V-Ray 5 for SketchUp released

Chaos Group released V-Ray 5 for SketchUp, a new update that connects real-time and photorealistic rendering into a single workflow. With the introduction of V-Ray Vision, users will now be able to see a real-time representation of their current scene, helping them make faster decisions before moving on to full photorealism with V-Ray’s final renderer.

“V-Ray Vision is going to transform how designers work in SketchUp, bringing an always-on real-time view of every project,” - said Phillip Miller, VP of product management at Chaos Group. - “When real-time is always available, you can understand your design more fully as you craft it, add detailed entourage without burdening the system and know that all your lights and materials are ready for V-Ray photorealism when you need it. It’s a complete visualization solution from start to finish.”

V-Ray Vision was designed to serve everything that comes before a final render, helping users work through new ideas and client feedback before they move on to total photorealism. Whether designers want to move their model, apply materials or set up lights and cameras, V-Ray Vision will display it all in the moment, offering a real-time view of the scene that updates as you work. Incredibly fast, V-Ray Vision can also quickly snapshot images or output animated sequences, allowing users to share their work with stakeholders.

Automatic Scene Lighting

With the new Light Gen tool, SketchUp users can rapidly explore a variety of lighting possibilities and select the best look for their scene. Light Gen will automatically generate dozens of physically based lighting variations for each project, helping it illuminate exteriors and interiors using V-Ray’s Sun & Sky system and a wealth of included HDRI images. Each preset also factors in real-world lighting conditions, so new lights blend perfectly as they are added by the user.

Beyond Rendering

The redesigned V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB) now includes some of V-Ray 5’s most user-friendly features:

• With Light Mix, users can interactively change the color and brightness of any light without rendering again, creating multiple lighting scenarios from a single render. Image adjustments like exposure control, color balance and color corrections can also be added, replacing the need for external image editing tools. For extra control, render layers can be combined using the Layer Compositor to create more nuanced designs, or even saved as presets for later use.
• New V-Ray 5 Material Library – The popular V-Ray material library has been expanded and upgraded with V-Ray 5’s new layering controls and texture randomization features. Texture resolutions have also been increased to 4K.
• Coat Layer – Gain extra reflections on surfaces without using blend materials.
• Sheen Layer – Easily simulate fabrics like velvet, satin and silk.
• Built-In Bump Layer – A built-in parameter section will now allow users to adjust bump attributes.
• Dirt and Weathering – New controls for aging materials with procedural streaks have been added to the VRayDirtMtl.
• Line Renderings – Easily create line renderings of any project using simple material overrides.
• New Sun and Sky – Improves accuracy when the sun is at the horizon, including the magic hours right before sunrise and after sunset. New controls have also been added to allow users to easily customize the sun position.
• Texture Randomization – For more realistic textures and materials, artists can now add more variety and subtle imperfections with the new VRayUVWRandomizer map and improved VRayMultiSubTex controls.
• Stochastic Texture Tiling – Automatically remove tiling artifacts with the new VRayUVWRandomizer.

Pricing and Availability

V-Ray 5 for SketchUp is available now for Windows and Mac OS, with V-Ray Vision Mac support coming soon. A perpetual license is priced at $790, with upgrades available for $395. Term licensing is available at $350 (annually) and $60 (monthly). V-Ray 5 for SketchUp is also included in V-Ray Collection, an annual plan that gives users full access to 15 Chaos Group products and services for $699/year.