Chaos Group is a leading provider of innovative rendering solutions for the media, entertainment, and design industries. With the announcement of V-Ray 1.6 for SketchUp open beta, users now have the biggest expansion to SketchUp’s rendering capabilities. This massive upgrade brings 16 new features to V-Ray for SketchUp that enhance visualization workflow and render quality. With these new features V-Ray 1.6 for SketchUp has become the most robust, and artist-friendly render application SketchUp users have ever seen. Between the new features implemented into the new version belong V-Ray RT®, V-Ray Dome Light and V-Ray Proxy. V-Ray 1.6 for SketchUp will offer architects and designers access to proven V-Ray technologies that accelerate the creative process. For example, using V-Ray Proxies users can render huge amounts of geometry in the blink of an eye.
The free open beta of V-Ray 1.6 for SketchUp is available for SketchUp 8 on both the Windows and OS X platforms - 32bit only. It can be downloaded right now by applying for the public beta program on Chaos Group’s website.
“V-Ray 1.6 for SketchUp should be part of every designer’s digital toolset; it’s fast, simple, and seamlessly integrated, which allows you to explore ideas without leaving the application,” said Jorge Barrero, senior associate at Gensler. “The recent addition of V-Ray RT gives me instant feedback on my lighting, while V-Ray Dome Lights lets me push the quality of my renders to a whole new level. As a long time user, it’s pretty exciting.”
Some of the key features:
V-Ray RT - a revolutionary rendering engine providing instant feedback and streamlining scene setup. Because V-Ray RT is built upon the same robust core as V-Ray, it is seamless to transition between V-Ray RT and production rendering. For the everyday user this s a very powerful interactive rendering solution that allows them to simultaneously work and render inside of SketchUp.The instant visual feedback makes for quicker design, material, and lighting decisions. The current version of V-Ray RT is only supported on the CPU.
Dome light - create simple, artifact-free image-based lighting using the dome Light. its powerful importance sampling analyzes hdR images and optimizes light tracing and gi precision. This new feature will streamline your workflow when using image based lighting in your scenes. it will not only save you setup and rendering time but it will also increase the quality of the image based light and shadows.
In short:
- Retrace Threshold
- Lights as components
- Sphere Light
- V-Ray Proxy
- Faster Parsing Times
- Render History
- Compare Tool
- Lens Effect
- V-Ray Material
- ....
More information at: Chaos Group