Computer Graphics World

28 cgw o c t o b e r • n o v e m b e r • d e c e m b e r 2 0 2 5 c haos recently announced that they are now building instant feedback into the viewport, connecting Maya and Houdini to Chaos Vantage's real-time path tracer. Artists can now assess 3D assets at production quality throughout the layout, look- dev, and previs process, giving them the information they need to develop high-end designs for film and episodics. A new standalone Chaos Vantage Hydra Delegate for Houd- ini plugin streams fully path-traced pixels directly into the Houdini viewport, so artists can make decisions using the same controls and workflow they employ every day. An Enhanced Live Link lets Maya users access a similar viewport experience inside Maya. Now, artists can explore layouts, preview animation in context and more, even when working with massive scenes. With recent support for USD and MaterialX scenes in Vantage, artists can also use the same as- sets and shaders from throughout the production, ensuring consis- tency at every stage of the process. Available in the latest Chaos Vantage 3 update, these features also coincide with updates to V-Ray 7 for Houdini and V-Ray 7 for Maya, which bring new production capabilities to both applications. Top features include: V-Ray 7 for Maya, Update 2 V-Ray Displacement Material — Artists can now create more complex surfaces, blend them across materials, apply them to indi- vidual V-Ray Proxy objects and more. Night Sky — This system allows users to create realistic night sky setups without HDRIs. Building day-to-night timelapses, defining star and moon placements for creative visions or even achieving geo-specific visuals can now be visualized with ease. AI Tools (Beta) — Maya artists can now experiment with Chaos' evolving AI tools to generate PBR materials; automatically enhance details in supporting elements like foliage, people and terrain; and upscale low-resolution renders into photoreal, presentation-ready visuals (up to 16K). Real-time Fluid Simulation — With a Live Link to Vantage, Maya users can now simulate smoke and fire with ease, opening up quick lookdev explosions, exhaust trails and fog-like effects for volumetric playblasts. Gaussian Splats Clipping — Gaussian splats can now be cus- tomized directly without regenerating data, so artists can replace unwanted areas with 3D models that blend naturally to a scanned environment. Also in V-Ray 7 for Houdini. V-Ray 7 for Houdini, Update 2 Volume Shader Enhancements — For compositors, the volume shader now comes with deep output support, the ability to render volumetrics as mattes, and enhanced Light Path Expressions. Volu- metric effects now also render noticeably faster thanks to sampling improvements. Pyro-ready Volume Shader — A completely re-imagined volumet- ric shader for fire, smoke and explosion effects has been added, giv- ing artists a new way to enjoy procedural workflows in Houdini with industry-standard grade outputs. Enhanced Feather Procedural Support — V-Ray for Solaris now delivers consistent results when rendering Houdini's procedural hair. A new Cubic Samples option also allows finer control over hair tes- sellation. Resolution-independent Bump Mapping — Bump effects will now appear consistent across test and final renders, regardless of resolution changes. Acceleration Blur Support — Stunning, natural-looking motion blur effects can be added that will follow the non-linear trajecto- ries of an object's movement. This is ideal for anything that speeds up, slows down or changes direction, from a pendulum swinging to swirling particles. IN FOCUS CHAOS BRINGS REAL-TIME RENDERING TO MAYA AND HOUDINI ROBUST NEW FEATURES FOR ARTISTS UNVEILED

• Cover