Build 3.20 available for download

[vlado]

Hello,

The 3.20 builds are finally visible on the web site. There will be a patch next week that adds a Cube 6x1 camera with stereo support and some minor fixes.

The changelog is as follows:

Build 3.20.01 (official) (25 May 2015)
==============

New features:
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Added support for rendering of fluid simulation data (Phoenix FD, Field3D and OpenVDB);
(*) V-Ray: Added ability to add/remove DR servers on the fly from the Render Progress window;
(*) V-Ray: The DR servers list is re-read whenever the vray_dr.cfg file is modified during rendering;
(*) V-Ray: Added button to open the V-Ray messages log window;
(*) V-Ray: Added camera object properties to control the number of transformation samples for camera motion blur;
(*) V-Ray: Added support for 3ds Max 2016, including the new Physical Camera and Physical Camera Exposure Control;
(*) V-Ray: MaxScript parameter to control the DMC random seed;
(*) V-Ray: The V-Ray object properties allow to specify a given map channel as velocity channel (useful with some Alembic importers);
(*) V-Ray: Provided tooltip descriptions for most of the renderer settings;
(*) V-Ray RT CPU: Support for VRayEnvironmentFog;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for Composite map rendering;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for displacement;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for VRayMtl anisotropy;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Added UDIM tag support;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Implemented QMC sampling for CUDA engine;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Initial support for texture baking;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Support for spherical panorama cameras;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for 3ds Max Spot and Omni lights Decay and Near/Far Attenuation parameters;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for textures output Bezier curve output color correction;
(*) VRayProxy: Added better methods for generating viewport preview meshes based on mesh simplification;
(*) VRayProxy: Added Show whole mesh viewport display option;
(*) VRayProxy: Support for exporting the VRayInstancer as a .vrmesh file preserving the instancing;
(*) VRayStereoscopic: Support for stereo spherical/cylindrical panorama cameras;
(*) VFB: Added ability to load the render settings for an image from the history window;
(*) VFB: Can be zoomed in/out with the regular +/-/* keys (useful for remote access from mobile devices);
(*) VRayCurvatureMap: A new texture similar to VRayDirt; useful for detecting mesh curvature;
(*) VRayFur: Faster rendering; can now be accelerated by Embree;
(*) Hair&Fur: Faster rendering; can now be accelerated by Embree;
(*) VRayInstancer: Added ability to override node and V-Ray object properties of the source objects;
(*) VRayInstancer: Added parameters to control the random seed, render percentage;
(*) VRayInstancer: Added an experimental option for multithreaded instance generation (only for the V-Ray portion of the code);
(*) VRayLight: Added a line that shows the orientation of the dome lights in the viewport, it also shows the center of VRayHDRI wrapping;
(*) VRayOSLMtl: Added support for vray_subsurface() closure;
(*) VRayOSLMtl: Added support for vray_hair() closure;
(*) VRayOSLMtl/VRayOSLTex: Support for drop-down controls;
(*) VRayHDRI: Added support for loading PNG grayscale with alpha images;
(*) Texture baking: Additional bake elements for render to texture: VRayMtlReflectIORBake, VRayReflectionFilterMap;
(*) V-Ray scene converter: Added initial implementation of conversion of Corona materials and lights;
(*) ply2vrmesh: Support for conversion of particles from .geo and .bgeo files;
(*) vrayspawner.exe can assign separate DR nodes to different processor groups;

