Wednesday, January 29th, 2025Posted by Jim ThackerChaos releases V-Ray 7 for Mayahtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Chaos has released V-Ray 7 for Maya, the next major version of the VFX and animation renderer.The update adds support for 3D Gaussian Splats, native OpenPBR support and extended USD support, and features improvements to V-Ray GPU, the V-Ray Frame Buffer and Chaos Scatter.Maya becomes the latest DCC application to get an integration for V-Ray 7, following 3ds Max, SketchUp and Cinema 4D.Native support for rendering 3DGS scan dataNew features in V-Ray 7 for Maya include support for 3D Gaussian Splats (3DGS).A new 3D scanning method, 3D Gaussian Splatting generates high-quality reconstructions of real-world objects or scenes from source photos or video.Although there are free third-party add-ons for rendering 3DGS data in Blender, Unity and Unreal Engine, V-Ray is one of the first CG applications to support the technology natively.Chaos tells us that it expects the functionality to appeal to both architectural visualization and VFX studios, particularly as a way of creating detailed background environments.You can read a good overview of how 3D Gaussian Splats work, and the pros and cons of workflows based around them in this post on Chaoss blog.Lighting and rendering: updates to Light Path Expressions and V-Ray Sun and SkyThe release also adds support for shadows within V-Rays Light Path Expressions. Users can now isolate shadows within renders using LPEs for more precise control during compositing.In addition, the V-Ray Sun and Sky system has been updated to support the PRG Clear Sky model used in Corona, Chaoss other major production renderer.According to Chaos, it generates more realistic lighting effects than the previous model, particularly at sunrise and sunset, and when rendering the sky from greater altitudes.The firefly removal algorithm, for removing bright flecks in renders, has been updated, while V-Rays implementation of render denoiser Open Image Denoise now supports a prefilter pass.V-Ray GPU: initial support for causticsV-Ray GPU, V-Rays hybrid CPU and GPU renderer, gets initial support for rendering caustics, bringing it closer to feature parity with the main CPU render engine.You can see a list of the remaining features not supported in V-Ray GPU here.Performance improvements include the option to use system memory for textures, making it possible to render larger scenes without running out of GPU memory.For rendering animation, the update reworks V-Rays algorithm for caching bitmaps between frames, speeding up rendering of image sequences up to 50% in some cases.V-Ray GPU also now supports Apples Metal API, which should improve performance on macOS: Chaos says that rendering is up to 3x faster on MacBooks with current M4 processors.VFB: vignetting and freeform render regionsThe V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB), for viewing and editing images rendered in V-Ray, gets a new Vignette Layer, making it possible to apply vignetting effects to renders.The VFB now supports freeform region rendering, making it possible to specify render regions of arbitrary shape to help resolve key areas of an image more quickly.The update also adds a new Filters tab with access to readymade color correction presets.Updates to Chaos ScatterChaos Scatter, V-Rays new object scattering system, gets a Look At function, making it possible to orient scattered objects to face the camera.There is also a new falloff curve to control how scattered vegetation varies with altitude.Support for the new OpenPBR material standardV-Ray 7 for Maya also introduces support for the new OpenPBR open material standard.Overseen by the Academy Software Foundation, OpenPBR is intended to streamline look development for VFX, with materials developed for one application displaying near-identically in others that support it.The base V-Ray Material (VRayMtl) now includes a new OpenPBR mode, which Chaos describes as proving more control over Sheen effects, and simplifying the creation of layered materials.V-Ray for Maya also supports the native OpenPBR Surface introduced in Maya 2025.3, including within its implementation of MaterialXUpdated USD supportOther changes specific to Maya include support for USD for Maya 0.30, the current version of Mayas USD plugin.V-Ray Clipper, V-Rays geometric primitive for creating cutaway renders, is also now supported in USD workflows. Updates to Chaos CosmosOutside the core software, Chaos Cosmos, the online asset library available with all V-Ray subscriptions, now supports asset variants.The functionality, which makes it possible to switch between variant looks for an asset without having to re-import it into the scene, is initially being used for seasonal changes to foliage.It is also now possible to multi-select assets within Chaos Cosmos.Subscription prices up since V-Ray 6Chaos has also raised the price of V-Ray subscriptions since the previous release.V-Ray Solo subscriptions now cost $84.90/month or $514.80/year, up $5/month or $48/year, and V-Ray Premium subscriptions cost $119.90/month or $718.80/year, up $24/year.V-Ray Enterprise subscriptions are unaffected.Price and system requirementsV-Ray 7 for Maya is compatible with Maya 2022+, running on Windows 10+, RHEL, CentOS and Rocky Linux, and macOS 10.13+. It is rental-only. You can find current pricing in the story above.Read an overview of the new features in V-Ray 7 for Maya on Chaoss websiteRead a full list of new features in V-Ray 7 for Maya in the online release notesHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). 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