Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

V-Ray 3.30.01 BETA! available for download

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • V-Ray 3.30.01 BETA! available for download

    Hello,

    We have uploaded a preview version of the next service pack, V-Ray 3.30.01, on our website here:
    http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/downloads.html?s=v-ray

    THESE ARE NOT THE FINAL BUILDS. We still have some work left on polishing this release, particularly for V-Ray RT GPU. We will probably post one more build before the release, probably in a couple of weeks.

    However, for the moment I would like to get some feedback on a few of the new features, just to figure out if we are on the right track.

    1) New adaptive sampling algorithm, both for the "Adaptive" bucket mode and the "Progressive" samplers. The goals of the new algorithm are:
    a. To produce more even noise levels across the image. Our original algorithm tended to undersample darker parts of the image, while oversampling brighter parts.
    b. To introduce a linear relationship between the noise threshold value and the render time. With the new sampler, decreasing the noise threshold twice always produces twice as many image samples and typically twice longer render times, while improving the quality respectively.
    c. To better distinguish between areas with different variance. The old method could produce wildly varying noise levels under one and the same noise threshold value.
    d. To always clean up a given area to the same noise level regardless of the actual underlying shading samples.

    The new algorithm is not faster, it just produces images with more consistent quality, thereby reducing the need to fiddle with shading settings in materials and lights.

    When loading an old scene, V-Ray will ask whether to switch to the new method or not; you can also switch manually with the following MaxScript command:
    Code:
    renderers.current.twoLevel_adaptiveMethod=N
    where N is 0 for the old method and 1 for the new method. New scenes use the new method by default. The switch option itself is not available in the UI.

    2) Option to disregard shading subdivs in materials, lights and GI, with the minimum shading rate remaining the only shading quality control. This option can be toggled from the "DMC sampler" rollout. For new scenes, V-Ray by default disregards shading subdivs. For old scenes, V-Ray will ask whether to switch to the new default.

    This means that by default, you have only one shading quality control - the minimum shading rate. We have done a lot of experiments with different scenes and various conditions to determine a good default value, which turned out to be 6. There is very little reason to change this value either up or down. In addition, V-Ray recognizes that some objects generally need higher AA (fur, hair, ForestPro) and automatically lowers the shading rate for these objects. The new adaptive sampling algorithm ensures that the final noise levels are still consistent.

    My goal with this is to basically remove the need for the user to adjust any quality settings except for the image sampler. You can still do that if you like, of course, but from what I have seen, very few people manage to get better render times out of playing with the individual settings, and most people just make things worse. Unfortunately many optimziation tutorials on the internet just contribute to more confusion. V-Ray knows quite a bit about the rendered scene and it can actually allocate samples quite adequately on its own. Some more improvements are coming in this area too for the next builds.

    3) Dynamic noise threshold for the progressive sampler. This is always enabled by default and there is very little reason to change it; still, it can be turned off from MaxScript with the command:
    Code:
    renderers.current.progressive_dynNoiseThreshold=0
    (the default value is 30).

    This works by starting the progressive render with a high noise threshold and gradually reducing it until it gets to the specified value. The result is that the intermediate images have more consistent noise levels by causing the renderer to spend a bit more effort on the noisier parts first. In this way, the user has a better idea of the final image and if the rendering needs to be terminated after a certain time, makes sure that the best possible image for that time frame is calculated. If the render is not limited in time, it eventually converges to the same final image as when the option is disabled - just the way to get there is different.

    The difference for many scenes is not actually that drastic, but it does produce images of more uniform quality while the progressive sampler is working. Also, V-Ray will print out the currently reached noise threshold in the V-Ray messages window so that you can reproduce the same quality later on if needed.

    4) Updated sun and sky models (Hosek et al model+ground albedo parameters) plus aerial perspective environment effect. This build also changes the internal spectral RGB color space of V-Ray to sRGB from CIE RGB which we used in previous builds. This affects calculations of the sun and sky, as well as any conversions of Kelvin temperature to RGB colors. For new scenes, the sRGB color space is used. This can be toggled with the MaxScript command:
    Code:
    renderers.current.options_rgbColorSpace=N
    where N is 1 for sRGB, and 0 for the old CIE RGB.

