News from VRay.info

V-Ray RT for Maya Beta Test Program open

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:00:00 CDT

The beta version of V-Ray RT for Autodesk Maya is now available for download and ready to be tested by all current V-Ray for Maya users. In order to obtain access everyone who would like to participate in the V-Ray RT BETA Program should be a current V-Ray for Autodesk Maya user registered at the Chaos Group website. Your log in information will be used as an application to the Beta program and you will be able to immediately download and install V-Ray RT for Maya. Click here for more information Key Features: Flexible architecture The robust architecture allows new acceleration technologies to be seamlessly implemented Distributed Rendering Use all available machines to speed up the rendering of heavy scenes Production ready renders V-Ray RT uses V-Ray�s original core to create production quality images Complete integration with Autodesk Maya All V-Ray features are accessible from within the Maya interface Completely interactivity Instantly updates the preview every time the user changes something in the scene Accurate specular reflections Quickly create specular reflections that will always match the reflections created with the the V-Ray pro�duction renderer Progressive path tracing V-Ray RT will constantly work your CPUs at 100% to improve the quality of the image being rendered Fast lighting Quickly set up your lighting and shadows with real time preview of ray-traced shadows and GI Cross-platform rendering Add more power to the distributed rendering even with machines that do not run on Windows. The stand alone part of V-Ray RT can also run on Linux and Mac OS Animations preview Chooses the right shots for your animations by the help of the V-Ray RT quick preview capabilities Supported operating systems: Microsoft� Windows Vista� Business (SP1 or higher) Microsoft� Windows� XP Professional (SP2 or higher), 32-bit or 64-bit versions Red Hat� Enterprise Linux� 5.3 WS (64-bit) Apple� Mac OS� X 10.5.7 or higher operating system (32-bit and 64-bit) Linux and Mac OS X require Autodesk Maya 2011

