Jeff Mottle

Chaos Group is pleased to announce that the first release candidate for version 1.5 of the V-Ray rendering engine for Autodesk® 3dsmax® is now available for download. Below is a summary of the changes since the last official version.

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martincg

hmmm.... but link is to news from last year

new features looks something like this:

Build 1.50.00 final
===================

New features:
(*) New render elements: VRayMatteShadow, VRayTotalLighting, VRayRawTotalLighting;
(*) Added exporter script to the .vrscene file format supported by the standalone version of V-Ray;
(*) Animation modes for the irradiance map (added two new modes "Animation (prepass)" and "Animation (rendering)" along with a paramter to control the blend between frames;

Modified features:
=== Core engine
(*) Increased rendering speed for some types of scenes;
(*) By default V-Ray no longer uses rQMC sampling; instead, a modified version of Schlick sampling is used (noise is reduced in certain situations);

=== Installation
(*) Updated WIBU-key drivers for 32- and 64-bit Windows* (including Windows* Vista*) are included with the installation;
(*) The uninstaller will unregister any V-Ray services as well (DR spawner, license server etc.);
(*) The installation has three options for the type of installation (full workstation installation; render slave installation; and license server only);

=== Lights and cameras
(*) New photometric models for VRaySun, VRaySky, VRayPhysicalCamera and VRayLights;
(*) Global option to work in the system lighting units of 3dsmax for consistent results with 3dsmax photometric lights;
(*) VRayLight has a "Cutoff threshold" parameter, which allows to reduce render times in scenes with many weak lights;
(*) VRayLight has an "Affect reflections" option to control reflection visibility separately from speculars;
(*) VRayLight has a "Simple portal" option that speeds up the rendering by considering environment color only (rather than tracing behind the portal);
(*) VRayLight has a "Cast shadows" option;
(*) VRayLight objects now produce accurate motion blur when animated;
(*) VRaySun is now compatible with the 3dsmax Daylight system and can be selected as a sun type;
(*) VRaySky will now pick the first VRaySun light in the scene that is enabled (rather than the first one at all);
(*) VRayPhysicalCamera supports horizon line in the viewports, clipping and environment near and far ranges;
(*) VRayPhysicalCamera has a parameter for controlling the amount of vignetting;

=== Disributed rendering (DR)
(*) DR is now supported for Render-to-texture;
(*) DR can now be started as a BackBurner job;
(*) Render slaves can be added on the fly to the distributed rendering;
(note: the servers must still first be added as DR servers list in the DR settings);
(note: if more than 1 network adapters are installed on the slave, set the VRAY_DR_SUBNET env. variable);
(*) If "Check for missing files" option is checked, DR will now fail on the render slaves if some maps cannot be found, instead or rendering wrong buckets;

=== Geometry
(*) New default "Auto" mode for the "Default geometry" parameter automatically detects heavy meshes and instances and renders them as dynamic geometry to save RAM;
(*) The ply2vrmesh converter now supports .obj files and has some .obj-specific options;
(*) VRayProxy objects display faster in the viewports;
(*) VRayProxy will now re-link the .vrmesh file at each frame, rather than only at the render start;
(*) VRayProxy objects now produce motion blur when the proxy transformation is animated;
(*) VRayProxy objects now generate velocity information for image motion blur when their transformation is animated;
(*) VRayProxy objects now declare the .vrmesh files to the Asset Tracker in 3ds Max 9;

=== Materials and textures
(*) Added exclude list for material override in the Global Switches rollout;
(*) Matte objects with the "Shadows" option checked will now generate VRayRawLighting, VRayRawShadow and VRayMatteShadow elements;
(*) VRayDirt has an option "Work with transparency", which causes it to take into account the transparency of occluding objects;
(*) VRayHDRI has a "Render multiplier" parameter, which additionally modifies the map only at render time;
(*) VRayHDRI maps now declare their files to the Asset Tracker in 3ds Max 9;
(*) VRayMtl has a new "hybrid" SSS model;
(*) VRayMtl now has an "Envrionment priority" option to control environment override behaviour between different materials;
(*) VRayMtl now has a "Roughness" parameter that allows to produce effects close to dusty surfaces (like skin or the surface of the Moon);
(*) VRayColor texture has an option to apply gamma correction to the displayed color in the UI;
(*) VRayFastSSS material has been reworked to use the irradiance map interpolation mechanism for faster and smoother results;
(*) VRayEdgesTex can now be used as a bump map to produce a rounded-corners effect on triangle meshes;
(*) VRayMtlWrapper has the options "No GI on other mattes" and "GI surface ID" added to it;
(*) VRayOverrideMtl has a shadow override option;

