Chaos recently released V-Ray 7 for Maya and Houdini. The new features include accelerated Gaussian Splat support, new shading tools, a new firefly removal algorithm, interoperability and an updated Open Image Denoiser.
V-Ray GPU for Maya and Houdini now supports Caustics, so one can render realistic lighting effects fast. Performance-wise, V-Ray GPU has also seen many improvements. This includes faster time to first pixel, even faster animation rendering, more efficient rendering of texture-heavy scenes, and a boost in performance thanks to new Metal support for Mac users.
With enhanced V-Ray Sun and Sky and Light Path Expressions for shadows, V-Ray 7 gives a lot of control over lighting and compositing. Users can now render even more realistic natural daylight transitions, including nautical twilight. Plus, they also get even more control in compositing with LPEs for shadows. Here are the platform-specific features:
V-Ray 7 for Maya: Key features and updates:
Open PBR support: While working on a project that transitions between different applications like Autodesk Maya and Adobe Substance Painter, in the past, users might have had to tweak shaders repeatedly to maintain consistency between programs. With OpenPBR support, V-Ray 7 eliminates this hassle, ensuring that shaders maintain the same standard across platforms—no rework required.
Now one can effortlessly create sophisticated effects within this shading standard. With a new layering scheme and an enhanced Sheen layer, users can easily craft complex, lifelike materials. From neon lights, dusty lacquered wood, and peach fuzz to velvet, satin, silk, and more, achieving realistic and intricate details has never been easier.
Even more powerful VFB: VFB enhancements in V-Ray 7 now offer even more creative control. Users can create custom-shaped regions now, so they can isolate and render specific parts of their scene without re-rendering the whole thing. For example, one could just render a character’s face to tweak the skin without rendering the entire environment, saving a lot of time.
To add to that, there’s a new Vignette Layer for more artistic control, and new colour correction presets built right in.
More control with Chaos Scatter: Populating the scenes and art-directing the scatters just got easier with new, even more powerful Chaos Scatter controls. Objects can now automatically orient themselves towards a target, like palm trees leaning towards the sun thanks to the new Look at option. With Chaos Scatter, artists can use splines as surfaces for scattering, so even more control over placement. The Falloff curve option gives them really precise control over things like altitude variance in vegetation, so they could create a super realistic landscape with just a few clicks.
Chaos Cosmos: The biggest new Chaos Cosmos feature is asset variants, which allows users to easily switch between different asset versions. For instance, if they are working with a tree model, they can instantly switch between a summer version with vibrant leaves and an autumn version to where they are beautifully falling. Additionally, there’s multi-asset selection which lets them import tons of assets from Chaos Cosmos at the same time.
V-Ray Luminaires: With support for V-Ray Luminaires complex light fixture assets available in the ever-growing Chaos Cosmos library, users can now achieve more physically accurate lighting faster and instantly elevate the quality and realism of artificial lights in their scenes.
Extended USD support: V-Ray 7 for Maya supports the latest official version of MayaUSD 0.30.0. Chaos also extended their support to include V-Ray Clipper alongside other enhancements to ensure seamless data exchange between V-Ray integrations.
V-Ray 7 for Houdini:
New Volume Shader: V-Ray 7 for Houdini introduces powerful shading updates, starting with the new volume shader—an initial implementation that enables users to easily create amazing volumetric effects like clouds, smoke, and captivating atmospheres with magical effects that add depth and powerful storytelling to their scenes. One can build shading graphs to craft complex shaders and customise their effects, and enjoy greater control over the volumetrics in compositing thanks to light select support. Plus, the new volume shader renders up to x6 times faster.
MaterialX support extended: Users can now create and render most MtlX procedural textures, including noises, patterns, and randomisation options.
Easier toon shading: They have completely redesigned the toon shading workflow in V-Ray for Solaris to make it way more intuitive. If users want that classic look with the bold outlines and flat colours, it’s easier than ever to achieve that. That’s great news for anyone doing non-photorealistic, stylised work.
Chaos Cosmos support in Solaris: Chaos Cosmos is fully integrated with V-Ray for Solaris now, so one will have access to a massive library of assets including stones, vegetation, and other essential props. Users can populate their scenes with all those amazing models, materials, and HDRIs from Chaos Cosmos and make their stunning, immersive scenes with ease.
VFB enhancements: V-Ray 7 also offers Houdini users some nice VFB enhancements, custom-shaped render regions, and colour correction presets.
Yeti cache support & Copernicus support: With the new V-Ray yeti node, users can render Yeti cache files right in Solaris. So if they have created super detailed fur or hair grooms in another program like Maya, they can bring them straight into Houdini and render them without breaking a sweat. Plus, V-Ray for Solaris now supports Copernicus, a powerful procedural texturing tool, enabling more third-party plugin options and greater flexibility when working with V-Ray.