In this blog, we cover the new “world building” features, updates to material rendering speed and much more in this installment of the Trinity3D blog.
Chaos Scatter
The key theme of V-Ray 6 for 3ds Max is creating highly detailed worlds, quickly, easily, and efficiently. V-Ray 6 is now capable of rendering millions of objects at once in a variety of ways, one of which is with Chaos Scatter. Chaos Scatter takes advantage of this feature by allowing for the population of vast dense forests, tall grass, stones and/or any multi-faceted object like the individual fibers of a shag rug. Scatter uses splines to mask areas that an artist wants, free of instances. Scatter’s simple interface allows for quick mastery, and its powerful customizability limits its capabilities solely in the imagination of its user. Of all the incredible new features within V-Ray 6, this one has the most hidden potential.
Rendered Clouds and Enmesh
Procedurally rendered clouds are nothing new to the digital world. One of Unreal Engine's highest rated products, Ultra dynamic sky, allows for fast weather systems with stars, sun and moon capable of real-world positioning. Until now, that capability was limited to just the sun out of the box for V-Ray, but now highly customizable clouds have found their way into the V-Ray Solo and Premium licenses. Making a compelling environment has never been so quick. V-Ray's clouds are capable of casting shadows, reacting with the light of the sun, and come with adjustments for both cumulus and stratus clouds, allowing for great variability.
If you are familiar with micromesh in blender and ZBrush, then enmesh in 3ds Max will feel like an old friend. The power of rendering optimized foliage sim, meshing, furry fibers, and of course chainmail is at your fingertips. This is another one of those 3D features with great potential that have been pigeonholed into pretty much the singular use of chainmail or a mesh material.
Other Features of V-Ray 6 for 3ds Max
Another intriguing new feature is V-Ray Decal with displacement, which allows for decals to snap to surfaces in rendering, and even the ability to add thickness to the decal. This gives artists an additional tool in their arsenal to add fine details to their scenes.
Chaos also adds a finite dome light mode to V-Ray, allowing for more realistic hdri environments to house your models.
Faster Draw times, enhanced energy preservation, and faster subsurface scattering are a few of the quality of life improvements made in this edition of V-Ray.
Lastly, a very specific feature added, is the new thin film layer, now a thin film of chromatic iridescence can be added to your material, now rendering bubbles, oil, and polarized sunglasses more accurately.