Modified features:
(*) V-Ray: Reduced light cache leaks through a new parameter "Leak prevention";
(*) V-Ray: New default settings for the light cache;
(*) V-Ray: The GI subdivs multiplier in the V-Ray object properties has been renamed to "Subdivs multiplier" and affects all shading samples for the particular object;
(*) V-Ray: The render mask can work with transparent and not Visible to Camera objects along the ray paths;
(*) V-Ray: The render mask on selected objects is intersected by VRayLights;
(*) V-Ray: Setting the Global subdivs multiplier to 0.0 does not affect the irradiance map and other reflection/refraction interpolation maps;
(*) V-Ray: Added UI view switcher to the Global DMC sampler rollout;
(*) V-Ray: Changed the default motion blur duration value to 0.5;
(*) V-Ray: Improved handling of meshes and proxies that are invisible to the camera;
(*) V-Ray: Speed up of the "transforming vertices" phase in scenes with many objects;
(*) V-Ray: Simplified the "default" view of the light cache rollout;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for Falloff texmap in VRayVRmatMtl;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Cleaner glossy reflections from area lights;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Implemented Light Cache support for motion blurred hairs;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Implemented more robust common tasks execution, leading to about 10% render speed gain;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Optimized system CPU memory usage for bitmap textures;
(*) V-Ray Toolbar: Changed the default alignment to floating for 3ds Max 2016 and later due to issues with default docking;
(*) VFB: Added VRAY_BLENDED_GUI environment variable that, when set to 0, allows to run the VFB in a separate thread like before, otherwise it runs in the 3ds Max main thread by default;
(*) VFB: Better contrast function that preserves the black and white points;
(*) VFB: The render region coordinates are stored normalized to the image size;
(*) VFB: The vfbControl MaxScript function supports loading of color correction files;
(*) VFB: The vfbControl MaxScript function does not cause the VFB to show anymore;
(*) VFB: The "Edit comment" window appears under the mouse cursor when shown;
(*) VFB: The "Close" button in the "Edit comment" window is changed to "Save and close";
(*) V-Ray Quick settings: Light cache's Pre-filter is no more affected;
(*) VRayCarPaint: Added max reflection depth control;
(*) VRayExposureControl: Added MaxScript access to the "active" and "processBG" options;
(*) VRayFastSSS2: Changed trace reflections to enabled by default;
(*) VRayHDRI: Allow negative values for the U/V Crop/Place parameters in VRayHDRI;
(*) VRayHDRI: Added option to generates IFL lists with full file paths rather than relative;
(*) VRayHDRI: Faster rendering of tiled textures when the tiled memory limit is reached;
(*) VRayHDRI: Improved elliptical filtering;
(*) VRayLight: Simplify the interface options layout;
(*) VRayProxy: Instancing for Alembic meshes is enabled by default;
(*) VRayScatterVolumeMtl: Improved calculations;
(*) VRayToon: Added support for layers in the include/exclude list;
(*) V-Ray Light Lister: Made the light names fields wider and the list is sorted by the lights names;
(*) .vrmesh exporter: Added support for VRayInstancer when "Export each mesh to separate file" option is selected;
(*) .vrscene exporter: The render state of objects is exported;
(*) Installer: Adding exceptions for applications and ports to the firewall;
(*) Lens analyzer: Added ability to generate texture for physical camera distortion map;
(*) ply2vrmesh: Preserve UV set names for .geo/.bgeo files;

Best regards,
Vlado

[vlado]

