V-Ray 5 for Rhino, update 2 is now available!

[konstantin_chaos]

V-Ray 5 for Rhino, update 2 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

V-Ray 5 for Rhino, update 2 - What's new

V-Ray 5 for Rhino, update 2 - What’s new in V-Ray for Grasshopper

V-Ray 5 for Rhino, update 2 - What's new in Vision

Konstantin

[konstantin_chaos]

Vision

• Performance
  • An optimized system for handling a large number of scene objects is implemented. This improves both scene loading and the interactive performance of Vision
  • Vision now completely stops rendering when there is no user interaction to decrease the load on the GPU
  • Loading of scenes with a medium to high number of complex meshes is optimized. This is done by disabling the scene optimizer which was originally combining meshes with shared materials
  • The internal handling of Vision safe frames is improved. This leads to better performance (higher FPS) in most projects
• Lights
  • IES Light sources are now supported
  • A new Ambient Light Mode is implemented. The new mode can be enabled in the Settings panel. It replaces the project’s indirect lighting and reflection environments with a gray color. The value of this color can exceed 1 and is controlled by the Ambient Light Intensity slider. The new mode can be useful in closed spaces for removing the blue tint coming from the sky
  • The intensity of the Direct light source now correctly matches the one in V-Ray
  • Soft shadow for the Direct light source is implemented. Make sure that the High Shadows Quality option is selected in the Vision’s Settings panel to see the effect
  • The enabled/disabled state of Direct lights is now supported
  • Added support for the LightIESMax and LightSpotMax V-Ray plugins. This ensures that scenes containing IES or Spot light sources exported from V-Ray for 3ds Max or Revit can be successfully loaded in Vision
  • Sunlight no longer produces artifacts when the model is viewed from specific angles
  • The appearance of the Spotlight’s Penumbra Angle is improved to better match the V-Ray result
• Animation
  • Sun animations are now supported and can be played back in real time in Vision
  • Temporal anti-aliasing is automatically disabled during animation playback to prevent ghosting artifacts
  • An issue causing the animation playback to be interrupted when the camera is stationary is resolved
• Materials
  • A new temporal screen space reflection method implemented. Blurry reflections will improve in quality after the camera stops moving. Only opaque materials benefit from this new method
  • The Coat layer of the V-Ray Material is now supported. The Coat amount value is the only parameter which impacts Vision. The coat color, glossiness and bump are ignored
  • There is no longer a problem with transparent (and refractive) materials and specific mesh normals
  • The list of strings for the automatic ‘leaf’ material detection is extended. Vision is now better at determining whether a specific material is used for leaves shading and whether its alpha texture has to be treated as a cutout (ignoring grayscale values)
• User Interface
  • The Vision toolbar can now be hidden. Use the collapse button that appears when hovering near the toolbar or the F12 keyboard shortcut to toggle the toolbar state
  • Fly mode navigation can now also be controlled with the arrow keys on the keyboard making it much more convenient for left-handed users. PgUp and PgDn keys can be used for moving the camera up and down
  • The Output panel options are rearranged. The Output Mode and the Camera Type parameters are now located at the top since their state controls the remaining parameters availability and behavior
  • The ‘Loading scene’ label is now replaced with just ‘Loading’ to avoid confusion for users unfamiliar with the term ‘scene’
  • A number of tooltips and parameter labels are updated
  • Clicking Cancel in the Save File browser window no longer resets the file type to .png
  • All the parameter panels are now automatically resized to fit in the Vision window. Scroll bar is also implemented to ensure all the parameters are accessible at all times
  • Camera movement is no longer possible while dragging a UI slider
• Other improvements & Bug Fixes
  • Videos can now be exported directly from Vision. Select the Video Output Mode to save out a .webm file using the VP8 compression method
  • Standalone / runtime application export implemented. Use the Standalone Application export button on the toolbar to share the project with clients or colleagues via an executable file. Recipients of the file don’t require a V-Ray license and can enjoy the full functionality of Vision - navigation controls, color correction parameters, etc.
  • Preset Grass implemented. Add a V-Ray Fur modifier to any object and make sure that the word ‘grass’ is part of the Fur asset’s name to see grass growing on the object’s surface. The length of the V-Ray Fur determines the length of the grass in Vision (values under a specific lower limit are ignored). Beside the length and material all other Fur parameters are ignored
  • Auto Exposure behavior is improved. The target exposure is now much more balanced in dark scenes
  • Toggling the High-quality Cosmos Assets checkbox now automatically reloads the scene to ensure the option state matches the rendered result
  • V-Ray’s Instancer plugin is now supported in Vision. This ensures that Scatter results can be successfully loaded and previewed
  • The panorama image export is improved. Spherical and cubemap images will show a much higher quality. The camera orientation is also taken into account
  • The error message displayed when Vision fails to initialize is improved. It is now much more precise and can help with debugging various issues
  • The Vision icon is updated. The new icon is visible on the toolbar and is also used for the executable file of the standalone application
  • The default Tonemapping Curve is now set to Disabled. This makes Vision renders more similar to the V-Ray result out of the box
  • An issue causing ghosting artifacts to appear over transparent objects when the camera moves quickly is resolved
  • An issue causing the leaves of merged Cosmos trees to fade in a distance when the Proxy LOD option is disabled is resolved
  • An issue causing bump and normal maps appear flipped in Vision is resolved
  • Zooming in with an ortho camera no longer flips the entire model
  • Vision now correctly loads plugins with non-latin characters in their names
  • Multi Material assignments are no longer incorrect in specific situations
  • An issue preventing the output Size Multiplier from working when exporting animations is resolved
  • An issue causing objects from referenced Proxy Scene files to be misplaced is resolved
  • An issue causing Tri-planar textures to appear darker is resolved
  • Increasing the environment intensity using the multiplier value no longer causes issues in Vision
  • The Save File browser window now correctly lists existing supported files
  • Mipmaps are now generated even for textures embedded in the scene
  • An issue causing choppy camera movement in the fly navigation mode with very slow fly speeds is resolved
  • An issue causing a dark circle to appear on surfaces close and under the camera in specific situations is resolved
  • Cosmos assets are now considered when calculating the camera’s clipping planes. Cosmos assets are no longer cut out when away from regular scene objects

