Overview of new features
- V-Ray 6 for form•Z uses autodessysID licensing just like form•Z 10. The Chaos license manager is no longer needed
- This version is based on V-Ray Core v6 with many performance improvements Native on Apple Silicon
- Environment Sky: New Clouds feature
- Materials:
- New Generic Thin Film
- Improved Dirt Texture
- New Gradient Texture
- New Temperature Texture
- New V-Ray Geometry Assets Palette
- New V-Ray Enmesh
- New V-Ray Scatter
- Updated Fur, Displacement and Clipper Tools
- V-Ray Frame Buffer improvements
Clouds (Settings–>Environment->Sky)
The clouds panel is a new group of settings to create cloud effects in the Environment.
Clouds: Enables cloud rendering.
Density: Controls the clouds density. A higher value leads to more clouds.
Variety: Controls the cloud variety in space and shape.
Cirrus Amount: Controls the amount of high-altitude cirrus clouds.
Height (m): Controls the clouds height.
Thickness (m): Controls the clouds thickness.
Offset X (m): Controls the offset in the X direction measured in meters.
Offset Y (m): Controls the offset in the Y direction measured in meters.
Phase X (%): Clouds phase in X direction specified in percentage (%).
Phase Y (%): Clouds phase in Y direction specified in percentage (%).
Ground Shadows: Enables the cloud shadows. Note that it is recommended to use a Dome light with a Sky texture for high quality shadows.Contrails: When enabled, plane contrails are simulated in the sky.The cloud settings are also available in the Parameters tab of the V-Ray Sunlight Settings inside the Override Environment Sky Settings .
Things to consider
Fluffy clouds need to have ~0.75 Density or less. With a high Variety, you can use a lower thickness for more individual, “cloud-watching”-esque clouds. If you want larger, Cumulus-style clouds, keep the variety lower and the Thickness high.
For a heavier cloud to represent storms, Thickness and Density need to be kept at a high value. The lower the Height is set, the more impending the storm will appear.
For a light, atmospheric cloud, Thickness should be kept at a low value. The Cirrus Amount field is usually complimentary to these types of clouds.
Materials
Thin Film is a new option in the Generic material method. Thin Film recreates the effect of thin film interference on a surface making the material iridescent. Some common uses are soap bubbles and reflective car paint layering.
Thin Film: Turns on/off the thin film effect.
Thickness Map: Specifies the thickness texture. The map blends between the Min and Max thickness values and is expected to be in the range of 0-1. If there is no texture map, only the minimum thickness value is used.
Thickness Min (nm): Determines the minimum thickness measured in nanometers.
Thickness Max (nm): Determines the maximum thickness measured in nanometers.
IOR: Specifies the index of refraction of the medium the thin film is made of.
New Gradient Texture
Gradient is a texture map that can easily create and edit gradients useful in many different situations.
Preset: Applies a gradient preset.
- Black/White: Transitions from Black to White
- Red/Green/Blue: Transitions from Red to Green to Blue
- Spectrum: Transitions from Red to Green to Blue
- Custom: When the Gradient control is manually changed (see below), the Custom preset is automatically selected.
Type: Controls the direction and shape of the gradient ramp. Changing the Type does not affect the color and position of the control points.
- V: A gradient changing along the V direction.
- U: A gradient changing along the U direction.
- Diagonal: A gradient with a diagonal transition.
- Radial: A gradient with a radial transition.
- Circular: A gradient with a circular transition.
- Box: A gradient with a box radial transition.
- UV: A gradient changing along both U and V directions.
- Four Corner: A gradient that transitions linearly between colors assigned to each corner.
- Tartan: Creates a gradient with a plaid pattern.
Interpolation: Changes the color interpolation method. Changing the option changes the color transition curve between the control points.
- None: Disables the transition.
- Linear: Values are linearly interpolated in RGB color space.
- Exponential Up: Values are exponentially interpolated from left to right, each color dominating the area between it and the next one.
- Exponential Down: Values are exponentially interpolated from right to left, each color dominating the area between it and the previous one.
- Smooth: Values are interpolated along a bell curve, each color dominating the region around it before blending to the next color
- Bump: Values are interpolated along a sin curve, based on luminosity values.
- Spike: Each color dominates only its immediate area, falling off shortly after.
- Color: The color of the currently selected control point.
- Position: The float position of the currently selected control point.
The Gradient control and can be used to customize the color and spacing of the control points of the gradient.
- Clicking in control makes it active and shows the Color for the control point in the box below. Click in the color box to change the color for the control point.
- The control can be moved side to side to adjust the range of the control point.
- + Adds a new control adjacent to the current control
- - Removes the current control.
Noise panel
Amount: Controls the strength of the noise texture distortion.
Frequency: Controls the noise frequency. Smaller values make the noise pattern appear bigger and vice versa.
New Temperature Texture
The Temperature texture is typically used in conjunction with specific light sources to emulate a specific value, like a Kelvin temperature. This is very useful for mapping the color of an Emissive material changing from a warm to cool value.
Mode: Specifies the mode in which the color is determined:
- RGB Color: The color is directly specified by the Color parameter.
