V-Ray Next stable nightly build available - 20190813

[konstantin_chaos]

Hi guys,

There is a new stable nightly build available for testing - 20190813

The nightlies download page can now be accessed by anyone with chaosgroup.com account.

Here's a link to the page:
nightlies.chaosgroup.com

And the Rhino sub-folder:
V-Ray for Rhino

Note that it's not recommended to use the nightly builds in production.
They are for test purposes only.
Scenes setup with the nightly build might not behave the same way when loaded in the final official build.

Regards,
Konstantin

[konstantin_chaos]

Next, stable - 20190813

Improved Speed and Quality

• Improved interactive rendering performance on the CPU
• Improved CPU utilization during Light Cache calculation for large output image resolutions
• Hash Map Light Cache mode is enabled. This new default Light Cache calculation mode resolves most common artifacts and is more optimized and stable when used in animations

Workflow Improvements

• V-Ray AppSDK updated to version 4.20.01
• Added support for Cryptomatte render element. It automatically generates and stores object or material based masks which can be exported in a multichannel OpenEXR file. This removes the hassle of creating dozens or hundreds of Multimattes.
• Light source deletion is now undoable
• The ‘Visible’ checkbox is removed from the Rhino properties panel for Fur, Infinite Plane, Mesh Light and Clipper objects. Use the toggle in the asset properties to achieve the same effect
• Built in support for the Rhino Ground Plane geometry implemented. Enabling the Ground in Rhino automatically enables a V-Ray Infinite Plane object that matches the scene’s ground position and material
• V-Ray Infinite Plane assets can now be enabled or disabled in the Asset Editor via their icon buttons or the toggle in their properties
• The viewport display for highly reflective V-Ray materials is improved. Textures can be viewed and positioned even for materials that have a reflection map applied in V-Ray. In such cases the Reflection color value still affects the viewport material appearance
• Using a custom viewport texture in a material now automatically disables some of the shader effects to make it easier for the object UVs (texture position) to be manipulated
• Saving and restoring Rhino Snapshots with V-Ray material assignments and variations is now supported
• The step for the camera EV number field is decreased to 0.5. Activate the field and use the Up and Down keyboard keys to update the value using this new increment
• Slider handles can now be selected and manipulated using the keyboard Left and Right or Up and Down keys
• The Linear Workflow material option is removed and its behavior has been matched using standard shading techniques (and gamma correcting textures in some situations). Scene material that had the option enabled in the past will render as expected. This option is no longer needed for V-Ray 2 materials to be correctly loaded
• Increased float number precision of the Spline and Bezier Curve textures point positions
• An automatic connection between the Color Picker’s color values and the Kelvin slider temperature is implemented. This allows for a temperature value to be saved and modified separately for every color slot
• The File Path Editor user interface is improved. The window no longer has maximum size limits. The footer buttons now use labels instead of icons which makes their functionality more clear
• The V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB) UI scales correctly based on the OS user interface scaling factor. This is especially useful when working on a single high-dpi display system
• The Custom Opacity Source material parameter now uses a checkbox instead of a toggle in the UI

Materials

• The native Rhino RDK material system is used for our internal V-Ray materials management. This resolves a number of issues and limitations when shading a scene
• V-Ray material can now be created in the Rhino Materials panel. Every material created in the Asset Editor will also automatically appear in the Rhino list. Converting a Rhino material to a V-Ray one and vise-versa is now as simple as changing its Type
• V-Ray materials can be assigned to layers using the native Rhino approach
• The V-Ray-side material conflict handling is removed. The Rhino material conflict handling is used instead
• The logic for converting Rhino materials to V-Ray shaders is improved
• The commands vrayApplyMaterial, vrayMtlEnable and vrayEditMtl are removed since they are now obsolete

V-Ray for Grasshopper

• Orthographic cameras are now supported in V-Ray for Grasshopper. Increase the Orthographic Zoom Factor value of the Camera component to see the effect
• Proxy Scene previews are now correctly scaled in the Rhino viewport
• The Renderer Quality presets now exactly resemble the common V-Ray presets used in the Asset Editor

Other Changes & Bug Fixes

• Resolved an issue with newly created Proxy Mesh materials
• Lights created in the Asset Editor during interactive rendering are now automatically enabled
• Consistent material IDs get assigned when the same alembic (.abc) proxy file is loaded more than once
• A number of Color Picker issues on Mac OS are resolved
• Some legacy materials and textures are migrated to their currently preferred counterparts (Legacy Noise, Angle Blend Material, Falloff ASGVIS, etc.)
• Loading specific .vropt (V-Ray Options) files in the Asset Editor no longer causes errors
• Material conflicts caused by linked blocks no longer have to be resolved twice when opening the project
• The Bump material asset icon (in the Assets Outliner list) no longer changes after the scene has been saved and reopened

[Micha]

"The V-Ray-side material conflict handling is removed. The Rhino material conflict handling is used instead"

Today I imported some objects and now I have additional material like "MaterialA[imported]". But I want to keep the scene materials and like to get this materials at the imported materials too. No message popup. I run _ResetMessageBoxes before, but it doesn't helped. How can I get back my old save way?

[Peter.Chaushev]

A method will be available in Rhino 6.18, according to https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-54021

[Micha]

Thank you, I will install this version.

[Micha]

Yesterday I installed this version and set "Choose option ( RenameAndKeep=Off )". Today I got V-Ray materials with the naming [imported] again, after I imported geometry. Sorry, it's not working.

(Also I tried RenameAndKeep=On but it's the same. I wished, we could get back the old implementation.)

[konstantin_chaos]

Hi Micha,

Can you try your desired workflow using Rhino native materials?
You can even disable V-Ray during this test.
Let me know if there is a discrepancy between the conflict resolution with V-Ray and Rhino materials.

If the behavior is consistent then, there is nothing we can do to change it.
As I've mentioned in the notes, we are relying almost completely on what Rhino is doing.
Our previous implementation was relying on many legacy Rhino workflows (internal) which will get deprecated at one point.
The new implementation was strongly suggested by the McNeel team and that's what we have to go with.

Additionally, can you please describe the workflow in which this conflict resolution thing does not work for you?
There might be a different way to address this on our side.

Regards,
Konstantin

[Micha]

OK, I started a request for a fix at the Rhino side:
https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/rende...conflict/62763

[konstantin_chaos]

I've tested the new option in the latest Rhino build and it seems to function as expected.
Check out this video and let me know if this is the behavior you're after:

[Micha]

For importing files it works, only one function is missing - I can not choose, which color is kept, if the name of the scene material is kept. At the moment the scene material color is kept, but some times I like to update the scene material by the imported material color.

The conflict function completely fails if an object isn't imported per file but copied from one Rhino task to an other. Than new materials with [imported] are added always.

[Grigio18]

I am having problems with old scenes, with lot of linked blocks.

I have tens and tens of identical materials, how can I solve?
Importing new ones and pasting seems to work with the new options.

[Micha]

I use the beta with a fix for this:
https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/rende...conflict/62763

[Grigio18]

Ok, I am using an RC of 6.19 too.
but if you load an old rhino file with linked blocks the message does not shows up...am I wrong?

[Micha]

Best you ask John at the discourse thread.