[konstantin_chaos]

Scatter

• Scatter implemented. Easily scatter objects from the project (including Cosmos assets) onto the surface of another object. Select an object to be used as a host mesh and click the toolbar Scatter button to begin the process. Objects that will be scattered, known as guests, can then be added using the Scatter UI in the Asset Editor

Decal

• V-Rat Decal implemented. Project any material onto the scene objects with the help of the Decal viewport gismo. Use the Exclude parameters in the V-Ray Properties panel to restrict the Decal projection to specific scene objects

Materials

• Thin-walled option added to the VRay Mtl Refraction parameters. Enable it to simulate single-sided refractive surfaces avoiding unwanted refraction distortions. When enabled together with the SSS Translucency mode of the material it simulates thin-walled translucent surfaces such as curtains or leaves
• Fog Scattering renamed to Translucency to be consistent with the parameter label used in other V-Ray integrations
• New SSS and Volumetric translucency modes implemented for the VRay Mtl. The previously available Hard and Hybrid models are considered legacy and can no longer be used in new materials. The Volumetric mode can be used for highly transparent materials that scatter light while the SSS one is good for non-transparent materials like skin, wax, marble, etc.
• The Fog Multiplier parameter is now called Depth (by default). It has an alternative Scale mode when SSS Translucency is used
• A logic that automatically sets the Color Space (sRGB or Linear) for bitmaps loaded in any of the VRay Mtl layer slots is implemented. Float textures as well as maps used for Bump are assumed to be Linear. The logic is only applied when the map is initially added to a parameter texture slot. Pasting an existing texture in a slots will not use this logic
• Changes to the Reflection Glossiness of Metallic materials now work even when the Reflection color is not white
• VRScans loaded with a script now have all of their parameters set correctly

