Chaos releases Vantage 3.0 in beta
Chaos has unveiled Vantage 3.0, the latest version of its real-time ray tracing renderer, intended for exploring large production scenes for architectural visualization and visual effects projects.
It’s a significant update, adding initial support for importing and rendering scenes in USD format with MaterialX materials, and for rendering 3D Gaussian Splats and volumes.
Vantage 3.0 is currently available in public beta.
A GPU-accelerated ray tracer for exploring large production scenes in real time
First released in 2020, Vantage is a GPU ray tracing renderer intended for exploring large production scenes – initially, V-Ray scenes exported in .vrscene format – in near-real time.
It was initially targeted at visualization, but in 2023 Chaos added support for rendering deforming meshes, like animated characters, and began pitching Vantage at VFX work.
As well as V-Ray, the software is now compatible with Corona, Chaos’s architectural renderer, with Corona 12.1 adding a live link to Vantage.
Initial USD support opens up Vantage to artists who don’t use V-Ray
For VFX artists, Vantage 3.0 is another significant release, since it adds initial support for both the USD and MaterialX standards.
Users can now import and render both static and animated USD scenes – Vantage supports .usd, .usda, .usdc, and .usdz files – with MaterialX shaders.
That opens up the possibility of using the software in non-V-Ray-based pipelines.
According to this forum post, Chaos plans to introduce a Vantage Hydra render delegate, although it isn’t available in the initial beta.
Initial support for 3D Gaussian Splats
In addition, Vantage can now render 3D Gaussian Splats.
A new technique for creating and rendering 3D scenes, 3D Gaussian Splatting generates high-quality reconstructions of real-world objects or scenes from source photos or video.
It is now being adopted in both architectural and VFX pipelines, particularly as an alternative to environment maps or matte painting for background environments.
Vantage can render splats from .vrscene files and via the live link, but there’s no mention in the release notes of being able to import 3DGS data directly as .ply files, as you can in V-Ray.
New material editor, volume rendering and camera tracking
Other major changes include a new material editor, making it possible to create and assign materials within Vantage, although you currently can’t edit imported materials.
It is also possible to import and render volumes, although currently primarily volume caches exported V-Ray’s Volumetric Grid (VRayVolumeGrid) or Phoenix, Chaos’s simulation software.
Vantage also now supports some of the clustering features in Chaos Scatter, the scattering toolset available in V-Ray and Corona.
Other changes include support for the new V-Ray Two-Sided Texture (VRay2SidedTex).
For virtual production work, Vantage 3 supports camera tracking using the LONET 2, EZtrack TCD, FreeD and Stype HF protocols.
There are also a number of smaller feature and workflow improvements, listed in the release notes.
Price and system requirements
Chaos Vantage 3.0 is currently in public beta. Chaos hasn’t announced a final release date.
If you register via the link below, you will need to fill in an online questionnaire, but the beta seems to be available to anyone with a free Chaos account.
The current stable release, Vantage 2.8, is compatible with Windows 10+ and DXR-compatible AMD, Intel or NVIDIA GPUs.
The software is rental-only, with subscriptions costing $108.90/month or $658.80/year.
Read a full list of new features in Vantage 3.0 beta in the online documentation
Register for the public beta of Vantage 3.0
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