V-Ray Summer Bundle This summer, starting at SIGGRAPH V-Ray will be coming in a special bundle package. The Three In One bundle is available from July 27th till August 27th 2010 and it includes V-Ray for 3ds Max, V-Ray RT for 3ds Max and PdPlayer. For more information visit here

Chaos Group team is kicking off final preparations for a great SIGGRAPH show It is again this time of the year and Chaos Group is ready to astonish all of you coming to SIGGRAPH with impressive technology developments and distinguished events. Stop by our booth (612) and witness presentations on how the V-Ray rendering engine was employed by one of the leading studios around the world. Kevin Margo from Blur, Christopher Nichols from Digital Domain and Oliver Heijmans from Mr. X are only some of the names joining us at SIGGRAPH. At the Chaos Group booth you can also see demonstrations of the latest on V-Ray for Rhino and SketchUp presented by Corey Rubadue, CEO ASGVIS, as well as the new web based rendering solution by Mackevision: F_BOX picture shooter. Exclusive V-Ray training class and a public event are some of the highlights of our participation at SIGGRAPH this year. Check out all we have prepared for SIGGRAPH and become a part of the V-Ray experience!

Chaos Group to present new developments at SIGGRAPH 2010 We are excited to announce that the Chaos Group will be in full force this year at SIGGRAPH with a bigger team and a number of impressive new developments. This year you can join us and become a part of the following events: The Chaos Group Booth Presentations The Chaos Group Public Event The Best of V-Ray: An Exclusive Live Training The Chaos Group is ready to show its fresh new additions for 2010, including V-Ray RT for Maya and Phoenix FD, an outstanding new grid based simulator for smoke and fire. The hype this year is clearly the GPU rendering, and not to miss the mark, a demonstration of V-Ray RT on GPUs will amaze with unprecedented speed, unmatched interactivity and flawless workflow. Check out what we are preparing for the show and choose your way to become part of the Chaos Group trendsetting technology. Chaos Group Booth 612 SIGGRAPH Exhibition floor 27th-29th of July, 9.30-6.00 pm Live demonstrations by well known artists and real-world V-Ray production workflow discussions by experts in the Film and VFX , Architectural and Automotive industries are just some of the highlights at this year's Chaos Group booth. Visit our booth to get a sneak peek into the latest from V-Ray and V-Ray RT for 3ds Max and Maya, Phoenix FD, and Pdplayer. Expect to witness interesting presentations on V-Ray for Rhino and Sketch up. New web based rendering solution by Mackevision will also be a part of the demonstrations. F_BOX picture shooter allows users aided by the web based application fast and easily to create high end 3D images. The emphasis this year will be V-Ray RT GPUs. Developed on the basis of the V-Ray RT this outstanding technology inherits the great interactivity and flexibility of the RT 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. Chaos Group Public Event SIGGRAPH, Room 518, 2nd floor: 29 July, 3:30pm to 6:30pm Following the tradition of previous years, we will host our SIGGRAPH Public Event again for all V-Ray fans, users, resellers and partners. Our team has prepared special presentations on: 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- High end 3D made easy. Web easy Click here, reserve your seat now and become a part of the V-Ray experience! The Best of V-Ray: An Exclusive 8-hour Live Training Event at SIGGRAPH 2010 SIGGRAPH Room 518, 2nd floor: 28th July, 10:00am to 6:00pm Brought to you by the Chaos Group and the CGschool. For the first time ever, and in partnership with CGschool, the Chaos Group presents a one of a kind V-Ray training workshop for anyone interested to get acquainted with the fast, reliable and renown rendering engine. Everyone who attends gets a free copy of 3DATS's Ispirato book. Plus a chance to win "One Project" and "Advanced to Expert" books, V-Ray T-shirts, pins, notepads, pens and V-Ray RT licenses. Course Description This course starts with a fast but thorough look at the algorithms working behind the scenes of all the critical settings so users know exactly how to maximize speed and quality, rather than just guessing at what might work. During this discussion, the instructor provides an in-depth analysis of the most common issues that plague even veteran users speed, detail, and noise. After this, the instructor creates numerous real-world materials from scratch while discussing the methodology behind their creation. Next, a thorough look at all the different animation techniques available are analyzed for static scenes and scenes with moving objects. During the next 90 minutes, the instructor presents 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. The class ends with 2 hours of practical lighting of exterior and interior scenes, including troubleshooting techniques to ensure the best mixture of speed and quality. This class will be fast and furious, yet suitable for users of all skill levels, from beginner to advanced. Most files for this course will be provided in 3ds Max 2010 format, however, you can still benefit from this course if you use V-Ray on other 3D software, as the vast majority of all the concepts will be the same. Students must bring their own laptop if they wish to follow along with the exercises. Support files provided in mostly 3ds Max 2010 format. Click here to enroll in the course and pricing information. V-Ray for 3ds Max installations will be provided on site for participants without personal license.. Join the V-Ray team and prepare yourself for a wonderful show! Greetings from all of us at Chaos Group and see you soon in Los Angeles