V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB)

• Batch Image Processing implemented. Batch-apply layer presets or color corrections to multiple images using a simple UI. The feature is located in the File menu
• Log tab integrated into the right fly-off panel of the VFB. Only render process information is displayed in it
• Color corrections can now be applied explicitly to the Background layer. Select the Background and then add a new correction layer to it
• A confirmation dialogue is now correctly displayed when the 'Clear image' action is performed
• The elapsed time info is now correctly displayed in the VFB stats panel during bucket rendering
• An issue preventing V-Ray Next VFB color corrections to be loaded in V-Ray 5.1 and later is resolved
• All the default VFB hotkeys are reintroduced
• Color corrections can now be applied to all render channels when an image is manually saved. To enable the option go to the ‘Save all image channels to separate files’ configuration
• The thumbnails in the VFB’s history panel are no longer duplicated when 'Use project path' option is enabled
• An issue preventing the VFB from being restored (after being minimized) in specific situations is resolved
• The behavior of the Lookup table correction layer is improved
• An issue causing a crash when an image with Exposure correction is significantly zoomed in is resolved
• An icon is now used for the visibility button of disabled layers

V-Ray GPU

• Textured Spot Lights support added
• Support for the Lighting Analysis render element added
• An issue leading to artifacts when Adaptive Lights are enabled during Swarm rendering is resolved
• An issue causing ‘firefly’ artifacts to appear on refractive materials in specific situations is resolved
• The Compensate EV option of the Emissive material is now supported with VR cameras
• The results in MultiMatte render elements now always match the CPU result
• An issue causing visual artifacts in shadows casted by Fur strands is resolved
• An issue with the On-demand mipmapping mode and .tx texture files is resolved
• Light Cache is always calculated on the GPU when the CUDA or RTX engine is selected
• An issue causing a discrepancy between Spot Lights rendered on CPU and the same light rendered by the GPU is resolved
• An issue causing incorrect results with invisible lights viewed through blurry refractive surfaces is resolved
• Dirt textures that are set to ignore invisible objects no longer produce occlusion from invisible lights
• Metallic objects no longer render black when their reflection color is set to black
• An issue causing the render process to stop midway when specific output resolution ratio is used is resolved

Cosmos

• A new material library section added to the Cosmos browser. Choose from a selection of more than 200 render ready materials and import them to the project
• Cosmos materials import implemented. Each material from the library can be imported directly to the project and edited when necessary. Enable the tri-planar option in the Cosmos browser if you prefer all material textures to use a tri-planar projection placement instead of the default UV mapping
• The default size of the Cosmos browser is updated to better fit the Cosmos narrow UI
• A drop shadow effect is added for the Cosmos browser’s navigation menu to visually separate it from background elements using the same color
• Cosmos login is now performed in the default OS browser instead of in the Cosmos window itself
• An issue causing unused textures to appear after specific Cosmos assets are merged is resolved
• An issue causing the Update button next to the asset in the outliner to remain visible even after an asset is updated is resolved

