V-Ray 3.6 for Maya now available!

[Mihail.Djurev]

V-Ray 3.6 for Maya is now available! You can download it now from the Chaosgroup website. The update is free for all existing 3.0 users.

The new version has support for Maya 2018 and a lot of new features such as Cryptomatte support, full light selects and many more.

Check out this video for a quick overview of the major new features:

The full change log is below.

New features:
(*) V-Ray: Support for Maya 2018;
(*) V-Ray: Added Cryptomatte render element;
(*) V-Ray GPU CUDA: Added support for CPU rendering (c++/cpu device type);
(*) V-Ray GPU CUDA: Added support for NVIDIA NVLink;
(*) VRayLightSelect: Added "Full" mode for light select elements and made it the default setting;
(*) VRayMDLMtl: MDL materials support;
(*) V-Ray: Added support for Maya render sequence;
(*) VFB: Added test resolution button to the VFB;
(*) VRayMtl: Added clip and stochastic transparency modes to VRayMtl;
(*) V-Ray GPU: GPU production with DR;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Add support for Full Light Select render element on GPU;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Ability to set CUDA devices from the Maya UI without restarting Maya;
(*) V-Ray: Initial support for Instancer in IPR
(*) V-Ray: Changing the image resolution while rendering in IPR with the VFB is now possible;
(*) V-Ray: SamplerInfo render element;
(*) V-Ray: Toon render element;
(*) V-Ray: Support for Maya's Toon shader setup;
(*) V-Ray: Added an overscan feature in the render settings camera overrides;
(*) Viewport 2.0: Support environment maps for the reflections of VRay materials;
(*) Viewport 2.0: VRaySky preview in VP2;
(*) V-Ray: Support for the Lens squeeze ratio of the Maya camera;
(*) V-Ray: Support for the float nodes in LookDevKit;
(*) V-Ray: Support for the exposure parameter of the File node;
(*) VFB: Ability to load progressive resumable files in the VFB;
(*) VRayMtl: Implemented Oren-Nayar roughness model;
(*) V-Ray: Support for the -percentRes batch render flag;

Modified features:
(*) VRayMtl: Changed the default BRDF to GGX;
(*) V-Ray: V-Ray size and dimension units now respect the Maya scene units;
(*) V-Ray: ZDepth is always exported as 32-bit in multichannel EXR files;
(*) VRayMDLMtl: MDL sample materials now included with the installation;
(*) VRayProxy: Read multiple UV sets from Alembic files exported from the Maya Alembic exporter;
(*) VRayTriplanar: Mappable scale attribute for the Triplanar texture;
(*) V-Ray: Improved memory usage when there are milions of instances in the scene;
(*) V-Ray: Faster rendering of proxies and instances when Embree is enabled;
(*) V-Ray: Added an option for clearing the render mask;
(*) V-Ray: V-Ray for Maya DR settings will be saved in a single XML file;
(*) V-Ray: The VRayShelf right click menu for VRayToon can now list all the available VRayToon nodes;
(*) V-Ray: The VRayShelf right click menu for VRayClipper can now list all the available VRayClipper nodes;
(*) V-Ray: Added "Use V-Ray VFB" option to the right click menu in the VFB icon on the shelf;
(*) Viewport 2.0: Preview the refraction of the base material in a VRayBlendMtl;
(*) Viewport 2.0: V-Ray shader previews now work in DirectX;
(*) Viewport 2.0: Support transparency in the preview for VRayMtlHair3;
(*) Viewport 2.0: VRayFur shader preview;
(*) Viewport 2.0: Clamped opacity to 0.1 by default to avoid invisible objects;
(*) VRayHairSampler: Option to get the strand length from hair sampler;
(*) ply2vrmesh: Added -verboseLevel option to ply2vrmesh in order to limit the output;
(*) VRayScannedMtl: Added Material ID attributes to the scannedMtl in Maya;
(*) XGen: Added V-Ray attributes to XGen Interactive Groomable Splines;
(*) V-Ray: Added max tessellation option for hair;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Improved logging for the progressive sampler;
(*) VRayMtl: Removed "Use reflect/refract interpolation" options from VRayMtl;
(*) VrayLightIES: Reworked how controls update;
(*) V-Ray: The specific frames list for animation now allows spaces;
(*) V-Ray: Tree controls are now hidden when using embree;
(*) V-Ray: Increased the default max paths per pixel to 10000 for IPR;
(*) V-Ray: Ability to specify a render region with relative 0 to 1 values in maya batch and vrend;
(*) V-Ray: Changed Light Select type labels;
(*) V-Ray: Renamed Maya Fluids' Deep Output/Trace Sets option to Render as Geometry;
(*) V-Ray: Print what Maya version was used to export the vrscene;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Added support for the Projection Wrap parameter;
(*) V-Ray: Reduced CPU usage when IPR is paused;
(*) VRayStereoscopic: Deep EXR + Spherical Camera: Fixed wrong Z value for objects behind camera plane;
(*) V-Ray: Better error messages when writing raw EXR files;
(*) V-Ray: Possibility to use shader names with MtlMulti/GeomStaticMesh;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Improved loading time of VRayVolumeGrid caches;

