V-Ray 3.0 available for download

[vlado]

Hi guys,

The final release is already on the web site. Here is the changelog since the last beta:

Build 3.00.01 (official) (20 January 2014)
==============
(Changes since previous beta)

New features:
(*) A V-Ray toolbar provides quick access to common V-Ray features;
(*) Redirected all help links to the new official help web site http://docs.chaosgroup.com
(*) V-Ray RT CPU: Support for VRayDirt, VRayFastSSS2, VRaySkinMtl materials;
(*) VRayEnvironmentFog: Added an option for deep output to OpenEXR 2 and .vrst files;
(*) ply2vrmesh: Added ability to convert particles from Alembic files to .vrmesh files;

Modified features:
(*) For 3ds Max 2014, all related V-Ray files have been renamed to xxxx2014 (f.e. vrender2014.dlr, vray2014.dll etc);
(*) Added a "Divide shading subdivs" parameter in the image sampler to prevent V-Ray from balancing shading subdivs vs AA subdivs for those users that find it confusing;
(*) Hair&Fur properties are taken from the source object (except the "Renderable" property);
(*) Exposed in the UI the option for direct visualization of caustics calculations;
(*) Added an option to control DOF/moblur subdivisions for the Adaptive subdivision image sampler;
(*) When the maximum transparency level is reached, return the environment color rather than black;
(*) VRaySkinMtl: The material now respects the global "Linear workflow" option;
(*) VRayMetaballTex renamed to VRayParticleTex and can be used to also read colors from Alembic particles;
(*) VRayLight: Removed the "Ignore light normals" from the UI;
(*) V-Ray RT CPU: Internally uses the production renderer core running in progressive mode;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Use different GPU code depending on the features used in the scene;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Faster loading of textures;
(*) VRayProxy: Added an option to force remap mapping channels so that they always start from 1 (useful when reading Alembic files);
(*) VRayHDRI: Added a "View image" button that opens a 3ds Max bitmap buffer with the texture;
(*) VRayHDRI: Added support for single-channel TIFF and .tx/.tex files;
(*) VRayLight: Dome lights are now always created with intensity 1.0 instead of the default 30;
(*) VFB: The numpad 1-9 keys can also be used to switch between recent images;
(*) VFB: Ability to load arbitrary file formats;
(*) VFB: Clicking on a slider for HSL, color balance or brightness/contrast now sets the value;
(*) VFB: A color correction rollout can now be hidden or expanded by clicking on its title;
(*) VRayPhysicalCamera: Renamed the "offset" and "shift" parameter to the more correct photographic terms "shift" and "tilt" respectively;
(*) VRayPhysicalCamera: Added an option to prevent custom bitmap aperture from affecting exposure;

