V-Ray 5 for Maya - now available!

[yolov]

We have just released V-Ray 5 for Maya and the builds are available for download on our website.

See what's new on our website and on our documentation pages.

V-Ray 5 highlights:

Redesigned VFB with Light Mix and Compositing
Explore lighting scenarios in real-time without having to render again and composite your renders direcly in the new V-Ray Frame Buffer.

Light Path Expressions
Output custom render passes for extra control in compositing. Expressions can be combined with boolean operations.
There's built-in presets and a visual LPE Builder tool.

ACEScg color management
The industry standard color encoding system is now built into V-Ray.

All-new V-Ray Proxy
Proxies now load in the backgroun to keep the UI responsive. The new hierarchy view gives access to the entire contents of the proxy file. Overrides to visibility and materials can be applied directly in the hirarchy view or with rule-based patterns matching. Scene loading and rendering is faster and there's a built-in conversion from scenes using the old proxy.

Material updates
Coat and Sheen layer are added to the V-Ray material for efficient coating and rendering of fabrics.
Presets for common materials are added to the V-Ray material, including for fabrics, and for different natural and dyed hair for VRayHairNextMtl.

Texture updates
Randomize textures and colors with the new VRayUVWRandomizer and the new randomization options in VRayMultiSubTex.
Automatically remove texture tiling artifacts with the new Stochastic Tiling option in VRayUVWRandomizer.
Add weathering with the new procedural streaks in VRayDirt.

All V-Ray 5 features are supported equally on V-Ray and V-Ray GPU
In addition, V-Ray GPU now supports 2D displacement, OSL textures, memory tracking and provides an initial out-of-core implementation for geometry.

There are many more new features and improvements, including:
New Sun and Sky model for better rendering of sunrises and sunsets.
Blue Noise Optimization for a cleaner look with less samples.


Please note that:
* All Beta licenses will be suspended. At the same time, trials are reset and available to all users.
* The beta forum will be locked as read-only. All V-Ray 5 forum communication will continue in the usual V-Ray for Maya forums.
* 3-rd party plugin developers may need some time to update their compatibility for V-Ray 5.

Sincerely,
The V-Ray for Maya team

[yolov]

Here's the full changelog (aggregated for all beta builds and the final release):

Build 5.00.20 (V-Ray 5, official) (5 August 2020)
==============

New features:
(*) VFB: New VFB with light mix and compositing capabilities;
(*) VFB: Old VFB can be re-enabled with VRAY_VFB2_ENABLED=0 environment variable;
(*) V-Ray: Implemented blue-noise optimization for the DMC sampler;
(*) V-Ray: Implemented "Improved" sky model;
(*) V-Ray: Added LightMix render element in Maya;
(*) V-Ray: Light Path Expressions;
(*) V-Ray: LPE boolean operations ^, &, | and - on expression;
(*) VRayProxy: New VRayProxy node;
(*) VRayMtl: Added a clear coat layer to VRayMtl;
(*) VRayMtl: Added a sheen layer to VRayMtl;
(*) V-Ray: Support ACEScg renderer color space;
(*) VRayBlendMtl: VRayBlendMtl with dynamic layers;
(*) V-Ray: Improved post translate Python script control;
(*) Installation: Embed the License Server and the Cloud Client installations in the V-Ray for Maya installer;
(*) V-Ray: Added new render elements for VRayToonMtl;
(*) V-Ray: Added JSON-formatted Light Select metadata to EXR files;
(*) VRayDomeLight/V-Ray GPU: Ground projection for Dome Lights;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Per-device GPU memory tracker;
(*) V-Ray Denioser: Denoising devices can now be selected with an environment variable;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Maya Mesh support for Cached Playback in Maya 2019 and 2020;
(*) Installation: Integrate the new installer in V-Ray for Maya;
(*) V-Ray Scene Converter: Convert lights for V-Ray;
(*) V-Ray: Added render elements presets based on intended compositing workflow;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Initial support for Out-of-Core codepath
(*) V-Ray GPU: Support for Environment and Self Illumination contribution for Light Selects;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Initial Matte Next implementation;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Support for the Spline interpolation types of Maya ramps;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Added support for Cryptomatte mode by Node Material Name ;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Support for Random by Name mode of VRayMultiSubTex;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Support for the Secondary matte projections on the GPU;
(*) V-Ray GPU: 2D Displacement support;
(*) LightMix: Light Mix settings can now be applied back to the scene in Maya;
(*) VRayDirt: Added procedural streaks in V-Ray Dirt;
(*) VRayMultiSubTex: Added random hue, saturation and gamma to MultiSubTex
(*) VRayUVWRandomizer: Added VRayUVWRandomizer for randomizing texture placement;
(*) VRayUVWRandomizer: Stochastic texture tiling;
(*) VRayPhysicalCamera: Added EV parameter to the physical camera;
(*) V-Ray: Sharp isotropic filtering;
(*) VRayMtl/VRayHairNextMtl: Added presets for V-Ray material and HairNext material;

