V-Ray 5 for Rhino, is now available!

[konstantin_chaos]

V-Ray 5 for Rhino, is now available!

It can be download here:
download.chaosgroup.com

After installation, you will find more detailed info about the changes in the 'VRayForRhinoReleaseNotes' and the 'changelog' files:
.\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray for Rhinoceros\VRayForRhinoReleaseNotes.html
.\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray for Rhinoceros\changelog.txt

Best regards,
Konstantin

[konstantin_chaos]

V-Ray Vision

General

• V-Ray Vision real-time viewer implemented. It works like a V-Ray Interactive Rendering session but uses a different engine (rasterizer) to visualize the V-Ray scene. Project changes will be immediately reflected in the Vision viewer. Note that there are still many unsupported V-Ray features and effects
• Vision toolbar icon and menu entry added. It opens the Vision window and starts an interactive session. If the Vision window is already open the toolbar button just enables the live link

Geometry

• Standard geometry support added. Only one UV set per object is currently supported
• Geometry visibility state support added
• Proxy Mesh geometry support added. Changing the Proxy Mesh file, transformation or material assignments during interactive rendering is also supported
• Proxy Scenes (.vrscene references) support added
• Automatic geometry optimization implemented. Small objects sharing a material are automatically merged in Vision to improve performance

Lights and Environment

• Rectangle, Sphere, Omni, Spot, Sun and Direct lights support added. Note that only the natural Inverse Square light decay is used
• Dome Light support added. Spherical texture placement is required
• Multiple Dome lights handling implemented. Vision ignores disabled lights from the scene’s list and picks the first enabled one
• Support for Dome lights without a texture added. The light color is used in this case
• Partial Environment Override support added. A maximum of two separate environments can be visualized - one for Background and Refractions and another used for GI and Reflections
• Partial Mesh Light support added
• Partial Volumetric Environment support added

Materials and Textures

• VRay Mtl support added. Note that not all V-Ray parameters have an effect
• Bump and normal maps support added. The Bump material attribute or the built-in bump parameters can be used to enable the effect
• Emissive material support added. Mapping the Transparency of the material is also supported
• Material Translucency support added. This includes the Two Sided material as well as the Translucency material attributes
• Multi Material support added
• Basic Layered and Blend materials support added. Note that Multi Materials combined with material layering may produce incorrect results
• Bitmap texture support added
• Color Correction texture support added
• Spline and Bezier Curve correction textures supported
• Color and Temperature textures supported
• Mix textures support added
• Falloff and Fresnel textures supported
• Global material override support added
• Automatic mipmap generation implemented for all bitmap textures. It optimizes the rendering speed and removes moire effects when viewing detailed textures in a distance
• Each new slot added to the Multi-Sub texture now presents an unique random color by default

Camera and Navigation

• Standard and Orthographic (Parallel Projection) cameras support added
• Support for Two-Point Perspective cameras added
• Two navigation modes implemented in the Vision window. Orbit enables camera movement based on orbit, pan and zoom manipulations. In Fly mode the keyboard W, A, S, D, Q, E buttons are used for moving while mouse left click + drag can be used for looking around. The camera is automatically leveled (roll transformation is removed) once fly or orbit navigation is initiated in the Vision window

User Interface

• Toolbar UI implemented in the Vision viewer
• Live Link indicator added to the toolbar. It shows whether a live session is ongoing or not
• Live Link parameters added. Camera and Sun synchronization can be disabled. Click on Vision’s Live Link button to manipulate the live link options state
• Open button added to the toolbar. Opens an existing .vrscene file for viewing. The button is disabled while in a live session
• Resolution Mode toggle added to the toolbar. Different modes change the image framing in the Vision window. When Fit in Window is selected the image matches the Vision window size and aspect. When Match Scene Aspect is selected the image matches the aspect ratio specified in the V-Ray render settings. The size of the image is still determined by the window size
• Camera Navigation Mode toggle added to the toolbar. It switches between Orbit and Fly mode. The ‘Tab’ keyboard key can be used as well
• Auto Exposure toggle added to the toolbar. Use it to quickly toggle the effect
• Save button added to the toolbar. Use it to display the Image/Animation Export panel
• Settings button added to the toolbar. It opens the Settings Panel where various Vision-specific options can be changed
• Info button added to the toolbar. It shows the Info Panel where some useful keyboard shortcuts are listed
• Color Correction button added to the toolbar. It opens a panel with various color correction settings
• Exposure, Saturation, Contrast, Temperature and Tint color correction controls implemented
• A way for saving, loading or resetting the color corrections implemented

