For those who don’t know the tool: Phoenix plugs into Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya for fire, smoke, and liquids, and it also ships inside V-Ray and Corona subscription bundles.

End of support, officially

Chaos has moved Phoenix to End-of-Support status. The software will continue to function as it does today, but no further feature development, compatibility updates, bug fixes, or security updates are planned. New standalone Phoenix subscriptions are no longer available for purchase. Phoenix simulation nodes are not affected by the change. Users can continue using existing nodes or purchase additional ones as needed.

Existing subscriptions: renewal rules

Existing Phoenix licenses continue to function normally, and users can keep using Phoenix as long as they continue renewing their subcsription. Renewals are processed at the applicable list price at the time of renewal, regardless of any discounts applied to the original purchase. If the subscription expires at any point, it cannot be reactivated again.

Seats: a time-limited window

Users can add seats to an existing Phoenix subscription during a 42-day grace period from the date of communication, until 14 May 2026. After that period, no additional seats can be added.

Bundles: still included, still end of support

Phoenix will remain available within the V-Ray Premium, V-Ray Collection, Corona Premium, and Corona Collection subscriptions, in the same End-of-Support state.

Switching options and pricing note

A support option exists to transition from Phoenix to V-Ray Premium or Corona Premium via MyChaos or a reseller.

The post Phoenix moves to end of support first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: V-Ray runs inside SketchUp, Rhino, and 3ds Max. Update 3 pulls real-time from Vantage, feeds assets from Cosmos, and pushes approvals through Cloud, with traffic extras via Anima.

Real time, now without the app hopping

Chaos released V-Ray 7 Update 3 for SketchUp, Rhino, and 3ds Max. Update 3 adds real-time rendering directly in the V-Ray viewport through a Vantage Viewport Live Link workflow. The goal sits squarely on convenience: keep modeling, keep assigning materials, keep nudging lights, and see the result update instantly.

The live viewport workflow supports continuous scene edits. Walls, columns, material tweaks, and object selections update in real time. Assets dropped in from Cosmos appear immediately as high-quality models, including people, vegetation, and props.

Lighting edits also happen inside the viewport workflow. Cosmos light fixtures with built-in light sources work in this mode, and V-Ray lights can be placed and adjusted interactively, including intensity adjustments while the real-time view stays active.

The real-time viewport mode supports large scenes. Vantage can handle millions of polygons with no noticeable lag in the described workflow, and it uses full ray tracing, without rasterization or approximation in that workflow description.

The real-time viewport workflow includes camera and look controls for composition and presentation. It supports adjusting the sun and adding effects including lens flares, photometrics, fog, and depth of field, while staying inside the host application viewport.

Parallax interiors go native, and finally leave OSL behind

Parallax interiors in Update 3 target a familiar archviz cheat: add convincing depth behind windows without modeling full rooms. Update 3 adds a native parallax texture map that works across integrations and also works in Vantage. This matters for integrations that do not expose Open Shading Language, where older OSL-based approaches were less usable.

Cosmos includes parallax interior shaders designed for drag-and-drop use behind windows. The shaders maintain depth and perspective from any camera angle and support variation controls to avoid obvious repetition across facades.

Quick caustics and Gaussian splats get more practical

Quick Caustics in Update 3 bring sunlight caustics through water, a common request for pools, lakes, and other outdoor scenes. V-Ray includes a general caustics engine, and the update adds a specific option intended to quickly approximate caustics caused by sunlight going through water surfaces. The workflow is enabling Quick Caustics in the material and lighting with V-Ray Sun so caustics appear immediately.

The current Quick Caustics behavior works best with displaced surfaces. It works with the built-in V-Ray water texture in SketchUp and Rhino, and it also supports other displacement textures. A depth parameter controls how far the caustics effect reaches. Reflective caustics can be enabled for shimmering patterns, and the caustics render element can be isolated for easier adjustment after the render.

Gaussian Splats Relighting allows Gaussian splats to receive illumination from scene lights so they blend more naturally with the rest of the scene. A dedicated parameter controls how the lighting blend behaves, and V-Ray lights can be used with their full parameters in this workflow.

