Hi!
V-Ray 7 for Maya is out! 
Some useful links:
Here some of the new and exciting features this release offers:
Gaussian Splats
With Version 7 we have added support for rendering Gaussian Splatting Models. The technique creates a detailed, three-dimensional representation resembling a point cloud from images or videos. It allows for quicker asset integration with fast rendering in both production and IPR, accurate parallax, reflections, refractions, GI, occlusion and overall better results in comparison to the HDRI process alone. You can read more about Gaussian splatting and V-Ray in this blog post
OpenPBR
This release adds support for OpenPBR, a new open standard hosted by Academy Software Foundation. Here’s a couple additions to the VRayMtl:
- OpenPBR Layering Scheme - There is a new OpenPBR mode which introduces the compliant layering scheme. It positions coat on top of the illumination layer allowing you to create materials like neon lights without the need of a blend material. At the very top is the sheen layer which can help create dust coating on top of lacquered objects.
- Reworked Sheen - referred to as Fuzz, it now has a stronger and clearer effect than before which can aid in creating effects like dust, peach fuzz, velvet, and more. The reworked version of sheen is only available in OpenPBR mode. The V-Ray mode has our old sheen implementation.
- Other small additions - A new Coat Darkening parameter meant to simulate effects in real life where the coat darkens the base due to the internal reflections. The coat layer has also received an Anisotropy control. and SSS and Transmission have been slightly reworked.
We have also added support for the Maya native OpenPBR Shader that was recently introduced with Maya 2025.3 and the MaterialX OpenPBR shader.
Firefly Removal
We’ve added a Firefly Removal control in the render settings which helps eliminate overly bright pixels known as fireflies during rendering. This saves time by reducing the need for manual adjustments and improves final image quality and the overall rendering speed. It is only available for Bucket Mode for the time being.
Light Path Expressions for Shadows
As a continuation of our improvement on our Shadow Select, we have added a Light Path Expressions (LPE) implementation. Shadow tags in LPEs allow for more complex isolation of shadow contribution such as shadows behind glass or in reflections. Artists can lighten, darken or tint shadows without the need to re-render. Support for matte/holdout surfaces is not available at the moment but we have it on our radar and are working on it for future versions.
Intel Open Image Denoiser Improvement
- Updated version - updated to version 2.3.0 producing results faster and with less artifacts.
- Prefilter pass- helps with detail retention, producing sharper and cleaner results at a small calculation time cost.
Chaos Cosmos Improvements
- V-Ray Light Luminaires - V-Ray Luminaires are engineered for faster rendering, delivering high-quality lighting with less noise in less time. Artists can quickly populate scenes with assets from our library of pre-built, customizable light fixtures which emulate the real-world behavior of light sources.
- Multi-select Import - import multiple Cosmos assets in one go and populate scenes easier and faster than before.
- Cosmos asset variants - assets now come with variants of their materials or geometry, such as seasonal changes or growth stages, which provides more options for a varied and more natural population of scenes.
Improved PRG Sky Model
Improved PRG sky model helps for the creation of more realistic lighting scenarios with improved colors. Additionally, it adds support for nautical twilight and more observer altitudes, reaching up to several kilometers.
VFB Improvements
- Custom regions - custom polygonal regions can now be created in the VFB for faster iteration and less time spent re-rendering parts of your images. Use the freeform or the rectangular mode, create multiple regions and finetune the vertices for even greater control.
- Vignette Layer - addition of a Vignette Layer in the VFB with an easily customizable shape. Apply it to any element of your render for tailored artistic results.
- Color Correction Presets - Achieve distinct looks and try out different color correction adjustments quickly and easily straight in the VFB.
- And More - we’ve added a Soft Stop option for retaining post effects when stopping the render. Image Alphas can now be used as mask to aid with color corrections. There are also various other UI improvements.
Chaos Scatter
- ****Look at - instances can follow a predefined target, allowing for the creation of sunflowers following the sun, crowds of fans looking at stage performers and more.
- Falloff Curve - allows for the effect of Look at and Altitude to be further finetuned for more natural results.
GPU Improvements
- Caustics -added support for caustics based on Photon Mapping, enabling realistic reflections and refractions in both production and interactive rendering.
- Faster Animation rendering - further improvements in caching of bitmaps between animation frames resulting in total render time speed ups.
- Faster Time to First Pixel - we’ve implemented some new optimizations for instance and texture-heavy scenes. Geometry compilation, and scene data upload to GPU is also sped up.
- Metal GPU - Apple users can utilize the GPU hardware with Apple Silicon Chips. This results in speed improvements of up to 3 times when rendering with CPU and GPU on M4 chips and up to 2 times on M3 chips.
We’ve also added support for Maya USD 0.28.0 and 0.30.0
For a full Changelog visit our Release notes page or check bellow.
