V-Ray has single-handedly changed the face of Architectural Visualization. Neoscape has been using it in production since its very first release, and we continue to use it in all of our work. It is full of relevant and robust features, while remaining speedy and easy to use. I can not imagine working without it.
V-Ray never ceases to amaze me. It's brilliant output is somehow matched by very efficient rendering speeds. The ability to control minute details of sampling allow the user to optimize scenes to degrees that other renderers pale in comparison on. The amazing support for additional channel data via OpenEXR is also unprecedented. The shading system is straightforward and easy to get into. We can generally teach new artists the VRay setups within a week or so and they are very productive immediately. The support from the development team is so fantastic that there should be some kind of gold medal handed out for it. Very quick responses on bugs and even sometimes features. VRay continues to be a very integral part of a very tuned pipeline that is geared especially towards photographic reality.
Features
The V-Ray rendering system has a rich set of features; we have listed some of the major ones here. For a full list of features and capabilities visit the V-Ray documentation. Please be aware that every features is subject to change without prior notice.
Core architecture
Multi-platform object-oriented API
Fully multithreaded core
Unified sampling system based on Schlick sampling
Distributed rendering
Efficient shading system specifically optimized for ray-tracing
Modular architecture - many components of the system can be replaced with custom ones
Geometry
Efficient geometry handling
True instance rendering
On-demand dynamic geometry creation
On-demand geometry loading from disk files
Displacement mapping
Catmull-Clark and Loop subdivision surfaces
Extensible with custom geometric primitives through the V-Ray SDK
Image sampling
Three different image sampling methods
Full-scene antialiasing
Progressive path tracing
Support for additional render elements (diffuse, reflection, GI etc)
Advanced color (tone) mapping controls
Extensible with custom image samplers through the V-Ray SDK
Illumination
Physically accurate full global illumination solutions
Different GI algorithms: path tracing, irradiance cache, photon maps, light cache
Reusable GI solutions for accelerated rendering of walk-through animations and animations with dynamic objects
Physically accurate area lights
Efficient illumination from HDR environments
Procedural sun & sky models
Extensible with custom lights through the V-Ray SDK
Physically accurate area lights; IES photometric lights
Shaders
Physically plausible materials
Blurry reflections/refractions
Accurate hilights
Sub-surface scattering
Support for efficient material layering
Extensible with custom shaders through the V-Ray SDK
Camera effects
Depth-of-field with bokeh effects
Accurate motion blur
Physical camera model
Extensible with custom cameras through the V-Ray SDK
Extras
Toon effect
Fur generator/raytracer
Extended matte/shadow capabilities
Support for Render-to-Texture mode of 3ds Max
VRaySphereFade to isolate only specific portions of the scene for compositing
Frame buffer
V-Ray specific frame buffer with integrated color corrections and display of multiple rendering elements
Direct rendering to disk for extremely large images, either as OpenEXR files or as .vrimg files
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