(bug fixes in the next post)

[Mihail.Djurev]

Bug fixes:
(*) V-Ray IPR: Fixed IPR refreshing two times on any change;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Fixed IPR restarting when selecting an object when Hypershade is open in Maya 2016+;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed render layer token not working with specific setup;
(*) VRayProxy: Fixed no motion blur from alembic with V-Ray subdivision;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed UserInteger not working as texture switch in MultiSubTex;
(*) V-Ray: simplexNoise now supports dynamic distortion;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed crash when duplicating and moving objects in RT;
(*) V-Ray: The <Camera> token is now parsed properly for displaying in the file name label;
(*) V-Ray: Viewport IPR: Fixed banding with low brightness when using SynColor;
(*) V-Ray: Rendering no longer resets the A and B images from the VFB history;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed error in mayapy with Maya 2017 no module vray.rendererCallbacks;
(*) VRscene manager: Fixed preview type for the vrscene not working;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed invalid geometric normal warning flooding script editor and freezing Maya;
(*) V-Ray: Visibility of objects in Alembic files is no longer ignored by V-Ray proxy objects;
(*) VRayStereoscopic: V-Ray now outputs Real Color for stereoscopy only when writing a shademap;
(*) V-Ray/VFB: Deleted images from VFB history are now recycled on Windows;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed renderable curves not rendering when visibility is keyed;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed wrong alpha-channel at VFB-borders when using texture render mask;
(*) VFB: Fixed wrong scaling of the channel box for HiDPI displays;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed object disappearing when Batch Rendering;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed deleting a V-Ray Proxy instance removing the vrayMeshMtl for proxy objects remaining in the scene;
(*) V-Ray: Can't render XGen on render layer other than default fixed;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed Maya scene getting marked as changed when the VFB is opened or loses focus;
(*) V-Ray: "Divide shading subdivs" should be hidden when "use local subdivs" is disabled;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed vrend command always returning success;
(*) VRayDomeLight: Fixed lag in viewport 2.0 when rotating dome light with texture when useTransform is enabled in placeEnvTex;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed VrayFurPreview not updating in Parallel Evaluation Mode;
(*) V-Ray: Multi-segmented motion blur: Computing particle velocities when possible;
(*) VRayScene: Fixed UNC path getting prefixed with the vrscene root on Linux;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed in-process IPR crashes with subdivision;
(*) V-Ray: Resuming a render with GI turned Off no longer triggers a warning for the Adaptive Lights;
(*) VRayFur: Fixed fur disappearing in IPR on frame change;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed pixel aspect ratio not taking correct value until render settings window opened;
(*) VRayTriplanarTex: Fixed VRayTriplanarTex texture not following surface deformation even with a reference mesh specified;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed the Material Viewer in Maya 2016 Hypershade not starting the first time;
(*) VRayProxy: Fixed all "-" (hyphen) symbols are replaced by an "_" (underscore) when exporting to a VRayProxy;
(*) VRayDomeLight: Fixed flipped preview in the viewport of a ramp texture in a dome light;
(*) V-Ray: The PLUGINS variable in the installer ignores the value entered by the user - fixed;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed zDepth render element infinity color when far color is white;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed crashes when baking UDIM textures in a specific scene;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed slow export of ramp texture with lots of color handles;
(*) VRayRectLight: Fixed random texture being assigned to the rectangle light file texture;
(*) VRayProxy: Fixed non-ascii characters are converted to "_" when saving proxy file;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed black buckets when adding local machine with DR and Resumable rendering;
(*) V-Ray: Use default color instead of black for missing textures;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed VRayStereoscopic camera not working when rendered with GPU;
(*) V-Ray: V-Ray hangs the main thread when some of the license servers are offline;
(*) VRayOSLMtl: TLS limit is hit with 1000+ OSL nodes;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed some subtle bugs in chunked scene transfer before rendering and between frames;
(*) V-Ray: Reduced locking while rendering;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed first atmospheric effect result is added twice if the second effect is aerial perspective with active set to false;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed increasing progressive sampler memory usage with each resumed frame;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed wrong progress during loading and saving progressive resumable files;
(*) VFB: Fixed stamp button is being replaced upon mouse-over;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed random pixels activated on an empty scene with the progressive sampler;
(*) VFB: Fixed CC sliders' numeric value edit box not scaling properly on HiDPI screens.;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed alSurface's SSS produces NaNs;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed UVTiles at U index larger than 10 rendering gray;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed primary_visibility flag of the GeomStaticMesh plugin not working;
(*) VRayOSLTex: Fixed OSL not respecting mipmap levels;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed V-Ray not supporting specific IES lights;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed OpenCL failing to start;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed GPU (CUDA) not rendering BRDFVRayMtl fog color texture;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed TexAColorOp in "power" mode not working as expected;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed CUDA Error 700 in specific scene;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Camera position not updated when using a Camera Map Per Pixel map in a scene with an animated camera;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Removed the ocldeviceselect dependency to OpenCL.DLL;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed MtlMulti's mtlid_gen_float with Instancer not working;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed sphere lights with animated scale crashing when rendered with motion blur;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Objects with VRayOverrideMtl and "Visible to camera" off still rendered in GPU;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Blend material not rendering with OpenCL rendering;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Crash with multi-gpu setups in specific scene;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Glossiness driven by LayeredTex Alpha from Luminance rendering as 0 when the color is pure white;
(*) V-Ray GPU: GPU did not render correctly V-Ray triplanar map when the texture used UV tiling more than 1;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Artifacts with Adaptive lights, VRayLight exclude lists and matte objects;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Wrong alpha channel with VRayLights with Directional parameter above 0.0;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Camera lens distortion not working when motion blur is ON;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Geometry disappearing with VRayLightMtl and direct illumination;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed "Color opacity" option not working by V-Ray GPU mode.;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed OpenCL failing to build and rendering not starting on Linux.;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Dome light visible in the alpha through matte object with opacity;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Textures not rendering if the filename contains the "$" symbol.;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Dome light affecting matte surfaces when rendered with CUDA;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Reflection/Refraction not matte when rendered with CUDA;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash with shared VRayEdges textures between materials in specific scene;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed broken UVTile with missing file;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Added support for arbitrary clipper exclude list items;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Improved triangle intersection precision;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Installer sets CUDA_CACHE_MAXSIZE to at least 256MB;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Driver 380+ caused some scenes to render bitmaps with wrong uv;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed zDepth RE infinity color;
(*) V-Ray GPU: OpenCL rendered black in active shade after a scene change;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed artifact in the zenith of the sky with VRayAerialPerspective;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash when rendering with on-demand mipmapping;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed artifacts when using OpenCL with more than one device;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash when exiting Maya/V-Ray STD after CUDA was used on MacOS;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed wrong screen mapping for textures assigned to the Environment slot;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: The "Load nearest if missing" option is now working properly when previewing VRayVolumeGrid;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: The "Loop Overlap" option is now working properly when previewing VRayVolumeGrid;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Fractional value for the "Play Speed" option is now working properly when previewing VRayVolumeGrid;