Bug fixes:
- V-Ray: Fixed artefacts on thicker hair/fur strands
- V-Ray: Fixed artefacts with overlapping animated geometry
- V-Ray: Fixed crash when applying VRayMtl in scenes with large HDRs in VRayDomeLight
- V-Ray: Fixed crash when creating V-Ray Light and Chaos Scatter nodes
- V-Ray: Fixed crash when opening a new scene during rendering
- V-Ray: Fixed crash when ParticleTex doesn’t have “color” parameter set
- V-Ray: Fixed disappearing USD prims when translating the usd node from the outliner during IPR
- V-Ray: Fixed Displacement sequence files not loading on random frames
- V-Ray: Fixed fatal error with some Path guiding scenes rendered with USD
- V-Ray: Fixed Fog color in VRayMtl not rendering animated values
- V-Ray: Fixed incorrect Denoiser results with Xeon processors on specific scene
- V-Ray: Fixed incorrect name export for custom OCIO Colorspace
- V-Ray: Fixed incorrect Preserve borders effect on UV subdivisions on closed meshes with VRay Subdivisions
- V-Ray: Fixed incorrect result with Color Logic node and equals mode
- V-Ray: Fixed instance user attributes not being applied to the light instances
- V-Ray: Fixed IPR Updates with animated groups containing cameras
- V-Ray: Fixed Maya forcibly shutting down when scattering an object with applied Attribute Material ID
- V-Ray: Fixed slow render start with specific USD stage
- V-Ray: Fixed slowdown in Compiling geometry with specific scene
- V-Ray: Fixed some random crashes with volumetrics
- V-Ray: Results from UVW Randomizer’s By Node Name won’t change when deleting an object
- V-Ray: Results from UVW Randomizer’s By Node Name won’t change when turning object into a VRayMeshLight
- V-Ray: Added missing Extra attributes about raycast and primitive count stats from Raw images
- V-Ray: Added V-Ray as a Renderer option for XGen Descriptions
- V-Ray: Fixed some nodes not having an Extra attributes tab
- USD: Fixed crash on Maya exit with USD scene
- USD: Fixed crash when material in USD stage is deleted while IPR is running
- USD: Fixed incorrect UV mapping when exporting materials to USD
- USD: Fixed Maya Direct Light rendering with no intensity
- USD: Fixed wrong render result from exported Camera FOV
- Chaos Scatter: Fixed camera clipping not working when the camera is renamed
- Chaos Scatter: Fixed Maya crash when hiding the primary light during IPR with Chaos Scatter
- Chaos Vantage: Fixed Live-Link Settings not persisting between Maya sessions
- Installer: Removed unnecessary warning when using installer in debug mode
- Material Importer: Fixed wrong import for materials coming from Houdini
- MaterialX: Fixed incorrect ND_overlay implementation
- MaterialX: Fixed Normal Map node scale not working with inputs
- MaterialX: Fixed Triplanar texture bitmaps not being set
- MaterialX: Fixed unexpected results when using “Mix” with a Standard Surface with Opacity less than 1.0
- VRayMtl: Fixed incorrect metallic reflection contribution for secondary rays with VRayMtl
- VRayMtl: Fixed incorrect reflection highlight contribution for secondary rays with VRayMtl
- VRayMtl: Incorrect sheen contribution for secondary rays
- VRayMtl: Fixed light bump attenuation for the sheen/fuzz layers in VRayMtl
- VFB: Confirm image quality and compression settings when saving images with “Always confirm image options when saving” toggled on
- VFB: Fixed crash when pressing the Back mouse button during rendering with V-Ray Frame Buffer
- VFB: Fixed crash when saving EXRs with dataWindow region and Filmic Tonemap correction
- VFB: Fixed duplicated images in VFB history when specific vrscene is rendered
- VFB: Fixed half pixel offset when enabling chromatic aberration
- VFB: Fixed obstacle image not written into the logs
- VFB: Fixed Raw vrimg image file not being correctly saved using soft-stop
- VFB: Fixed vfbControl commands for follow mouse lock not working
- VFB: Fixed Pick material and Select object in VFB not working with V-Ray GPU and RTX engine
- VRayFur: Fixed crash when using static tessellation for XGen hair with motion blur
- VRayFur: Fixed ripple artifact when rendering Yeti fur
- VRayProxy: Fixed fatal error with proxy files in animation
- VRayProxy: Fixed VRayProxy not loading sub-frames of animated alembic caches
- VRayVolumeGrid: Fixed IPR render crash in Maya with Volume Grid and vrscene when changing Smoke Opacity parameters
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed “Use System Memory for Textures” option ignoring the ACEScg color management setup
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed incorrect result with Bump delta scale parameter
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash at Light cache building stage with DR
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash with Hypershade on shader update
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash with specific HDRI map in Dome light
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed Directional Light changing light direction
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed disabling Raytrace Properties not working
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed GPU IPR not refreshing when lights and geometry are deleted
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed incorrect Raw RE with Camera exposure and Bucket sampler
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed incorrect RawSheenReflection with Bucket sampler
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed long light cache generation time in V-Ray GPU IPR with Light Cache subdivisions above 1500
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed Maya Directional Light always rendering with an intensity of 1
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed missing UDIM texture with GPU On-demand mipmapping and Yeti fur
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed the back side of VRayClipper plane being visible in already clipped zone
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed V-Ray GPU not loading some big textures in parallel
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed VRayBump ignoring simple values for Bump multiplier tex
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed wrong Multimatte render element with Camera Vignetting
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed wrong render after the second frame with VRayBitmap’s Inverse gamma color space transfer function
- V-Ray GPU: Fixed wrong size when VRaySphere is scaled
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There is a known bug with Distributed rendering where the local host option becomes unavailable in the UI when editing servers. This can be worked around via mel scripting setAttr “vraySettings.sys_distributed_rendering_local” 0;