    The updated color space has two effects:
    a. The V-Ray sun and sky have slightly warmer colors rather than the greenish tint they had before;
    b. The white point of this color space is 6500K, meaning that lights at 6500K and camera white balance at 6500K produce the neutral white result.

    5) Raytraced rounded corners. This is enabled by default both for old and new scenes; it can be disabled by setting the "roundedCorners_raytraced" parameter of VRayEdgesTex to "false". This mode enables the rounded corners algorithm to:
    a. Work better in general, by producing smoother results with less artifacts;
    b. Be able to blend normals between different objects;
    c. To work with displaced/subdivided objects, as well as VRayProxy objects;
    d. To work with disconnected meshes.

    Currently this works on the CPU only; we do have an implementation for V-Ray RT GPU, but it wasn't quite ready for these builds. I'm sure the question of include/exclude objects will come up, as well as an additional bump slot inside the VRayEdgesTex texture itself, and these are planned. In case you are wondering, we licensed the raytraced rounded corners method from nVidia, although we had to improve the original algorithm a bit in order to make it useful. I think that it works better than the mental ray/iray implementations.

    There are also many other improvements that you can see listed in the changelog below.

    Any feedback is welcome!

    Best regards,
    Vlado
    I only act like I know everything, Rogers.

  • #2
    The WIP changelog so far:

    Build 3.30.01 (Beta 1) (10 November 2015)
    ==============

    New features:
    (*) V-Ray: General speed improvements;
    (*) V-Ray: New adaptive sampling algorithm for better detection and clean-up of noise in the image;
    (*) V-Ray: Added option for automatic subdivs calculations for materials and lights;
    (*) V-Ray: Better GI distribution (more robust handling of reflective GI caustics) for interior scenes;
    (*) V-Ray: Experimental support for machines with more than 64 logical cores (enabled through VRAY_USE_THREAD_AFFINITY=1 environment variable);
    (*) V-Ray: Better sub-pixel filtering for the progressive sampler;
    (*) V-Ray: Dynamic noise threshold for the progressive sampler for more even noise distribuion;
    (*) V-Ray: Internal spectral color space switched from CIE RGB to sRGB;
    (*) VRaySun/VRaySky: New sky model (Hosek et al);
    (*) VRaySun/VRaySky: Added ground color parameter;
    (*) VRayStochasticFlakesMtl: New stochastic flakes material for car-paint like materials;
    (*) VRayClipper: Ability to clip against arbitrary meshes;
    (*) VRayEdgesTex: Implemented raytraced rounded corners when used as bump map;
    (*) VRayVolumeGrid: Added options for probabilistic volume sampling in the VRayVolumeGrid atmospheric effect;
    (*) VFB: Ability to compare the V-Ray settings recorded with the VFB history images;
    (*) VFB: Ability to export the color corrections settings as single LUT (.cube) file;
    (*) VFB: Ability to load color corrections from VFB history;
    (*) V-Ray and VRayMtl: Updated default settings;
    (*) VRayGLSLMtl/VRayGLSLTex: GLSL shaders are now compiled to binary code through LLVM for increased render speed;
    (*) V-Ray RT: In-process RT engine (no separate command-line opens up);
    (*) V-Ray RT GPU: Support for lights include/exclude;
    (*) V-Ray RT GPU: Better support for AMD hardware;
    (*) V-Ray RT GPU: Initial support for GLSL texture shaders;
    (*) V-Ray RT GPU: Support for hair and particles from VRayProxy objects;
    (*) V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for VRayFur;
    (*) V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for VRayPlane;
    (*) V-Ray RT GPU: Support for texture-mapped "radius" parameter in VRayDirt;
    (*) VRayFur: Implemented options for hair curling;
    (*) VRayProxy: Specify the proxy preview faces as percentage of the original faces, min and max values;
    (*) VRayAerialPerspective: New aerial perspective atmospheric effect;
    (*) V-Ray: Added "Generate render elements" option to the V-Ray object properties;
    (*) V-Ray: Added vrayGetStampVariable() MaxScript function to return the value of any VFB stamp variable;
    (*) VRayNormalMap: Added an "Additional bump map" slot;

