V-Ray Next for Maya Beta 2 now available!

[Mihail.Djurev]

V-Ray Next, Beta 2 is here!

Here is a list of the highlights in this release:

- New IPR architecture - IPR stability has been improved since Beta 1.

- GPU aware UI - New V-Ray GPU user interface now only shows GPU-compatible features — making it easier than ever to use V-Ray GPU in production.

- New Toon shading - The V-Ray Toon shader for outlines (VRayToon) has been updated with new features and adanced line control.

- New Hair Glints - New glint and glitter controls in the VRayHairNextMtl more accurately simulate the way light scatters in human and animal hair.

- New V-Ray menu - Easy access to your favorite V-Ray tools from one place

The full change log is below:

New features:
(*) VRayHairNextMtl: Added glints in VRayHairNextMtl;
(*) VRayToon: Added per-material toon outline control;
(*) VRayToon: Added separate control over internal edges;
(*) VRayToonMtl: Added a toon texture highlight option;
(*) VRayToonMtl: Added highlight shape presets;
(*) V-Ray GPU: GPU-specific render settings UI;
(*) V-Ray GPU: GPU-specific VRayMtl UI;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Hide subdivs and cutoff parameters for lights, materials and textures when using GPU;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Maya lookdev nodes support in V-Ray GPU;
(*) Added a separate V-Ray menu in Maya;
(*) Viewport 2.0/VRayMtl: Added support for metalness in VRayMtl viewport preview;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Opacity support for VRayLightMtl;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Support for user attributes for use in bitmap paths;
(*) V-Ray: Added support for color choice texture;
(*) VRayScene: Viewport 2.0 drawing;

Modified features:
(*) VRayOSLMtl/VRayOSLTex: Reintroduced OSL support for macOS;
(*) VRayOSLMtl/VRayOSLTex: Reintroduced OSL support for Linux;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Sped up loading of textures;
(*) V-Ray DR: Added VRAY_DR_SOCKET_SEND_TIMEOUT environmental variable to control timeout in DR;
(*) V-Ray: Optimized export of float to color;
(*) V-Ray: Optimized elliptical filtering speed with tiled textures;
(*) V-Ray/VFB: Optimized speed and memory usage of lens effects;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Optimized memory usage of motion-blurred geometry;
(*) V-Ray: Improve VFB drawing performance;
(*) VRayProxy: Improved stability in parallel mode;
(*) VRayMtl: Added Use Roughness to the lookdev template for VRayMtl;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Warn the user if the settings used for production rendering are going to underutilize the GPU;
(*) V-Ray Swarm: Initial implementation of Swarm functionality in Maya;
(*) V-Ray: Hide the subdivs controls in the light lister UI when use local subdivs is disabled;
(*) V-Ray: Deprecated OpenCL engine and removed it from the UI;
(*) V-Ray: Deprecated Cuda engine on macOS and removed it from the UI;

Bug fixes:
(*) V-Ray: Fixed fatal error with GPU IPR;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed wrong GPU settings when exporting to vrscene;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Compiling Kernels will now properly appear in progress bar;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Cuda error 700 when attaching a texture to a V-Ray light in IPR;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed random crashes with Cuda on Linux;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Crash when deleting VRayLights in specific cases;
(*) V-Ray DR: Fixed Maya crash with DR on early abort;
(*) V-Ray DR: Fixed crash when stopping IPR in DR while animation is running;
(*) V-Ray DR: Fixed crash when switching between IPR and production.
(*) V-Ray IPR: Fixed stopping the IPR rendering caused Maya to hang in some cases;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Fixed crash in IPR when changing materials with hair sampler;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash when deleting heavy geometry in specific scene;
(*) VRayProxy/VRayMeshLight: Fixed a crash with moving proxy meshlight with primary visibility OFF;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed 'cache normals' warning when using displacement on GPU;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Fixed Maya freeze when Viewport IPR has been stopped;
(*) V-Ray/VRayStochasticFlakesMtl: Fixed not being able to attach textures to float attributes of dynamic nodes;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Fixed "Error: "Object 'renderViewpopupIprMenu' not found" when stopping IPR;
(*) V-Ray/VRayClipper: Fixed crash when creating VRayClipper on new Maya session in some cases;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed Material Viewer not rendering V-Ray materials with the background turned off;
(*) Cryptomatte: Fixed Cryptomatte not working in material mode when "Allow negative shader collors" is off;
(*) VRayScene/XGen: Fixed wrong XGen hair data for motion blur;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed CUDA crash with MDL;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed invisible VRayDomeLight being visible through transparent VRayMtl;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed crash when opening a scene that references another scene with instanced V-Ray lights;
(*) VRayPluginNodeMtl: Fixed missing dynamic attributes for materials;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed camera projection with overscan;
(*) VRayCarPaintMtl: Fixed different result from 3.6 with flake scale 0;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Displacement AutoBump for GPU not producing correct results;
(*) VRayScene: Fixed BRDFVRayMtl in a VRayScene object producing white Reflection Glossiness render element when animation overrides are used;
(*) Viewport 2.0/VRayProxy: Some proxies were not shaded properly in the viewport;
(*) V-Ray: Light linking with adaptive lights rendered wrong in some cases;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash in GPU init with hair in the scene;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed switching between layers causing the intensity multiplier to be scaled;
(*) Lens analyzer: Fixed crash when analyzing a photo manually;
(*) V-Ray IPR/VRayProxy: Fixed changing current frame causing re-export of VRayMeshMaterial;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed unexpected render result with non-spherical Dome VRayLight and matte shadows;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed incorrect glossiness with GGX BRDF;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed wrong license error reporting with unreachable network;
(*) V-Ray: Now outputting errors for wrong syntax in vrayconfig.xml;

Feedback is welcome on the dedicated beta forum section:
https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/...-beta-for-maya

Best regards,
Mihail Djurev
V-Ray for Maya Team Lead