Upgraded Renderer Adds Speed Improvements, New UI Options, and Deep Data Support

Chaos Group has opened the beta program for V-Ray 3.0 for 3ds Max, a substantial update to the popular rendering package. The chief improvement for users of the new version may be speed — the company says ray-tracing calculations are running up to five times faster this time around, and we were told at SIGGRAPH that semi-transparent strands of hair, in particular, can be rendered at between five and 15 times faster in V-Ray 3.0.

New progressive rendering, built around the same path-tracing technology as the V-Ray RT interactive rendering system, means you don't have to wait for an entire bucket to finish in order to see results — the entire image is updated immediately, so that the user can begin to evaluate the results, and then refined to clear noise from the output over time. V-ray also supports deep data, outputting images in OpenEXR 2.0 format and allowing users to employ deep image compositing techniques. 

Chaos Group is also introducing VRmats, a new application-independent format allowing V-Ray material to be transferred across multiple host applications.

The user interface, too, has been rethought and simplified. Users can now choose from three UI modes: basic, advanced, and expert.

The beta is open to licensed users of V-ray for 3ds Max. An application form is available at the Chaos Group website.