Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 1, 2015. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
What is special about the new plug-ins is that they are obtained directly from Nvidia—so anyone with Nvidia cards can use PBR—the plug-ins for 3ds Max are available in the Nvidia Store as of today, while the Maya variants will follow in mid-December. The cost is 295 dollars per year, both for the node-locked version and as a floating license. With these plug-ins, users can connect to Iray Server, which enters open beta today.
New materials are also being added, which are intended to deliver good results quickly under the name “vMaterials.” One of Iray’s strengths is its preview, which also enables accurate previews during the design process and thus avoids lengthy iterations. There are 90-day trial versions for the Iray plug-ins. More about Iray (for Maya) via the iray plug-in (not a typo) in the attached free PDF.
Project Soane
For anyone who wants to apply it right away: a competition has been announced in which you can download the Revit models of John Soane’s architectural masterpiece, the “Bank of England”—and then render them beautifully. Whoever manages to depict the worsened-improved building (renovation around 1920—from magnificent architecture to a gray block) best can win a fully equipped HP Z840 with a Quadro M6000—more information and participation at Project Soane.