Node materials arrive, scatter gets a brush, decals get distributed

Update 3 adds a node-based material editor for V-Ray for SketchUp and V-Ray for Rhino in preview. The node editor supports creating, picking, and editing materials and textures in a visual graph. Cosmos assets can be dragged directly into the graph. Texture nodes can be added and combined, maps can be mixed, and materials can be combined visually. Material types including blend, two-sided, overrdie, and wrapper appear as nodes.

V-Ray 7.3 also adds a scatter brush workflow in V-Ray for SketchUp and V-Ray for Rhino. Objects can be scattered using a paintbrush approach for precise distribution of plants and similar objects. The workflow supports building a base layer and painting additional clusters, following predefined lines from plans or painting freely. Density can be adjusted via brush radius, and unwanted areas can be painted out. The workflow also supports shaping vegetation placement to match camera angles for composition.

AI Mood Match and AI Enhancer focus on faster look decisions

AI Mood Match expands the Light Gen workflow for V-Ray for SketchUp and V-Ray for Rhino. It adjusts environment lighting to match a visual reference instead of trial-and-error tweaks. The workflow describes uploading a reference image, generating multiple lighting scenarios, browsing results, choosing one, and applying it with a click, then refining lighting further as needed.

AI Enhancer adds improved accuracy and object-level control. The described workflow includes detecting characters, vegetation, and large surfaces after upload, then enhancing selected elements without affecting the rest of the image.

For people, the controls include parameters such as age, gender, ethnicity, hair color, and facial expression, with results applied as an enhancement. A creativity mode adds refinement while preserving the original look. Multiple selections can be enhanced at once, enhanced objects appear in an object enhancement list, and results can be saved as a new version.

Large Surface Coverage targets fast breakup of flat or repetitive surfaces. Controls include creativity to add intrical detail and an age option intended to introduce natural weathering, including stains, micro-cracks, and subtle color variation.

AI Materials now support 4K generation and higher-resolution maps. The described workflow includes a redesigned interface and an interactive 3D preview that can switch between sphere, box, and cylinder models, plus lighting direction adjustments and normal and roughness tweaks with instant updates.

Frame Buffer tweaks and per-camera controls in 3ds Max

V-Ray for 3ds Max adds Physical Camera tools intended to make scene variations and view management easier. Objects can be excluded from visibility per camera without affecting the rest of the scene. Focus can be set to object mode by picking an object to remain in focus, keeping it sharp regardless of camera target position, which changes depth of field control behavior.

Update 3 also improves the V-Ray Frame Buffer. A new histogram widget provides insight into color distribution and exposure. Background and foreground folders support reference images, watermarks, and backgrounds. Scaling and positioning tools improve alignment, and effects apply consistently to added elements in this workflow description.

Cloud reviews, video notes, and 3D streaming annotation

Cloud Reviews adds a review hub for sharing work with teams and clients. Reviews can be started from the render engine or created in a review tab workflow. Renders can be uploaded and stakeholders invited. Stakeholders can explore images or 360-degree experiences and leave comments directly on elements that need adjustment. Project status can be updated, new versions uploaded, and an approvers list used to finalize the design.

Video collaboration adds timeline-based commenting. Comments can be pinned to an exact second or a time span, and comments can be repositioned. Annotation tools include markers such as drawing, line, and rectangle tools for pointing out specific areas. Comments can fade out automatically after their time span for a cleaner preview.

3D streaming in the same ecosystem allows real-time navigation once a scene is uploaded. The workflow includes switching cameras and adjusting lighting dynamically, sharing a 3D stream for interactive exploration, and adding annotations. Comments save automatically, and annotations can include attached images or links for context. If your review chain includes external stakeholders, run a dry test early to catch permission and browser issues before a deadline catches you. Or you have an audience, when you try to remember your password.

Have a look at the tools here: Chaos Cloud Reviews documentation
https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VCLOUD/521797640/Reviews

Anima 6: parking lots and smarter vehicle lighting

Anima 6 adds tools aimed at faster traffic population and more believable vehicle behavior. A parking lot feature lets users define parking zones and fill them with vehicles. Zones can be resized, orientations adjusted, density changed, vehicles added or removed, and layouts regenerated.

