The last but not least win in the update department is V-Ray's new ability to ditch the often time-consuming photon map build-up when you turn on caustics. The overhauled translucency is an excellent example, as it now works pretty similar to how it’s done in Corona Renderer. LightMix is a stand-out feature in V-Ray 5.1 and is incredibly easy to use (Image credit: Chaos Group)Ĭorona Renderer becoming part of Chaos Group (opens in new tab) seems to have had a good effect on some of V-Ray's features. Mixed with 5.1's new, improved material rendering in the viewport, it all – again – boils down to big wins in the time and speed departments.

The HDRs available also tie in with 5.1's new multiple dome lights: they can be dragged and dropped into your scene, thereby giving you the option of exploring several HDRs for your scene via LightMix in the VFB. Chaos Cosmos offers models, materials and HDRs in various shapes and sizes, which can all be seamlessly added into your scene. V-Ray 5.1 review: Cloud libraryīuilding on the materials and assets made available before 5.0's release, 5.1 has finalised V-Ray's vision of a cloud library and ships with access to the new Chaos Cosmos (opens in new tab) asset collection, which works on all platforms (having worked with asset conversion, I can attest to this being no mean feat). V-Ray 5.1 now also lets you submit multiple cameras into the cloud rather than one by one, again easing and speeding up workflow. The Camera Lister is new in 5.1 and does what it says: it lists all the cameras in your scene and lets you edit them from there. The masks can be applied to materials, layers and folders, turning the VFB into a mini-compositing app, reducing your time spent in Photoshop (opens in new tab) for final tweaks and looks.

This is easily one of my new favourite features. You can now use the Crypto and Multimatte as well as Material IDs and similar elements for masking in the VFB. Chaos Cosmos offers easy assets across the version board with HDRs included (Image credit: Chaos Group)Īnother step in making compositing easier is 5.1's new ability to use any of V-Ray's Render Elements for masking.

Vray 5.1 sketchup