- Temperature: The color temperature (in Kelvin) is specified by the Temperature parameter.
- Color: This color swatch can be used to visualize the resulting color. It can also be double-clicked to bring up the Color Picker.
Temperature (K): Specifies temperature in Kelvin degrees.
Color Multiplier: Specifies a multiplier for the color strength.
Color Gamma: Specifies a gamma correction applied during rendering. This does not affect the Color swatch.
Improved Dirt Texture
New Parameters added to the Dirt Texture:
Ignore bump: Excludes bump maps from VRayDirt computations. The option is useful, when the bump effect is too strong and may produce undesirable effects such as holes.
Thin mode: Enhances the look of thin surfaces by casting less dirt on them. It is available only for Inner occlusion mode.
Streaks density: Controls the density of the streaks
New V-Ray Geometry Assets Palette
The V-Ray Geometry Assets Palette (accessible from the form•Z Palettes menu) shows all of the V-Ray entities that affect geometry in the rendering and provides easy access to the settings for each. This includes Displacement, Clipper, Fur, New Enmesh and New V-Ray Scatter. The left side of the palette shows a list of the Geometry Assets and the right side shows the parameters for the selected asset.
The Displacement, Clipper, Fur, New Enmesh and New V-Ray Scatter Tools all now show the assets in the palette as soon as they are created. V-Ray Geometry Assets Palette is revealed and The new asset is added to the bottom of the list and its parameters are shown on the right side.
This palette offers an improved workflow for refining the parameters of Geometry Assets. With the V-Ray interactive mode you can see the effects of parameter changes immediately in the scene. If you just want to see the an individual asset in the rendering, use the Isolate feature (Edit menu) to focus on the asset.
V-Rays Tool Palette
There are two new tools in the V-Ray Tools palette.
New Enmesh tool
The V-Ray Enmesh tool 'coats' an object’s surface with a repeating pattern of a rendered geometry that follows the Texture space of that geometry. Rendered geometry is a great way to create effects that would be tedious to model. Enmesh objects are offer a way to create more realistic relief on surfaces or patterned architectural elements like fences, screen walls, window treatments etc…
V-Ray Enmesh is created with two types of objects: Base object and Reference object (Patterns), which are used to replace the Base object's surface.
The base object is selected first, followed by the reference object. The V-Ray Geometry Assets Palette is revealed, the new Enmesh is added to the bottom of the list and its parameters are shown on the right side of the palette.
Enabled: On by default. Use this to disable the Enmesh effect without loosing the parameters.
Spacing X: Determines the distance between the items along X axis measured in project units.
Spacing Y: Determines the distance between the items along Y axis measured in project units.
Spacing Z: Determines the distance between the items along Z axis measured in project units.
Tiling U: Determines how many times the element is repeated in U direction.
Tiling V: Determines how many times the element is repeated in V direction.
Height (%): Scales the height of the replicated element.
Height offset (%): Determines the elements' offset from the Base surface in relation to the element's height.
Offset U: Offsets the elements in the U direction.
Offset V: Offsets the elements in the V direction.
Random Offset U: Applies a random offset of the elements in the U direction.
Random Offset V: Applies a random offset of the elements in the V direction.
Rotation: Determines the rotation of the pattern elements.
Random Rotation: Rotates each element with a random angle ranging between 0 and the +/- Random Rotation value.
Use Rotation Step: When enabled, Random rotation is based on a 360/X where X is Steps count. For example, if Random rotation is set to 4, the pattern mesh is randomly rotated on a 90 degrees step (360/4) - 0, 90, 180, 270, 360 (0). If there is also a Rotation set, for example to 30 degrees, there is a 30 degrees offset - 30, 120, 210, 300, 390 (30).
Use Base material: When enabled the base mesh material and mapping (texture placement) overrides the UVs of the items. When disabled (default) the pattern item UVs are used instead.
New Scatter Tool
The V-Ray Scatter tool creates rendered instances of objects using the surfaces and edges of other objects or splines to generate points. Rendered instances is a great way to render repetitious content efficiently.
V-Ray Scatter is created with two types of objects: Base objects and guest objects to be scattered. The base objects are selected first, followed by the reference object(s). Use set picking to pick multiple base or guest objects (or groups/components). Once the objects are selected, the V-Ray Geometry Assets Palette is revealed and new Scatter asset is added to the list and its parameters are shown on the right side.
Parameters
Enabled: On by default. Use this to disable the Scatter effect without loosing the parameters.
Guest Origin: Determines how the objects are positioned relative to the random Scatter points.
- Bounding box bottom center: The bounding box bottom center of the object.
- Bounding box volume center: The bounding box volume center snaps to the instance.
- Object origin: The original object origin point snaps to the instance point.
Scattering Mode: Specifies the guest objects scattering mode.
- 1D - On Splines: Objects are scattered along splines. This is the default mode when a spline base object is selected. When a surface or solid is added to the guests' list, the items are scattered along all of its edges.
