Sofia, Bulgaria – July 28, 2015 – Today, Chaos Group announces the immediate availability of V-Ray 3.1 for Maya. V-Ray 3.1 for Maya contains over 100 new and modified features, including Maya 2016 compatibility, numerous V-Ray RT GPU enhancements and two VR cameras. The free update also offers more efficient handling of proxy objects, an improved global illumination algorithm, and faster rendering performance.
“V-Ray 3.1 for Maya is a big release,” said Vladimir Koylazov, Chaos Group Co-founder and Lead Developer of V-Ray. “Our team has been hard at work making sure that the speed, memory and workflow optimizations our community has requested are ready for professional use.”
For VR projects, V-Ray 3.1 for Maya adds new stereoscopic camera types that will render 6x1 cube maps and spherical images. The introduction of the Shade Map optimizes stereoscopic rendering.
“When I started building out the new VR and VFX division for Legend3D, I knew V-Ray for Maya had to be a part of it,” said Justin Denton, VFX and VR Supervisor at Legend3D. “Working with Chaos Group led to the features we need for our advanced virtual reality projects. V-Ray 3.1 for Maya is a huge update.”
V-Ray RT GPU now supports:
- Hair & fur
- Subsurface scattering
- Displacement & subdivision surfaces
- Light Cache GI
- Anisotropic highlights
- UDIM textures
- Texture baking
- QMC sampling on NVIDIA CUDA devices
Proxy Object improvements:
- Identical proxy objects are now automatically instanced
- Improved viewport previews with mesh simplification options
- Import multiple proxy objects at once
- Support for hair and particle instances
- Support for instancing Ogawa Alembic files
- Mesh viewer utility – to view proxy objects and Alembic files, including subdivision surfaces, particles, and hair
Additional New Features in V-Ray 3.1:
Maya 2016 support
- Full support for new Hypershade Node Editor, Material Viewer, and Lookdev view
- Enhanced Bifrost support – including rendering liquids as isosurfaces without meshing
Workflow & User Interface
- Quick settings
- Light Lister
- Tooltips
- Updated default render settings
Geometry
- Faster rendering of dynamic meshes, proxy objects, and instances
- Faster rendering of hair and fur
- Intel Embree acceleration for hair and fur
- VRayClipper – for cutaways and sections
Lights
- Light meter – new helper object for lighting analysis
Global Illumination
- Updated Light Cache algorithm removes light leaks and improves animation
Volume rendering
- Probabilistic shading for faster volume rendering
Availability
V-Ray 3.1 for Maya is a free update for all V-Ray 3.0 for Maya customers. Download now at chaosgroup.com. For more information and a complete change log, visit V-Ray.com.