[oglu]

great... double thanks....

[jasonhuang1115]

Congrats to the team!! Really appreciate you guys hard work. Hope to see more pushes on the IPR so we can leave the IPR on most of the time.

[TheScope]

Great Update! Thanks a lot for the hard work.

[sharktacos]

"VRayMtl: Implemented Oren-Nayar roughness model"

First question: I had thought the diffuse roughness was Oren-Nayar previously, no? Curious model was used for diffuse roughness before then?
Second question: does this fix the bug where diffuse roughness does not work when glossy Fresnel is enabled?

[yolov]

"VRayMtl: Implemented Oren-Nayar roughness model"

First question: I had thought the diffuse roughness was Oren-Nayar previously, no? Curious model was used for diffuse roughness before then?
Second question: does this fix the bug where diffuse roughness does not work when glossy Fresnel is enabled?

Not really sure of the roughness model used before that without checking about it, but yes, it means that roughness now works with glossy fresnel.

[Mihail.Djurev]

"VRayMtl: Implemented Oren-Nayar roughness model"

First question: I had thought the diffuse roughness was Oren-Nayar previously, no? Curious model was used for diffuse roughness before then?
Second question: does this fix the bug where diffuse roughness does not work when glossy Fresnel is enabled?

This is exactly the fix for the problem in this thread .
The Roughness should be fixed when glossy Fresnel is enabled, yes.

[sharktacos]

Fantastic, thank you

[Fredrik Averpil]

Congrats to everyone involved getting this released!

For you who are using it, what are your impressions?
Anyone running it with Maya 2018?

[flat]

(*) V-Ray: Support for Maya's Toon shader setup;

There is no details.
Full support for pfxToonShape?

[tmcthree]

Do you no longer support Maya 2014?

[flat]

hello
Would you please answer my question?

Support for toon shaders is very important.

[yolov]

Do you no longer support Maya 2014?

With V-Ray 3.6 we no longer support Maya 2014. Here's a list of all supported Maya versions with V-Ray 3.6: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...m+Requirements
The latest V-Ray version that supports 2014 is V-Ray 3.5.

[yolov]

hello
Would you please answer my question?

Support for toon shaders is very important.

With V-Ray 3.6 we've added support for what Maya calls "Toon Shading". This should work now work with V-Ray. There might be some cases where V-Ray will require some settings to be tweaked in the toon shaders to work, mostly where there's a diffuse component and its default "weight" or "multiplier" is set to 0 - it should be increased. I hope you find this information helpful.