    Modified features:
    (*) V-Ray: Automatically disable the bitmap pager;
    (*) V-Ray: Distributed calculations of the light cache with distributed rendering;
    (*) V-Ray: Further speed improvements for proxies and instances (beyond what we had in V-Ray 3.20.03);
    (*) V-Ray: Improved CPU utilization for the progressive sampler when using noise threshold;
    (*) V-Ray: Speed improvements when rendering displacement/subdivision surfaces;
    (*) V-Ray: Added progressive sampling buffer memory usage info to the V-Ray rendering messages log;
    (*) V-Ray: Optimized Mitchell-Netravali filter performance on Intel Xeon CPUs;
    (*) VRayHDRI: Tiled textures caching optimizations;
    (*) VRayHDRI: General speed improvements;
    (*) VRayHDRI: Support for UDIM tiles greater than 1999;
    (*) VRayDirt: For newly created VRayDirt textures, the subdivs (and samples quality) is no longer influenced by antialiasing settings;
    (*) VRayBlendMtl: Added toggle controls for the coat materials;
    (*) V-Ray RT: .vrscene exporter support for VrayScannedMtl;
    (*) V-Ray RT: Added "Show log" button in the System rollout when set as production renderer;
    (*) V-Ray RT: Avoid burning the RT statistics into the final saved images;
    (*) V-Ray RT: V-Ray plugins can be loaded from multiple paths set in the VRAY30_RT_FOR_3DSMAXNNNN_PLUGINS environment variable;
    (*) V-Ray RT: Moved the "Ignore in RT Engine" option from Object Properties to V-Ray Properties;
    (*) V-Ray RT GPU: Print warning for unsupported textures/materials;
    (*) VFB: Added tooltip with the image comment to the images in the VFB history;
    (*) VFB: Adding/removing render elements will not delete the contents of the frame buffer;
    (*) VRayEnvironmentFog: Enabled adding of multiple lights in the Environment Fog field through "Select by name" dialog;
    (*) VRayEnvironmentFog: "per gizmo fadeout enable" option is disabled by default;
    (*) VRayEnvironmentFog: Renamed the per-gizmo "fadeout" parameter to "falloff";
    (*) VRayMtl: Moved the "Use interpolation" options for reflections/refractions to the relevant rollout;
    (*) VRayOSLMtl/VRayOSLTex: Added user tags support for textures connected to a GLSL/OSL texture or material;
    (*) VRayOSLTex: Fixed incorrect results when the "Mirror" and "Tile" options are switched off;
    (*) VRayVolumeGrid: Added automatic preview detail reduction;
    (*) VRayVolumeGrid: Allowed the render diagrams/gradients to be resized by MaxScript;
    (*) Installer: Auto-run the license server if it was running prior the installation;
    (*) V-Ray scene converter: Added support for the Output rollout and crop/placement values;
    (*) vrayspawner.exe accepts "-numthreads" option to limit the number of threads for the DR node when not using NUMA options;
    (*) VRaySamplerInfo render element: Added modes to extract a specific node user attribute as an integer or floating-point render element;
    I only act like I know everything, Rogers.