Modified features:
(*) VRayProxy: Automatic conversion to the new VRayProxy node;
(*) VRayProxy: Added an option to export full path names for proxies;
(*) V-Ray: Light evaluation UI improvements;
(*) V-Ray: GI settings clean up;
(*) V-Ray: Cleaned up the Light Cache settings;
(*) V-Ray: Improved access to often used items in V-Ray menu;
(*) V-Ray: Removed "Generate render elements" option from Denoiser Render element UI;
(*) V-Ray: Enabled texture cache by default;
(*) V-Ray: Added support for Sheen and Coat parameters in VRayMtl to material importer;
(*) V-Ray: Removed the Auto Volume Shader option for Maya Fluids;
(*) V-Ray: Removed the Embree settings from the UI;
(*) V-Ray: Removed the skylight portal options for lights;
(*) V-Ray: Removed the Irradiance Map GI engine;
(*) V-Ray: Removed the Linear Workflow option;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Make V-Ray GPU use the memory of the Meshes directly from V-Ray containers without copying;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Implement picking objects/materials for Optix;
(*) V-Ray: Enabled GI by default;
(*) VRayProxy/ V-Ray IPR: Improved responsiveness when moving proxies in IPR;
(*) V-Ray: Cleaned up the UI for lights;
(*) VRayHair3Mtl: Removed VRayHair3Mtl;
(*) V-Ray GPU: EXR and TIFF files are now referenced in memory based on hash metadata;
(*) VRayMtl: Energy preserving Metalness for colored reflections;
(*) VRayToonMtl: Removed soften edge and exit colors from VRayToonMtl;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Ability to enable or disable the global hair tree;
(*) VRayMtl: Removed the exit colors and soften edge advanced options from VRayMtl;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Removed the out-of-process IPR option;
(*) Viewport 2.0: Removed the Viewport display options for textures of lights;
(*) Viewport 2.0: Apply color management for file textures connected to lights in Viewport 2.0;
(*) V-Ray: Removed the V-Ray Quick Settings;
(*) VRayFastSSS2: Removed the front and back lighting options from VRayFastSSS2;
(*) V-Ray: Removed the local subdiv settings and use automated shading sampling;
(*) V-Ray: Do not adjust intensity when changing light units for mesh lights;
(*) V-Ray: Improved drag and drop default connections onto the V-Ray Mtl material override extra attrbites;
(*) V-Ray: Added support for V-Ray list parameters in VRayPluginNode;
(*) V-Ray/VRayProxy: Improved proxy loading performance;
(*) V-Ray/VRayProxy: Improved alembic import times;
(*) VRayProxy: Speed up the proxy export;
(*) V-Ray: Faster instancer export;
(*) VRayProxy: Check if the folder where the proxy will be saved exist before the export starts;
(*) VFB: Collapse the individual color corrections rollouts by default;
(*) V-Ray: VRayScene: Render Stats / Wrapper for Instancer2;
(*) V-Ray: UserAttibuteValue should not truncate integers larger than 24 bits;
