Hi..!

As we had our german usermeeting with a presentation of V-Ray for SOFTIMAGE last friday, I spoke with Rusko Ruskov, a very nice guy and V-Ray-Guru from Chaosgroup. Their problem concerning V-Ray for SOFTMIAGE is, that there are not enought beta-testers and the don´t get enough feedback concerning bugs and workflow. So, in order to get some alternative renderer to SOFTIMAGE soon, please get into the beta of V-Ray. Just send an email to vray@chaosgroup.com you will be informed about the next steps.

Thanks..!

cheers,
oliver

There are a lot of well known (community) names in the beta already.

I also signed in a while ago, but I got the feeling that the beta XSI Vray forums are not visited often, at least it's bursts of posts and then some silence again, and feedback on questions can take some time.
Looking at people participating it's mostly people working in production, so time spend on Vray is probably equal to that.

I think Vray for XSI has certainly a bright future ahead, but (and I haven't checked the latest build(s) lately) a little bit more integrating would be nice. As I signed an NDA, I will not go into details on any of this. So don't ask

I still have my eye on Vray, and am trying to look into it when I have time, although for the last months this is something i don't really have.

But a call to beta testers would be a good thing, as this would be out of the door quite sooner than we think.

Rob

Do they already have a vague, approximate time-frame when this product will be officially released or is it still too soon to tell? In other words: are they still in early beta, "middle beta", pre-RC beta or what?

Sign up for the beta, and you'll find out

rob

Thanks for those wise, wise words, Rork!
But a general time-frame for release shouldn't have to be part of any NDA, I would think. And as I probably wouldn't be able to afford the product personally after the Beta, a slight indication of how long I would be able to play with it before I'd have to start cursing my (current) lack of cash-flow would be nice too... (I'm Dutch, you know!!! )

Not discussing a time frame for release during a beta is a solid part of any NDA. Chaosgroup, Autodesk/Softimage, they all do this.
There's never any 'revealing' of release dates on new versions, SP's etc. due to this NDA.

First of all it's not wise to set a date, as you'll never know what roadblock you might hit, second a set date will get you into trouble after release because of the first. Although in AD land this is slightly different though....

Only thing I can say Vray for Softimage is in beta for a while now, and it's starts to look pretty good.
If you want to find out more, get into the beta program and enjoy it while it last if you don't think you can afford it after release

rob

Yes, for those guys already in beta: give feedback. As chaosgroup just released Vray for Maya, it´s the time to do it for SOFTIMAGE now. That´s how I understood Rusko. That might explain, why some feedback from cg took a while.

I´m also in beta, so I also signed the NDA. It´s the best for all interested people, to find out by themselves. Installation is very easy and fast Give it a try...

I also had no time to test Vray in some production tasks. But I´ll do now...hopefully

Cheers,
oliver

I think the main problem with it is the problem you'll have with most 3rd party renderers (other than maybe 3Delight) - if you're going to use VRay for a scene, you have to set it up to be a VRay scene from every perspective. You have to use VRay materials, a VRay camera, VRay lights, etc.

It's clumsy and nowhere nearly as integrated as MR.

That's one of the things I do like about 3Delight - the recompiling of shaders on the fly.

Paul

@paulrus

Well, I didn´t want to start any discussion on Vray and it´s advantadges/disatvanteges. Let me mention 2 words about that.
Of course it is not as well implemented as MR is. Not yet. As XSI users we have got the best MR impelmentation. Take a look at other apllications. BUT MR is our only choise for the moment (in many concerns). Getting an effordable alterniative to MR, less integrated may be, is OK for me.
Softimage has an exellent render pass system. So you can use Vray for specific tasks, and MR for others. It would be great to have the choise...If I like to use Vray for a specific problem, I´ll chose it because it can solve it better, faster what ever. So there is no problem with using specific nodes for example.

Don´t know, if you have the latest beta. It looks quite good so far to me.

my 2 cents,
oliver

hmm I think thats normal that vray needs vray materials, not MR materials... same goes with lights.

Owei, by signing NDA you mean that you have sent them a mail (not e-mail) with signed paper ?