V-Ray 5 Update 1

Chaos Group – actually Chaos as of today, has recently released a new version of its V-Ray rendering engine.

One of the most important new features is Chaos Cosmos, a library of assets, 3d models and HDRI maps. They were provided, among others, by companies such as Maxtree, DesignConnected, Hum3D, RenderPeople, No Motion or VizPark. Thanks to the V-Ray new browser, you will be able to easily download these asses and use them in your projects.

As for the new features in V-Ray itself, the ability to render multiple Dome Light and tweak them in Light Mix and the ability to use any mask in Frame Buffer has been introduced. In terms of materials, the auto conversion of Physical Materials to V-Ray materials has been added and a new option for Material Override that allows you to save, bump, reflection, self-illumination and opacity. The preview of materials in the viewport and the use of real translucency with volumetric substance scattering have also been improved.

There is also an improvement to caustics, which will be much easier to setup and render much faster. It will now also be possible to export all available cameras in vrayscene files. Another major change is the ability to use the GPU to compute the Light Cache.

You can find the list of new features on the Chaos Group website: https://www.chaosgroup.com/vray/3ds-max/whats-new