    Comment


    • #3
      Bug fixes:
      (*) V-Ray: "Transfer missing assets" option wasn't working trough Backburner;
      (*) V-Ray: Automatically turn off image filtering with Cube 6x1 cameras because it is causing "Invalid geometric normal (-0 -0 -0)" errors;
      (*) V-Ray: GI "Leak prevention" parameter name was disappearing when loading settings from VFB history file;
      (*) V-Ray: Light Cache was crashing at Merging Passes stage with Motion Blur and particle systems;
      (*) V-Ray: Fixed wrong results with sharpening image filters when rendering with progressive image sampler and V-Ray RT;
      (*) V-Ray: "Maps" option in Global Switches doesn't disable the textured lights properly;
      (*) V-Ray: Per-pixel statistics were wrong with region render;
      (*) V-Ray: Render mask in texture mode was loading only the top level bitmap if there were sub-textures;
      (*) V-Ray: Rendering was freezing with static subdivision and tiled textures when the displacement map is missing;
      (*) V-Ray: Rollouts in the Render Settings window were disappearing when loading V-Ray presets;
      (*) V-Ray: The "?" button for the Adaptive image sampler was opening broken URL;
      (*) V-Ray: Fixed crash with Free Directional Lights;
      (*) V-Ray: Fixed wrong result in the VRayShadows render element;
      (*) VRayFastSSS2/VRaySkinMtl: Lights include/exclude list was ignored when motion blur was enabled;
      (*) VRayFastSSS2/VRaySkinMtl: Fixed visible edges in raytraced mode when intersecting with other invisible geometry;
      (*) V-Ray RT: 3ds Max Photometric lights' filter color was not exported to .vrscene files;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Camera animation was not properly exported to .vrscene files;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Could not lock render view if Phoenix FD GPU preview is in one of the viewports;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Fixed crash when creating spherical light during ActiveShade;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Fixed 3ds Max crash when inserting VFB stamp variables after rendering as production renderer;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Fixed crash when re-connecting Multi/Sub-Object material to VRayBlendMtl during ActiveShade;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Fixed different results with VRayIES lights compared to the production renderer;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Fixed error when rendering Normal Bump map with texture in Additional bump map and no Normal map set;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Fixed random error "stage 2" after tweaking exposure settings due to uninitialized resources;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Fixed silent crash when closing 3ds Max after rendering;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Fixed VRayBlendMtl exporting of redundant BRDFLayered plugins for the sub-materials;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Fixed wrong scaled camera rendering;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Gradient Ramp texture had Surface Normal not properly calculated for backfacing polygons;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Meshes with subdivision should be exported as GeomStaticSmoothedMesh;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Prevent hidden geometry export;
      (*) V-Ray RT: Subtract function in VRayCompTex was producing incorrect results;
      (*) V-Ray RT: The parameters for probabilistic lights were not exported to .vrscene files;
      (*) V-Ray RT: VRayDistanceTex was not exported;
      (*) V-Ray RT: VRayFur placement by material ID was offset by 1;
      (*) V-Ray RT: VRayGLSLTex and VRayOSLTex were not shown as compatible textures in the material editor;
      (*) V-Ray RT: VRaySun exclude list was not applied;
      (*) V-Ray RT GPU: Fixed "Inverse square" decay of Standard lights;
      (*) V-Ray RT GPU: Fixed wrong MultiMatte render element rendering with motion blur;
      (*) VFB: Prevent auto-save an image in the history if the VFB has just been cleared;
      (*) VFB: Adding points to the curve color correction was resetting the right tangent of the last point;
      (*) VFB: Channels were mismatched in compare A/B mode when channels were different in both of the images;
      (*) VFB: Fixed %frame variable in the frame stamp doesn't work;
      (*) VFB: Fixed color correction rollouts scroll position after hiding rollouts;
      (*) VFB: White balance color correction was causing hanging after rendering;
      (*) VRayColor2Bump: Was not returning correct number of sub-textures;
      (*) VRayDisplacementMod: The "max subdivs" parameter was not disabled for modes other than subdivision surfaces;
      (*) VRayEnvironmentFog: Fixed result affected by inactive instances;
      (*) VRayEnvironmentFog: Was not irradiated by VRaySun in V-Ray RT;
      (*) VRayEnvironmentFog: Wrong deep output was generated when using with multiple/overlapping gizmos;
      (*) VRayFur: "Placement" option was not reflected in the viewport preview;
      (*) VRayFur: Source object's scaling was not taken into account;
      (*) VRayHairFarmMod and VRayOrnatrixMod: Fixed crash when rendering with VRaySamplerInfo render element;
      (*) VRayHairMtl: Fixed reflections when the material has glossy reflections and GI is off;
      (*) VRayHairMtl: Fixed missing direct light from VRayAmbientLight;
      (*) VRayHDRI: Elliptical filtering was crashing when assigned as environment map;
      (*) VRayMtl: Anisotropy and Rotation texmap shortcut buttons did not have context menus;
      (*) VRayNormalMap: Fixed crash when the map channel is set to 100;
      (*) VRayPhysicalCamera: Rendering with bitmap aperture was producing black images;
      (*) VRayStereoscopic: Camera exposure from the VRayPhysicalCamera was applied twice to render elements when rendering with shademaps;
      (*) VRayStereoscopic: Disable the DOF effect while rendering shade maps;
      (*) VRaySky: The wrong VRaySun lights was chosen in case there were multiple hidden but one;
      (*) VRaySun: Exposure in viewport was too dark in the in 3ds Max 2016;
      (*) VRayVolumeGrid: Deleting and then undoing breaks all rendering and simulation functionality;
      (*) VRayVolumeGrid: Fire in "own opacity" mode was rendering very dim in reflections with glossiness < 1;
      (*) VRayVolumeGrid: Workaround F3D files from FumeFX using boundless simulation or wavelet are not scaled correctly;
      (*) V-Ray Bitmap to V-RayHDRI converter: Fixed error if there are Bitmap textures with no file names;