(*) V-Ray: Volumes in VRaySwitchMtl should only use the volume plug;
(*) V-Ray: Removed V-Ray Swarm from the UI;
(*) VRayProxy: Renamed the "One voxel per mesh" label for proxy export to "Optimize for instancing";
(*) VRayProxy: Enabled "Optimize for instancing" for proxy export by default;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Added support for instancing hair on GPU;
(*) VRayLightMtl: Greyed out the compensate exposure option of LightMtl when direct illumination is enabled;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Faster first startup on multi-GPU machines;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Reduced memory usage when using RTX;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Improved volume intersection & shading;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Added log messages for NVLink usage;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Updated the volumetric rendering on V-Ray GPU to be able to handle Volume grid and Environment Fog primitives simultaneously;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Added support for explicit texture coordinates for the Texture sampler in Maya/Standalone;
(*) VRayProxy: Renamed -vrscenePreview to -vrsceneWholeScene in the ply2vrmesh option list;
(*) V-Ray: Bitmap filenames from user attribute tags should not append project path;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Improved time-to-first-pixel when there's lots of nodes with user attributes;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Reduced memory usage with OptiX when rendering with bucket sampler and on-demand textures;
(*) V-Ray: The Min Shade Rate control is now hidden from the UI;
(*) VFB2: VFB2 now respects color correction settings from the old VFB;
(*) VFB2: Added support for native Maya dialogs;
(*) VFB2: Added camera selection to VFB2;
(*) VRayObjectProperties: Rearranged VRayObjectProperties UI
(*) VRayMtl: Set the default V-Ray material reflection and refraction depth to 8;
(*) VRayProxy2: Disallowed multiple selection in the hierarchy view;
(*) VRayProxy2: Overrides from the tree view now override regex overrides;
(*) Removed the Deep Output checkbox from the Light Mix render element UI;
(*) VFB2: Made the Pause IPR icon in VFB checkable;
(*) VFB2: LightMix adjustments are now supported with batch rendering;
(*) V-Ray: Removed the Linear Workflow option and added a migration script;
(*) V-Ray: Removed the skylight portal options for lights and added a migration script;
(*) V-Ray: Added highlighting of V-Ray 5 features;
(*) VRayMultiSubTex: Removed the Use face material ID option from MultiSubTex;
(*) V-Ray: Added a warning when there are no lights in the scene;
(*) VRayDirt: Allow negative values for distribution in VRayDirt;
(*) VRayHairNextMtl: Added material ID attribute for VRayHairNextMtl;
(*) V-Ray: Hide No Decay option of V-Ray lights for new scenes;

