V-Ray 3.60.01 is now available!

[konstantin_chaos]

V-Ray 3.60.01, the first official V-Ray 3 for Rhino Service Pack update is now available!

It can be download here:
http://download.chaosgroup.com

After installation, you will find detailed info about the changes in the 'release_log' and the 'changelog' files:
.\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray\V-Ray for Rhinoceros 5\release_log.html
.\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray\V-Ray for Rhinoceros 5\changelog.txt

More information about the update as well as the V-Ray 3.6 for Rhino overview video can be found here:
https://www.chaosgroup.com/vray/rhino

More information about the VRscans technology supported in V-Ray 3.6 can be found here:
https://www.chaosgroup.com/vrscans

Cloud rendering early access program - available through a new button in the UI, our cloud rendering service is open for beta testers.
Apply here: www.chaosgroup.com/cloud

Best regards,
Konstantin

[konstantin_chaos]

Here is a list of some of the new features and improvements:
Optimizations & Workflow Improvements

• Implemented Adaptive Lights sampling algorithm. It is enabled by default and will improve render times significantly. Projects with many light sources will get the biggest speed boost
• Implemented light source instancing. The V-Ray Rectangle, Sphere, Spot, IES and Directional lights can now be copied as instances and listed as one object in the V-Ray Asset Editor. The V-Ray Light name is automatically used as a prefix in the Rhino Lights list. The Copy To Clipboard command allows for creating non-instanced copies of the light
• Updated Rhino-side Light properties UI. The properties listed have been rearranged and customized to fit the different light source type parameters. All of them, including the light name, are synced with their Asset Editor counterparts and vise-versa
• Implemented synchronization between the Rhino Lights list properties and the V-Ray light source name, intensity, color and on/off toggle state
• Implemented ?Select Instances? light property button and functionality. It selects all the instances of the selected light source. The button is inactive if the light hasn't been instanced
• Implemented ?Make Unique? light property button and functionality. It breaks the instance link and makes the light unique. This generates new suffixed light source name in the Asset Editor. The button is inactive if the light is not an instance
• The Sphere and Dome light viewport widgets no longer consist of a group of light and object on creation. This prevents unwanted actions and behaviors like adding lights to blocks or ungrouping the special object. Note that from now on the Sphere and Dome lights can only be selected by clicking on the light gizmo itself. Selecting the graphic representation is no longer possible
• Three-axis rotation of the Dome light gizmo is now supported and will be rendered as expected. Note that old scenes with a horizontally unaligned Dome Light will now render differently due to the new functionality
• Blocks containing Mesh Lights are now handled in a more consistent and reliable way and can be used for Mesh Light instancing.
• Rhino Blocks can now be created, manipulated and managed in a more reliable way
• V-Ray specific commands have been renamed and can now be filtered based on their ?vray? suffix. Some of the commands have been merged in a single command with multiple options. The legacy command names are still active and usable
• Implemented Camera Focus Tool. It can be activated through the V-Ray menu - V-Ray / Tools / Camera Focus Tool, the command - vrayCamFocus or by using the toolbar shortcut
• Implemented vrayChangeDefaultScene command. It switches between a studio or arch-vis default V-Ray settings setup. The selected default preset will persist between sessions and can be changed at any time by using the same command. Note that the Rhino default template scenes will turn off the Sun even when the architectural preset is selected. It is recommended that you enable the Sun to take full advantage of the arch-vis preset
• VRayFur viewport representation (vertex strands) can now be toggled through the ?Display in Viewport? checkbox available in the V-Ray properties panel. Disabling the option optimizes the viewport performance, especially in scenes with Fur generated on complex geometries
• Implement Use Camera path option. The option becomes visible once Animation has been recorded by V-Ray and the Animation toggle has been enabled. It calculates the global illumination for the entire camera path and speed up the process of rendering camera fly-through setups significantly
• Enabling the Interactive rendering mode no longer switches to progressive image sampling. Switching from Bucket Production Rendering to Interactive and back no longer requires additional steps
• Camera Exposure can now be disabled with a toggle. This way the image exposure can be preserved while changing the distance between the camera and its target
• V-Ray Fur materials can now be changed using a drop-down menu in the Asset Editor
• On-demand mipmapping mode has been added for texture maps used by the GPU (CUDA) engine. This is a smart algorithm that resizes textures automatically during render time and loads the smallest texture version for the render output. No texture details are lost in the process while the GPU memory usage is decreased significantly
• Stochastic and Clip opacity modes have been added to the VRayBRDF shader. Both will lead to better performance in scenes with many transparent surfaces. Stochastic opacity is enabled by default for newly created materials
• V-Ray Denoiser can now be updated using different settings without re-rendering the image. This is done by the Update button added to the Denoiser advanced parameters
• Implemented the V-Ray File Path Editor. This is an editor for location management of texture, proxy and light files. It can also archive and repath all project asset files in a quick and intuitive way
• Implemented V-Ray Environment Fog volumetric effect. It scatters light and can simulate realistic fog and light rays effects
• Highlight Burn value added to the Raytrace/Optimization parameters
• Shading Rate and Bucket Size parameters have been moved outside the Optimizations roll-out for easier access

