Chaos Group to reveal V-Ray 1.5 at SIGGRAPH 2006

[Jeff Mottle]

Chaos Group to reveal V-Ray 1.5 at SIGGRAPH 2006, Boston

 

The wait is nearly over! The first official pre-release of version 1.5 of the V-Ray renderer will be revealed at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston, USA.

Since this version requires a hardware lock (dongle) in order to run, V-Ray users will have to fill in a dongle request form. In order to do this, please log in to the support section on our site:

 

http://www.chaosgroup.com/support/

 

and follow the link to the dongle request form.

 

Those of you who are attending the SIGGRAPH conference in Boston will be able to get their dongles directly from us by specifying this in the dongle request form (fill in SIGGRAPH as the shipping address). We will begin shipping the dongles to all other users shortly after the SIGGRAPH conference is over.

We welcome you to SIGGRAPH booth #1014 (VisMasters and Chaos Group) where you can see V-Ray 1.5 in action, additional information about Aura as well as an overview of a new product that is about to be released - a sequence player.

 

We would also like to invite you to the V-Ray users meeting to be held as part of the VisMasters Design Visualization Conference on August 4th, 2006.

For more details, please visit

 

http://dvc.vismasters.com/

 

V-Ray 1.5 builds on the existing foundation of the V-Ray rendering engine, extends its capabilities and adds many new features:

 

(*) Full render elements support inside 3dsmax with nearly 30 render elements available;

(*) Physically based sun and sky for simulating the natural daylight illumination of the Earth;

(*) Physically based camera model with real-world parameters (exposure, distortion etc);

(*) New material types (VRayBlendMtl for layering materials in an efficient manner, VRay2SidedMtl for simulating thin translucent surfaces, VRayFastSSS for simulating subsurface scattering in translucent materials like humnan skin, and more);

(*) Detail enhancement for the irradiance map - a blend between the irradiance map and QMC GI to bring the best of both worlds;

(*) Adaptive path tracing;

(*) VRayDirt texture map for simulating dirt or ambient occlusion;

(*) Improved distributed rendering;

(*) Improved V-Ray virtual frame buffer;

(*) Multi-platform SDK for extended virtually any part of the rendering engine;

(*) and much more...

 

Best regards,

Chaos Group team

[jafs00]

this is awesome vray 1.5 finally!!!!...but...

 

too bad about hardware dongles...this is one of the worst ideas in the history of computers.

[Christopher Nichols]

I don't see the issue with the hardware dongle... it helps stop them from having to re-issue a license every time someone gets a new computer. The dongle is actually tied to the license server, not to user's workstation.

[antonio_frias]

Does this mean there will no longer be a free version of V-ray, or does this have nothing to do with the dongle?

[danatgia]

I cannae wait. The new features sound awesome.

[Aaron2004]

Yeah...I wish that they would update VRAY Free for us cheep-o's. *sigh*....I guess you get what you pay for

[alfienoakes]

Hey Jeff,

 

I posted something about this a week ago, and never got one reply..

 

Whats it feel like to be important..?..

 

Andy

[gfa2]

Hey Jeff,

I posted something about this a week ago, and never got one reply..

Whats it feel like to be important..?..

Andy

 

Hey Andy, for what it's worth...your post was the first I had heard of it, but I went looking for more info and signed up for my dongle and never bothered to post a reply...you da man.

[alfienoakes]

Cheers Gary..

 

I feel inflated once more...

 

Andy

[Jason Matthews]

What great timing. I am building a new machine so now I can just have the dongle for the computer. I have a compuer at work that I have Vray on and sometimes I like to bring work home. Does this mean I can use Vray at home with the use of the dongle? Excellent!

[Geoffc]

Chaos Group to reveal V-Ray 1.5 at SIGGRAPH 2006, Boston

(*) Physically based sun and sky for simulating the natural daylight illumination of the Earth;

 

(*) VRayDirt texture map for simulating dirt or ambient occlusion;

 

(*) Improved distributed rendering;

 

Best regards,

Chaos Group team

 

 

Those 3 are what got me most excited about this release, especially as I gear up to do more exterior renderings.

[Christopher Nichols]

V-Ray 1.5 builds on the existing foundation of the V-Ray rendering engine, extends its capabilities and adds many new features:

 

(*) Full render elements support inside 3dsmax with nearly 30 render elements available;

 

(*) Physically based camera model with real-world parameters (exposure, distortion etc);

(*) New material types (VRayBlendMtl for layering materials in an efficient manner, VRay2SidedMtl for simulating thin translucent surfaces, VRayFastSSS for simulating subsurface scattering in translucent materials like humnan skin, and more);

(*) Detail enhancement for the irradiance map - a blend between the irradiance map and QMC GI to bring the best of both worlds;

(*) Improved V-Ray virtual frame buffer;

(*) Multi-platform SDK for extended virtually any part of the rendering engine;

 

(*) and much more...