=== GI solutions
(*) The irradiance map viewer will print out the progress of merging irradiance maps;
(*) The autosave file names for irradiance/light cache/photon/caustics maps are now updated at each frame, rather than only at the render start;
(*) The irradiance/light cache/photon/caustics maps are auto-saved as soon as they are computed, rather than at the end of the frame/rendering;
(*) The "Save maps per frame" option has been removed from the GI rollout;

=== Render output
(*) "Don't affect colors" option for color mapping; useful if you only need the sampling adaptation to be performed;
(*) "Clamp Level" option for color mapping (specifies the level at which colors are clamped, if clamping is on);
(*) Options for directly controlling the render mode (region, crop etc) of the V-Ray VFB;
(*) When rendering to texture (RTT) the 3dsmax VFB is now always generated, regardless of whether the V-Ray VFB is on or off;
(*) V-Ray will write a tiled OpenEXR file directly to disk, similar to a raw .vrimg file, if the raw file name ends in ".exr";

=== Others
(*) VRayDisplacementMod now supports high-dynamic range textures for displacement in "2d landscape" mode;
(*) V-Ray will now force multithreading when 3dsmax is in slave mode, regardless of the 3dsmax multithreading option;
(*) Added "Affect alpha" option to VRaySphereFade;
(*) VRaySphereFade works correctly with transparent objects;
(*) VRayFur can now generate motion blur with more than 2 geometry samples;
(*) The default value for the number of light cache passes is now 8;
(*) The parameters of the renderer have been split into several tabs in the Render Scene dialog for 3ds Max 9 and later;

Known issues:
(*) When rendering a 3dsmax Raytrace material applied on VRayProxy objects, V-Ray will crash; removing the Raytrace material prevents the crash;
(*) Instancing a group inside a ParticleFlow system may cause a crash, if the original group is rendered as well; hiding the instanced group prevents the crash;