Phoenix FD released

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 CDT

Chaos Group have released their new fluid simulation package Phoenix FD. One month introductory pricing. Read our Phoenix FD sneak peak here to learn more about this plug-in, or view the demo from the SIGGRAPH 2010 User Event here. Phoenix FD is available now, for $445/�350($458) for the first month. After this the price will be $895/�695. Feature list below the picture and video. Phoenix FD rendered with V-Ray Toon Phoenix FD Key Features Fast physically based simulation core A unique approach was taken when developing the Phoenix FD simulation core. Aggressive internal optimizations allow for reduced calculation times while keeping the whole simulation physically accurate. This allows some additional processes like pressure decay, thermal radiation cooling and mass-temperature relation to be simulated. Background simulation The simulation process of Phoenix FD runs independently and does not lock the UI of the 3ds Max. This allows the user to make changes in the simulation and even to perform rendering. Furthermore changes to the simulator parameters immediately affect the simulation. Support of all standard space warp modifiers Phoenix FD supports all the 3ds Max standard space warp modifiers which allows to easily affect the movement of the fluid. Wind from movement Allows the user to simulate moving fluid oblecs (like torches, flying fireballs, etc) without the use of fake additional winds. Both linear and angular winds are simulated. Slow fluids simulation The simulation of slow moving fluids is a problem in many grid based simulators, because of the undesired diffusion in the Semi-Lagrangian advection process. Phoenix FD has been optimized to simulate arbitrary slow fluids without any undesired diffusion. Fluid source form pre-simulated surface Using the effects channel of a Phoenix FD object the user can define an implicit surface and use it as a fluid source for another Phoenix FD object. This allows the creation of effects like burning liquids, water releasing vapour, etc. Particle based sources Using geometry sources is not always suitable, especially when the fluid should appear "out of nothing". For such situations a particle system can be used as source and all the parameters can be animated in particle age time. GPU accelerated preview Setting up the rendering of flames and other emissive effects can be greatly accelerated with the help of the GPU preview function. It allows the user to fine tune the look of the final render since the preview matches it completely. ParticleFlow operators With the Phoenix FD ParticleFlow operators the user can move the particles along the fluid or change their events, which allows for a large variety of particle based effects. MaxScript support Phoenix FD exports a number of MaxScript functions which give direct access to the simulator's content and the simulation result. Using the script mechanism the user can obtain results that are impossible or very hard to realize with the conventional methods. For example one can set some complicated initial conditions of the simulation, build their own procedural sources and volumetric textures, etc. Texture driven simulation Each channel of the Phoenix FD simulator can be initialized or "attracted" by a volumetric texture map. The "attraction" option allows the user to give a tendency of the simulation with different level of "pressure". Displacement One of the most powerfull features of Phoenix FD is fluid displacement, which provides a completely new way for adding fine details to the visualised fluid. As in the usual geometry displacement, the displaced fluid is moved along the normal with a certain value given by a texture. The fine details of the texture can be much smaller than the grid's cell and this leads to a totally new appearance of the rendered result.The Phoenix FD's displacement technique does not use a copy of the fluid with bigger resolution, and the user need not worry about the consumed memory. The displacement algorithm is fully multi threaded. Procedural texture export The Phoenix FD plugin comes with an additional 3D texture which allows the simulation result to be rendered with any general purpose volumetric shader like VrayEnvironmentFog. In addition to external shading, the texture export allows the creation of many special effects, for example lava-looking surface achieved with displaced transparency channel and non displaced emissive channel etc. Rendering of textures In addition to the usual simulation channels (temperature, smoke etc) the Phoenix FD volumetric shader can use any other procedural textures as emissive, diffuse, effects and transparency sources. This allows Phoenix FD to be used as a very fast general purpose volumetric shader or to create some sophisticated render setups. Particle texture tool Using this tool the user can generate a displacement texture based on particles dragged by the fluid, achieving fine details moved along the fluid. Technically the texture is not specifically related to other Phoenix FD objects and can be used independently. Proper blending (requires V-Ray) A well known issue of atmospheric objects is the inability to blend properly two or more overlapped atmospheres. Rendering in geometry mode allows the user to blend many Phoenix FD objects in a correct way. Heat haze (requires V-Ray) http://vimeo.com/12836320 In this mode the rays traced inside the simulator's volume are redirected based on the content's gradient. All scalar channels can be used as a heat haze source. Solid mode (requires V-Ray) In this mode the content is rendered as a procedural geometry object with surface determined by the threshold value of the selected channel. Using this mode the user can in few minutes simulate and render realistically looking liquids. Playback time scale Using a special blending algorithm, Phoenix FD is able to construct intermediate frames and to play the simulation result with variable speed. Various simulation modes The user can choose different core modes depending on the simulation task. For example, the mass sensitive conservation algorithm is more suitable for simulating denser, more liquid-like fluids, while the uniform mass conservation algorithm favors the simulation of flames. 2D simulation mode Phoenix FD is able to work in 2D mode that is suitable for many purposes. Various cache compression The simulation result of Phoenix FD is written in compressed files to avoid excessive disk space usage. The user can select quality/size ratio of the compression method based on his/her needs. Proper GI support with V-Ray Global illumination plays an important role in the visualization of smoke effects. Phoenix FD supports all of V-Ray's GI features and adds some accelerating options to avoid the local scattering. Dragging of UVW/mapping channels coordinates The user is able to drag UVW coordinates with the fluid and use them to map other textures. The UVW channel can be also exported as a map.

SIGGRAPH 2010 Chaos Group User Event videos online

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 CDT

Videos from all the demos at the SIGGRAPH 2010 Chaos Group User event are now available! See the videos here: http://shop.vray.info/siggraph-2010-chaos-group-end-user-event-demos.html

DiRT 3 Trailer

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00:00 CDT

Marketing Trailer produced at RealtimeUK for the new "DiRT 3" game from Codemasters. http://vimeo.com/13853352 The movie is one continuous piece of car physics, on one continuous camera. Lead Artist at RealtimeUK, Phil Shoebottom, writes on Vimeo: �It was a challenge producing an animatic that was hand animated and trying to conform physics to those cameras and timings. We ended up having to increase the timings on some sections and shorten them on others, as the car physics ran at different speeds to the animatic. The other challenge was getting all of the environments to seamlessly match up using the same car pass and cameras.� Created by six artists in three months with 3ds Max, V-Ray and After Effects.

Chaos Group User Event at SIGGRAPH 2010 report - V-Ray 2.0 sneak peek and more!