 

 

 

Actually these are the things you gusy should be excited about. Sun/Sky is going to get old really quick when everyones renderings looks like everyone elses.

 

Camera is HUGE.

[Sawyer]

How does the detail enhancement work?

[jafs00]

I don't see the issue with the hardware dongle... it helps stop them from having to re-issue a license every time someone gets a new computer. The dongle is actually tied to the license server, not to user's workstation.

 

Maybe you're right, past experiences with hardware dongles (way back then versions of autocad V12 and Max 3 and Form Z) and the problems they brought, left me cringing whenever I hear the words "software dongle" named...

 

software locking up, incompabilities with printers and pointing devices.......It gave me with the impression that too much time and effort was put into anti-piracy and too little into the software in itself (I quit Form Z forever because of problems with the dongle)

 

But I guess times change and technology and hardware get better. Chaos Group has put out excellently coded software so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

gonna save up for the 1.5 version when it comes out then. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

[kippu]

Sun/Sky is going to get old really quick when everyones renderings looks like everyone elses.

 

 

i am practicing hdri's as chris advised some time back

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Actually these are the things you gusy should be excited about. Sun/Sky is going to get old really quick when everyones renderings looks like everyone elses.

 

Camera is HUGE.

 

the camera distortion will be nice. it should help when people crank up the field of view to see more in a room, causing the room to look huge. typically adding some 'barrelling' (definetly not the proper term) to the image makes it look a little more exceptable to the eye.

 

yes, probably not the proper way to do things, but it seems like people always want to see more of the room than what is natural when it comes to arch illustration.

[Christopher Nichols]

Maybe you're right, past experiences with hardware dongles (way back then versions of autocad V12 and Max 3 and Form Z) and the problems they brought, left me cringing whenever I hear the words "software dongle" named...

 

software locking up, incompabilities with printers and pointing devices.......It gave me with the impression that too much time and effort was put into anti-piracy and too little into the software in itself (I quit Form Z forever because of problems with the dongle)

 

But I guess times change and technology and hardware get better. Chaos Group has put out excellently coded software so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

gonna save up for the 1.5 version when it comes out then. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

 

Keep in mind that the license server that runs with Vray currently is still "hardware" locked, to your computer, that is why if you change computers you need a new license. Plus, your user licenses are still floating license and are not tied to the hardware lock which is on the license server. Yeah... the old days of crappy breaking hardware locks are gone with the advent or better usb locks. I used to have a chain of those paralell port locks on the the back of my computer and they were horrible. Had to have them in a certain order to work.

[Geoffc]

Does anyone else find it easier to understand the finer complexities of rendering with global illumination, than how the damn licensing for the actual software works??

[Clifton Santiago]

Wasn't Vray 1.5 "revealed" 2 years ago at Siggraph? I know it was revealed last year as well...

[FlytE]

Personally im looking forward to an improved frame buffer. I use it all the time but find it to be unpredictable and unstable sometimes. Easier map sounds pretty good too....

[4DM]

Sun/Sky is going to get old really quick when everyones renderings looks like everyone elses.

.

 

You have a good point - and I think this is already the case with the majority of interior V-Ray renders.

 

Of course, you could argue 'who cares?'. If the quality is good, the clients are pleased, does it matter that everyone's renders look alike?

 

Class....discuss!

 

D.

[jackb602]

In other good Vray news, I spoke to Vlado briefly after a demo today, and he confirmed that Vray is officially coming to the Mac, sometime after the Windows release. I got the impression that it should be sooner than later. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

 

Jack

[Christopher Nichols]

Wasn't Vray 1.5 "revealed" 2 years ago at Siggraph? I know it was revealed last year as well...

 

Very true... but the vray 1.5 that is now, is far far far from what the vray 1.5 was in march 2002 (the original release date), 2 years ago, even 1 year ago. In any other package, this would have been version 6 and you would have had to have paid for 6 upgrades. If you bought vray in 2002 like many have, you would have been getting free upgrades for 4 years. Not bad for $799,... that is just my opinion.... but I always stand behind my friends at Chaos, because they do great things for me... so my opinion is jaded.

[Clifton Santiago]

Hey Chris. I agree that Vray is a great product. And as I think you know I use it daily and exclusively. My skepticism is not a sign of disloyalty to the product, but rather a healthy reaction to hearing the same thing I've heard before. I've ordered the dongles for my department and I wait patiently rather than getting excited.

[Christopher Nichols]

Hey Chris. I agree that Vray is a great product. And as I think you know I use it daily and exclusively. My skepticism is not a sign of disloyalty to the product, but rather a healthy reaction to hearing the same thing I've heard before. I've ordered the dongles for my department and I wait patiently rather than getting excited.

 

Oh I am aware of how you feel... not stop being an expat and come back to the land of the free and the brave. We could use a man like you.

 

PS: To other users... I know "Clifton" very well, we went to the same grad school.