-hotfix released.

Build 6.10.04

Official release, Update 1 Bugfix

Date - March 16, 2023

Modified Features

V-Ray

• Make the error 'Ignoring material LPE label "base"' a warning;

Bug Fixes

V-Ray

• Various fixes for Deferred loading of the VRayBitmap viewport previews;
• Fix issues with the "manual" mode of the LightMix render element;
• V-Ray GPU with upscale denoiser produces an output of 1/4 of the desired resolution when the image is saved from the Common tab Render Output;
• Global Switches' Override spinner arrows not responsive with values between 1 to 10;
• GI settings panel views don't switch in 3ds Max 2018;
• Crash when turning Enable GI on/off in scenes where the legacy Expert mode of the rollout is set;
• Error for auto-backup when the Material override is enabled without material;
• Turn off Temporal mode in VRayDenoiser when NVIDIA AI upscale is on;
• Specific VRayMultiSubTex configuration render very slowly with motion blur;
• Exporting .vrmeshes to separate files does not work when the folder has multibyte characters;

VRayBlendMtl

• Bring back the viewport representation of VRayBlendMtl;

V-Ray GPU

• Memory leak with textures when rendering animation;
• Include option in Exclude/Include lists in VRayClipper mesh mode is not working;
• Render stucks when specific nodes are used for 2D displacement;

VRayDistanceTex

• Nested VRayDistanceTex maps get the same Objects selection list in CME;

VRayEnvironmentFog

• Negative values in Rest channel of VRayLightMix with opacity mapped double-sided lights;
• Wrong VRayLightSelects with VRayEnvironmentFog and Opacity mapped objects;
• Invisible objects are visible in VRayEnvironmentFog when using light mix;
• Invisible VRayLights show up in Light select render element when having VrayEnvironmentFog;