Settings

• Geometry level of detail implemented. Activating the Enable Proxy LOD option replaces the full proxy mesh with the proxy preview when the object is in a distance or occupies a small portion of the screen. Note that most proxy preview meshes don’t have material ID assignments and hence the first material in the list will be used for the whole preview
• Shadow optimization implemented. Enable the Optimize Shadows option to use lower resolution shadows while moving the camera. Once the camera stops moving the high quality shadow will be displayed. This option only applies to Sun and other Direct lights
• Auto Exposure implemented
• Auto Exposure Compensation implemented
• Fly Mode parameter implemented. Enables the fly navigation mode similar to the toolbar Navigation Mode toggle
• Fly Speed and Mouse Sensitivity options added. Both affect only the Fly Navigation Mode
• Fly navigation mode motion smoothing implemented. Increase the Smooth Movement Delay to explore or present the model in a more fluent manner
• Automatic Image Based Lighting Sun option implemented. Automatically adds a directional light based on the brightest spot in an HDR environment image. The option has no effect if the project Sun is enabled. It is also not recommended when there is no single distinct bright spot in the image used for lighting

Animation

• Camera animations can now be transferred to Vision. The animation can be played in real time or exported as a sequence of images. Set up a camera animation using the Rhino native tools or V-Ray for Grasshopper, enable the Animation toggle in the V-Ray render settings and run Vision for a live preview

Image and Animation Export

• Image and Animation export options panel implemented
• File path and type controls implemented
• Spherical panorama image export implemented
• Image resolution control implemented. Use the Resolution Mode, Resolution slider and the Size Multiplier to change the size of the output images. Adjust the Size Multiplier value to render images bigger or smaller than the one shown on screen
• Export function implemented. A still image or an animated sequence will be exported based on the Animation checkbox state. The Animation FPS value can be used for animation retiming

Other

• Quick controls for modifying the Sun position and intensity implemented. Check the keyboard shortcuts in the Info Panel for more information
• Quick camera exposure controls implemented. Check the keyboard shortcuts in the Info Panel for more information
• Loading screen implemented. It is displayed when a scene is being transferred to Vision
• A license error screen implemented. It is displayed when no V-Ray License is available
• The Vision application is automatically closed after Rhino closes
• Some of Vision’s preferences are stored between sessions
• A logic for determining the initial Fly Speed on scene load based on the scene size is implemented
• Shortcuts for manipulating the Fly Speed implemented. Use ‘Ctrl’ and ‘+’ to increase it and ‘Ctrl’ and ‘-’ to decrease it
• HDR images bigger than 15K are automatically downscaled when loaded to avoid video memory issues

[konstantin_chaos]

New V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB)

• The entire VFB is redesigned. The style and appearance of all UI elements is improved
• Layer Compositor implemented. The right fly-off panel of the VFB now presents a full-featured layering system that can be used for image editing - without the need for a separate post-processing app
• Image Source control implemented. Choose between RGB, Light Mix or Composite depending on your needs. The RGB mode enables color correcting the Beauty (RGB) image. The Light Mix source allows light intensities and colors to be modified after rendering. The Composite mode lets you access, comp and modify the individual render elements for more advanced post-effects
• The color correction system is updated. Color corrections can now be added, removed and reordered at will. Multiple instances of the same correction type are allowed
• Blend Mode as well as Weight controls added to each correction layer
• Color Channel Curve corrections implemented. Use the new Curves UI to remap the values in the individual R, G and B image channels
• Filmic tonemap layer implemented. Use the preset curve profiles and their parameters to quickly achieve impressive results
• Color correction layers can now be applied to individual render elements. For example, changing the saturation of the Diffuse element only is done by selecting it first and then creating a Hue Saturation layer from the menu. The arrow indicates that the correction is applied only to the item below
• Render element layers can also be grouped and organized in folders
• Save layer tree preset function implemented. Save layer configurations as part of a preset library. The library can then be referenced by the VFB for easier access
• Advance VFB configuration implemented. Change visual as well as functional properties of the window and save them between sessions
• The way the Denoiser and Lens Effects elements are presented is updated
• Keyboard shortcuts implemented in VFB. Check the VFB Settings / Shortcuts section for more details
• Four image comparison modes implemented as part of the History panel
• Render regions can now be moved or resized after they are drawn
• The render buckets’ colors can now be changed in the VFB Settings window
• The pixel info is now located in the footer section
• The pixel info can sample more than one region and print information about the average value. Use the drop-down menu (1x1) to change the sample size
• Stats tab added in the right fly-off panel. Useful information about the project complexity and size (memory allocation) from a V-Ray standpoint is interactively displayed there
• Undo and Redo functions implemented
• Render Interactive button added to the VFB. It behaves the same way as its toolbar and Asset Editor counterpart