Animation Rendering Improvements

• Implemented a new workflow for animation rendering. V-Ray can now record Rhino Sun Study, Fly-through, Path and Turntable animations and then render the recording at a later stage. Once the motion is recorded animation specific options become available in the V-Ray Asset Editor. This new workflow ensures that the scene does not get re-exported for every animation frame and thus speeds up the render process significantly
• Implemented V-Ray animation recording prompt window. Every time a Rhino animation is set-up a window pops up offering to initiate animation recording
• Implemented vrayRecordAnimation command. It can record the Rhino animation at any point in case it has not been recorded directly after being set up

GPU (CUDA) Engine Improvements

• Implemented Hybrid Rendering. The GPU (CUDA) engine can now utilize CPUs as well. They are listed as 'C++/CPU' in the devices list in both the Asset Editor Devices list and the GPU Device Select Tool. A CPU can be used for CUDA rendering on its own or combined with the available GPUs (hybrid mode) for optimal performance
• GPU (CUDA): The Subsurface Scattering shader is now supported
• GPU (CUDA): Displacement is now supported
• GPU (CUDA): Section Plane (Plane Clipper) is now supported
• GPU (CUDA): Aerial Perspective is now supported
• GPU (CUDA): Texture Placement parameters are now rendered correctly
• GPU (CUDA): Plane Light Directionality parameter is now supported
• GPU (CUDA): Materials Fog Color parameter is now supported
• GPU (CUDA): Matte surface and matte shadows are now supported
• GPU (CUDA): Improved support for procedural textures
• GPU (CUDA): Environment texture and color multipliers supported
• GPU (CUDA): 3D textures now supported - Marble, Smoke, Perlin (Marble), Speckle, Splat, and Stucco

V-Ray Frame Buffer

• VFB color corrections are now saved within the Rhino project file
• The VFB History can now have the Use Project Path option enabled. It saves images in a folder relative to the .3dm file. If no file has been saved V-Ray will save the images in a predefined temporary location
• The rendering progress and messages are now displayed in the lower right corner of the VFB
• The Progress Window can now be accessed via a shortcut in the VFB
• Lens Effects (Bloom/Glare) and Denoiser result can now be viewed together in the effectsResult render element. This channel will be generated automatically once the Denoiser or the Lens Effects are enabled

V-Ray Proxy

• Implemented a Proxy export options window. It allows for changing the mode of the preview geometry
• Refined Clustering and Vertex Clustering proxy preview types have been added. They automatically generate a low-poly version of the model and use that as proxy scene representation
• Proxy Preview Geometry options have been added for proxies already loaded in the project. The following preview types can now be selected and changed on demand: Proxy Preview, Whole Mesh, Bounding Box, Point(Origin), Custom Preview
• Proxy Animation options have been added. V-Ray now supports animated vrmesh files which can be created by the V-Ray plugin in other platforms such as Maya or 3ds Max. They can then be loaded through the Import Proxy button in V-Ray for Rhino and rendered in an animated sequence. Trees with leaves blown by the wind in a walk-through animation is now an effect that can be easily achieved
• Replacing a proxy?s file will now automatically changes its viewport preview
• The Custom Preview option allows for changing the proxy file without affecting/updating the preview geometry. Proxies in existing projects will be loaded with the Custom Preview enabled by default making sure that no custom user preview geometry gets deleted by the automatic update