Chaos Group is privileged to provide a full commercial V-Ray license for the 1st place winner Outstanding works have been submitted for the annual Evermotion competition. The jury just recently announced the winners. To take a look at all works awarded and enjoy the great images, please click, here. Chaos Group will continue to support this great initiative and encourage artist to expose their impressive 3D projects.

Consistent Software Distribution CJSC is becoming a leading distributor for Russian Federation and CIS for all Chaos Group products. CSD, the leading Russian value-added distributor in the CAD, GIS and the Media and Entertainment markets, and Chaos Group, the developer of trendsetting rendering solutions for architectural, VFX, film, media and entertainment, automotive design, television and other industries, have signed an agreement on strategic partnership. Beginning 18th June 2010, CSD is official exclusive distributor of the Chaos Group products in Russian Federation and CIS. The first outcome of this agreement will be the distribution of such worldwide recognized solutions as V-Ray for Autodesk 3ds Max, V-Ray RT for Autodesk 3ds Max, V-Ray for Autodesk Maya and Pdplayer in Russia throughout CSD s dealer network. Within the nearest 6 months CSD is planning an expansion of its resellers channel by joining the territories of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan and Middle Asia countries to its affected area. Chaos Group s current valuable partners will continue to serve their V-Ray customers. ProVideo Systems and Softline Group will work in a close collaboration with CSD on all of the Chaos Group products. CSD is dedicating a special person, Mr.Vladimir Kazakevich responsible for the development of the V-Ray resellers network. Contact information: Mr.Vladimir Kazakevich bob@consistent.ru Consistent Software Distribution CJSC Ostrovnaya St., 2, Moscow 121552 Telephone: + 7 (495) 642-6848 http://www.consistent.ru

Great news for all V-Ray for Maya followers: the first update after its initial release in September 2009 is a fact. V-Ray for Maya 1.5 SP1 is now available for download, review and testing. The new optimized version comes with numerous new features, significant improvements and modifications. The list with new features as well as bug fixes and requests is outstanding. It works with Maya 2011 and is free for all current users. Some of the new things in V-Ray for Maya: support for V- Ray Fur and Maya Hair, also the V- Ray Light Dome texture and environment textures are now visible in Maya's viewport. V-Ray for Maya now supports reflection occlusion in V-Ray Dirt texture. These are only some of the new and exciting features Chaos Group has to offer to all V-Ray for Maya fans. V-Ray for Maya 1.50 SP1 is available for download from the download section on our web site. Read in details about the features and bugs fixed of V-Ray for Maya 1.5 SP1 >>

Pdplayer Beta for Linux and Mac OS is now ready for download and testing! Do not loose time and become a beta tester to experience the capabilities and the great features Pdplayer can offer you. Register on our website if you want to get the application of the beta program. The website registration will also provide you with unlimited access to all the demo versions from Chaos Group portfolio: V-Ray for 3ds Max, V-Ray for Maya, V-Ray RT and Pdplayer. If you want to take a look at the features and advantages of Pdplayer and also to read some recent reviews/testimonials, feel free to check the Pdplayer product page. Find out more about the installation process and other details, here.