      Best regards,
      Vlado
      I only act like I know everything, Rogers.

      Comment


      • #4
        Is this safe for prime time? I have several active projects, so is it best to wait for the official release?
        Bobby Parker
        www.bobby-parker.com
        e-mail: info@bobby-parker.com
        phone: 2188206812

        My current hardware setup:
        • Ryzen 9 5900x CPU
        • 128gb Vengeance RGB Pro RAM
        • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
        • ​Windows 11 Pro

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by glorybound View Post
          Is this safe for prime time?
          Well, there's the word "beta" We put the builds mostly for those that have some time to experiment and provide feedback. While the builds have been used in production, if you have current projects it may be better to wait for the official release in a month.

          Best regards,
          Vlado
          I only act like I know everything, Rogers.

          Comment


          • #6
            Great Stuff Vlado

            Will the nightlies continue to be newer than this "beta" version?
            Since, this is a beta, what would be the general difference between this and the nightlies?
            Kind Regards,
            Morne

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Morne View Post
              Will the nightlies continue to be newer than this "beta" version?
              Yes.

              Since, this is a beta, what would be the general difference between this and the nightlies?
              We already branched the code for the next stable release, so we are only going to put bug fixes and minor improvements in the 3.30 stable builds, whereas the nightly builds continue with the new developments.

              Best regards,
              Vlado
              I only act like I know everything, Rogers.

              Comment


              • #8
                Awesome! Already installed at home and will be testing with a current project. Where's the best place to drop any comments/feedback as we go along?

                edit: Already seeing an improvement! My current project at home, one rendering was taking 2 hours. Now it takes 18 minutes. Haha. I totally had not optimized it since I've got so much power at work I'd become lazy. This update is awesome. Will put a PDF together with the renderings lined up to see how much different they look, before/after
                Last edited by cheerioboy; 09-11-2015, 12:24 PM.
                Brendan Coyle | www.brendancoyle.com

                Comment


                • #9
                  One interesting note
                  With 72 threads rendering i get a warning message "performance loss - rendering thread count (72) higher than light cache passes (64)"
                  However, I don't see the passes setting anywhere in the lightcache settings (switched to expert). I could swear it used to be there some time ago... well maybe some years ago, not sure
                  Is it made invisible or moved somewhere?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Awesome improvements, can't wait to try this on a super heavy scene I have lying around.
                    A.

                    ---------------------
                    www.digitaltwins.be

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by viscorbel View Post
                      One interesting note
                      With 72 threads rendering i get a warning message "performance loss - rendering thread count (72) higher than light cache passes (64)"
                      However, I don't see the passes setting anywhere in the lightcache settings (switched to expert). I could swear it used to be there some time ago... well maybe some years ago, not sure
                      Is it made invisible or moved somewhere?
                      It's now hardcoded to 64. Even if you change it with Maxscript, it will still stay 64
                      Kind Regards,
                      Morne

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Yes, I will probably need to change that...