Bug fixes:
(*) Different buckets with probabilistic lights and DR;
(*) VRayIES: Lights with different power from the default could produce different buckets in DR;
(*) VRayIES: Fixed slow rendering compared to V-Ray 2.x in specific situations;
(*) VRayProxy: Alembic particles didn't work correctly with irradiance map and motion blur;
(*) VRayProxy: Alembic particles rendered black with light cache enabled;
(*) VRayProxy: Velocity render element didn't work with Alembic hair and particles;
(*) VRayLight: Fixed an issue with spherical lights when "Use texture" was enabled;
(*) VRayLight: The options for previewing the directional parameter were not grayed out for non-rectangle lights;
(*) VRayLight: Fixed a glitch when creating dome lights;
(*) VRayLight: Incorrect rendering of non-uniformly scaled lights with directionality greater than 0.0;
(*) VRayLight: When looking through a sphere light, black parts of the geometry could appear;
(*) VRayLight: Fixed issues with dome lights with the "Lock to dome orientation" option enabled;
(*) VRayLight: Textured dome lights could appear pixelated to the camera and in reflections;
(*) Hair&Fur: Mapped scale of Hair&Fur could take the entire RAM;
(*) VRayHairFarmMod: Fixed flickering with motion blur when the hairs change the number of knots between frames;
(*) VRayHDRI: Modified bitmaps were not transferred properly to DR servers when "Transfer missing assets" was enabled;
(*) VRayHDRI: Lists all supported image formats by default;
(*) VFB: Fixed a crash when trying to apply lens effects to an image loaded from the VFB history;
(*) VFB: The HSL and color balance corrections were not saved in the 3ds Max scene;
(*) VFB: Some of the new color corrections were not taken in account when displaying corrected pixel info;
(*) VFB: The curves were not updated properly if the numerical input fields were used;
(*) VFB: HSL color correction didn't work unless there is at least one other correction enabled;
(*) V-Ray RT: Fixed mixed up materials with RailClone objects;
(*) V-Ray RT: Fixed issues with animated proxy objects;
(*) V-Ray RT: Support for VRayBumpMtl;
(*) V-Ray RT: Fixed crashes and corrupted 3ds Max window after closing ActiveShade in 3ds Max 2014 with Enhanced Menus enabled;
(*) V-Ray RT: Right-click menu in ActiveShade could be flooded with "Missing" entries;
(*) V-Ray RT: The scene translation time was counted as render time;
(*) V-Ray RT: Wrong Z-depth render element with the "invert z-depth" option enabled;
(*) V-Ray RT CPU: Fixed a crash with animated displacement;
(*) V-Ray RT CPU: Fixed incorrect results with <UDIM> tags;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Fixed crashes when starting rendering;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: ForestPro did not work correctly;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Reflection environment and background were added randomly to a light select element;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Invisible lights affected the Z-Depth render element;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Fixed artifacts with Multi/Sub material and VRayNormalMap on ForestPro objects;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: The "compensate camera exposure" option for the VRayLightMtl material didn't work;
(*) The "Max ray intensity" parameter could introduce color shifts;
(*) Fixed rare crashes with tiled textures and dynamic geometry when the dynamic memory limit was reached;
(*) DR: Saving of servers inside the scene file did not work;
(*) DR: Fixed multiple transfers of assets with Unicode characters;
(*) DR: Missing assets could incorrectly prevent other assets from being transferred to the render servers;
(*) VRayMetaball: Fixed a crash when a velocity render element was present in the scene;
(*) Render mask: Irradiance map was calculated even for parts of the image not covered by the mask;
(*) Embree: V-Ray failed to load when 3ds Max was started with an affinity mask set from the command prompt;
(*) Some V-Ray materials did not generate proper material IDs;
(*) Fixed crash with FumeFX render elements;
(*) Added support for alpha channel from FumeFX render elements;
(*) VRaySkinMtl: The primary reflection glossiness map didn't work, just the numeric value;
(*) VRayOCIO: The .ocio file was not read correctly if the system decimal symbol was comma;
(*) VRayLightMeter: Fixed incorrect results due to probabilistic light sampling;

Best regards,
Vlado

[kosso_olli]

Vlado, congrats for your newest baby out to the public. That feature and changelog list looks massive! So many nice and new things in there to play with...

[jacksc02]

Congrats Vlado and everyone at Chaosgroup!
3.0 is a fantastic update.

[jonnybefree]

Congrats for this great Update!!!!!!!

[instinct]

Congrats. A blast as usual

Keep em coming!

Cheers,
Thorsten

[datalost]

wooohoooo!!!



I mean........Congratulations!

Cheers!

[peterguthrie]

Well done Chaosgroup!!

just waiting for my order to go through.... looks like a lot of things fixed even from the latest beta, woo!

[cheerioboy]

Congrats on the release! I'm looking forward to using this version.
Thanks for all the hard work your team does to keep on top of all our requests

[alexyork]

I'm really excited to try 3.0 out. I never did get a chance to try out the Beta unfortunately as I was too busy and couldn't risk the pipeline getting messed up, but from what I've heard from people who did use the beta and what I've seen here this is a really excellent update, so I'm excited to get it up and running soon! Also really chuffed that one of my wishlist items made it though into retail - the colour correction control in the VFB. Great job to all involved!

[Guest]

"Added an option to control DOF/moblur subdivisions for the Adaptive subdivision image sampler"

This is back in now? Thought it was taken out because it actually slowed everything down? Or was that just for the DMC image sampler.

[alexyork]

I've just watched the videos on the new Render Mask and Max Ray Intensity.... this is excellent stuff! I was working on a job just the other day and could really have used those two tools. Worth the upgrade price alone, for me.

[tricky]

Can't wait to finish what I am on then we can jump in!

[peterguthrie]

a small warning to early adopters, forest pro not yet working with it...

[vlado]

a small warning to early adopters, forest pro not yet working with it...

Yes, unfortunately we had to change the SDK since the last beta because of some issues that came up. It was our only chance to do that before locking it for the release.

Best regards,
Vlado

[alexyork]

a small warning to early adopters, forest pro not yet working with it...

Thanks for the heads-up. Not unexpected at all but good to know. I think I'll be waiting until at least 1 SP/update has been rolled out to deal with any immediate issues, and once FP is fully supported and stable.