UI

• Scatter UI implemented. A new UI component that allows picking scene objects is included. It is used for picking guests to be scattered
• Decal UI implemented
• An issue causing the host application to crash in specific situations when shutting down the Asset Editor is resolved
• An issue causing a visual glitch when an Attribute is added to a Blend material is resolved.
• Assets which are automatically selected are now considered for a consecutive range selection. The automatic asset selection is performed when an asset is created, deleted, imported from the library, etc.
• A default icon is now correctly used when an asset which does not have a pre-rendered preview is saved to a user defined library (in the left hand side panel) with the drag and drop action
• An issue causing unnecessary scrolling in the asset parameters panel is resolved
• An issue causing the random color generation for the Proxy Mesh asset to fail is resolved
• Setting the refraction Depth / Fog Multiplier value with the slider no longer leads to inaccurate rounding of the parameter value
• A number of issues causing Light Gen generation to fail are resolved
• Loading a big number of materials as a batch from the material library (or a set of vrmat files) is now optimized taking significantly less time
• The Light Gen info tooltip now indicates that a .lightset file is loaded
• An issue causing the asset preview to stop working is resolved
• V-Ray Log Window is implemented. The window will automatically pop up when an error is logged. Alternatively the window can be shown manually by clicking its shortcut in the Asset Editor. The new Log window allows filtering the log information based on the source or level, searching in the log, clearing the log data as well as a shortcut to the folder where log files are stored
• Vropt render settings files can no longer contain material and light assets
• The NVIDIA AI Denoiser option is automatically disabled on macOS to indicate that it is not supported
• The Bump attribute’s Object and World space normal options are marked as legacy and can no longer be selected. The same goes for the bump mode of the Car Paint material
• Right-clicking on a saved color swatch in the Color picker window now deletes the entry
• Assets selected in the outliner now remain in view when switching between categories
• An error message is displayed in the Cosmos Browser window in case the Cosmos service is down and needs to be restarted
• Open Image Denoise is now used instead of NVIDIA AI in Light Gen. This ensures optimal denoising performance and quality independent of the available system hardware
• The max control range of the Texture Placement / UV Channel parameter is set to 10 which is more convenient than 100 in most cases. Parameter values that exceed 10 can still be set in the number value field
• An issue causing the remove button of the Swarm’s tags to disappear when the tag name exceeds a specific length is resolved

Vantage Live Link

• A function that establishes a live link between V-Ray for Rhino and Vantage is implemented. The live link button is on the V-Ray Live Linking toolbar and can be used for starting Vantage and establishing a connection with a single click. The connection can be restarted at any time by clicking the same button once to stop it and a second time to reestablish it. By default, this new toolbar is not displayed and needs to be manually enabled. The same function is available in the V-Ray Rendering menu
• The vrayLiveLink command allows a connection between V-Ray for Rhino and any external application using the V-Ray Server to be established. To use it start the other application (Vantage standalone or V-Ray for Unreal, for example), set the port it is running on as a command parameter and execute the command

[konstantin_chaos]

Grasshopper

• Sun and camera animations from Grasshopper can now be previewed in Vision. Use the Export Animation button from the context menu for the transfer
• V-Ray Scatter component implemented. Easily scatter objects from the definition (including Cosmos assets) onto the surface of another object
• The V-Ray Live Link component now includes a Start Vantage button in the context menu
• V-Ray Spot Light component implemented
• V-Ray Omni Light component implemented
• V-Ray IES Light component implemented
• A number of parameters are added to the Camera component. The list includes White Balance, Auto Exposure, Auto White Balance and Depth of Field Focus. The capabilities of the V-Ray camera in Grasshopper now match the ones in the V-Ray for Rhino camera
• V-Ray Exposure Value component implemented. Calculates Exposure Value based on ISO, F-Number and Shutter Speed inputs
• V-Ray Film Sensitivity component implemented. Calculates Exposure Value based on ISO, F-Number and Shutter Speed inputs
• V-Ray F-Number component implemented. Calculates a F-Number value for a given Defocus value
• All V-Ray components that produce geometry output now show a viewport preview
• The Mtl Simple component in Grasshopper can now be successfully exported as a vrmat
• V-Ray Cosmos component implemented. Easily add and manage Cosmos assets in the definition
• An issue causing Grasshopper renders to come out black in specific situations is resolved
• An issue causing a hang when a Material from File is used is resolved
• Preview modes implemented for the Instancer component. The new options are - Bounding Boxes and Points
• An issue causing objects produced by the Instancer component to move incorrectly in animations is resolved
• A number of issues related to UV mapping of meshes referenced from the Rhino project are resolved
• A new Group parameter is added to the Instancer component. When enabled, all input objects are treated as a group that is instanced at each point. When disabled, input objects are treated as separate items - а single object is positioned at each point

