Product In-Depth: V-Ray 2.0 for SketchUp

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 Other Improvements in V-Ray 2.0 for SketchUp

While the three major features described above mark the bulk of the big changes and advancements in V-Ray 2.0 for SketchUp, there are many other significant changes. “We are now supporting post-processing lens effects and glares,” said Corey Rubadue. One of the better things about V-Ray for SketchUp is the use of physical cameras and physical lights (IES lights). Users can manipulate the f-stop settings in the physical camera and make lighting adjustments often quicker than going into the scene and tweaking lots of lights.

04 – A detailed screen shot of the Proxy panel in V-Ray 2.0 for SketchUp.

05 – Gensler is a major customer of V-Ray technology, including for SketchUp. (image courtesy the Chaos Group. Copyright, Gensler. All rights reserved.)

The Material Editor has been enhanced in V-Ray 2.0 for SketchUp, in many ways. Both simplifications and streamlining now make it easier to perform common tasks. And BRDF materials are now in this version for SketchUp. “We brought this over from 3ds Max,” noted Rubadue. “And in this version we have faster displacement mapping. Displacement is actually a change in geometry deformation…so you get the nuances of little shadows, if you will, that you don’t get with a bump mapping effect.”

The Chaos Group has really thought deeply about the SketchUP user as a type of user distinct from many other 3D artists and designers. “A major focus of this release is on learning,” said Lon Grohs, vice president of business development. “We are producing HTML based tutorials as well as video tutorials.” There is clearly a focus on integrating the ethos of SketchUp, and not just the technologies, together with that of V-Ray.

“We want people to look at these images that come out of SketchUp with V-Ray and completely question if they were actually made with these tools together,” said Lon Grohs.

V-Ray 2.0 for SketchUp includes both V-Ray RT technology with both CPU and GPU based acceleration–depending on your graphics support–and distributed rendering licenses. You get 10 slave render machine licenses so you can install just the rendering engines to available CPUs that you have around on your network. There is no limitation on cores or memory on these ten machines.

Closing Details and Thoughts 

V-Ray 2.0 for SketchUp has an estimated retail price of 800.USD. As a plugin for SketchUp 2013, version 7 and version 8, this puts it in good company with many other rendering plugins for this popular modeling application. By no means is the Chaos Group alone in photorealistic rendering space for SketchUp plugins. Indeed the Chaos Group has some stiff competition from the likes of Next Limit (Maxwell), LumenRT by e-on software, Indigo Renderer and others.

06 – A finished view of the model shown previously with V-Ray for SketchUp. The grass and trees are utilizing the new Proxy technology. Be sure to click on this image to see the amazing realism in this render. (image courtesy Chaos Group. All rights reserved.

Yet, the interactive renderer with RT and its proxy technology, among other features, make V-Ray for SketchUp a very comprehensive solution for those seeking a very-highend photorealistic rendering solution for SketchUp.

To acquire or learn more about the Chaos Group’s new V-Ray 2.0 for SketchUp, go to their website here.