Bug fixes:
(*) V-Ray: Creating VRayFur either from the V-Ray Toolbar or the menus, was not attaching it to the source object's transformation;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed a crash when loading Alembic files containing particles with invalid positions;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed a crash when rendering a scripted material that extends a 3ds Max native material;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed a crash when rendering primitives with no faces with Embree;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed crash when rendering absolutely straight, motion blurred hairs with Embree;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed hang if cancelling the render during irradiance map calculation phase when DR;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed a random crash at the end of a render if "Get resolution from MAX" option is unchecked;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed artifacts when rendering hairs with Embree;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed some of the quad menu items registering more than once;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed issue where toggling the "Default Lights" option also changed VFB resolution preset;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed unhandled exception when doing distributed rendering an animation with any of the irradiance map incremental modes;
(*) V-Ray: Standard 3ds Max materials were not rendering with VRayOverrideMtl;
(*) V-Ray: Writing output with the "Separate render channels" can be interrupted;
(*) V-Ray/V-Ray RT CPU: Removed occurring bright pixels with progressive sampling;
(*) VRayPhysicalCamera: Fixed wrong physical camera distortion when distortion map is used;
(*) VRayMtl: Fixed wrong shadows with opacity of VRayMtl in VRay2sidedMtl in VRayBlendMtl;
(*) V-Ray RT: 3ds Max UI was freezing during and for some time after render to texture with large resolutions;
(*) V-Ray RT: Added support for animated UVW coordinates;
(*) V-Ray RT: Animation frames were duplicated;
(*) V-Ray RT: Changing map channels during Active Shade was not re-exported;
(*) V-Ray RT: Divide shading subdivs was not exported;
(*) V-Ray RT: Fixed crash due to leaking animated mesh light meshes;
(*) V-Ray RT: Fixed crash when VRayLight has Bercon Noise or Bercon Wood texture;
(*) V-Ray RT: Fixed incorrectly exported displacement plugin when it is animated;
(*) V-Ray RT: Fixed incorrectly exported material names starting with digits;
(*) V-Ray RT: Fixed random hang during "Waiting for renderer..." stage when rendering as production renderer;
(*) V-Ray RT: Fixed some of the messages in the console appearing on the same line;
(*) V-Ray RT: Fixed VFB occasionally freezing during rendering;
(*) V-Ray RT: Mesh light was missing if "Replace mesh with light" was off;
(*) V-Ray RT: Render server may crash on exit if there is a physical camera in the scene;
(*) V-Ray RT: Refraction environment map was used when Reflection/Refraction environment are disabled;
(*) V-Ray RT: Removed unnecessary displaced mesh re-exports;
(*) V-Ray RT: Rendering stops after VRayMtl Displace weight is changed;
(*) V-Ray RT: Texmap animation was not exported when the texmap was attached to VRayDisplacementMod or Output map;
(*) V-Ray RT: The 3ds Max render windows have data from the wrong render element when VRayMtlSelect is used in production rendering;
(*) V-Ray RT: The DMC sampler frame data was not updated properly along animation, interfering with Lock noise pattern;
(*) V-Ray RT: The Generate caustics option in VRayWrapperMtl was not exported;
(*) V-Ray RT: The Lock noise pattern option was not exported properly;
(*) V-Ray RT: The SSS2 render element was not exported;
(*) V-Ray RT: The VFB always pops up when rendering with as production renderer, even if switched off;
(*) V-Ray RT: VRayLight with Composite map was rendered black when base layer transparency was 0.0;
(*) V-Ray RT: VRayLightMtl was always emitting on back side;
(*) V-Ray RT: VRayProxy was rendering with frames offset in ping-pong playback mode;
(*) V-Ray RT: Wrong Alpha channel when rendering as production renderer and native 3ds Max frame buffer is used;
