Sneak peek: the new features in V-Ray 3.0
A scene rendered in V-Ray 2.4 (left) and the V-Ray 3.0 beta (right), using brute force raytracing. According to VRay.info’s report from EUE 2013, the render took 15 minutes 44 seconds in 2.4; 5 minutes 55 seconds in 3.0.
Vray.info has posted an interesting story on Chaos Group CTO Vladimir ‘Vlado’ Koylazov’s talk at EUE 2013, covering the new features the company has in development for V-Ray 3.0.
According to the story, brute force raytracing has been improved, with the Chaos Group adding support for Intel’s Embree raytracing kernels.
The V-Ray 3.0 beta rendered the interior test scene above over two and a half times faster than V-Ray 2.4, although the resulting images are still fairly noisy. According to Vray.info, V-Ray 3.0 will introduce a new Max Ray Intensity parameter to minimise artefacts in brute-force renders.
As an alternative to camera-based raytracing, Chaos Group is also working on vertex merging: a “very robust new GI algorithm that combines bidirectional path tracing and progressive photon mapping”.
New materials, improvements to V-Ray RT and the hair shader
Other interesting new features mentioned in the story include support for Vismat materials in the 3ds Max and Maya editions of the software – which should make it easier to migrate materials between the two.
V-Ray RT will support render elements, and will be available as a viewport renderer inside Maya – although not, apparently, in Max, due to the limitations of its system architecture.
There will also be a new, progressively refined image sampler, and optimisation of the hair shader for semi-transparent hair.
And much more besides!
Even the list of ‘minor features’ listed at the end of the story is pretty impressive, including support for OpenEXR 2.0 and its deep compositing features, and Sony Pictures Imageworks’ Open Shading Language.
The story warns that none of the features is guaranteed to make it into V-Ray 3.0 – due for release “when it’s ready, but likely this year” – but if most of them do, it’s shaping up to be a pretty impressive update.