Chaos launches V-Ray 7 for SketchUp and Rhino

The two most popular architectural modelers in the AEC industry now have access to V-Ray 7 technology in the latest update from Chaos. Exciting new features will enable architects and designers to create stunning visual renderings and animations using presets and other tools that reduce most processes down to a couple of clicks.

3D Gaussian Splats

Apparently, the talk of this year’s Trimble SketchUp 3D Basecamp, 3D Gaussian Splats are rapidly becoming preferred as the quickest way to create complex 3D environments for your 3D model scenes and are created from either photos or a video.

With native support for Gaussian Splats, Sketch, and Rhino, users can now leverage this new trend, easily replacing the physically modeled context of neighborhood buildings, et cetera, with a richer and more detailed environment that can be reflected and also accept shadows. Gaussian Splats is easily one of the hottest new 3D technologies. Readers can read up on 3D Gaussian Splats here.

V-Ray 7

The new V-Ray 7 for SketchUp and V-Ray 7 for Rhino are now faster than ever for users to create the visuals they are seeking. New Material Override options allow architects and designers to rapidly form massing studies. While anyone can make a model monochrome with a click, version 7 allows them to also preserve specific details in surfaces like bump maps, refractions, reflections, and self-illumination, offering more control over final presentations.

The new software update can also quickly create immersive interactive tours and panoramic experiences with support for floor plans, personalized hotspots and other contextual details that will highlight a space’s unique attributes. Additional version 7 features and improvements include:

• Freeform Render Region – Designers can now re-render specific parts of their image with any shape they want. With limitless flexibility, users can render multiple regions at once, or hone in on a single area they want to fine-tune.
• Color-Correction Presets – A new color-correction filters library can quickly boost the visual appearance of a render, providing users with quick access to many high-quality grading options.
• Vignetting Layer – Vignette camera effects can now be added using quick shaping controls, helping users bring more attention to the center of an image.

• Layered Textures – A powerful new layering system will bring a Photoshop-esque experience to high-detail textures. Each texture layer can be stacked and tweaked with complete control over opacity, blending modes and more.
• Gradient Texture Remapping – Advanced UV mapping capabilities now enable an advanced texture recoloring workflow. This is especially useful for procedural texture edits like pattern colorization, brick randomization and custom wallpaper designs.
• V-Ray Luminaires – The ever-expanding Chaos Cosmos asset library, accessible through V-Ray, now brings a new light fixture optimization called Luminaires, which preserves the accurate light distribution while optimizing render times. Most of the light fixtures within Chaos Cosmos are now Luminaires in V-Ray 7. 
• Light Mix for Emissive Materials – Light Mix now lets designers adjust the intensity and color of specific emissive materials after rendering, for better lighting control and customizable renders. 
• Enhanced V-Ray Sun & Sky – For designers looking to create nautical twilight looks, V-Ray 7 offers an improved PRG sky model that can create more realistic images and immersive animations. V-Ray Sky can also now render various observer altitudes up to several kilometers.
• Firefly Removal – V-Ray 7’s new algorithm automatically detects and finishes unresolved pixels, known as “fireflies,” during bucket rendering, greatly reducing the time needed to produce final images. 

• Edge Trimming – Scattered elements now fit perfectly within set boundary lines, making it easier to populate any precisely defined area. 
• Camera Clipping – Users can now limit scattered instances to the current view of their camera.

• Non-Destructive Material Override – Users can now swap out Cosmos object materials without breaking the asset’s connection to Cosmos.
• Asset Variants Support – Chaos Cosmos now has more asset variations to choose from, including seasonal options for 3D vegetation models (ex: summer or autumn leaves). Once users select their desired variant, they can just drag and drop it into their scene or even change the variant at a later stage. 
• 400 New Render-Ready Assets – Version 7 incorporates the latest Chaos Cosmos update, which is packed with 250+ vegetation models, 70+ static people featuring both single and couple-based poses and new furniture from IWC Home and Fanuli.

• Faster “Time to First Pixel” – New optimizations for scatter rendering, texture heavy scenes, data uploads and geometry compilations offer a better interactive rendering experience and a faster time to first pixel for speed-conscious users.
• Caustics Support – V-Ray GPU now supports caustics, enabling realistic surface reflections and refractions in both production and interactive rendering. The new Caustics solver is also optimized to fully utilize GPU hardware, delivering significantly faster results than a CPU.
• RAM for Texture Memory – Textures are no longer processed by V-Ray GPU, giving users the ability to employ even bigger textures without worrying about memory constraints.
• Up to 3X Faster on MacBooks – New Metal support triples rendering performance when using both the GPU and CPU sides of Apple M4 processors, while doubling performance on M3 processors.

• Faster Rendering in the SketchUp Viewport – Users will find a significant speed boost when utilizing the viewport rendering overlay in SketchUp 2024.
• Simplified Material Binding – Users can now configure the way materials are displayed in the SketchUp’s viewport in a more intuitive and straightforward way.

• New Object Modifiers UI – A new and improved user interface makes managing object modes like Fur, Clipper, Mesh Light, Displacement and Scatter a lot easier.
• Swarm in V-Ray for Grasshopper – Distributed rendering is now possible in Grasshopper, making it easier to use the power of multiple machines to turn out faster renders.

Readers can see more about V-Ray 7 for SketchUp and V-Ray 7 for Rhino/Grasshopper. And visit Chaos here.

Pricing and Availability

V-Ray 7 for SketchUp is available now for Windows and MacOS, while V-Ray 7 for Rhino/Grasshopper is available for Windows. All V-Ray subscription plans work for all supported host applications, including Rhino, SketchUp, 3ds Max, Revit, Maya, Cinema 4D, Houdini and Blender. Pricing can be found on the Chaos website.