- 2D - On Surfaces: Objects are scattered on surfaces. It doesn't matter if the surface is horizontal, vertical, or if it is a complex 3D object
- 3D - In a Bounding Box: Objects are scattered inside the object's bounding box. Keep in mind that bounding boxes are cube-shaped. Using this mode on a round object, scatters instances in a cube around it.
Max Count (Limit): Limits the maximum number of instances.
Seed: Controls the random Scatter seed.
Avoid Collisions: When enabled, instances that would collide with each other get discarded.
Spline Scattering
This panel is only available when the scattering mode is set to 1D - On Splines.
Spline scattering is useful for creating rendering effects where a pattern is repeated along a spline like chains, cables or for arranging furniture in a pattern or event seating for example.
Spacing: Determines the spacing between instances in world units.
Jitter: Randomly jitters instances along the spline. Each instance has Spacing applied on both sides, except the instances at the end of the spline. The Jitter value is divided between those two Spacings. In order to allow instances to jitter in all their Spacing distance, the Jitter needs to be set to 2.
Offset: Determines what percentage of the Spacing instances are offset in one direction of the spline. When set to 1, all instances replace the one after them, as the offset is equal to the whole value of the Spacing.
Follow spline: Determines how scattered instances are oriented along the spline. Assigning a value of 1, makes instances follow the spline and are oriented along the local tangent direction.
Surface Scattering
This panel is only available when the scattering mode is set to 2D - On Surfaces.
Mode: Specifies the surface scattering mode.
- Random Distribution: Scatters instances randomly on all mesh objects.
- UV Grid: Scatters instances along a grid using the U/V texture space of the base object.
Random Distribution
This panel is only available when the surface scatter mode is set to Random Distribution.
Instances Count: Gives the total number of instances on all Host objects. Note that adding Area
Modifiers or defining Slope Limitation will decrease this number. If the Per Area option is enabled, the scattering is defined by the density.
Per Area: When enabled, the number of instances is determined by the count combined with the size of the host's surface. The value specifies the length of the distribution area's side/edge. If the Count value is set to 1, this number determines the relative density of the instances.
Density: Determines the approximate count of instances based on texture input. Black color in the texture discards all instances in the respective area. Areas colored with white receive the maximum number of instances.
Map Channel: Determines the UV channel.
Random Scattering default; Random Scattering - Per Area; Random Scattering - Density using Grid texture; Random scattering on a cube.
UV Grid
This panel is only available when the surface scatter mode is set to UV Grid.
Pattern: Determines a pattern to use for grid scattering.
Grid: Rectangular grid.
Running Grid: Rectangular grid with every other row offset by half of the grid spacing.
Hexagonal Grid: Arranges the instances into hexagons.
Map Channel: Determines the UV channel.
Spacing: Scales the pattern in UV space. When Spacing is set to 1, the pattern occupies the whole space. When Spacing is set to 0.5, the pattern is repeated twice.
Jitter: Determines what percentage of the instances are randomly placed. When Jitter is set to 0, all instances are placed according to the UVW mapping. When Jitter is set to 100, all instances are randomly placed.
Offset: Offsets the pattern by the given value (in percentages). Keep in mind that 0 and 1 Offset give the same result, as 1 moves the pattern by one whole repetition.
UV Grid Scattering U/V=1, offset =0; UV Grid Scattering - U/V=1, offset =0.5; UV Grid Scattering - U/V=0.25, offset =0; UV Grid Scattering on a cube U/V=0.25, offset =0.
Bounding Box Scattering
This panel is only available when the scattering mode is set to 3D - In a Bounding Box.
Instances Count: Gives the total number of instances on all Host objects. Note that adding Area Modifiers or defining Slope Limitation will decrease this number. If the Per Cubic Volume option is enabled, the scattering is defined by the density.
Per Cubic Volume: When enabled, the number of instances is determined by the count combined with the size of the host's bounding box volume. The value specifies the length of the distribution cube's side/edge. If the Count value is set to 1, this number determines the relative density of the instances.
Guest Objects
This lists all of the guest objects in the scatter. Probability increases (higher probability) or reduces (lower probability) the selected guest objects chances of being scattered.
+ : Adds objects or groups from the model to the guest list. Use the pick tool to select the desired objects and the press the + key.
- : Removes an object from the guest list.
Transforms
Random Translation
Moves the instances in a range From the given distance To the given distance on the corresponding axis.
Step Size: Specifies the random step size.
Random Rotation
Rotates the instances in a range From the given degrees up To the given degrees continuously. Step Size: Specifies the random step size.
Normal Alignment: When a value, different than 0 is entered, the instances are aligned according to the world up axis. This is useful when the host object is curved and the scattered objects need to remain vertical, not follow the curve of the surface. Positive values mean that the instances are aligned to the +Z axis (vertical up) and negative values mean that the instances are aligned to the -Z axis (vertical down).
Preserve Rotation: Preserves the original rotation of the objects.
Random Scale
Scales the instances in a range From the given value To the given value continuously. When Uniform scale is enabled (below), the X axis values are applied on the whole Distribute-on target object.
Step Size: Specifies the random step size.
Uniform Scaling: When enabled the X-axis values are also used for the Y and Z axes.
Preserve Scaling: Preserves the original scaling of the objects.