Chaos Group London Tour 2010 Chaos Group is in London again for a two week tour 21st June - 2nd July 2010 This year our visit will include many personal meetings with customers and partners, a public event to present the latest developments and a training session for all V-Ray for 3ds Max users. Together with two of our UK partners, Bluegfx and Escape studios, we are glad to invite the British 3D community to join us for an Open Public Event and experience the latest trends and innovations in the rendering technology. Chaos Group Public Event, July 1st 2010, 4.00-6.30 pm For the first time in the UK our team will present V-Ray for Maya, V-Ray RT for Maya, the new fluid dynamics system Phoenix FD, and the hype for 2010, V-Ray RT on GPUs. Special session during the event will be devoted to V-Ray pipelines: Post-production, Stereoscopy, GPUs and beyond. Register for the Chaos Group public event and be among the first to take a look at these revolutionary rendering solutions. The Event will take place on the 1st of July 2010. We will be glad to be your host at the Great Hall of the Hellenic Center, 4.00-6.30 pm. V-Ray for 3ds Max Trainings with Vlado Koylazov Chaos Group and its partners Escape Studios and Bluegfx will conduct two sessions of full day in depth trainings for all V-Ray for 3ds Max users. Please, contact our partners for more information on the training and registrations. June 25th 2010, 10.00-5.00 pm with Bluegfx July 2nd 2010, 10.00-5.00 pm with Escape Studios Read more information here.

V-Ray RT for 3ds Max 1.50.SP2 is now available for immediate download from our website download section.The full list of additions and bug fixes is listed below. New Features Options to turn on/off rendering of proxy objects, X-Ref scenes and particles; Support for stereoscopic rendering with different preview types (anaglyph, interlaced, checker, dual-window); Adaptive sampling support with the ability to stop the RT once noise has cleared to some level; Feature Requests Support for the offset parameters of the physical camera; Support for mesh lights; Support for VRayAmbientLight; Support for bitmaps in the Gradient Ramp texture; MaxScript callback when a frame is complete; Bug Fixes Different result when there is a missing map in the enviroment slot; Errors when there is a Bitmap texture without a file name specified; horizontal shift for physical camera not working properly; Differences with the production renderer when texture filtering is "None" and "Blur" is other than 1.0; Animation of materials and textures is not updated in the ActiveShade window; Animation of physical camera properties (focus distance, focal length) is not updated in the ActiveShade window

Chaos Group and CGschool have joined forces to a live webinar on June 8th. The 3D instructor Brian Smith from CGschool will be teaching V-Ray Intermediate webinar broadcasted directly from Chaos Group office in real time. CGschool is a training center providing online and in-person on-site training for architects, artists, and designers in a variety of industry standard software platforms. CGschool online classes are webinar based, which allows the instructor and student to see each other screens and speak through computer microphone and speakers. Join us for the V-Ray live webinar with Brian to learn more about V-Ray rendering engine in real time!

Again at this time of the year, Chaos Group is happy to invite you to get exposure and worldwide recognition of your most recent, creative and finest projects completed with V-Ray. We will be happy to consider feature film, vfx, commercial, animations and games projects done with V-Ray for 3ds Max and V-Ray for Maya. The Demo Reel will be distinguished in 3 main parts covering the following industries: Automotive Design, Feature Film VFX, and Architectural Design. Click here for more information.

The V-Ray team is joining 3D professionals for a great get together during the End User Event in the Netherlands. Chaos Group will take part in the EUE with presentations on the latest developments in the rendering technology. Vladimir Koylazov, the main developer behind the V-Ray rendering engine will demonstrate the breakthrough V-Ray RT running on GPUs, as well as the new fluid dynamics system Phoenix FD and the V-Ray RT for Maya. The Chaos Group presentations will be held during the two days (3rd and 4th June) of the event from 14.45h till 15.45h. Join the Chaos Group team and the rest of the great renowned speakers for an informal networking event and dive into in the hype of the3D visualization topics in 2010.