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

• Chaos Cloud client application updated to version 1.14.3
• Cosmos client application updated to version 2021.10.28
• Affect Atmospherics option implemented for all light sources. It specifies whether the light influences the atmospheric effects in the scene. The value determines the strength of the effect
• A number of improvements are done to the V-Ray Object Properties panel
• Opening projects saved with older V-Ray versions is optimized and is significantly faster when a big number of materials has to be migrated
• An issue causing a crash when packing specific projects is resolved
• An issue leading to a crash when closing Rhino in specific situations is resolved
• The Light Gen button tooltip is updated to inform more clearly of the button’s function
• Clippers contained within a Proxy Scene reference (vrscene) are now correctly transformed together with the scene
• 2D Displacement is now rendered correctly by V-Ray GPU even when the displacement’s texture U/V Placement is altered
• An issue causing a discrepancy between CPU and GPU when rendering Rhino textures with WCS box mapping is resolved
• An issue preventing specific scenes from being exported as a vrscene is resolved
• Mesh Clipper materials are now preserved when the clipper is a part of an exported vrscene
• Hidden Proxy Scenes no longer appear during interactive rendering
• Assets added to the project via Insert or Import now correctly get their file paths automatically resolved
• V-Ray object modifiers can no longer be applied to blocks by dragging them from the Asset Editor
• Converting a V-Ray material to a Rhino one and back no longer breaks its viewport representation
• Textures used in V-Ray objects (Fur, Mesh Light, Displacement, etc.) are now copied instead of instantiated when the special object is made unique
• Multimatte Material render element can now be used for masking Fur
• Rhino Ground Plane's material is now correctly updated during interactive rendering
• Textures using the WCS Box style mapping are no longer flipped when used on mesh faces with flipped normals
• The Batch Renderer can now successfully load and process read-only files
• The rhVRay.py is no longer installed when V-Ray for Rhino 6 is not installed
• The viewport display mode is now correctly reset when Viewport Rendering is interrupted
• An End User License Agreement acceptance dialog appears when V-Ray for Rhino is activated for the first time in case the installer has been run without a GUI
• An issue causing incorrect viewport preview of specific Cosmos assets is resolved
• The V-Ray installer no longer ignores the host app version selection
• An issue with the firewall exception for Vision is resolved
• Hidden Cosmos assets are no longer visible during interactive rendering
• An issue preventing the VFB history from being enabled in specific situations is resolved
• An issue preventing the Asset Editor from functioning correctly in specific projects is resolved. Badly serialized material data is handled in a better way on load
• A number of issues with the automatic texture path resolution logic are resolved
• An issue causing a hang on render attempt when specific Cosmos assets are present in the scene is resolved
• Specific scenes containing materials in the old-style material table (V-Ray 3 and earlier) no longer cause issues on load
• Contour lines no longer disappear in orthographic close-up shots
• Creating a Proxy Mesh from a single object with multiple materials no longer leads to incorrect material assignment
• A license error is now correctly displayed when a render is attempted from a previously loaded Asset Editor when the license is no longer available
• An issue preventing Infinite Planes and Proxy Scenes created in the Asset Editor from appearing in the viewport is resolved
• An issue causing Proxy Meshes from specific V-Ray 3 projects to be rendered white (using default material) is resolved
• Hidden V-Ray special objects no longer appear during interactive rendering
• An internal optimization of geometry management is introduced (by internally setting the dynamic geometry flag for specific meshes). This makes rendering faster in specific situations
• Support for the native Rhino focus distance feature implemented
• The internal configuration of the Proxy Mesh voxelization (on export) is optimized. Newly created proxies will be faster to render and will not cause any delays when the render process is interrupted
• Special objects like Fur, Clipper, Mesh Light, etc. are no longer removed from the project when their last instance is deleted. The object modifier remains in the Asset Editor and can still be reapplied
• Full support for the native Rhino 7 sub-object materials implemented
• Changes to the scene done with the help of the Record History option are now updated correctly during interactive rendering
• Rhino Sun animations can now be viewed in Vision
• Copy-pasting a special object no longer causes its material to be duplicated
• Opening a project and migrating the V-Ray data in it no longer marks the project as modified. Closing the project right after no longer prompts the Save file confirmation