V-Ray for Maya, Update 1 BETA

[yolov]

Hi everyone,

We invite you to beta-test our upcoming V-Ray 5 for Maya, Update 1!

In the beta, you’ll find initial support for USD, support for Maya 2022 and the V-Ray Material library. There are also many other new features and improvements.

The beta is open to all existing users and you can download builds from here.

During the beta, we’ll update the builds regularly, so make sure you check for updates.
Give us your feedback in the Maya forums and keep an eye out for more updates - we’ll be posting on the forum regularly as things move forward.


There are some known issues and temporary limitations in the beta builds that we’ll be working on resolving and we’ll post updates about.

Initial USD Support

• Exporting V-Ray data (shaders, lights) to USD from Maya is not yet supported
• USD is not yet supported on macOS
• More detailed information on USD support can be found here.

V-Ray Material Library

• Currently only supported on Windows
• No viewport preview
• Maya may print errors and warnings for the color spaces of the material library. Just ignore these for now.

Other

• Maya 2022 is not supported on macOS
• Disabling targets for V-Ray lights crashes Maya 2022
• Cryptomatte is supported in progressive, but not IPR

Note that zip builds need changes to the PATH (respectively LD_LIBRARY_PATH and DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH) and the MAYA_RENDER_DESC_PATH environment variables.
You can find more information on the updated environment setup for zip builds here: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...ation+from+zip

Test away!
The V-Ray for Maya team


The full changelog is below:

New features:
(*) V-Ray: Cryptomatte in progressive;
(*) V-Ray: Initial support for V-Ray Material Library in Maya;
(*) V-Ray: Progressive caustics mode;
(*) V-Ray: Maya 2022 support;
(*) VRayEnvironmentFog: Environment Fog colored transparency;
(*) V-Ray/USD: Initial support for rendering USD files through VRayScene and Maya USD Proxy;
(*) V-Ray/USD: Initial support for in-memory rendering USD stages in Maya;
(*) V-Ray/USD: Support for animated and deforming mesh geometry animation with motion blur;
(*) V-Ray/USD: Support for V-Ray displacement from USD;
(*) V-Ray/USD: Support for V-Ray shaders encoded in USD;
(*) V-Ray/USD: Support for USDPreviewSurface;
(*) V-Ray: New Opacity cutout command;
(*) V-Ray/GPU: Light cache calculated on GPU;
(*) VRayMtl: New translucency modes for VRayMtl (based on VRayScatterVolume);
(*) VRayMtl: Thin-walled refraction option;
(*) VFB: VRayStandalone with VFB2 support;
(*) VFB: Now possible to change or remove VFB2 shortcuts;
(*) VFB: Layers masking based on Cryptomatte, integer and color render elements data;
(*) VFB: Added stamp layer support;
(*) VFB: Custom White Balance support for color picker and tint;
(*) VFB: Support for animated sequences for Background layer using <frameNum> tag;
(*) VFB: Added an option to bake the RGB primaries conversion;
(*) VFB: Added horizontal/vertical offset for Background layer;
(*) VFB: Image Info for the history images;
(*) VFB: Added the frame number to the VFB History image info overlay;
(*) V-Ray: Added an option to switch between world units and pixels as photon lookup radius for the caustics photon map;
(*) V-Ray/vdenoise: Integrated Intel Open Image Denoiser;
(*) VRayRectLight, VRayMeshLight, VRayLightSphere: Added "Occlude other lights" option for V-Ray lights;
(*) VRayProxy: Created vrayImportVRmeshGeom command to import proxies as Maya geometry;
(*) V-Ray/VRayProxy: Added a filter for searching VRayProxy hierarchy;
(*) V-Ray/VRayProxy: Added import/export of VRayProxy material rules;
(*) VRaySun/V-Ray GPU: Added support for blending the sun with the horizon with the Improved sky model;
(*) VRayPluginNodeMtl: Support for float textures;
(*) Material importer: Add support for importing float texture opacity map;
(*) Material importer: Add support for importing blend_method parameter of TexTriPlanar;
(*) Material importer: Add support for importing TexNormalBump;
(*) Material importer: Add V-Ray extra attribute for filter blur to the file node;
(*) Material importer: Add support for importing "out_intensity" and "out_alpha" texture output parameters;
(*) Material importer: Add support for importing plugin node float textures;
(*) Material importer: Add option to disable Maya-style alpha detection on file textures;
(*) Material importer: Material importer support for bitmap extra V-Ray attributes;
(*) Material importer: Support for VRayUVWRandomizer in material importer;
(*) Material importer: Added .vrmat support in material importer;
(*) V-Ray: Now exporting pivot and parent transforms information in vrscene files for Vantage and V-Ray for Unreal;
(*) V-Ray/VFB2: Added buttons for the R, G and B channels to the VFB2 toolbar;
(*) V-Ray/V-Ray GPU: Added support for tiled textures with large amount of tiles on V-Ray GPU;
(*) V-Ray/V-Ray GPU: Rounded corners support with Out-Of-Core geometry
(*) V-Ray/V-Ray GPU: Support for VRayDirt with Out-Of-Core geometry
(*) V-Ray/V-Ray GPU: Support for VRayFastSSS2 with Out-Of-Core geometry
(*) V-Ray/V-Ray GPU: Support for VRayALSurfaceMtl with Out-Of-Core geometry
(*) V-Ray/V-Ray GPU: Support for VRayClipper with Out-Of-Core geometry
(*) V-Ray GPU: Added support for normal maps in world space;
(*) VRayMultiSubTex: Added random by scene name to MultiSubTex;
(*) Viewport 2.0: Added support for sheen and coat in Viewport 2.0;
(*) Viewport 2.0: VRayLayeredTex basic viewport preview;