[yolov]

Bug fixes:
(*) V-Ray: Fixed slower render when started by clicking the VFB "render last" icon;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed wrong bounding boxes on VRayScene preview;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed new hair material not being affected when AcesCG color space is selected;
(*) V-Ray: OSX: Fixed Installer failing to remove firewall exception;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed artifacts with the adaptive dome light in the attached scene;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crashes when rendering with CUDA CPU;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crashes when rendering with OOC and a dynamic mesh has velocity channel;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crashes if it fails to initialize devices;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash during vray mesh export;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Added support for more than 8 light select render elements when using light cache;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Improved GPU loading time on scenes with many materials;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Do not allow NaN colors read from EXR files into the renderer;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed wrong hue shift when using the colorCorrect node in Maya;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed random crashes when there is a particle system in the scene;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed Gamma and Alpha controls in the Maya colorCorrect texture not working on the GPU;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash with VRayBlendMtl additive option;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed crash when rendering very tiny hairs with length close to zero;
(*) VRayALSurface: Fixed SSS not computed for VRayALSurface materials seen through glossy refraction;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed wrong object translations with flipAxis enabled in the VRayMesh preview;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed very high memory usage when playing with VFB color corrections and the vfbControl command;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed wrong VRaySun viewport preview when parent transform is scaled;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed fatal error when rendering a refractive material in a specific scene;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed OSL shader not taking into account the connected multiplyDivide node;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Fixed crash with Lens Effects and IPR set to interactive update;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed importing plugin object parameters for VRayPluginNode not working;
(*) VRayBerconNoise: Fixed VRayBerconNoise Color1 and Color2 missing in Lookdev Hypershade template;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed skipExistingFrame breaking the dome light texture when the first frame exists;
(*) VRayProxy: Fixed crash with Maya's Evaluation Cache when changing VRayMesh preview type;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed having V-Ray AppSDK installed prevents python in V-Ray for Maya working;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed rendering hair ignoring per vertex map channels;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed using uninverted normal bump option resulting in strange/wrong rendering;
(*) VRayBerconNoise: Fixed Bercon Noise rendering differently in Maya 2015, 2016, 2016.5 and 2017;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed error for swatches of file textures with filenames containing tags;
(*) V-Ray: Allow longer names of render elements when saving in a .vrimg file from the VFB;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed user attribute syntax with spaces around attribute name not working;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed segmentation fault with alembic file on Linux;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed instanced hair crashing when using VRayHairMtl;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed error on importing vrscene with vrscene in geometry mode inside;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed the Locator scale parameter not working on sphere and rectangular V-Ray lights in Viewport 2.0;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed V-Ray could crash if reading maximum memory snapshot after plugins have been unloaded;
(*) VRayMultiSubTex: Fixed VRayMultiSubTex not looping through texture ids correctly;
(*) V-Ray GPU/VRayBlendMtl: Fixed random incorrect render of VRayBlendMtl with submaterials with bitmaps;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Fixed rendering on GPU with NVLink crashing in specific scenario;
(*) V-Ray GPU: V-Ray may crash when rendering with GPU and the GPU fails during initialization;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Difference between Full Light Select RE and RGB with VRayFastSSS2;
(*) V-Ray GPU: V-Ray standalone prints garbage on the first progress print;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Artifacts in consecutive renders after modifying texture used in both displacement and shading;
(*) V-Ray GPU: HDR Textures with really high values attached to lights can cause fireflies;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Material index overflow on GPU causes artefacts in specific scene;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed timeouts of requests when using borrowed licenses;
(*) Fixed vfbControl -setregion and -loadimage commands with VFB2;
(*) VRayProxy2: Fixed ValueError with specific scene and the "Convert To New V-Ray Proxy Node" tool;
(*) V-Ray:/LPE: Fixed crash in with invalid light path expression;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed warning for unsupported format with .tx files;
(*) VFB2: Fixed persistent settings not saving if vrayvfbuser.xml doesn't exist;
(*) VRayProxy2: Fixed shader overrides list not always updating in the Atribute Editor;
(*) IPR: Fixed Hiding or unhiding an object with multiple shape nodes not detected in IPR;
(*) VRayProxy2: Fixed clicking an icon in the hierarchy view causing the tree item to be expanded;
(*) VRayProxy2: Fixed materials not converted with "Convert To New V-Ray Proxy Node" tool;
(*) VRayProxy2: Fixed value error on scene exit;
(*) VFB2: Fixed UI issues with VFB2 on macOS and Linux with HiDPI scaling;
(*) V-Ray/IPR: Fixed he option for Double Sided in the VRayDirt texture not updating in IPR;
(*) VRayFur/IPR: Fixed VRayFur not updating in Viewport IPR;
(*) V-Ray IPR: Fixed crash when creating an object in IPR with Render Selected Objects Only enabled;
(*) VRayLayeredTex: Fixed textures passed through remapRamp not blending correctly in VRayLayeredTex;
(*) V-Ray: Fixed OptiX denoiser failing to fallback to vdenoise on unsupported devices;
(*) VRayProxy2: Fixed wrong transformations in specific alembic objects when using the Starting object path option;
(*) VRayProxy2: Fixed error when importing proxies with non-basic Latin symbols in the names;