V-Ray 7 for 3ds Max, Update 2, introduces more than a dozen new features to the powerful renderer, including an AI-powered tool that can create materials from a real-world photo, and another that can automatically enhance and upscale scenes.
Plenty of new stuff in the latest V-Ray 7 for 3ds Max, Update 2. Whether it’s lighting the night sky or sharing scenes without tech limitations, the company reckons that users now have more control and flexibility than ever before.
Chief amongst them is the Chaos AI Enhancer, an AI-powered tool that automatically identifies and improves people, vegetation and other focal areas in renders. A second tool, the Chaos AI Material Generator, gives users the ability to create their own materials using real-world photos. Once an image has been uploaded into the Chaos Cosmos asset library (accessible within V-Ray), the AI Material Generator creates a PBR material and texture maps, which can then be used to quickly complete full environments.
Both tools are currently in beta and will continue to receive updates based on user feedback, but could bring some real workflow enhancements from the sounds of it.
For those bugged beyond reason by random and false skies (Guilty. Ed.), the new Night Sky options add constellations, phases of the moon and even the full Milky Way, all positioned to accurately reflect chosen dates and geo-locations. Additional “sun node” options grant more creative choices based on the position, phase and more.
There's also a new Gaussian Splats clipping feature to trim 3D splats directly within 3ds Max, along with a new scatter clustering feature that allows for three options: Clusters based on procedural noise patterns, color maps and a brush functionality that allows for painting with overlapping layers directly within 3ds Max.
At the other end of the production pipeline, users can utilize a new level of collaboration through Chaos Cloud 3D Streaming. After uploading a scene, clients and project collaborators can access the 3D model remotely on a computer or a mobile device via a URL and provide feedback without requiring any additional hardware or tools. Anyone can place a comment or a pin, making it easier to accept feedback and iterate changes as needed. The Chaos Cloud 3D Streaming is currently in beta and open to all users, with new features coming in the next few months.
Alongside all of this, Chaos says recent improvements to its infrastructure have significantly improved the Chaos Cloud GPU rendering, making it nearly three times faster and more cost-effective. V-Ray users will now also be able to use local V-Ray GPU for Gaussian Splats rendering, along with the ability to render the new night sky options, AI-generated materials and V-Ray Luminaire. GPU Caustics have also been improved, with support for dispersion and better memory usage and performance.
Additional features include:
Multi-import from Chaos Cosmos — Quickly import multiple assets at once.
256 Unique Light Selects in LightMix — Control up to 256 unique light selects to control multiple lights, and edit them individually or as a group, adjusting the intensity and color of lights using LightMix.
New Exposure Layer Controls — Adjust tone mapping and exposure with intuitive new sliders for light tones, dark tones and shadows.
Distributed Rendering (DR) 2 — The new DR system offers better performance scaling, while progressive rendering assures better scaling with multiple machines.
Denoiser Workflow Improvements — Raw image files are now smaller and more efficient by giving users the option to remove the extra denoised data before saving them.
Optimized VRayProxy Viewport Performance — Delayed loading lets artists start working immediately while assets continue to load in the background.
V-Ray Two-Sided Texture — Assign different maps to front and back surfaces for labels, fabrics or paper-based materials.
Mapping Source in V-Ray Multisub Textures — Apply a mapping source to the MultisubTex sub-maps for faster control over all sub textures, and simpler tree structures in the material editor.
Probability column in V-Ray Multisub Textures — Change the probability of the appearance of different textures and/or colors in the Multisub tex, increasing or decreasing the amount of a specific texture to create more texture variants with ease.
OpenPBR Support — Support for the OpenPBR shading model ensures consistent results across compatible applications.
Details on all the new features can be found here.
The new update for V-Ray 7 for 3ds Max is available now for 3ds Max versions 2020–2026. Pricing for V-Ray as a standalone tool and as part of a bundle can be found on the Chaos website, but in the UK at least start at £33 a month.