In October 2009, Chaos Group launched new service packs for V-Ray 1.50 and V-Ray RT, both of which are free upgrades available from the downloads section of the Chaos Group’s website.

The V-Ray RT 1.50 Service Pack 1 includes several features. A full list can be found in the changelog file after installation but we’ve picked out what we feel are the most beneficial

• The ability to stop updating the ActiveShade window after a fixed amount of time
• Support for region rendering in the ActiveShade window
• Support for environment override in VRayMtl
• An option to manually restart V-Ray RT, without having to close and reopen the ActiveShade window/viewport
• An option to pause the RT
• Support for opacity maps of standard materials
• Support for VRayEdgesTex in the bump slot
• Support for paletted PNG textures
• Supports the Shell Material option in V-Ray RT
  

Whilst V-Ray RT is currently CPU-based, Chaos Group have already developed it into a fully interactive GPU accelerated renderer.

The topic of GPU realtime renderers will be covered in more detail in a forthcoming article in which we will look at the variety of current options available and where the future lies for rendering.

For more information call 03332 409 309 or email 3D@jigsaw24.com