                        Best regards,
                        Vlado
                        I only act like I know everything, Rogers.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by cheerioboy View Post
                          Awesome! Already installed at home and will be testing with a current project. Where's the best place to drop any comments/feedback as we go along?
                          Here!
                          We're all listening VERY intently, you know? :P

                          edit: Already seeing an improvement! My current project at home, one rendering was taking 2 hours. Now it takes 18 minutes. Haha. I totally had not optimized it since I've got so much power at work I'd become lazy. This update is awesome. Will put a PDF together with the renderings lined up to see how much different they look, before/after
                          Yeah, this will put you in my good book right away, allright! ^^
                          So you opened the file, reset the render settings, and pressed the button, for a VISUALLY COMPARABLE image to the previous setup?
                          Lele
                          Trouble Stirrer in RnD @ Chaos
                          ----------------------
                          emanuele.lecchi@chaos.com

                          Disclaimer:
                          The views and opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent those of Chaos Group, unless otherwise stated.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by ^Lele^ View Post
                            Here!
                            We're all listening VERY intently, you know? :P


                            Yeah, this will put you in my good book right away, allright! ^^
                            So you opened the file, reset the render settings, and pressed the button, for a VISUALLY COMPARABLE image to the previous setup?
                            I didn't reset the render settings completely. Only accepted the prompt for the new adaptive sampling algorithm. And made sure to disregard the local subdivs. Is it possible that I'm getting more light through my HDRI dome light? Oh or it could be the outside geo with the vraylightmtl. Looks like the light from the windows got a slight bump. I had noticed some geometry that is outside the space was on a layer that got hidden. So I tried turning that back on and re-rendering but the space is still looking the same, and rendering just as fast.

                            So now I only play with the min/max of the adaptive sampler and the noise threshold? for quality vs time?
                            Next I want to try doing a full reset of the settings and try progressive. Do you typically set a render time limit, maybe match how long the previous renderings were taking to compare quality vs the same time.
                            Last edited by cheerioboy; 09-11-2015, 02:13 PM.
                            Brendan Coyle | www.brendancoyle.com

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by cheerioboy View Post
                              I didn't reset the render settings completely. Only accepted the prompt for the new adaptive sampling algorithm. And made sure to disregard the local subdivs.
                              Thant's nearly as good as.
                              Is it possible that I'm getting more light through my HDRI dome light? Looks like the light from the windows got a slight bump. I had noticed some geometry that is outside the space was on a layer that got hidden. So I tried turning that back on and re-rendering but the space is still looking the same, and rendering just as fast.
                              Yes, new defaults for GI will have GI caustics on, which now also are calculated faster and cleaner.
                              The net result, when this is combined with the new sampler, IS a generally brighter image, especially in the previously dark and difficult places.
                              So now I only play with the min/max of the adaptive sampler and the noise threshold? for quality vs time?
                              Ideally, you can just lower noise threshold.
                              In some exceptionally complex cases, some area will not get sampled enough at the end of the AA rays (ie. max subdivs are reached, but the SampleRate element shows white AREAS), in which case you can either raise max AA subdivs, or raise MSR.
                              You should need to to that exceedingly rarely, though: most of the times, the sampler will have had enough before reaching max AA subdivs.

                              Next I want to try doing a full reset of the settings and try progressive. Do you typically set a render time limit, maybe match how long the previous renderings were taking to compare quality vs the same time.
                              I only set a render time limit to do timed tests, yes.
                              Then again, it comes in very very handy to get a quick sequence rendered out, particularly now that the sampler advancements make sure the noise level is very steady across lighting levels.
                              Last edited by ^Lele^; 09-11-2015, 02:53 PM.
                              Lele
                              Trouble Stirrer in RnD @ Chaos
                              ----------------------
                              emanuele.lecchi@chaos.com

                              Disclaimer:
                              The views and opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent those of Chaos Group, unless otherwise stated.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X