New V-Ray feature revealed

[Da_elf]

strange. the edit button isnt on my last post. well. to add. the mega poly thing sounds like it will be usefull on a hotel project im working on now which will have tonnes of poly plants in a tropical setting.

[stefan]

I see huge forests and lots of fur coming our way

Stefan

[dmartind3]

I have started using xfrog trees and bushes, 3d groundcover, etc. Latest scene has over 30mil polys and renders in 4 min / frame at 720 x 540 medium animation settings. So for me this feature along with the instance problem fix is fantastic news.

Just need to make sure you keep them xfrog trees in boxmode

Dan

P.S. Great job guys! Thanks a million (or should I say 30 million)

[dmartind3]

I should verify that the 30mil polys include several pieces of instanced geometry, but still quite impressive to me.

Dan

[peter]

The DR for MAX 6.0 will be available with the next release of VRAY.

The version will also come with new authorization mechanism (another feature long awaited for).

Displacement works really good now, and that is because of the new dynamic geometry stuff in VRAY, that allows huge scenes as well.

What some ppl here don't realize is that practiaclly ALL of the major studios hit the polygon count barrier very quickly - which forces them to use layered renders. Most of them would be happy to a have nice flexible solution to the problem. Its a HUGE time-saver. Opens new horizons for huge projects.

Moreover, the new flexible control will be the link between 3ds max and the external world. (hint: standalone, MAYA etc).

There are other new features as well, that need not be listed separately as they are not as big.

The feature list is not ignored - it is being prioritized. I think we have been keeping a very good pace and I understand that nobody can satisfy all of the users' demands. But hey - we are still trying to...

[Da_elf]

you sure are working hard for that next ski vacation peter
and in time for winter too. hehe

[TRGraphics]

Any chance of a discount price for the new release.

I need to order the MAX 6 version in a few days or so and would hate to miss a discount for the new release in the next few weeks. Although, I'm not sure I can wait any longer since I've been learning with the demo for these many months and can't wait to get my hands on this baby for real.

Breathless from anticipation,

Tony

[mossy]

Are we to see full compatability with the architectural material in Max 6? It has taken discreet years to release the calcs. for glass materials since Lightscape was released, and now with them being in m6 be a pity to not use them.

[3dform]

Very interesting to here. That makes things clearer.

First, sorry if I tend to be negative, but if you don't scream nobody hears you. And well, somebody has to be the bad guy (that all for the US users ).
(The true is, if you are leading the production of your company then you get presure from all sides. Which means, if Vray is not working correct, everybody plaims you, the specialist.)

Next, the new feature shows some good stuff, we had many problems with displacement and Hair above a polycount of 8 million. Displacement is truely a feature with bright future.

Anyhow, I see some new troubles coming up with high polycount and would like to ask some question:

Q: Did you fixed the XEON bug, or will Vray still crash when calculationg a irradiancemap for a scene with more than 5 million polys?

Q: Somebody wrote about forests. We know that this means a hard job for AA. Is there anything on the way to make these work faster?

Q: Displacement also needs good AA. Is displacement still done by simple subdivisions or will it be done by something like pixel size. These could be an interesting feature for reducing AA needs and render speed.

Q: Are there any plans to support Meshsmooth or Nurbs in the future?

Q: The Hair example is a good point, currently we just seen some scattered object example of Vlado. But, how about a new Shag release or a Vray Hair object like in MentalRay?

Q: You spoke about standalone and Maya, will this means (Attention now I get negative!) that we have to wait another year for importend improvement, just because you are playing with other toys?

Hope I get some answers.

best regards,

robert

[Da_elf]

to answer TRGraphics question, i dont think this next release is 1.1. i could be wrong but i dont get the impression it is. Which means that its release will not signal any special sale prices. Ususally the sales coincide with the usualy festivals like siggraph and the others where the price comes down. now maybe they are thinking of an xmas sale hehehe but i doubt it. So if you get now then you get to enjoy vray now. rather than waiting and missing out on the fun and joy of it

[vlado]

Hello Robert,

Here are some answers:

Q: Did you fixed the XEON bug, or will Vray still crash when calculationg a irradiancemap for a scene with more than 5 million polys?

That's more of a problem with polycounts... obviously there will be a way around this.

Q: Somebody wrote about forests. We know that this means a hard job for AA. Is there anything on the way to make these work faster?

Not at this point.

Q: Displacement also needs good AA. Is displacement still done by simple subdivisions or will it be done by something like pixel size. These could be an interesting feature for reducing AA needs and render speed.

The updated 3d displacement is view-dependent. Triangles are subdivided based on their size and distance to the viewer.

Q: Are there any plans to support Meshsmooth or Nurbs in the future?

These are more like vague ideas for now, since they are quite tough to implement properly.

Q: The Hair example is a good point, currently we just seen some scattered object example of Vlado. But, how about a new Shag release or a Vray Hair object like in MentalRay?

There will be a simple fur modifier, similar to the current displacement one. A connection to Shag:Hair is also planned.

Q: You spoke about standalone and Maya, will this means (Attention now I get negative!) that we have to wait another year for importend improvement, just because you are playing with other toys?

Of course not. We will continue to improve the 3dsmax version.

Best regards,
Vlado

[cpnichols]

Q: You spoke about standalone and Maya, will this means (Attention now I get negative!) that we have to wait another year for importend improvement, just because you are playing with other toys?


robert

Toys? Obviously you have never worked in the effects industry. The major key for 3rd party rendering engines is to make them standalone so that other 3d packages can use them. By making it standalone, you will most likely see a huge flood of VFX users that will kill the get a copy of Vray or Brazil to work with Maya... Rather then limit themselves to MAX, they open their market to Maya, Houdini, Lightwave, XSI, etc... their market will be a lot bigger, and be on much higher profile projects then architecture for example. I would hardly call that a Toy.

I am with you on Nurbs and Sub-D's... it is very important in the VFX.

[Refract1]

rendertimes?

How long to render those images?

[PeZiK]

This is GREAT news!

I know this is way off topic, but since this is a "hot" discussion and things are moving forward fast I had to ask.

Aura, the fluid engine : are there any news on the process ?

I know it generates the most beautiful smoke/fire effects I have ever seen, but since its a dynamic/volume engine - does it make fluid/water effect as well ?

All the stuff you guys are doing are extraterrestrial and everything that Max needs to be a true high end solution. Thumbs up!


Sorry for this reply, but I'm like a hungry baby waiting for my candy!

PeZiK

[3dform]

Hello Robert,

Here are some answers:

Q: You spoke about standalone and Maya, will this means (Attention now I get negative!) that we have to wait another year for importend improvement, just because you are playing with other toys?

Of course not. We will continue to improve the 3dsmax version.

Best regards,
Vlado

Nice to here that, can't wait to see it working. At least any news on displacement is good news.
I know there is much to do, currently I'm deeply impressed by MentalRay Displacement feature (Direction map!!!). But still Vray is our one and only core render.
Of course I know, that chaos group is doing a good job in bringing Vray to a standalone version. Anyhow, I made, like many others, bad experiences with cebas finalrender. It was so good in stage 0, and then...
I'm just worried when looking on the development of many 3d application, that everybody is talking about the 'big' studios. But in reality this studios hold just a few licences of the software, while 1000 of 'small' studios have to wait for there wishes...
I was against MentalRay in Max 6, I simple have something better (VRAY!). But, you know the big studios wanted it.
I just share my thoughts....

regards,

robert