I thought at some point this was discussed as a possibility and wanted to see if it was still in the works. I hate the render slowdown of photometric but the web files are useful in many instances.
There is a VRayIES light included in SP2. Granted not as advanced as the 3ds Max native one, but still does the basic job.
Best regards,
Vlado
Wow !!! can’t wait!!!
Seems to be great…
SP2 will be a major release…
Best regards…
sp2
Is it my understanding that SP2 will work for MAX 2009, which is on it’s way to me 
Great news Vlado! I wasn’t even hoping it was in this SP.
I think most of us want the WEB mapping more that the lumens and photometric things. Web mapping with VRAY lights speed will be the pwnage.
What kind of optimization related times are we talking about Vlado?
It depends on what particular IES file you are using; some files seem to render (a lot) more slowly with the standard photometric lights, compared to the V-Ray ones.
Best regards,
Vlado
wow. sounds really cool. thx vlado.
Don’t forget to mention, that the native max ies implementation doesn’t support area sampling of the ies data. Shadows from the VRay IES light look daaaarn good I must say!
Best regards,
A.
where have you seen any images aldaryn? Could you repost a link?
Nice, can’t wait to try out the VRayIES !
wow
cant wait !!!
sounds good to me!
I just rendered a scene using ies data for large pendant lights, with about a 10" diameter lens. I used the Vray ies light and it looks great and rendered fast, but did not seem to have any area shadows, like a light that size would. Is that kind of info supposed to be built into the ies file, or it something you will always have to manually specify? I would say that is the one shortcoming of the new vray ies, that you cannot give it the area shadows. However, I am still very pleased to see the new feature in SP2.
V-Ray will render area shadows if information about the light shape and dimensions is present in the IES file (e.g. if you try the linear IES light that comes with 3ds Max itself).
Best regards,
Vlado
So it’s just a case of hunting around till you find an IES file that works?
maybe we need to compile a list of companies whose IES files contain shape & dimension info…
Unfortunately the Lumina http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=40525&highlight=lumina ones don’t seem to (at least the matrix and tangram models)
Ok someone else’s turn to go through erco, orgatech, lightolier, zumtobel, louis poulsen, delta light, Bega, lithonia etc 
are there any programs that let you custom design your own ies webs?
This is pretty useless unless you know what your doing but you can edit them in notepad or another text editor. I’ve played with them before but it was just random guesswork.
I’m sure there is but I don’t know of anything, sorry.
I’m not sure if this is useful or not : Visual
I haven’t had time to take a closer look but it looks like software that enables you to design lights / photometric files. I’m sorry if this is not the case / not what you’re looking for
If I run into anything else I will let you know asap.
I know that many of the Erco files had shapes stored into them…
Best regards,
Vlado