LOS ANGELES – Chaos Group (chaosgroup.com) has released V-Ray Next for 3ds Max, aligning the popular renderer with the benefits of smart tech. With automatic scene analysis, artists and designers can produce faster, cleaner renders with little to no input, removing unnecessary set-up time from the creative equation.
In the same way that machine learning makes choices based on what is learned about a specific problem, V-Ray has been adopting learning techniques for analyzing a scene as it is rendering. V-Ray Next builds on previous smart features with two new breakthroughs.
The new Adaptive Dome Light (ADL) automatically produces cleaner, more accurate image-based environment lighting that’s up to 7x faster. The ADL also removes the need to set up skylight portals at windows and openings, making it especially helpful for architectural interiors.
Scene intelligence also comes to the V-Ray Physical Camera, via point-and-shoot-style timesavers like Automatic Exposure, Automatic White Balance and a simplified UI. Now, a perfect render will be as easy as taking a snapshot.
“Our latest R&D has helped boost overall rendering performance by up to 25 percent, giving users a much faster baseline,” says Vlado Koylazov, CTO of Chaos Group. “The speed gains from scene intelligence and a new GPU architecture make it even faster.”
V-Ray Next marks the debut of Chaos Group’s fast new V-Ray GPU rendering architecture, which effectively doubles the speed of production rendering. Through a redesign of its kernel structure, V-Ray GPU offers a dual blend of high-performance speed and accuracy across interactive and production renders. The redesign has also prepared V-Ray for new improvements in GPU hardware, which will allow developers to incorporate new features without impacting performance.
Other new features include Nvidia AI Denoiser, which provides fast, realtime denoising based on Nvidia OptiX AI-accelerated technology. Artists can now denoise any render element used on a still or animation project, ensuring more control for compositors.
Lighting analysis allows users to accurately analyze and measure the light levels in a scene with the help of heat maps and data overlays. The new release supports Alembic 1.7 with layering, for faster, more efficient handling and updating of Alembic data.
Users can easily switch between the multiple materials applied to an object for faster look development and variation decisions. They can also load any texture or material from any version of V-Ray into 3ds Max, including procedural textures and PBR materials for Unity and Unreal.
V-Ray Next will be available very soon for Windows. Every purchase of V-Ray 3.x made from today until launch will result in an automatic upgrade. A full workstation license is priced at $1,180, with upgrades priced at $580. Annual rentals can be purchased for $470; monthly options are available as well.