Anima 6 also adds automatic vehicle lighting for traffic simulation. Brake lights activate when stopping and turn signals engage when changing direction. A road staying tendency parameter controls whether vehicles continue straight or take available turns. If you want to show somebody how they should be driving their bloody SUVs, Anima will help make it look like it should, not like the BMW drivers do mostly behave.

Cosmos sets and new assets

Cosmos adds Sets, described as curated groups of assets that can be placed as a set and then rearranged or duplicated as needed.

Update 3 adds over 700 new assets, including 400 high-detailed plant models from Globe Plants, plus additional branded models. Cosmos also includes new models from Evermotion, new people assets, and additional scatter presets and scan material range in the described workflow.

Pricing and availability

Update 3 releases first for V-Ray for SketchUp and V-Ray for Rhino. Real-time rendering in the V-Ray viewport requires an active Vantage license or an active V-Ray Collection license.

New features can shift habits fast. Test Update 3 on real scenes, real assets, and your actual hardware before it enters a production .

https://www.chaos.com/vray

The post Chaos V-Ray 7 Update 3 goes real time first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Chaos has launched V-Ray for Blender Community Edition, a free version of its Blender renderer aimed at students, educators, hobbyists, content creators and freelancers working on smaller-scale projects. The release is live now through Chaos’ official product page and gives Blender users direct access to the same broader V-Ray for Blender ecosystem, just with a deliberate set of caps for production use.

Free, but not magically unrestricted

The relevant detail is that this is not just a short-lived trial in a different hat. Chaos says the Community Edition license runs for 90 days and can be renewed an unlimited number of times by completing a short survey. That makes it a recurring free-license model rather than the usual evaluation copy that disappears the moment a user starts relying on it,.

Chaos positions the edition for learning, teaching, content creation, portfolio building, personal projects and smaller freelance tasks. According to the launch announcement, Chaos is also allowing certain freelance commercial uses, including initial test renders and client concept presentations. That pushes it beyond pure classroom bait and into actual early-stage professional use.

What Blender users get

On the feature side, the Community Edition includes the core V-Ray rendering functionality and access to Chaos Cosmos, a library of more than 14,000 assets, giving Blender users a proper starting point for look development, scene building and rendering without immediately having to assemble half the universe by hand.

Chaos is pitching this as a real on-ramp into the V-Ray workflow inside Blender, not a separate side project with the interesting parts removed. The main V-Ray for Blender product pages also link to recent additions, such as V-Ray Decal, V-Ray Displacement Material, and V-Ray Toon Material, on the What’s New page. So the Community Edition sits on top of a renderer Chaos is actively expanding, even if the free tier does not get every part of that stack.

Where the free version stops

The limitations are clear enough: Output is capped at 2K square, meaning 2560 by 2560 pixels. Image output is limited to 8-bit. Users do not get official Chaos support, cloud collaboration or AI-powered tools. That means the free version is useful, but it is not pretending to be a full production license.

Chaos also makes clear that the commercial plans remain the option for larger-scale work, team collaboration and broader pipeline integration. In other words, the free edition is best understood as a serious learning and portfolio tool, plus a workable option for smaller freelance concept jobs, not a replacement for a studio seat.

A more serious Blender push

The release also matters because it shows Chaos treating Blender less like a side experiment and more like a real platform. The main V-Ray for Blender page now gives the Community Edition a prominent place alongside the paid version and current updates, while also connecting users to Chaos’ wider ecosystem.

For artists already working in Blender, the move lowers the barrier to learning V-Ray inside a familiar DCC. For educators, it reduces procurement friction. For freelancers and students, it offers a route into V-Ray without immediate subscription pressure. For Chaos, it is also a neat way to get more Blender users comfortable with the renderer before they eventually need the paid version. Strange coincidence.

The post Chaos launches free V-Ray for Blender Community Edition first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the thing: OpenPGL plugs into path tracing renderers to guide sampling. It already shows up in Blender via Cycles, and now lives under Academy Software Foundation governance for broader adoption.

A new home for guided rays

OpenPGL just became a hosted project under the Academy Software Foundation. It enters at the sandbox stage, which is the earliest entry point for young projects and comes with a stated goal of graduating to incubation within one year.

