V-Ray 6 for Rhino, update 1 is now available!

[konstantin_chaos]

V-Ray 6 for Rhino, update 1 is now available!

It can be download here:
download.chaos.com

After installation, you will find more detailed info about the changes in the 'VRayForRhinoReleaseNotes' file:
%PROGRAMFILES%\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray for Rhinoceros\VRayForRhinoReleaseNotes.html

Regards,
Konstantin

[konstantin_chaos]

Enscape compatibility (Chaos bridge)

• Added support for the new adjustable assets introduced in Enscape 3.5
• Some of Enscape’s visual settings can now be transferred to V-Ray. This helps with matching Enscape’s environment and illumination - Sunlight, Sky, and Camera exposure. The synchronization is done by manually performing the ‘Apply Enscape Settings’ action from the V-Ray / Tools menu
• Improved performance when loading and rendering Enscape assets in V-Ray
• An issue leading to incorrect transfer function of normal map textures in specific Enscape materials is resolved. This fixes many visual artifacts when rendering both Enscape materials and assets
• The conversion and rendering of emissive Enscape materials is improved
• An issue causing incorrect transparency of some Enscape assets is resolved

Decal

• Decal ‘Auto Resize’ button is implemented. Clicking on the button shows a menu with three possible actions - Fit to Mask, Fit to Material and Fit to Bitmap. All three ensure that the Decal aspect ratio matches the one of the corresponding image file. Fit to Mask only works when there is a texture in the mask slot. Fit to Material finds the first eligible bitmap in the Decal’s material shader while Fit to Bitmap can set the aspect ratio based on any file from disk
• Decal Length lock toggle is implemented. It allows the aspect ratio between Width and Length to be preserved while resizing. The ratio lock is automatically disabled when the Width or Length value is set to 0
• Decal Displacement is implemented. For fine control over the displacement appearance and quality a Displacement modifier has to be added to the base geometry
• Decal Bump control is implemented. Disable the ‘Decal Bump Only’ option to use the base surface bump. Use the Amount slider to blend between the base and decal bump effects
• Decal Bend implemented. Materials can now be projected onto curved surfaces with the help of the new Bend parameter. This for example allows for stickers to be added to cylindrical objects like bottles
• Decal's default Normal Angle value is updated to 90 degrees
• Decal ‘Projection Offset’ parameter is implemented. It offsets the projection away or towards its target
• Decal’s mask can now be disabled by toggling the checkbox on the right of the map slot
• Decal's Height parameter is renamed to Depth. In addition the parameter’s tooltip is improved

Procedural clouds

• Contrails added to the procedural clouds. Select the Sun Light in the project to change the appearance of the contrails
• The procedural clouds are now, by default, visually similar to the ones in Enscape (when configured the same way). Legacy projects can be migrated by enabling the ‘Enscape Compatibility’ checkbox in the Clouds parameter section of the Sun. Note that once enabled the checkbox will disappear

Cosmos (Enmesh patterns)

• Enmesh patterns can now be browsed and imported from Cosmos. If a scene object is selected the pattern is automatically applied on import

VFB (V-Ray frame buffer)

• Masking for Lens Effects and Denoiser layers in the VFB is implemented. Use the standard masking workflow to utilize the feature
• A new Color transformation configuration is added to the Background layer in the VFB. Use it to apply a separate display correction to the Background layer
• Viewing stereo panorama images in the VFB using the Panorama View mode is now possible. Note that even though only the left-eye image is displayed in this mode, the stereo properties are preserved

V-Ray GPU

• Mesh Clipper support is added. Create complex section cuts fully renderable with both CUDA and the RTX (OptiX) engines
• Compressed Textures mode is implemented. When active all textures are loaded with compression to decrease their memory footprint without degrading their quality
• An issue leading to a crash when rendering specific Cosmos assets is resolved
• An issue causing a crash when rendering scenes with normal displacement and using CPU as a CUDA device is resolved

[konstantin_chaos]

Installation

• The Chaos Cloud Client application is now always installed with V-Ray

Integration

• An issue producing disconnected and orphaned materials when saving and opening Rhino files containing linked blocks is resolved
• A new RhinoScriptComputeDeviceInfo interface is implemented. Two new methods are now also available - RhinoScriptObject.GetDeviceList(engine) and RhinoScriptObject.SetDeviceList(engine, ids) in the V-Ray for Rhinoceros Object Model
• Indirectly used V-Ray materials are no longer considered unused and therefore are not purged in Rhino 7
• The vraySetMtlID command / action can now be applied only to the selected objects
• The performance of the Interactive Light Cache calculation is improved. Note that Interactive Light Cache is now enabled by default
• An issue leading to interactive GPU rendering errors when changing the Volumetric Environment toggle state is resolved
• The OCIO mode of the Display Correction layer in the VFB is no longer incorrectly switched to sRGB when a render is initiated
• The option for loading .vrmat files in the V-Ray Batch Render window is removed
• An issue preventing block instances from being excluded (or included) from a Clipper or a Decal is resolved
• An issue causing visual artifacts (intensity multiplication) in specific render elements when denoising with the NVIDIA AI Denoiser is resolved
• Changing the visibility of Rhino Layers containing lights now correctly triggers an interactive rendering update
• A change to the visibility of Scatter guests during interactive rendering is now correctly updated
• Using File / Import to load a .vrscene in Rhino now correctly assigns material slots to all Proxy Mesh assets contained within that file
• An issue leading to excessive render times in V-Ray Cloud in specific situations is resolved
• An issue affecting the UVW mapping of VisualARQ objects is resolved
• Manually changing the file extension from .vrmesh to .vrscene directly in the Proxy Mesh interface no longer leads to a crash
• An issue causing a crash upon opening scenes containing a linked block with a Scatter asset inside is resolved
• An issue preventing the use of projects containing Scatter with a Density textures by users with a single render node license is resolved