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 CDT

Check out a few of the highlights from the Chaos Group User Event. The User Event was held on Thursday the 29th of July at the Los Angeles Conference Center. Among the things presented were V-Ray RT GPU, PDPlayer, V-Ray RT for Maya, Proxy workflow from Houdini to Maya, and a sneak preview of some of the features in V-Ray 2.0. Video from the presentations will be available in cooperation with CGarchitect soon. For now here are some images shot at the presentation: Rusko Ruskov demonstrated exporting cached simulations from Houdini, and converting these to animated V-Ray proxies for rendering in Maya. Phoenix FD - Simulation in near realtime in viewport. Phoenix FD - During a simulation the Max UI is still available, enabling real-time interation with objects as you move them around in your scene. Phoenix FD - Simulating liquids Phoenix FD - Liquid rendrered as a procedural surface in V-Ray. Phoenix FD - Nuclear explosion - Lit with V-Ray dome light. Phoenix FD - Lighting variations displayed in PDplayer. Phoenix FD scheduled for release August 9th! V-Ray RT GPU. Running on three GeForce 480 cards. Rendering at 5k resolution with interactive feedback was shown! V-Ray RT in Maya. Beta starts August 16th! V-Ray 2.0 sneak peek: Shademap Cache speeds up DOF and motion blur. V-Ray 2.0 sneak peek: Physically correct dispersion support in the V-Ray material. V-Ray 2.0 sneak peek: VRayDistanceTex. In many ways similar to VRayDirt, but calculated before the raytracing, so unlike VRayDirt this texture can be used to control displacement, fur length etc. V-Ray 2.0 sneak peek: VRayDistanceTex. In many ways similar to VRayDirt, but calculated before the raytracing, so unlike VRayDirt this texture can be used to control displacement, fur length etc. V-Ray 2.0 sneak peek: V-Ray Exposure Control. Lets you have the same exposure control as with the V-Ray Physical camera when using regular 3ds Max cameras or perspective/ortho views. V-Ray 2.0 sneak peek: V-Ray Exposure Control. Lets you have the same exposure control as with the V-Ray Physical camera when using regular 3ds Max cameras or perspective/ortho views. V-Ray 2.0 sneak peek: V-Ray Lens Effects - Bloom V-Ray 2.0 sneak peek: V-Ray Lens Effects - Glare. Lens Effects can be correctly calculated based on your V-Ray camera lens setup.

GCarchitect�s graphics card roundup

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

CGarchitect has just published a very comprehensive review of the top graphics cards from NVIDIA and ATI. The graphics card roundup reviews the top graphics cards from NVIDIA and ATI and evaluates performance in the top apps in the Archviz industry as well as how professional series cards stack up against consumer cards. Link: http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/newsfeed.asp?nid=4960

SIGGRAPH 2010 Chaos Group Booth Presentations July 27th - report and images

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

Tuesday was a day filled with interesting presentations at the Chaos Group booth (#612). At the first day of the SIGGRAPH 2010 Expo, Chaos Group had a series of presentations lined up at their booth. In addition there were workstations set up for demos of V-Ray RT GPU, V-Ray for Rhino and SketchUP and V-Ray for 3ds Max and Maya. Chaos Group at booth 612. Brian Smith of 3DATS/CGschool presenting �Understanding Global Illumination with V-Ray� Chaos Group's Vladimir Koylazov and Peter Mitev at the V-Ray RT GPU workstation. Oliver Heijmans from Mr. X presenting �V-Ray for Maya: Real Production Examples by Mr. X� Chaos Group's Rusko Ruskov presenting PDPlayer Vladimir Koylazov demoing on the V-Ray RT GPU workstation. Come back for more updates and images over the coming days, especially for the user event report after the user event on Thursday.

Ronen Bekerman launches Archviz Challenge II - HOVER

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

HOVER started July 21st 2010, Duration 3 Months, Deadline October 21st 2010. This time the challenge will focus on two aspects of architectural design. First one is the state of HOVER representing all types of cantilevered, bridged and by any other means floating spaces in architecture also giving the name to this Challenge. Second is prefabricated architectural design, known in short as PREFAB. Participants will be given a set of premade model parts from which they will have to derive their own design base and visualize it. There will be no limit of size or function, and much like in the previous challenge, the context is totally up to participants. They can create a small house hovering over an ocean facing cliff, suspended from trees deep into the jungle or smack in middle Manhattan protruding from one of the skyscrapers� To help out the participants in their endeavors, a special inspiration page was set up with a collection of related projects to help spur their imagination. Ronen has lined up some amazing prizes for this challenge, so head over to www.ronenbekerman.com for more info. http://www.ronenbekerman.com/challenges/architectural-visualization-challenge-ii-hover/