VRScene

• VRScenes (.vrscene files) can now be imported and rendered in Rhino. A vrscene can be exported from V-Ray for SketchUp, 3ds Max, Maya, Revit, ... Lights and materials are included. The imported VRScene can then be transformed (moved, rotated, scaled) to better fit project needs. VRScene light sources can be enabled or disabled
• VRScene Preview Geometry options have been added for scenes already loaded in the project. The following preview types can be selected and changed on demand: Preview Faces, Bounding Box, Point(Origin)
• The VRScene preview faces count can be changed at any point. This allows for re-generating viewport geometry with approximate predictable poly-count

[konstantin_chaos]

Materials and Textures

• Implemented VRscan materials. Materials generated with Chaos Group scanning technology can now be loaded, edited and rendered in Rhino. More information on the technology can be found on www.chaosgroup.com
• Dim Distance set of parameters have been added to the BRDF V-Ray and BRDF Reflection shaders. With it the reflections can be faded out based on a distance and a falloff value. The effect can be utilized for product design shot and in other stylized rendering techniques
• Updated Blend material. The shader?s layers can now be moved and rearranged at will
• The visual layer ordering of the Blend material has changed. The Base layer is now located at the bottom of the UI layout while coat layers are being stacked on top. This makes the Blend consistent with the behavior of the standard Layered Material
• A way to access sub-materials in a shading network has been implemented. Next to each input material drop-down menu a material link icon is available. Clicking the icon selects the input material and displays its options for editing
• Implemented V-Ray Temperature map. It allows for specifying a color using Kelvin degree temperature. The color gamma and intensity can easily be adjusted with some additional parameters
• Implemented Noise B map. It uses an intuitive set of parameters to control the noise appearance. The Size option changes the noise size/frequency and the Levels parameters can easily increase the contrast and sharpness of the effect
• Implemented Gradient (Ramp) texture. This texture can easily create and edit gradients useful in many different situations
• Added a Lift/Gamma/Gain corrections in the Color Corrections texture
• Color Manipulation parameters section has been added to all texture types that can use it. It allows for Gain and Lift color corrections without the need of an additional utility map
• The Material Quick Presets and settings have been updated. The presets can now be used as a material creation wizard every time you start working on a new shader. A color value or texture is selected for the Generic preset. Then when changing the preset, V-Ray moves the color/texture to the right slot to produce Plastic/Metal/Glass/? material effect

Displacement

• Implemented 2D Displacement mode. This is a very optimized method for rendering highly-detailed displaced surfaces. The 2D displacement needs valid mesh UV coordinates to function correctly

Clipper

• Implemented clipping modes: Subtraction and Intersection. The new Intersection mode lets you clip away (hide) anything that is outside the clipper mesh. Only objects and parts of objects inside the specified mesh will be rendered