Improved native lights handling

• Rhino lights are no longer automatically converted to V-Ray light sources on creation. A conversion can be performed using the vrayLight command at any stage. Note that all native lights are rendered but their viewport contribution matches the one in V-Ray only if the physical Exposure is disabled
• The Sun intensity is now synchronized between the Asset Editor and Rhino’s Sun panel
• Shadows cast by native Rhino Point and Spot lights are improved to more closely resemble their appearance in the native Rhino renderer

Grasshopper

• Chaos Cloud is now integrated within V-Ray for Grasshopper. Right-click the V-Ray Render component to use the new 'Render on the Cloud' action. Note that when an animation is present in the definition it’ll be automatically submitted for rendering
• V-Ray Render component’s ‘Light Rig’ input is now divided into two - ‘Light’ and ‘Environment’. Light Rig components’ outputs are updated accordingly. This change provides more control by accommodating independent changes over the global scene illumination and environment
• V-Ray Environment component is implemented. It brings finer environment control and can be used as an alternative to the Light Rigs. Additionally volumetric environment effects like the V-Ray Outlines can be connected to its Volumetric input slot
• V-Ray Outlines component is implemented. Connect it to the Volumetric input of the Environment component to see the outlines rendered
• V-Ray Sky texture component is implemented. To control its appearance use a Sun input
• The V-Ray toolbar is reorganized. Two new panels are introduced - a Textures panel containing all available texture and texture placement components, and an Environment panel containing the Environment and Outlines components
• The V-Ray Bitmap component's icon is updated. Its Color Space parameter is renamed to ‘Transfer Function’ with its former ‘Linear’ option now corresponding to ‘None’
• V-Ray Texture Placement Environment component is implemented. It offers advanced texture mapping controls including projection modes such as Spherical or Screen suitable for environment textures
• V-Ray Texture Placement UV Channel component is implemented. Connect it to the UVW Placement input of a Bitmap or Gradient component to control the texture placement in the objects' UV space
• V-Ray Gradient texture component is implemented. It procedurally creates color gradients by blending multiple color inputs with specific interpolation rules
• V-Ray Simple Mix component is implemented. Use it to blend a texture with a color and connect its output to a material component
• A new Units parameter is added to most Light components in Grasshopper. It specifies the unit of measurement for a light’s intensity and can be helpful in simulating physically-accurate illumination
• The ‘Auto Export’ state of the V-Ray Exporter component is now preserved between sessions
• V-Ray Material from File component now supports direct browsing of all downloaded Cosmos materials (via its context menu)
• Object animations including dynamic creation and deletion of meshes can now be exported in a single .vrscene file
• Missing Proxy Mesh files no longer prevents Grasshopper definitions from being rendered
• The global illumination toggle of the V-Ray Light Rig Simple component is deprecated

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

• Self-illumination parameters are added to the V-Ray Material. The use of the Emissive material layer is no longer required when shading light emitting surfaces
• The term Contours is replaced with Outlines in all its UI occurrences. This applies to both the global effect as well as the material override
• The Interactivity slider is now correctly disabled when Interactive Light Cache is enabled
• Interactive Light Cache is now active by default
• The Trace Depth option is removed from the Interactive Parameters in the V-Ray Asset Editor's Settings
• Changes of the Brute Force GI Depth now affect both interactive and production rendering
• NVIDIA AI Denoiser Upscaling option is implemented. When enabled the image is rendered at half size to speed up its calculation while the image displayed in the VFB is at full resolution. Note that render elements without the 'Denoise' option enabled are upscaled using standard interpolation
• Denoise option is added to the Extra Texture render element
• Single File Output option is implemented. Set a file path in the Asset Editor / Render Output / Save Image / File Path field and enable the Single File Output to autosave only the main image channel (RGB color or effectResult)
• The UI theme configuration in the Asset Editor now automatically changes the initial UI theme of the Cosmos Browser
• Right-click action behavior in the Outliner is updated. A right-click on an item now automatically selects it. Any consecutive context menu actions are applied to the active selection only. Note that to apply an action to multiple items at once, they have to be selected and the right-click should be performed on top of any selection member
• Distance texture’s Distance value is now correctly respected when a distance texture map is also used
• The Sky texture now uses the Sun Light preview swatch scene which fixes the overexposed sky preview
• Right-clicking on a color variation in the Color Assistant now correctly sets it as a current color
• An issue with reapplying an already selected Light Gen scenario is resolved
• An issue causing multiple Asset Editor, Chaos Cosmos or Light Gen windows to appear on macOS is resolved
• Rectangle light's U Size parameter label is now correctly displayed in Chinese
• An issue preventing a Light Gen regeneration after a scenario has been applied is resolved