The project targets a specific kind of pain that every lighting TD knows by feel: path traced frames that need more samples because the sampler keeps spending effort in the wrong places. OpenPGL focuses on path guiding, an importance sampling strategy that uses additional information about a scene’s light distribution to make better sampling decisions. The result is higher rendering efficiency because the renderer spends more samples where they matter.

Path guiding has a deep academic history, but production teams rarely get value from a PDF alone. Integrating path guiding research into a production renderer can be tedious, and the implementation details often become a long-term maintenance tax. OpenPGL positions itself as a production-ready open source library aimed at lowering that cost by offering well-tested, robust implementations of state-of-the-art path guiding methods.

What OpenPGL actually does in a renderer

OpenPGL learns a representation of a guiding field during rendering and updates it on a per-frame basis using radiance and importance samples generated during rendering. During path generation, the renderer can query the guiding field at vertices along a path to get a local distribution that can guide sampling decisions, including which directions to pick next.

The practical promise is simple: better sampling quality, less noise, and more efficient renders for the same sample budget. The project also carries an explicit caution flag: its current versions are still pre v1.0, the API is still in flux, and it should be used with caution in production related environments. That is a polite way of saying the interface may change under you, so build your integration like you expect to revisit it. A lot. any times. Remember what you did for USD.

There is also a performance angle baked into the design. The implementation is optimized for recent Intel processors with SIMD instruction support listed as SSE, AVX, AVX2, and AVX-512. OpenPGL also states support for Linux, Windows, and macOS.

If you are the sort of person who reads build flags for fun, OpenPGL includes a CMake superbuild option that pulls dependencies and builds a full install directory. It can also build extra tools named openpgl_bench and openpgl_debug when enabled.

Who is already using it

OpenPGL is not arriving as an untested science project or white paper. It is already integrated into several big-name production renderers, including Blender’s Cycles, Chaos V-Ray, SideFX Karma, and Disney Animation Hyperion.

Disney Animation describes OpenPGL as an important building block in the second generation path guiding system of its Hyperion renderer, calling out a simple API and faster iteration on production challenges. The statement also says the studio used a new path guiding system using OpenPGL in the production of Zootopia 2, including shots with difficult lighting setups and complex volumetrics.

Illumination Studio Paris is using OpenPGL to bring advanced path guiding techniques into its production renderer in a robust and practical way, citing more efficient handling of complex lighting, reduced need for labor-intensive hacks, and more freedom for natural lighting setups. The statement also says OpenPGL proved especially valuable on its latest production, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, for tackling challenging lighting scenarios.

Chaos describes performance gains in production scenes with complex lighting and calls the integration into V-Ray relatively straightforward. But V-Ray always has all the tools in it.

Governance, now with more grown-up shoes

As a sandbox project, OpenPGL is set up for open community participation under the foundation’s hosted-project framework. Separately, the Technical Advisory Council meeting notes for the project proposal capture additional context around the move, including that the proposal presentation was delivered by Sebastian Herholz, listed there as ex-Intel and soon Blender, and that the sponsor is Kimball Thurston at Weta.

The same meeting notes also include examples discussed in the proposal materials, such as comparisons showing less noisy results with path guiding enabled at the same samples per pixel, and an example that describes a V-Ray timing comparison of 50 minutes with path guiding off versus 34 minutes with path guiding on. Those examples are presented as part of the proposal materials, not as independently reproduced benchmarks here, so treat them as directional evidence rather than a guarantee.

Licensing, access, and the practical reality check

OpenPGL is released under the permissive Apache Software Foundation Apache 2.0 license. The code is available on GitHub, and the repository labels the current release as v0.7.1. The project is distributed as open source software under its stated license.

If you are considering bringing it into a pipeline, the most important detail is not the headline. It is the warning label: pre v1.0 and API changes are on the table. Plan for integration work, version pinning, and regression testing across scenes that stress your sampler. So, don’t put it into a production pipeline, and if you are writing your own render engine, please, be careful.

https://www.awn.com/news/academy-software-foundation-adds-openpgl-new-hosted-project

https://github.com/openpathguidinglibrary/openpgl

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/technical/open-path-guided-rendering-made-easier.html



https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/videos/path-guiding-with-blender-and-intel-open-pgl.html

The post OpenPGL joins ASWF first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: glTF sits between DCC export and runtime playback, and these web tools help you sanity check assets and rendering across engines before shots get spicy.