Light Mix

• Light Mix render element implemented. It extracts light’s contribution and stores it in a separate element. Lights can also be grouped based on the mode in the element parameters. Use the Light Mix source mode in the VFB to change light intensities after or even during rendering
• Individual Lights mode implemented - Each light instance is stored on a separate element/layer
• Group Instances mode implemented - Light instances are grouped together
• Layers mode implemented - Lights are grouped based on the Rhino layer they are associated with
• Light IDs mode implemented - Lights are grouped by their V-Ray Light ID assignment. Change the ID in the V-Ray light properties panel in Rhino
• The Rhino Document Sun is listed separately in all Light Mix group modes

Light Gen

• Light Gen (Generator) tool implemented. It automatically generates a big number of lighting variations for the currently active project. It can illuminate exteriors or interiors with natural light using the V-Ray Sun & Sky system or a Dome Light (named LIGHT_GEN_DOME) for an image-based lighting (IBL) setup. The resulting lighting scenarios are presented as thumbnails that can be interactively applied to the project.
• Exterior Sun & Sky mode implemented - The scene will be lit with the V-Ray physical Sun & Sky system
• Exterior HDR (IBL) mode implemented - The scene will be lit with a Dome light and one of the high quality HDR images that come prepackaged with the software
• Interior Sun & Sky mode implemented - This mode is best used for illuminating closed spaces with openings letting some natural light in. A pre-pass stage picks the most notable light angles and then the scenarios are generated
• Light Gen preset management implemented. Light Gen results can be saved and loaded with no need for re-generation. Use the results screen Save button to save a .lightset file and load it back at a later stage using the Load button in the generate screen. Note that the HDR images used by the tool might change in the future which will deprecate previously saved .lightset files
• On-demand download for the HDR images implemented. All the images are downloaded the first time Light Gen is started. They are then stored locally (as part of the V-Ray Library) and reused in consecutive sessions. Note that custom V-Ray Material Library location specified in V-Ray for 3ds Max will also be used for storing the HDR images used by Light Gen in V-Ray for Rhino
• An HDR content set check is performed for every new session. In case some of the assets are missing or have been updated on the Chaos servers the updated content will become available for download. Each file is validated separately to avoid unnecessary downloads
• A notification system is implemented. Info and error notifications will pop up in case something goes wrong with loading Light Gen preset files (.lightset). If, for example, the HDR images used in a specific lightset are missing locally but are available on the Chaos servers a notification with a direct link to the download screen will appear
• Generation can not be initiated while there is an ongoing render process or a Vision live session

V-Ray Sun & Sky

• Improved Sky Model implemented. Reproduce the subtleties of twilight when the sun is below the horizon with the new Sun and Sky model
• Custom sun orientation controls added. Use the new widgets to override the host apps sunlight angle. The custom sun orientation is also used by the Light Gen tool
• Interactive preview for the custom Sun orientation implemented. Change the sun horizontal or vertical angle while receiving visual feedback in the light preview swatch

[konstantin_chaos]

Contours

• Global Contours control implemented. Apply contours (V-Ray Toon) to the entire scene with a single click
• New Toon Material implemented. It exposes new controls and fixes some of the issues of the old V-Ray Next shader
• New Contour material attribute implemented. Easily add contours to existing scene shaders without the need of material re-assignment
• Inner Line Control added to the global Contours as well as to the material properties
• Contours render element implemented. It stores a mask for both the global and material based contours in a separate render element. Note that the contour color and exposure compensation are ignored
• The Compensate EV option of all contours is enabled by default