To all of you V-Ray for 3ds Max users, Chaos Group is glad to announce the availability of the new V-Ray 1.50.SP5. The new build adds compatibility with 3ds Max 2011 and 3ds Max Design 2011 and includes new features, together with many modified and improved ones. The full list of additions and bug fixes is listed below. The new service pack is available for immediate download from our website download section. In case of any questions or download issues, please contact our support team at support@chaosgroup.com. New features: *Added VRaySamplerInfoTex texture and VRaySamplerInfo render element *Added VRayObjectSelect render element which allows to extract objects with specific IDs into a separate element Modified features: *Added an option to the VRayPhysicalCamera to perform image distortion based on a texture map *Allow the user to specify texture bounds for 3d displacement *Added displacement slot to VRayFastSSS2 material *Added "prepass id" parameter to VRayFastSSS2 material so that multiple materials can share the same illumination map *Added displacement slot to VRayLightMtl material *The color parameter of VRayIES lights is now animatable *The min/max z-depth values for the VRayZDepth render element are now animatable *Support for reflection occlusion in VRayDirt *Support for environment sampling in VRayDirt *Support for Particle Flow vertex color mapping and particle visibility *Support for the "Use transparent shadows" option with Arch Design materials *The clipping planes for the VRayPhysicalCamera are now displayed in the viewport *Added an option "show cone" to the VRayPhysicalCamera to control the display of the camera in the viewports *Ability to save and load color correction curves for the VFB in Adobe(r) PhotoShop(r) .acv format *Support for pixel aspect ratio display in the V-Ray VFB *Support for anaglyph stereo preview in the V-Ray VFB *Support for LUT color correction in the V-Ray VFB from .cube files *Ability to display the value of the corrected colors in the V-Ray VFB pixel info dialog *The "Dynamic memory limit" parameter can be set to zero to remove any limit Bug fixes: *Motion blur for Hair Fur in "mr prim" mode does not match the "buffer" mode *Occasional random crashes in 3ds Max 2010 due to progress bar updates *Fixed invalid smoothed normals causing issues with displacement *Fixed AA artifacts with thin bright lines when using Adaptive DMC image sampler *Stuck buckets with perfectly transparent surfaces and GI *Incorrect vignetting for VRayPhysicalCamera when using horizontal/vertical offset *Set VRaySilentMode should disable the dialog for overwriting raw .vrimg files *Missing reflections in VRayFastSSS2 when it is a coat material inside a VRayBlendMtl *Incorrect bump mapping for GI when using time-interpolated irradiance maps *Fixed artifacts with VRayFastSSS2 when one of the scatter color components is zero *Fixed incorrect normal map with VRayNormalMap on VRayProxy objects *Fixed crash with animated irradiance maps and objects with zero scale *The color of VRayIES lights was not animatable *VRayIES lights did not produce photon-mapped caustics *Fixed invalid normals with VRayEdgesTex in the bump slot

The Chaos Group team is getting ready for its first South Africa Tour to present the latest on V-Ray and the new additions for 2010. The V-Ray users will have the opportunity to enjoy a presentation on the latest of V-Ray for 3ds Max and Maya, Pdplayer as well as the upcoming V-Ray RT for Maya and the new fluid dynamics system Phoenix FD . To become a part of the V-Ray experience in Johannesburg and Cape Town, you can register for the Chaos Group User Event, organized with the kind support of Learn 3D - one of our partners in South Africa. The User Group will be held on May 26, 18h at Learn 3D in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Come and join us for an interactive and interesting event. The space is limited, so reserve your seat now and meet the team in person. Chaos Group and Learn3D will also devote a special time for in depth V-Ray for 3ds Max trainings on the 29th of May (Saturday) and 30th of May (Sunday). Read more information here.

The Official Automotive V-Ray Demo Reel 2009 goes live on ChaosGroupTV YouTube Channel. This demo reel brings together the inspiration of many artists, who today with their effort and creative work cast the future of the animation and CG industries. Thank you all! All copyrights and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Credits in alphabetical order belong to: Animaroid Armstrong White Mackevision Laurent Nivalle Charles-Antoine d'Autichamp /Citroen Design Center/ Speedshape With special thanks to Strings for their music. The present reel is for demo purposes only. Any copying or distributing of this material without prior permission from the copyright owners is absolutely forbidden.