Chaos Group Booth Presentation, Public Event and Training at SIGGRAPH 2010

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

Chaos Group will be in full force this year at SIGGRAPH with a bigger team and a number of impressive new developments. For more information and registration: http://chaosgroup.com/en/2/news.html?i=276#newsid276

Chaos Group Booth Presentations

Booth 612 SIGGRAPH Exhibition floor 27th-29th of July, 9.30-6.00 pm Live demonstrations by well known artists and real-world V-Ray production workflow discussions by experts in the Film and VFX , Architectural and Automotive industries are just some of the highlights at this year's Chaos Group booth. Visit the booth to get a sneak peek into the latest from V-Ray and V-Ray RT for 3ds Max and Maya, Phoenix FD, and Pdplayer. As well as presentations on V-Ray for Rhino and Sketch up. New web based rendering solution by Mackevision will also be a part of the demonstrations. F_BOX picture shooter allows users aided by the web based application fast and easily to create high end 3D images. The emphasis this year will be V-Ray RT GPUs. Developed on the basis of the V-Ray RT this outstanding technology inherits the great interactivity and flexibility of the RT engine and brings it into the GPUs to achieve 15-20 times faster rendering process and lighting and shading set up. V-Ray RT on GPUs will be presented on the new 3DBOXX Extreme Edition with 4 GPUs provided with the kind support of BOXX Technologies.

Chaos Group Public Event

SIGGRAPH, Room 518, 2nd floor: 29 July, 3:30pm to 6:30pm Special presentations on: V-Ray RT on GPUs V-Ray Pipelines - demonstration on how the V-Ray rendering engine can be successfully integrated with post production tools to create powerful and reliable pipelines V-Ray for Rhino and Sketch up - latest developments and new features Pdplayer-the professional image sequence player and viewer for the 3D, CG and VFX industry Phoenix FD � the grid based simulator for smoke, fire and haze F_BOX picture shooter- High end 3D made easy. Web easy

The Best of V-Ray: An Exclusive 8-hour Live Training Event at SIGGRAPH 2010

SIGGRAPH Room 518, 2nd floor: 28th July, 10:00am to 6:00pm Brought to you by the Chaos Group and the CGschool. For the first time ever, and in partnership with CGschool, the Chaos Group presents a one of a kind V-Ray training workshop for anyone interested to get acquainted with the fast, reliable and renown rendering engine. Everyone who attends gets a free copy of 3DATS's Ispirato book. Plus a chance to win "One Project" and "Advanced to Expert" books, V-Ray T-shirts, pins, notepads, pens and V-Ray RT licenses. Course Description This course starts with a fast but thorough look at the algorithms working behind the scenes of all the critical settings so users know exactly how to maximize speed and quality, rather than just guessing at what might work. During this discussion, the instructor provides an in-depth analysis of the most common issues that plague even veteran users � speed, detail, and noise. After this, the instructor creates numerous real-world materials from scratch while discussing the methodology behind their creation. Next, a thorough look at all the different animation techniques available are analyzed for static scenes and scenes with moving objects. During the next 90 minutes, the instructor presents numerous V-Ray features that can be considered as �Power Tools�.These include tools such as proxies, displacement, the V-Ray Physical camera, and render elements. The class ends with 2 hours of practical lighting of exterior and interior scenes, including troubleshooting techniques to ensure the best mixture of speed and quality. This class will be fast and furious, yet suitable for users of all skill levels, from beginner to advanced. Most files for this course will be provided in 3ds Max 2010 format, however, you can still benefit from this course if you use V-Ray on other 3D software, as the vast majority of all the concepts will be the same. Students must bring their own laptop if they wish to follow along with the exercises. Support files provided in mostly 3ds Max 2010 format. V-Ray for 3ds Max installations will be provided on site for participants without personal license..

CGarchitect.coms 3D Awards 2010 winners announced

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

The winners for the 2010 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards have been announced. Congratulations to all of the nominees and winners! View all the nominees and the winners here: http://www.cgarchitect.com/3dawards_mini/nominees/