Materials

• VRay Mtl Coat layer implemented. Add reflective coatings directly in the updated V-Ray Material, saving you both material creation and rendering time vs. using Blend/Layered material
• VRay Mtl Sheen layer implemented. Create soft microfiber fabrics like velvet, satin and silk with the new Sheen options in the updated V-Ray Material
• VRay Mtl built-in Bump layer implemented. There is no longer need to add Bump attributes to a material - use the built-in parameter section instead
• Glossy Fresnel is now enabled for all materials and no longer available in the UI
• The Normal opacity mode option is removed. Stochastic is used for all materials that were using it which ensures faster render times in scenes with many opacity-mapped objects
• Metallnes and Use Roughness options added to the VRay Mtl parameters. Use them if you have Metallness and Roughness textures prepared
• PBR material layer removed. The PBR and regular VRay Mtl functionality is combined and the two separate shaders are no longer needed
• Highlight Glossiness parameter removed. This simplifies the material control and increases realism
• An indicator highlighting which rollout options affect the final shader is added to the VRay Mtl layer. Rollout carets become blue in case the parameters inside contribute to the look of the material

Textures

• Multi-sub texture randomization options implemented. Select one of the Random modes (Get ID from) and change the Hue, Saturation and Gamma values to achieve variation. Note that a single slot and one texture can be used together with the randomization parameters despite the number of scene IDs
• Dirt texture Streaks implemented. Weathered streaks and dirt in crevices are now easy with the enhanced V-Ray Dirt, which now employs both ambient and inner occlusion
• External Mapping Source support added for all textures. Use it to easily instance Texture Placement parameters between unique textures
• UV Randomization implemented. Select a custom Texture Placement source for any texture and connect the new UVW Placement map. There is a randomization section to help you achieve procedural variations
• Stochastic Texture Tiling implemented as part of the UVW Randomizer. Automatically remove texture tiling artifacts with the new Stochastic tiling option of the UVW Placement asset
• Added support for .tx file format for bitmap textures
• A way for displaying .tx texture files in the Rhino viewport implemented

Material Library

• The built-in material library is updated in various ways to take advantage of all new functionality in V-Ray 5
• All the materials in the library now use GGX BRDF type. The Glossiness as well as the GGX Tail Falloff values are adjusted accordingly
• Materials previously using the Bump attribute now use the built-in Bump
• Materials previously using Reflection Coat layer now use the built-in Coat
• Fabric materials previously using Diffuse Coat layer now use the built-in Sheen
• Textures that require identical texture placement in the scope of the material now use a single instanced UVW Placement map
• The randomization feature of the UVWPlacement is utilized where appropriate to avoid visible texture repetition patterns
• The resolution of all library textures is increased up to 4K
• The library is now downloaded on demand. With the increased texture resolution it is no longer practical to have it as part of the installer
• The library assets/textures are now shared with V-Ray for 3ds Max. If the maps have been downloaded by 3ds Max already they will be reused by V-Ray for Rhino and vice versa. If a custom library location has been specified by V-Ray for 3ds max, V-Ray for Rhino will also use it
• A library content check is performed for every new session. In case some of the assets are missing or have been updated on the Chaos servers the updated content will become available for download. Each file is validated separately to avoid unnecessary downloads

Asset Preview

• GPU (CUDA) Asset Preview mode implemented. Select GPU from the menu to activate it. It shows a more accurate preview in case V-Ray GPU is used for the final project rendering
• The engine selection (CPU / GPU) for the Asset Preview Swatch is now preserved between sessions
• GPU Preview Devices option added to the Configuration settings. Use either the global GPU Devices configuration or just the CPU in CUDA mode. The second option is preferable when all the GPU computational resources are required for rendering
• Custom texture preview scene selection implemented. Choose between 2D, 3D, Environment, Falloff and Dirt scenes depending on the situation. If, for example, an environment texture is being color corrected, the Environment scene can be selected for the Color Correction map for a more accurate preview
• Each asset preview render is temporarily stored for the active session. This temporary preview will be saved out with the asset without the need of re rendering

Updated Displacement Workflow

• New Displacement object modifier implemented. Select an object in the scene and apply Displacement using the V-Ray toolbar button. The same can be done via the new displacement parameters in the V-Ray object properties panel in Rhino. This new workflow is clearer and much closer to the V-Ray Core displacement handling
• The Displacement material attribute is now deprecated. It will be removed in the future. It is recommended to use the object modifier instead
• Displacement section added to the V-Ray Object Properties panel