(*) V-Ray RT CPU: The VRayEdgesTex Hidden edges option was ignored;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for procedural textures attached to VRayLights;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Camera vignetting is applied on directly visible VRayLights in the Alpha channel;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Fixed crash when restarting the rendering session;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Fixed crash with VRayFastSSS2;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Fixed rendering of VRayFastSSS2 in the VRayLightSelect render element;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Fixed wrong refraction rendering with VRayVRmatMtl;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Fixed wrong shading with mapped reflection glossiness;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Instanced dome lights with different transformations render wrong;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Optimized displaced geometry memory usage and skipped unnecessary re-exporting;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: Rect lights were producing incorrect shadow when lit by another rect light;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: VRayLight direct light was clamped with Max ray intensity value;
(*) V-Ray RT GPU: VRayLights did not appear in VRaySelfIllumination render element;
(*) VFB: Curve color correction control is not updated when loading from file;
(*) VFB: Fixed messed image when switching from large image to a smaller one during comparison;
(*) VFB: No color corrections are applied in saved render output file;
(*) VFB: Some color correction parameters' values were not resetting;
(*) VFB: The RGB color is still restored from the lens effects source, even if the lens effects mode is "Render elements only";
(*) V-Ray Quick settings: Fixed issue preventing the loading of custom presets;
(*) Hair&Fur: Fixed wrong color of VRayHairInfoTex in VRayMtl on motion blurred hairs;
(*) Hair&Fur: Fixed occasionally wrong shading results (-1.#IND);
(*) VRay2SidedMtl: Fixed rendering black with "multiply by front diffuse" in certain situations;
(*) VRayClipper: Fixed a crash with multiple clippers one of which has material ID enabled when rendering with V-Ray RT;
(*) VRayDirt: Fixed result affected by the geometry inside the shaded object when invert normal is enabled;
(*) VRayFastSSS2: Fixed a crash when rendering with Object-based illumination map;
(*) VRayHairMtl: Wrong shading results when blended with VRayBlendMtl;
(*) VRayHDRI: Interpolation and filtering options are not working if "Clear cache on render end" is enabled;
(*) VRayIES: Fixed a crash on VRayIES color temperature change with disabled viewport shading;
(*) VRayInstancer: Cancelling a render during "Updating instances" causes a crash at the end of the render;
(*) VRayLensEffects: Glare mask was not working when using DR through network rendering jobs;
(*) VRayMetaball: Animated parameters of the VRayMetaball object do not update the preview in the viewport;
(*) VRayMetaball: Changing Particle inputs for VRayMetaballs via MaxScript doesn't refresh in UI automatically;
(*) VRayMtl: Fixed GTR/GGX wrong results when GTR tail falloff is different from 2.0;
(*) VRayMtl: Fixed GTR/GGX invalid results with glossiness value of 1.0;
(*) VRayMtl: The "Affect channels" option for refraction doesn't work when dispersion is enabled;
(*) VRayOrnatrixMod: Fixed a crash when using Bitmap texture with .ifl sequence for Thickness map in Render settings;
(*) VRayOrnatrixMod: Ox Render Settings were not applied to the exact group specified in the modifier;
(*) VRayOSLMtl/VRayOSLTex: Fixed the tab order for shader parameters controls;
(*) VRayPhysicalCamera: Camera tilt parameters are not properly updated in the viewport for hidden cameras;
(*) VRayProxy: Slow import of proxy meshes with the weld option on;
(*) VRayVRmatMtl: Fixed bug when exporting textures that have no tiling disabling and mapping type set to Explicit map channel;
(*) .vrscene exporter: Rendering exported animation scenes should append frame numbers to the output images;
(*) ply2vrmesh: Fixed conversion of PRT files with many particles;

Best regards,
Vlado

[Alan Iglesias]

Fantastic SP, Vlado! Thanks to everyone at Chaos Group!

-Alan

[cheerioboy]

awesome, thanks Chaos Group

[stevesideas]

Thank you very much. I'm really liking some of those new features. Some of them are small but very useful !

[JezUK]

Thanks to the whole team at Chaosgroup - you guys truly are awesome

[Morne]

Thanks guys. Awesome as always!

[viscorbel]

Good job! Seems like a sweet update
Thanks

[peterguthrie]

great work team chaosgroup!

[AndresAhumada]

as always !! thx vlado

[3LP]

Thanks a lot to Chaosgroup team, this SP is wonderful !
Stan

[Jiri.Matys]

Thanks a lot Vlado and others for another fantastic SP full of new features.

[Jiri.Matys]

Texture in radius in VRayDirt doesnt work in RT GPU. Its not supported or is it problem somewhere else?

[savage309]

Texture in radius in VRayDirt doesnt work in RT GPU. Its not supported or is it problem somewhere else?

Only flat colors are supported in the current version (if you use texture, an average color will be used instead). Will make a point in the bug system to add that.

[Art48]

That is an EPIC Update.