Bug fixes:
(*) "Affect shadows" and "Affect alpha" options did not work for VRayMtls inside a Multi/subobject material (RC3 bug);
(*) Moving VRayPhysicalCamera caused spurious MacroRecorder events about the target distance changing;
(*) Problems with 2D displacement (RC3 bug);
(*) Automatically created VRaySky did not have a name;
(*) Horizontal scrolling problems with the V-Ray messages window;
(*) VRayOverrideMtl could cause 3dsmax to crash;
(*) Multi/subobject material inside a VRayBlendMtl etc. did not render;
(*) 64-bit V-Ray could fall into an infinite cycle when rendering 2d displacement;
(*) Some rare raycaster precision errors were fixed;
(*) Starting/finishing rendering could be extremely slow in 3dsmax R9;
(*) VRayHDRI always took at least 10 MB of memory, regardless of actual image size (RC3 bug);
(*) Incorrect irradiance map density and texture sharpness when using camera clipping planes;
(*) Missing files (textures/VRayProxies etc) were not always detected correctly;
(*) Distributed rendering between mixed 32/64-bit V-Ray versions did not work properly;
(*) Standard materials with transparency did not render properly (RC3 bug);
(*) No motion blur for ParticleFlow on 64-bit 3dsmax;
(*) Color corrections from the V-Ray VFB were applied to the alpha channel when splitting the render channels to files;
(*) Crash with the "Show map in viewport" option for VRayMtl when using Direct3D (RC3 bug);
(*) Textures with mapping channels greater than 1 are now correctly shown in the Material Editor;
(*) The "Global light level" options from the Environment dialog now affect the color of VRayLights and standard 3dsmax lights;
(*) VRayBlendMtl did not list the blend textures as sub-anims;
(*) If "Render to raw image file" option for the V-Ray VFB was ON, but the file name is empty, V-Ray would freeze while rendering;
(*) The parameters of VRayMtlWrapper did not have proper names in Track View;
(*) If the primary GI engine was light cache or photon map but GI is turned off, standard materials would render black;
(*) VRayMtl materials with low glossiness inside a VRayBlendMtl could produce polygonal artifacts on shadow/light boundaries;
(*) The pixel aspect ratio from the Render Scene dialog was ignored when rendering with DR to the 3dsmax VFB;
(*) A low-dynamic range 3dsmax frame buffer was used even when saving to a high-dynamic range file format (.exr, .hdr etc);
(*) Problems when rendering animations in DR mode with light cache as both primary and secondary engine;
(*) Small rectangle area lights could produce artifacts for points lying close to the light plane;
(*) Somewhat better memory management for proxies and dynamic meshes;
(*) Crashes with VRayFur on animated objects when using motion blur;
(*) Incorrect environment color with several VRayLights in "dome" mode;
(*) "Crop" render mode with the V-Ray VFB did not work for animations;
(*) Sporadic crashes when using the "Camera Map Per Pixel" texture inside V-Ray materials (VRayMtl, VRayLightMtl etc);
(*) VRayBmpFilter did not always display its bitmap texture successfully;
(*) VRayBmpFilter could produce invalid colors;
(*) Photon mapping could produce wrong GI on transparent surfaces;
(*) Crashes with interpolated glossy reflections/refractions if there is only 1 sample in the interpolation map;
(*) Irradiance map produced incorrect results when used with VRayLight in "Light portal" mode;
(*) Faceting on low-poly geometry when using anisotropic reflections with UV-channel mapping;
(*) Incorrect sampling with gamma color correction when some of the pixel RGB components is zero;
(*) In 3dsmax 9, VRayMtlWrapper, VRay2SidedMtl, VRayOverrideMtl could crash when reset from the Material Editor;
(*) Some V-Ray materials (e.g. VRayMtl) did not reset when the "Reset" button from the Material Editor was used;
(*) The contents of the V-Ray VFB was not cleared regardless of the "Previous render" option in the System rollout;
(*) V-Ray sun could produce brighter highlights than is correct when its size multiplier is much greater than 1.0;
(*) Banding with very small spherical VRayLights;
(*) SSS with VRayMtl did not work properly with intersecting refractive objects;
(*) Problems with dome light and matte/shadow materials with GI on;
(*) VRayBlendMtl in additive mode produced incorrect alpha channel;
(*) VRayHDRI did not free is memory with the freeSceneBitmaps() MaxScript command;
(*) Crash when rendering disconnected Particle Flow events;
(*) In 3dsmax 9, clearing a texture in VRayMtl could cause a crash, if the texture is visible in the viewport;
(*) In 64-bit 3dsmax, the Dynamic raycaster memory spinner was still limited to 4096 MB;
(*) In some cases VRayFur did not render properly;
(*) Wrong mapping coordinates for VRayFur when motion blur was enabled;
(*) Incorrect velocity G-Buffer channel due to camera movement for scaled cameras;
(*) Distortion map for VRayToon had no effect;
(*) Light cache prefiltering ignored GI surface IDs;
(*) VRayLight's appeared in reflections for objects excluded from the lights;
(*) Light cache files saved on 32-bit machines did not load properly on 64-bit machines and vice-versa;
(*) When rendering a high-resolution image with the "Hilbert" region sequence, V-Ray could crash;
(*) A light which had "Affect diffuse" option off still contributed to the diffuse lighting channels;
(*) When mass-editing V-Ray object or light properties, greyed out properties with different values across the nodes were incorrecly applied to the nodes;
(*) Area VRayShadows with Box type did not respect the rotation of the light;
(*) DR render slaves crashed when photometric Linear or Area lights were contained in the scene;
(*) VRayFastSSS displayed black in the viewports;
(*) VRImg2Exr tool gave error when converting large .vrimg files rendered in "region" mode;
(*) MaxScript error when adding VRayCausticsMap to the RTT bake elements;
(*) When rendering animations with DR, slaves faster than the client machine could fail to contribute to some of the frames;
(*) Using RoyalRender client as a service caused a wxWidgets error when no-one is logged on the machine;

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