Modified features:
(*) V-Ray GPU: Optimized CUDA CPU performance;
(*) V-Ray: Move all V-Ray dll/so files to V-Ray's bin folder;
(*) V-Ray: Dropped support for Maya 2017;
(*) VFB: Remember the last used location and format when saving an image from the VFB;
(*) VFB: Keep VFB2 window in front/on top of Autodesk Maya;
(*) VRayDirt: Added a multiplier for the radius in VRayDirt;
(*) VRayMeshLight: Made VRayLightMesh available in Maya light editor;
(*) VRayTriplanar Replaced the "scale" parameter of the VRayTriplanar texture with "size" dependent on the scene units;
(*) V-Ray/V-Ray GPU: Improved volume intersection & shading;
(*) V-Ray: Material labels now work consistently with layered materials;
(*) XGen: Deprecated the legacy XGen vrscene exporter;
(*) Chaos Cloud: Vrscene packing should now relies on cloud client file naming;
(*) V-Ray: Faster initialization of meshes with static 3D displacement in Standalone;
(*) V-Ray: Failing to write to output image folder should be an error;
(*) V-Ray: Now ignoring "Don't save image" option when submitting to Chaos Cloud;
(*) V-Ray/VRayProxy: Undo support for proxy material overrides;
(*) VRayCarPaint2Mtl/VRayFlakes2Mtl: Proper UI for Flake Random Color and Flake Scale Triplanar in Carpaint2/Flakes2;
(*) V-Ray: Allow arbitrary values for the motion blur's interval center parameter;
(*) V-Ray: Mixed filtering option for ZDepth;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Changed the default min/max subdivs values for V-Ray GPU Bucket rendering;
(*) V-Ray: Don't include the GPU stats when copying to clipboard from the VFB;
(*) V-Ray/V-Ray GPU: Added the IPR performance statistics to the VFB 2 Stats panel;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Support for back side material IDs;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Optimized IPR scene updates with OptiX;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Implemented displacement in world space;
(*) V-Ray GPU/VRayDirt: Add support for dirt and curvature attached to extra tex when OOC geometry is enabled;
(*) V-Ray: ExtraTex should no longer affects sampling by default;

[yolov]

