LOS ANGELES — Chaos Group (chaosgroup.com) has released V-Ray PLE for Maya, a new personal learning edition of its production renderer. V-Ray PLE helps new and self-taught CG artists explore the benefits of photorealistic rendering at their own pace, using a free, non-commercial license that can be renewed every 90 days. With access to nearly every V-Ray feature, artists can build new skills as they try out some of the same tools used to bring Game of Thrones and
Avengers: Infinity War to life.
Photo: Troll VFX
V-Ray PLE for Maya comes equipped with all the major features of V-Ray Next, including scene intelligence, GPU production rendering and improved IPR. While renders are never watermarked, V-Ray PLE output is limited to 4K. Other limitations are mainly network or development driven: no batch rendering, distributed rendering or access to AppSDK.
V-Ray PLE for Maya has been in development for several months, but was fast-tracked after COVID-19 to help more artists access the software from home. With more artists indoors, Chaos Group wanted to offer an engaging way to build new skills. To help them along, Chaos Group has also added a new set of learning materials to the V-Ray for Maya documentation page.
V-Ray PLE for Maya represents the pilot project for V-Ray personal learning editions. Chaos Group will leave the option open for other products in the future.