Sunday, April 9th, 2017 Posted by Jim Thacker

Chaos Group releases V-Ray 3 for Rhino


Chaos Group has released V-Ray 3 for Rhino, the latest version of the renderer for McNeel’s industrial modelling software, streamlining the interface and adding a library of over 500 readymade materials.

(According to the release notes, version 3.00 actually came out last year, but Chaos Group has chosen to publicise the entire 3.xx series alongside the release of V-Ray 3.40 for Rhino, which came out last week.)

The update also introduces key features from the 3ds Max edition of the renderer, including the V-Ray Swarm distributed rendering system, V-Ray Clipper for section cuts, and V-Ray Fur for grass.

New library of drag-and-drop materials
One of the key additions in version 3 is a library of over 500 materials, including metal, glass, wood, car paint and ground textures, plus less expected categories like liquid, foam and digrammatic materials.

You can see the library in action around 03:20 in the video above.

Key features from the 3ds Max edition of the renderer
As with V-Ray 3 for SketchUp, released last month, the update also adds a selection of features from the 3ds Max edition of the renderer tailored towards design and visualisation professionals.

These include the V-Ray Swarm system for distributed rendering, the option to export render elements as separate layers for compositing, and the render Denoiser feature from V-Ray 3.4 for 3ds Max.

Other additions include V-Ray Clipper for generating cutaway renders, V-Ray Fur for grass, support for proxy objects, and output to VR devices including Gear VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard.

Compatibility with other editions of V-Ray, Grasshopper and HDR Light Studio
Compatibility features include the option to export scenes in .vrscene format for rendering in any other edition of V-Ray 3.4 or higher, plus a new V-Ray to Grasshopper add-on for the Grasshopper algorithm editor.

As with the previous release, V-Ray 3 for Rhino is compatible with HDR Light Studio, Lightmap’s lighting design software.

Pricing and availability
V-Ray 3.40 for Rhino is available now for Rhino 5 and above, running on 64-bit Windows Vista or later. A workstation licence costs $695.


Read more about V-Ray 3 for Rhino on the product website

Read a full list of new features in V-Ray 3.00 to 3.40 for Rhino in the online release notes