Chaos Group is glad to announce its participation at FMX 2010, the 15th Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Interactive Media. This year our V-Ray team will visit Germany to present the latest developments in the rendering technology, as well as to introduce the new fluid dynamics system Phoenix FD. Exclusive sessions on the new ultimate V-Ray GPUs rendering solution will astonish with amazing efficiency, revolutionized speed times and high quality. For more information click here

For a second consecutive year Dimitar Dinev and Giacomo Dalle Vaglie from 3DWS will take an active participation at the 3D Revolution event and present to the Italian audience the main developments by Chaos Group. The main focus will be the upcoming fluid system Phoenix Fluid Dynamics as well as the latest on V-Ray for 3ds Max and V-Ray RT and V-Ray for Maya. The 3D Revolution information: Date and Time: 9th of April 2010, 9.30 18.00h Venue: Hotel degli Imperatori 00156 Rome Via G. Gonella, 15 V-Ray Presentation: 15.00-16.00h To take part in the V-Ray Presentation and the 3D Revolution event, please register at: http://www.3drevolution.it/Evento/EV_agenda.ASP

The Official Architectural V-Ray Demo Reel 2009 goes live on ChaosGroupTV YouTube Channel. This demo reel brings together the inspiration of many artists, who today with their effort and creative work cast the future of the animation and CG industries. Thank you all! All copyrights and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Credits in alphabetical order belong to: Halff, Neoscape, Pura Imagem, Pure, Uniform. With special thanks to Strings for their music. The present reel is for demo purposes only. Any copying or distributing of this material without prior permission from the copyright owners is absolutely forbidden. Expect our Automotive Demo Reel next week.

The Rebus Render Farm provides you with 250 render nodes right away to render your still-images and animations. Whether you have to meet close deadlines or permanently need a reliable partner for your renderings - renderfarm service is fast, safe and easy, thanks to unique technology, the Farminizer Software. This is the only render farm that utilizes a system which seamlessly integrates into your 3D software. Developed by the Rebus Render Farm the Farminizer Software renders your animation-projects with just one simple click. The Farminizer is an extremely robust piece of software, which has proven its worth a thousand times in the daily production workflow of 3ds Max and V-Ray. Furthermore the Farminizer Software automatically checks the completeness and compatibility of your data. Expensive mishaps, as they happen with other render farms, are impossible. Incorrect render jobs are a thing of the past! That's guarantee that the Rebuce Render Farm is one of the best market leaders. For more information please visit: www.rebusfarm.com

Chaos Group and Asynthetic announced the release of a new version of Pdplayer 1.0.4 that improves on an already amazing sequence player. New features include improved Audio Support, Text Fields, RED SDK 3.0 and improved 3D LUT Precision. Audio is now being read from AVI and Quicktime movies (subject to the limitation that the movie must be no longer than 30 minutes, or the audio will not be loaded). Exporting an AVI or a Quicktime movie will now save an audio track, if an audible one is present. The text in text layers may now contain embedded fields of the form {object:property}. Such fields are replaced with their values before the text is displayed. This is useful for burn-ins when creating previews and dailies. The interpolation of 3D look-up tables has been improved, providing more accurate colour reproduction. This allows Pdplayer 1.0.4 to convert between radically different colour spaces by using an appropriate 3D LUT. For example, it can now show Digital Cinema Initiative X'Y'Z' gamma 2.6 images with the help of the supplied DCI_XYZ.cms lookup table. The RED SDK has been upgraded to version 3.0, with support for the new FLUT color science, including the new REDcolor and REDgamma color spaces. You can download a sample composition from our site. More detailed information can be found here. Pdplayer 1.0.4 is available for immediate download. Access the download section by clicking here For a detailed feature list, please visit: http://pdplayer.chaosgroup.com For any inquiries regarding Pdplayer please contact: pdplayer@chaosgroup.com