Improvement Requests for V-Ray for Rhino (from a Product Designer’s Perspective

V-Ray V-Ray for Rhino Requests
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While I do not use V-Ray every single day, it is frequently utilized in my work. I typically use V-Ray with 3ds Max or Maya, but I recently tried V-Ray for Rhino and found it difficult to use. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to share my feedback and requests.

Improvement Requests for V-Ray for Rhino (from a Product Designer’s Perspective)

Currently, V-Ray for Rhino feels somewhat difficult to use for product design purposes, and its positioning as a product seems unclear.

Although many product designers use Rhino as their primary modeling tool, a significant number choose KeyShot instead of V-Ray for rendering. One of the main reasons is that, for product designers, rendering is not their core responsibility. (There are also many other reasons, such as file compatibility, CAD integration, and lighting workflow.)

A designer’s primary role is to think about form, function, and user experience, while rendering serves only as a tool to support decision-making.

On the other hand, V-Ray requires:

  • Understanding the physical meaning of each light source
  • Configuring detailed physical parameters for materials
  • Knowledge of rendering noise and quality adjustments

In other words, it demands specialized knowledge about rendering itself.

The time required to acquire this knowledge represents a hidden cost that is not reflected in the software price. As a result, many product designers feel that V-Ray is over-specified for their needs.

Suggested Directions for Improvement

I believe there are two possible directions for future development:

  1. Positioning as a Tool for Product Designers

In this case, I would recommend thoroughly benchmarking KeyShot’s workflow and design philosophy, and focusing on:

  • A near “no-setup” initial experience
  • Default settings that are robust even without specialized knowledge
  • Fast, responsive interaction that allows users to “think while rendering”
  1. Positioning as a Tool for CG / Visualization Professionals

In this case, the settings, UI, and overall workflow of V-Ray for Rhino should be aligned as closely as possible with existing V-Ray implementations such as those for 3ds Max and Maya.

Currently, it feels like the Rhino version introduces a separate learning curve.

Additionally, users involved in CG production are not necessarily proficient in English. In Japan in particular, many users come from art schools or vocational institutions, and a significant number are not comfortable with English.

While it may be difficult to fully localize all technical terminology, I strongly request enhanced Japanese support wherever possible, including:

  • User interface
  • Setting names
  • Help documentation
  • Tutorials

If these improvements are implemented, I believe V-Ray for Rhino will have a much greater chance of being adopted by users in the product design field.

Submitted on AHA Ideas by Kazuo Hamaji (VRHINO-I-41).

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AHA Ideas status: Pending.
Set during AHA Ideas to Discourse migration.

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Hi Kazuo Hamaji,

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback.

On one hand, I understand that switching from V-Ray for Maya (or 3ds Max) to V-Ray for Rhino can take some time.
On the other hand, I believe the UI/UX we’ve created for Rhino is much easier to use and understand. Take the render settings, for example. The Quality slider makes it easy to get the desired image quality without having to worry about individual settings.

Materials look identical, but hiding parameters isn’t a good idea given the large user base we already have. The same applies to lights and some other parts of the product.

Additionally, many of our clients use V-Ray for architectural visualization, so we need to keep the product somewhat universal and suitable for different industries.

Over the years, we’ve considered creating a simpler UI mode for V-Ray, but given the diversity of our user base, it’s difficult to define what that should look like, which is why we’ve never pursued it.

One thing I’d highlight is that the V-Ray Collection, with the option to use the Vantage real-time path tracer, makes a very strong case for V-Ray in product design. In the latest V-Ray versions, you can run Vantage directly in Rhino’s viewport and enjoy V-Ray-level quality in real time, provided you have the hardware to support it.
Additionally Vantage can be used for product design work as a standalone program. It has some nice look dev and scene state / variations management tools you can test.

As for localization, we’re currently working on Japanese and Chinese versions of V-Ray for Rhino. You can expect them soon.

Best,
Konsatntin