Wednesday, July 6th, 2016 Posted by Jim Thacker

Chaos Group releases V-Ray for Modo

Chaos Group has released V-Ray for Modo, a new version of its industry-standard renderer integrated with and optimised for The Foundry’s modelling and animation software.

“The integration of V-Ray into Modo makes it feel like a native renderer,” said Volker Troy, CEO of visualisation firm Pixelwerk. “We can stick to our established workflow, and bring in V-Ray’s toolset when we need.”

Same core tech as the 3ds Max and Maya versions, intergrated directly with Modo
V-Ray for Modo has been in development for a couple of years, having been announced at Siggraph 2014.

According to Chaos Group, it “operates under the same core technology” as the existing 3ds Max, Maya and Nuke editions, and seems to have most of their functionality.

That includes newer features like the VR cameras, added in V-Ray 3.2 for 3ds Max; triplanar mapping, added in version 3.3; and the new image denoiser, added in the most recent 3.4 release.

Updated: We contacted Chaos Group to check whether the feature set is identical to that of the older editions, and they told us that “there are some things currently not in V-Ray for Modo like texture baking, V-Ray fur and V-Ray OSL/GLSL shaders”, although these may be added in future updates, depending on demand.

You can read an overview of the key features included on Chaos Group’s product website.

Pricing and availability
V-Ray for Modo is available now for Modo 701 and above, running on Windows XP+ and Mac OS X 10.9+.

A full workstation license has an MSRP of $700 – $340 cheaper than the 3ds Max or Maya versions – and Chaos Group is offering the software at a launch discount until 20 July, further reducing the price to $556.

Render nodes, which also work with other editions, start at $350. New rental pricing is also available.

Read an overview of the features in V-Ray for Modo on Chaos Group’s product website

Read a more detailed list of features in the online documentation for V-Ray for Modo