User Interface

• A compact version of the V-Ray toolbar has been added
• The V-Ray Toolbar icons have been updated and re-arranged
• The V-Ray Grasshopper component icons have been updated and re-arranged
• Updated Rhino-side light source properties UI
• The V-Ray menu has been reorganized. All the menu entries tooltips have been updated
• The Irradiance Map, Light Cache and Caustics Disc Caching options have been re-designed and simplified
• Use Camera path checkbox has been added to both Irradiance Map and Light cache
• Enabling the Interactive rendering mode automatically hides the Progressive toggle. The Interactive mode always renders progressively so the option is not needed
• Implemented V-Ray Color Picker. The new color picker allows for specifying colors precisely in both Screen(sRGB) and Rendering color space. The color values can be viewed ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 or from 0 to 255 according to one?s needs. An intuitive way of saving color presets has been added. The Apply button allows for changing multiple colors without restarting the Color Picker window. Enter and Esc shortcuts can be used to confirm or cancel the color change
• Implemented V-Ray Proxy export window. A progress bar illustrates how much time is left till the proxy is generated and saved
• Added Engine switch widget in the Basic Settings Renderer rollout. It changes between the V-Ray CPU engine and the new GPU (CUDA/Hybrid) solution
• Added Device Select menu in the Basic Settings Renderer rollout. The small icon on the right of the engine selector brings up a list of devices that can be enabled for CUDA rendering
• Added intensity and color controls for easy access in the Light List of the Asset Editor. Opening the advanced light parameters is no longer necessary for changing light color or intensity
• Improved V-Ray proxy UI
• Improved V-Ray Fur UI
• Improved V-Ray Clipper UI
• Implemented VRScene UI
• Implemented VRScan material UI
• Implement V-Ray Temperature UI
• Implement Noise B texture UI
• Implemented Gradient texture UI
• Improved UI for all the existing Materials and Material Layers: Generic (BRDF V-Ray), Emissive, Blend, Bump, Two Sided, Car Paint, Stochastic Flakes, Subsurface Scattering, Hair, Toon, Multi Material, Wrapper, Diffuse (layer), Reflection (Layer), Refraction (Layer)
• Procedural textures renamed to better illustrate their behavior
• Updated icons in the texture creation list. The new icons are much more visual and easy to remember
• The Texture creation list has been re-arranged in categories: General, Utility, 2D Textures, 3D Textures, Ray-Traced Textures. This speeds up the process of finding the right texture significantly
• Improved UI for all the existing Textures: Bitmap, Color, Temperature, Sky, Color Correction, Simple Mix, Mix(Value), Mix(Operator), Mix(Map), Multi-Sub, Tri-Planar, UVW, Checker, Grid, Tiles, Cloth, Leather, Bulge, Water, Noise A, Noise B, Noise Legacy, Cellular, Marble, Splat, Smoke, Stucco, Rock, Granite, Speckle, Edges, Falloff, Fresnel, Dirt, Curvature
• Implemented 3D World texture placement UI and functionality
• Implemented 3D Object texture placement UI and functionality
• Updated 2D texture placement UI
• Updated Environment texture placement UI. The Ground Projection options allow for flattening the bottom side of the environment sphere
• Added a quick toggle to enable Denoiser in the Basic Settings Renderer section
• Implemented file specific output image options. Image file specific options are now accessible and can be changed. As an example, multi-channel exr images can now be saved. PNG compression can be changed and the alpha channel disabled
• Implemented File Path Editor widow and UI
• Implemented Color Picker widow and UI
• Implemented Volumetric Environment and Environment Fog UI
• Parameter tooltips improved
• Quick material preset icons updated
• Asset Editor footer icons updated
• All settings button icons updated (Pick Focus Point, Match Viewport, Update Frame Range, ?)

V-Ray for Grasshopper

• V-Ray for Grasshopper now gets automatically installed and set up by the V-Ray installer
• Implemented new set of V-Ray for Grasshopper components. The entire V-Ray for Grasshopper workflow has been rebuilt and improved. Grasshopper documents using the legacy (3.4 and older) V-Ray components/nodes will no longer function. On the other hand rebuilding the definition with the new tools can be done with a couple of clicks
• Implemented Renderer component
• Implemented Render in Project component
• Implemented Camera component
• Implemented VRScene exporter component
• Implemented Material Simple component
• Implemented Material from File component
• Implemented Material from Project
• Implemented Light Sphere component
• Implemented Light Rectangle component
• Implemented Light Rig Simple
• Implemented Light Rig Sun System
• Implemented Light Rig Dome
• Implemented Geometry component
• Implemented Instancer component
• Implemented Infinite Plane component
• Implemented VRScene importer component

And more...

[Micha]

Impressive list. Looks like I will need days for discovering. Thank you very much.

Now I'm very impatient for a Rhino 6 version, since I need to keep my current Rhino 5 setup. Will it need a long time to build a Rhino 6 version?

[konstantin_chaos]

Impressive list. Looks like I will need days for discovering. Thank you very much.

Now I'm very impatient for a Rhino 6 version, since I need to keep my current Rhino 5 setup. Will it need a long time to build a Rhino 6 version?

Hi Micha,

We are working on the Rhino 6 version already.
Our goal is to release is as soon as possible.

I'll post info when we have a better time estimation.

Regards,
Konstantin