Two sites, one mission: fewer surprises

The glTF Sample Assets site and the glTF Render Fidelity Comparison site just got meaningful upgrades. They target the same everyday pain: you export a model, it looks right in one viewer, and then it looks slightly off somewhere else where it matters. The refreshed Sample Assets experience focuses on browsing, filtering, and sharing reference models that exercise specific features of glTF. The updated Render Fidelity Comparison experience focuses on visual baselines, with side-by-side checks that make renderer differences harder to hand wave and easier to track down. If you build tools, ship engines, validate exporters, or wrangle assets for realtime and VFX, these sites are designed to be the boring, reliable kind of helpful.

Sample Assets gets a real front door

The new landing experience for glTF Sample Assets presents the repository as a proper website. The intent is simple: make it easier to browse and find models by what they demonstrate. Models appear with thumbnails, and animated assets include a small animation preview. The site supports light and dark themes and aims for fast loading and fluid navigation. Filtering and search are first class, with tags that map to features, functionality, and extension coverage.

When you open a model, you land on a dedicated model page with an interactive preview, metadata, and download links. The preview uses the glTF Sample Renderer, which is built on WebGL and targets correct support for official KHR extensions. A context menu in the preview provides presentation options that include debug visualization modes for material properties, variant selection when multiple variants exist, and wireframe presentation when the WEBGL polygon mode extension is available.

The model page also links out to external tools and shows a recommendation style list of related assets, which is a surprisingly effective way to bounce between test cases when you are chasing a specific shading edge case across multiple files.

One practical detail matters here: each model includes a screenshot, description, license information, and a live preview. That combination turns the site into a quick reference shelf rather than a scavenger hunt through folders.

Render Fidelity Comparison leans into side by side truth

The redesigned glTF Render Fidelity Comparison site takes the same library mindset and aims it at output consistency. It frames the core goal as convergence around physically based rendering materials so you can expect a model to appear as intended across renderers and lighting environments. It also notes that this is ambitious, with realtime rendering quality still changing rapidly. *cough* understatement *cough*

The workflow is built for quick comparisons. You choose a model, filter by tags or search, then pick two renders and select a view mode. The comparison modes include side by side viewing, a slider view, and a difference view that shows computed differences.

The site spans popular realtime web renderers and also includes path tracers. In practice, that means you can jump between quick interactive engines like babylon.js and three.js, then also look at path traced production renderings from Blender using Cycles and from V-Ray. It is not about crowning a winner. It is about seeing where two implementations diverge so you can reproduce, triage, and fix.

Comparison images are generated offline and submitted via pull requests to the site repository, which keeps the content auditable and repeatable. That approach also makes it easier for teams to add coverage for their own renderer outputs without inventing a new pipeline.

The biggest new trick is an experimental 3D comparison mode that enables full interactivity comparison of two realtime renderers side by side. It currently supports three.js, babylon.js, model-viewer, and three js path tracer tooling. If you have ever tried to discuss a subtle lighting mismatch over screenshots, you know why interactive side by side matters. In one sentence, the updated site encourages you to comapre outputs with fewer assumptions and more pixels on screen.

https://github.khronos.org/glTF-Render-Fidelity/model/AttenuationTest

Contributing is part of the design

Both sites are open to contributions. For sample assets, new models can be proposed via pull requests to the repository. For render fidelity, you can submit renderer outputs by following the repository guidelines for generating renders of a sample asset and placing the results in the appropriate location for comparison.

There is also a straightforward feedback loop via issues in the repositories, which keeps bug reports and feature requests attached to something actionable. This is the one place where it is worth naming the organizer exactly once: Khronos is clearly aiming to make the glTF developer ecosystem easier to navigate, easier to test, and harder to break quietly.

https://github.khronos.org/glTF-Assets/

https://github.khronos.org/glTF-Render-Fidelity/

The post glTF sample assets and fidelity site refresh first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.