New features include accelerated Gaussian Splat support, new shading tools, a new firefly removal algorithm, interoperability, and an updated Open Image Denoiser.
Chaos has just announced the launch of V-Ray 7 for Maya and V-Ray 7 for Houdini, with new features that accelerate everything from fast 3D environment creation to production shading, so artists can render anything to feature-film standards.
“V-Ray 7 continues our commitment to providing visual effects artists with the latest creative possibilities and productivity enhancements,” said Phillip Miller, Vice President Product, Solutions for Artists at Chaos. “This new release enables filmed locations to be included as CG environments in minutes while speeding general production throughout many important areas.”
V-Ray 7 introduces native support for ray-traced Gaussian Splats, allowing artists to place CG scenes within highly detailed virtual environments created from captured video, which can then be reflected and accept shadows.
A new firefly removal algorithm automatically detects and finishes unresolved pixels, known as “fireflies,” during bucket rendering, greatly reducing the time needed to produce final images. The Open Image Denoiser has also been updated for further image enhancement. Using a new prefilter pass, artists can see improved detail retention during denoiser for sharper, cleaner images without extra work.
V-Ray GPU includes numerous improvements in V-Ray 7 for Maya and Houdini, including far faster time to first pixel, made possible by new optimizations for scattering, texture-heavy scenes, data uploads and geometry compilations. New Caustics support enables realistic surface reflections and refractions in both production and interactive rendering, while out-of-core textures help artists add incredible detail to their texture-heavy scenes, without sacrificing shading quality.
V-Ray GPU also has an enhanced algorithm for more efficient caching of bitmaps between animation frames, further speeding up the animation rendering process — sometimes by up to 50%. Finally, V-Ray GPU can now run up to 3x faster on MacBooks with its new Metal support.
V-Ray 7 for Maya Features:
- OpenPBR Support – Using V-Ray’s new OpenPBR Material mode, which matches an emerging shading standard developed by Autodesk and Adobe, artists will have to make fewer manual adjustments when switching between compatible renderers and applications.
- New Layering Scheme – Artists can now easily create effects like neon lights, dusty lacquered wood, peach fuzz and more without Blend materials, using a new OpenPBR-compliant layering scheme.
- Enhanced Sheen Layer – Creating velvet, satin, silk and dusty woods with convincing realism is now much easier using the updated Sheen Layer’s soft reflections while in the V-Ray Material OpenPBR mode.
- Extended USD support – V-Ray 7 for Maya now supports the latest official version of MayaUSD 0.30.0, enabling the latest support for custom pipelines.
- V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB) Upgrades – The VFB has been expanded to help users do more in one place. New custom-shaped render regions enable artists to render one, or many parts of their frame with custom-drawn shapes. A vignette layer post effect is now included that can also be customized by shape. The VFB also gains new color-correction presets that help users quickly explore different looks as they refine their design.
- V-Ray Luminaires – The ever-expanding Chaos Cosmos asset library now brings more speed and accuracy to lighting fixtures, accurately distributing their light and properly illuminating the fixtures. Most of the light fixtures within Chaos Cosmos are now Luminaires in V-Ray 7, making it easier to populate scenes with realistic lighting while also rendering final results more quickly.
V-Ray 7 for Houdini Features:
- New Volume Shader Preview – Artists can now begin using the new V-Ray Volume Shader, a much requested feature that creates/renders volumetrics like clouds, smoke and fluids up to 6x faster than before. In this initial implementation, users can build shading graphs to craft complex shaders and customize their effects. Light select support is provided for creative control over volumetrics when compositing. Additional volume rendering capabilities will be announced in the coming months.
- Extended MaterialX Support – Artists can now create and render most MaterialX procedural textures, including noises, patterns and various randomization options.
- Easier Toon Shading – Stylized, non-photorealistic renders can now be created with minimal effort using the redesigned toon shading workflow in V-Ray for Solaris. With easier setups, artists can spend more time being creative.
- Chaos Cosmos in Solaris – V-Ray for Solaris now offers access to the Chaos Cosmos library, helping artists populate their environments with thousands of render-ready 3D assets for rapid world building.
- Copernicus Support – V-Ray for Solaris now supports Copernicus, a powerful procedural texturing tool, providing greater flexibility while working with V-Ray.
- Yeti Cache Support – Third-party plugin support extends to the Yeti 3D hair and fur system. Artists can now render Yeti cache files in Solaris with the new V-Ray Yeti node, enabling seamless integrations of their grooming work from other DCCs like Maya.
Pricing and Availability
V-Ray 7 for Maya and V-Ray 7 for Houdini are available now for Windows, MacOS and Linux. All V-Ray subscription plans include all supported host applications, which include Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Houdini, Revit, Rhino, SketchUp and Blender. Pricing can be found on the Chaos website.
Source: Chaos
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
