In its latest update to the V-Ray family, Chaos Group has released V-Ray 7 for 3ds Max. This release amps up the feature set with flexible material management, GPU-enhanced rendering power, and refined ray tracing capabilities.

V-Ray 7 introduces a new material override function, allowing users to apply a substitute material across entire scenes without disrupting existing lighting, reflections, or other render-critical elements. This feature simplifies testing and material revisions, making it ideal for artists fine-tuning a scene or switching out assets in time-sensitive environments *cough* “Client is panicking”. Optimized for GPU use, the material override provides the control artists need to make iterative adjustments without losing the context of complex setups.

V-Ray 7 for 3ds Max further enhances the V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB), making it a more versatile hub for rendering and post-processing adjustments. With the expansion, users can define custom-shaped render regions, allowing for selective rendering of specific areas within a frame—ideal for focusing on key details without re-rendering the entire image – let’s call it a pixelfucking-protection. A new vignette layer effect, customizable by shape, lets artists easily add stylized camera effects to their renders. Additionally, new colour-correction presets in the VFB offer quick ways to experiment with various looks, streamlining the design refinement process.

The update also introduces powerful tools for instance management via the Chaos Scatter aids. The new Instance Brush allows for precise control when populating scenes with instances, enabling users to add detail or remove elements with ease. Complementing this, the new distribution maps library provides different density options, helping designers craft realistic scatter distributions. For complex, instance-heavy scenes, Chaos Scatter now benefits from procedural management in V-Ray 7 Standalone, significantly reducing export times during network rendering or submissions to Chaos Cloud.

GPU-Accelerated Rendering for Fast Turnarounds

V-Ray 7 for 3ds Max introduces several optimizations that significantly reduce rendering wait times and improve interactivity. The Faster Time to First Pixel feature brings new efficiencies to scatter rendering, texture-heavy scenes, data uploads, and geometry compilations, resulting in quicker production and interactive rendering experiences. Additionally, Caustics Support on V-Ray GPU now allows for realistic reflections and refractions with caustics based on photon mapping, optimized to leverage GPU hardware for faster results than CPU-based caustics. Out-of-Core Textures further improve performance in texture-heavy scenes, enabling artists to add complex details without sacrificing shading quality.

In other updates, V-Ray 7 offers Selective V-Ray Scene Conversion, letting users convert specific objects, update materials with a new Material Process, and convert textures to .TX files—all of which enhance performance and streamline scene management. The release also expands USD Support to the latest version, USD for Autodesk 3ds Max 0.9.0, enabling access to new features and improvements. Finally, OpenPBR Support now available in V-Ray 7 ensures consistent shading across applications, integrating a new shading model aligned with OpenPBR standards in 3ds Max 2025.3. This update reduces the need for manual adjustments when switching between compatible software, boosting overall production efficiency.

Procedural Clouds and Sky Model: Realism in Real-Time

V-Ray 7 expands its environmental realism with a new procedural cloud system integrated into the Sky model. This feature lets artists generate realistic, customizable cloud formations that adapt dynamically to changes in lighting and time-of-day settings, creating immersive atmospheres with minimal setup. For productions dealing with multiple lighting conditions, the procedural clouds offer flexibility without the need for heavy manual adjustments, cutting down on setup time while improving realism in rendered results.

Unified Chaos Cosmos Integration: Streamlining Asset Management

V-Ray 7’s Chaos Cosmos sees significant upgrades, adding efficiency and realism to asset management and lighting. A new addition, V-Ray Luminaires, brings speed to lighting fixtures in Chaos Cosmos, with each light fixture properly illuminating itself and distributing light realistically within scenes. This luminaire integration streamlines scene population with realistic lighting, reducing setup time and improving render speeds. Additionally, Asset Variants Support offers seasonal asset options, such as summer and autumn versions of vegetation models, allowing users to select and customize variants before or after import. These updates give artists greater flexibility and control over lighting and assets, making it easier to achieve varied, realistic environments in a fraction of the time.

License Options and Pricing

For VFX studios, Chaos Group offers flexible licensing options, including monthly, annual, and perpetual licenses. V-Ray 7 for 3ds Max is priced at $1,180 for a perpetual license, with other subscription options available on the Chaos Group website. Studios and freelancers alike should assess the best fit based on their project demands and budgets. For a Solo-Seat-version, it is about 450€ a year. And, of course, there is a 30 Day free trial if you never played with Vray – – including Vray for 3ds Max, Maya, SketchUp, Rhino, Revit, Cinema 4D, Unreal, Houdini, Nuke, as well as Phoenix Simulation, Chos Scans and Cosmos, and the Chaos Player.

Chaos has introduced the first beta of V-Ray 7 for 3ds Max, bringing several significant enhancements to its widely-used rendering engine. Building on the strengths of previous versions, V-Ray 7 focuses on improving material creation, lighting, and rendering performance, alongside new tools for creating procedural skies.

If you want to use Vray in Blender – the signup for the Beta-Version has started! Go to www.chaos.com/vray/blender to take part!

A key feature of this release is the Procedural Clouds system, which allows artists to generate dynamic, realistic clouds that are fully adjustable. This addition makes it easier to create varied, lifelike skies for outdoor scenes, avoiding the need for external image maps or additional compositing. The system integrates seamlessly with the V-Ray Sun and Sky model, offering fine control over cloud types, density, and lighting response.

Another important addition is the Custom Material Layer System. This new tool gives artists greater flexibility when building complex materials, making it simpler to manage shaders with layered controls. This approach streamlines the shader creation process, especially for users working with complex surface properties, reducing the time spent fine-tuning material setups.

V-Ray Decal gets an upgrade in version 7, now allowing decals to use displacement. This improvement means that details like cracks, stickers, or surface imperfections can be added without extra modeling, using displacement for added depth and realism. This feature is particularly useful for adding details to hard surfaces or enhancing textures without altering base geometry.

For lighting, Light Cache 2.0 continues to improve global illumination calculations, offering faster pre-pass calculations and better memory management. This results in quicker render times and improved lighting precision in complex scenes. Artists benefit from faster feedback during look development, particularly when working with large environments or high-detail scenes.

V-Ray Compositor remains an integral part of the toolset, enabling users to adjust lighting and effects directly within the rendering engine. The beta version enhances this feature, allowing for a more streamlined post-production process by reducing the need for external compositing software.

Chaos also introduces Extended Material Override functionality, offering more refined control over which elements of a scene are affected by material overrides. This gives users the ability to exclude certain materials from being overridden, providing more nuanced adjustments during look development.

For those interested in testing these new features, Chaos provides access to full documentation here and encourages artists to submit feedback during the beta phase. The Chaos website offers details on how to download the beta and get started.

The V-Ray 7 beta is available at no additional cost to licensed users of V-Ray 6 for 3ds Max, as well as those subscribed to the V-Ray Collection. For new users, a trial version is also offered. Pricing for V-Ray starts at $690 for a single node-locked license, with subscription options available. Discounts apply for multi-seat purchases, and a pay-as-you-go option is provided for studios needing flexibility.

As always, it is advised that artists test new beta features in non-critical environments to ensure stability and compatibility with current projects.

Conclusion:
The V-Ray 7 beta for 3ds Max brings several powerful new features, including procedural clouds, enhanced decals, and faster GPU rendering. While the improvements promise significant workflow benefits, artists should carefully evaluate the software in their pipelines before full deployment.