V-Ray 7 for SketchUp brings many exciting features and tools designed to improve efficiency, expand creative possibilities, and enhance presentation capabilities. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned visualiser, this release offers innovative solutions to help you work smarter and produce stunning results. Let’s take a closer look at what’s on offer.
What is V-Ray?
V-Ray is a professional rendering tool architects, designers, and artists use to create high-quality images and animations. Developed by Chaos, it integrates seamlessly with popular design software like SketchUp, providing users with advanced lighting, shading, and rendering capabilities. Known for its precision and flexibility, V-Ray allows creators to bring their concepts to life with realistic detail and visual impact.
What is SketchUp?
SketchUp is a widely used 3D modelling software that caters to professionals and hobbyists alike, offering an intuitive interface and powerful tools for creating architectural designs, interior layouts, and complex visualisations. Its accessibility and versatility make it a popular choice across industries. For those seeking enhanced rendering capabilities, SketchUp Studio includes V-Ray, a leading rendering engine, enabling users to produce photorealistic images and animations directly within their SketchUp workflow. Together, they provide a complete solution for both design and visualisation.
What’s New In V-Ray 7 for SketchUp?
New Gaussian Splatting Technology
V-Ray is the first ray tracer on the market to leverage the new Gaussian Splats technology, enabling users to easily incorporate and render captures of complex 3D environments and objects. Because of its newness V-ray wants to empower users with these tools and see how users interact with it and build their models. So they are actively looking for feedback on how to develop these tools in future updates.
Material Override and Presets
Speed up your design process using material override features combined with stylised rendering presets. These tools support quick iterations, helping you effortlessly develop schematic or diagrammatic render styles.
Scatter Edge Trimming
Gain greater control over object placement with the scatter edge trimming feature. This feature enables precise edge trimming for scattered objects, streamlining their integration into your designs.
Interactive Virtual Tours
Transform the way you present designs with interactive virtual tours. These tours allow clients to explore your spaces while focusing on key elements using highlights. Hosted on Chaos Cloud, this feature ensures easy access directly from the V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB), making client collaboration seamless and engaging.
Colour Correction Filters
Using built-in colour correction filters, experiment with colour and tone directly within the VFB. Customise presets to suit your creative direction and achieve consistent visual results.
Freeform Render Region
With the freeform render region tool, you can refine specific parts of your image. You can also define custom polygon shapes to re-render targeted areas and focus on fine details.
Vignette Layer
Use the Vignette Layer in the VFB to add subtle emphasis or a retro aesthetic to your renders. Customise its shape and apply it across render elements to achieve the desired look.
Light Mix for Emissive Materials
Control lighting more precisely with support for all emissive materials. Adjust intensity and colour independently to create fully customised renders.
Faster GPU and Caustics Rendering
With optimised GPU rendering and support for caustics, V-Ray 7 delivers quicker rendering times while maintaining high visual quality. This enables realistic reflections and refractions for detailed scenes.
Layered Textures
Create intricate textures using a new layering system reminiscent of Photoshop. Adjust opacity, blending modes, and layer order for unparalleled control.
Gradient Texture Remapping
Enjoy better texture manipulation with gradient remapping. This feature is ideal for projects requiring precise colour distribution, such as pattern design or brick randomisation.
Improved Viewport Rendering
SketchUp’s updated Viewport Rendering (VPR) delivers faster and smoother performance in SketchUp 2024. This rework ensures greater efficiency and a more responsive rendering experience.
Realistic Sun & Sky Updates
The updated PRG Sky model offers richly saturated blue skies and lifelike sunsets. With the ability to render skies at different altitudes, you can now simulate environments at elevations spanning several kilometres.
Expanded Chaos Cosmos Library
The Cosmos library now offers over 400 new assets, including vegetation, fabrics, people, and furniture. With predefined variants and the ability to replace object materials without losing asset connections, finding the right props for your project has always been challenging.
Conclusion
V-Ray 7 for SketchUp is packed with tools and updates designed to help you work more efficiently, present designs effectively, and achieve outstanding results. Explore these features to elevate your creative workflow and deliver compelling visuals for any project.
Already have V-Ray as a standalone or part of SketchUp Studio? Simply update your software to access V-Ray 7.
If you already have SketchUp Pro, then you can upgrade to Studio by contacting our team. If you are looking to get started with SketchUp and V-Ray, then buy SketchUp Studio.