Chaos Group

Chaos Group announces the launch of V-Ray RT for Maya Beta Program

The product is ready for download and testing by all current V-Ray for Maya users

Sofia, August 25, 2010 – Chaos Group announced the release of V-Ray RT for Autodesk Maya Beta Program, one of the few new products planned to be introduced to the market in 2010.

V-Ray RT for Autodesk Maya is a powerful and flexible software solution that allows immediate communication between the user and the virtual environment. It applies the changes on the scene automatically and progressively, generating a photorealistic preview of the scene. It improves and fasten the artist’s work and significantly shorten the lighting and shading set up of a project.

"A highly sophisticated rendering technology like V-Ray RT for Autodesk Maya is designed to meet the needs of 3D artists who are constantly looking for ways to improve their workflow", said Vladimir Koylazov, Chaos Group Chief Technical Officer and core developer of V-Ray. "The CG industry is very active and it demands continuous improvements. V-Ray RT for Autodesk Maya is one of those things that change the perceptions of the artists and helps them to produce unique content very effectively."

A Beta version of V-Ray RT for Maya is now available for download by all current V-Ray for Maya users, registered in the Chaos Group website, which are keen to test it and experience the new features and possibilities. The beta testers are able to become a part of the program to share opinions at the V-Ray for Maya forum on the Chaos Group website. They can submit bugs, requests for new features and share works with the Chaos Group team and other professionals. Users can also contact directly the developers of the product to contribute to the further development of the product. All requests can be addressed to vraymaya@chaosgroup.com.

Some of the key features of the V-Ray RT for Maya are flexible architecture, distributed rendering, complete integration with Autodesk Maya, accurate specular reflections, animation preview, progressive path tracing and many others. V-Ray RT for Autodesk Maya works with a number of operating systems like Microsoft® Windows Vista® and Professional, Linux and Mac.

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Press Release V-Ray RT for Maya Beta

Chaos Group announces the official release of Phoenix Fluid Dynamics

The grid based simulator for fire, smoke and haze is already on the market

Sofia, August 17, 2010. The latest product developed by Chaos Group – the fluid dynamics plug-in for 3ds Max Phoenix FD is officially released and available since the beginning of August 2010. 

Phoenix FD is in a promotional period until 10th of September with a promotion price of €350/$445/£295. The official product price is €695/$895/£575. Phoenix FD allows fluids simulation, stored in a finely subdivided 3D box, or grid, where each cell contains the fluid's properties at that location. These properties include temperature, mass and velocity. During the simulation Phoenix FD transfers cell contents from cell to cell according to velocity over time, and also changes the properties in the cells according to physical rules. The resulting simulation is then used for rendering. The software perfectly combines a grid based simulator with outstanding rendering capabilities. In addition to the usual uniform fluid behavior, Phoenix FD is capable of simulating a whole array of additional processes like pressure decay, thermal radiation cooling and mass-temperature dependence.

The product comes with a number of new features like fast physically based simulation core, background simulation, wind from movement, fluid source form pre-simulated surface, particle based sources, GPU accelerated preview, texture driven simulation, displacement, rendering of textures and many others. More could be seen at the Phoenix FD product overview made by Torgeir Holm, Creative Director 3D and VFX + Partner/Owner at Netron 2.0 AS and Editor at VRay.info.  He made simulations showing some of the best features in the product package.

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Chaos Group announces Phoenix FD official release

Chaos Group to show new developments at SIGGRAPH 2010

The new V-Ray RT for GPUs is the company highlight at the biggest industry event in L.A.

Sofia, July 15, 2010 - Chaos Group will be in full force at SIGGRAPH 2010 in L.A. from 27th to 29th of July. The company is going to the exhibition with a bigger team and partners to show the fresh new additions for 2010. It would be located at booth No. 612, SIGGRAPH Exhibition floor during the opening hours 9.30-6.00 pm.

The company is planning permanent booth presentations, a public event and a V-Ray training in partnership with CGschool. Live demonstrations and real-world V-Ray production workflow discussions by experts in the Film and VFX, Architectural and Automotive industries such as Brian Smith from 3DATS, Oliver Heijmans/Senior Lighter/R@D from Mr. X, Kevin Margo/CG supervisor from Blur Studio and many others are just some of the spotlights at the booth. Visitors can get a sneak peek into the latest from V-Ray and V-Ray RT for 3ds Max and Maya, Phoenix FD, and Pdplayer. Interesting presentations on V-Ray for Rhino and Sketch up, as well F_BOX picture shooter – the new web based rendering solution will also be part of the demonstrations. F_BOX picture shooter is a product of Mackevision that allows fast and easy creation of high end 3D images through a web based application.

The emphasis this year - the unprecedented V-Ray RT GPUs is developed on the basis of V-Ray RT. This technology inherits the great interactivity and flexibility of the real time engine and brings it into the GPUs to achieve 15-20 times faster rendering process and lighting and shading set up. V-Ray RT on GPUs will be presented on the new 3DBOXX Extreme Edition with 4 GPUs provided with the kind of support of BOXX Technologies.

Following the beaten track of previous years, Chaos Group will host a public event for the V-Ray fans, resellers and partners. It will be conducted in Room 518 at the second floor on July 29th, 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. The presentations on focus are as follows: V-Ray RT on GPUs, V-Ray Pipelines - demonstration on how the V-Ray rendering engine can be successfully integrated with post production tools to create powerful and reliable pipelines, V-Ray for Rhino and Sketch up - latest developments and new features, Pdplayer – the professional image sequence player and viewer for the 3D, CG and VFX industry, Phoenix FD – the grid based simulator for smoke, fire and haze, F_BOX picture shooter.

For a first time and in partnership with CGschool, Chaos Group presents a one of a kind V-Ray training workshop. The Best of V-Ray will be shown by Brian Smith at an exclusive 8-hour live training event in Room 518, 2nd floor on July 28th, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. Attendees get a free copy of 3DATS's Ispirato book plus a chance to win "One Project" and "Advanced to Expert" books and V-Ray RT licenses.  The instructor will show numerous V-Ray features that can be considered as ‘Power Tools’. These include tools such as proxies, displacement, the V-Ray Physical camera, and render elements. This class will be suitable for users of all skill levels, from beginners to advanced. Most files for this course will be provided in 3ds Max 2010 format, however suitable for users of V-Ray on other 3D software, as the vast majority of all the concepts will be the same. V-Ray for 3ds Max installations will be provided on site for participants without personal license.

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Chaos Group at SIGGRAPH 2010

Chaos Group Hosts First Public Event in London

V-Ray’s long awaited visit to the UK is planned for 21st June - 2nd July 2010

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Chaos Group UK Tour