Bug fixes:
(*) V-Ray: Fixed slower rendering and excessive memory usage with user attributes as bitmap tags;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed slow carpaint2 and flakes2 swatch rendering;
(*) V-Ray: The UVWGenRandomizer should not transform the UVs in any way when mode 0 is selected;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed slow GPU LC preview when moving the scene in IPR;
(*) V-Ray GPU: V-Ray GPU fails to load and render tiles texture with Mudbox filename format with lowercase $u and $v;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Light select and GPU light cache not rendering correctly;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed error building Embree voxel tree when "Conserve memory" is enabled in certain scenes;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed Deadlock when building image planes for MipMap buffers;
(*) Material importer: Fixed importing UVWGenObject when connected to auto generated VRayPluginNodeTex;
(*) Material importer: Fixed Material importer flaw for materials with embedded bump attributes;
(*) Material importer: Fixed importing the "gtr_gamma" attribute in the BRDFVRayMtl plugin;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed scenes containing OSL shaders saved with V-Ray older than 5 giving an error;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed difference between glossy and mirror caustic reflections from metallic surfaces;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed Slow rendering with duplicated textures;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed difference in DOF between in DR vs local;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed Custom Color render element not working for alpha;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed VRayCarPaintMtl2 coat IOR <1 not consistent in V-Ray and V-Ray GPU;
(*) V-Ray: Viewport IPR: Fixed resizing Maya window changing camera zoom, depending on camera scale;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed crash with corrupted PNG files;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed Intel Open Image Denoise producing artefacts in the alpha;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed crash with Instancer and Velocity RE;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed wrong VRayMtl normal map in tangent space;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed Incorrect LPE light selects with light cache (CPU);
(*) V-Ray: Fixed OSL error with UNC include paths;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed create Render Node window remaining on top when creating VRaySphereFade;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed different TexRandom by face index between Windows and Linux/OSX;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed open map with Irradiance Map Viewer not working;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed memory leak when rendering vrscene which has been exported with VFB2;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed scene with alembic hair and motion blur hangs on compile geometry phase;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash with GPU Light cache from file on second render;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed GPU Memory leaks after IPR updates when there is capraint2 material in the scene;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash with RTX when deleting a map in VRayDisplacementMod during V-Ray GPU IPR;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed texture on objects with normal displacement appearing smudged in GPU production renders with on-demand mipmapping;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed specific opacity texture is often rendered incorrectly on GPU when mipmapped;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed unhandled exception with V-Ray GPU IPR;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash with Dome light, cpu light cache and bucket sampler;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed darker GI with matte objects when matte for refl/refr is off;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed artifacts when changing the region in IPR and using Adaptive lights;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Black artefacts on objects with mipmapped hi-res textures;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed empty buckets with Hybrid rendering and LPE;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Matte is not working correctly with shadow linking;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed RTX producing fireflies with specific scene;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash on consecutive rendering with VRayClipper and VRayTriplanarTex;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed consecutive SunLight updates crashing interactive CUDA renders;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash with 32k textures in full size mode;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed UVWGenChannel use_double_sided_mode option ignored by the GPU engine;
(*) VRayCarPaintMtl: Fixed crash with VRayCarPaintMtl with flake size 0;
(*) Viewport 2.0: Fixed V-Ray lights are not hidden in the viewport after being set to be hidden;
(*) VRayPluginNodeMtl: Fixed list items with defaults in VRayPluginNode disappearing after saving to Maya scene;
(*) VRayProxy: Fixed animated alembic not caching the animation with the new proxy;
(*) VRayProxy: Fixed VRayProxy not packaged in a Maya archive;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash when using vrmesh file with more than 16 material and UV maps;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed wrong VRayDirt render when another node passes a value to textured parameter;
(*) VRayStochasticFlakesMtl: Fixed Carpaint2 and Flakes2 crash when updating material swatches;
(*) Viewport 2.0: Fixed environment reflection viewport preview;
(*) Viewport 2.0: A hidden dome light no longer visible in viewport reflections;
(*) vrimg2exr: Fixed vrimg2exr crashing in GUI mode on Linux when overwriting an existing file;

[yolov]

Note that zip builds need changes to the PATH (respectively LD_LIBRARY_PATH and DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH) and the MAYA_RENDER_DESC_PATH environment variables.
You can find more information on the updated environment setup for zip builds here: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...ation+from+zip

[yolov]

Updated USD Support

Hey everyone,

In our latest builds we've added a few additions to our initial USD support and we've fixed bugs.

In-memory edits can now be rendered with V-Ray.
This means that when you load a USD file and do edits in the Maya session, you can render them even before saving the edits back to a USD file.

Rendering animated shader parameters from USD files are now also supported.

We've also fixed a few issues where:
*) UDIM textures from USD now load correctly;
*) Fixed wrong render of the faceVarying normals interpolation USD token;
*) Fixed warnings when loading LayeredTex from USD;
*) Various other minor fixes and improvements.


Grab a fresh build from: https://nightlies.chaosgroup.com/mai...e/stable_5.1.2
Happy testing, and let us know your feedback!

The V-Ray for Maya team