V-Ray GPU

• 2D Displacement is now supported
• Cellular textures are now supported
• Wrapper material’s ‘Environment Projection’ matte mode is now supported
• Out of Core memory management implemented in an experimental state. It enables evicting triangle meshes out of the GPU memory when they are no longer needed in order to make room for other resources, once the renderer has run out of memory. This option is available only for CUDA and is not yet supported for RTX
• Textures slotted in a Tiles texture now render correctly on GPU
• V-Ray Infinite Plane mapping is no longer rendered incorrectly on GPU. The scale of the Plane widget now correctly affects the texture size

[konstantin_chaos]

Grasshopper

• Live Link component implemented. It interactively shares the input V-Ray scene on the port specified. V-Ray instances running in other applications can make use of the data. This component is most commonly used for V-Ray Vision sessions inside Grasshopper. Right click and select 'Start V-Ray Vision' to do so.
• V-Ray Vision support added. Use the Live Link component to open the Vision window or start a session
• U and V size parameters added to the Light Rectangle component
• Shape parameter added to the Light Rectangle component. Choose between Rectangle and Disk
• Instancer component objects can now be successfully rendered as part of the Rhino scene with the help of the Render in Project component
• V-Ray Clipper component implemented. Use it for section cuts or procedural boolean mesh intersections
• Stereo camera mode implemented. Choose one of the ‘Side by Side’ or ‘Top Bottom’ options in the V-Ray Camera component to enable it
• Material edits in the Asset Editor now correctly update during an interactive rendering session in Grasshopper
• Directionality parameter added to the V-Ray Rectangle Light component
• Relative texture paths containing ‘..’ (parent directory) are now resolved correctly

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

• Full support for Rhino 7 implemented
• A new scene management system is now in place to ensure stability. It also makes finding and solving technical issues much easier and safer
• Dome lights created in the Asset Editor are now automatically instantiated in the scene
• Blue Noise sampling implemented. When enabled, reorders the DMC samples in screen space to produce a more pleasing result for low sample counts
• V-Ray Scene export window implemented. It exposes some useful options when exporting the project. The file reference paths can now be stripped (made relative). HEX compression can be disabled for both transformation and mesh parameters
• Scripting documentation updated. A new example tab is added showing how the new Python Wrapper Module can be used. This is a short and intuitive alternative to the standard Python syntax
• Environment Fog light list is now respected even while adaptive lights are enabled
• The V-Ray Sun no longer disappears when changing Environment Fog parameters during interactive rendering
• A number of issues with decals rendering are resolved
• The V-Ray Live Link Grasshopper component name and descriptions are updated
• Nested bitmap textures are now correctly displayed in the Rhino viewport. V-Ray ignores the procedural maps and shows the first bitmap it finds within the texture shader main texture slot
• The visual style of the V-Ray installer is updated
• A number of issues preventing materials with special characters in their names from being loaded (from vrmats) are resolved
• Pack Project now archives Rhino materials’ textures together with the V-Ray ones
• Regions can now be manually selected in the viewport when using the ‘vrayRenderWindow’ command
• The logic for loading sequences of files in the Batch Render tool is improved. Multi-file selection can now be successfully recognized as a sequence and loaded as such
• A number of issues with the V-Ray Python script API are resolved. Setting plugin parameter values no longer leads to errors in specific situations
• An issue related to changing Texture Mapping of objects during an interactive RTX rendering session is resolved
• The scene name parameter exported for Nodes and lights in a vrscene file, also used by the Cryptomatte render element, is improved
• Lock Camera Orientation button added to the V-Ray Utility toolbar. Use it to temporarily lock the camera position and orientation during interactive rendering. The new command ‘vrayLockCamOrientation’ can be used as an alternative
• The Shape and Diameter parameters of IES lights now correctly update during Interactive Rendering
• Lens effects no longer prevent the Denoiser from updating the VFB image
• Lens effects are no longer incorrectly masked by the image alpha
• A File Path Editor shortcut is added to the Asset Editor’s toolbar
• Changing the active asset category in the Asset Editor no longer collapses previously expanded asset trees
• The number of interactive rendering updates when dragging the handle of a Curve Correction texture is reduced
• The animation settings toggle is no longer grayed out during interactive rendering mode. This allows animations to be viewed in Vision without having to switch to production rendering mode beforehand
• Added support for Proxy Scenes in Rhino Nature