Chaos releases Vantage 2.6
Chaos has updated Vantage, its real-time ray tracing renderer, intended for exploring large V-Ray scenes in architectural visualization and visual effects projects.
Vantage 2.6 adds a new Water Surface object, support for the V-Ray Clipper object, and improves workflow for materials and cameras.
A GPU-accelerated ray tracer for exploring large production scenes in real time
First released in 2020, Vantage is a hardware-accelerated ray tracing renderer intended for exploring large V-Ray production scenes in near-real time.
The initial release was targeted at visualization, but in 2023 Chaos added support for rendering deforming meshes, like animated characters, and began pitching Vantage at VFX work.
Vantage 2.6: new tools for creating cutaway renders and water surfaces
Key changes in Vantage 2.6 include support for the V-Ray Clipper for creating cutaway renders.
There is also a new Water Surface object for creating animated water surfaces in scenes, with parameters to control the height, spacing, speed and direction of waves.
The update adds support for water textures from Chaos’s other applications, including the Phoenix Ocean Texture and the V-Ray Water Map in Maya, SketchUp, Rhino and Revit.
Better material support
Vantage 2.6 extends support for the V-Ray Material, adding support for the SSS mode for Translucency, for materials like skin, wax and marble, and the Stochastic mode for Opacity.
It is also now possible to display a wireframe overlay when viewing a scene in Clay mode.
Improvements to camera workflow and VR support
The update also makes it much easier to work with cameras, which are now scene objects.
That means that they are listed in the Outliner, and are displayed in the viewport with gizmos, making it possible to select and manipulate them interactively.
Virtual reality support – introduced in Vantage 2.5 – has been extended, with Vantage now supporting VR controllers as well as VR headsets.
Price and system requirements
Chaos Vantage is compatible with Windows 10+ and DXR-compatible AMD, Intel or NVIDIA GPUs.
The software is rental-only, with subscriptions costing $108.90/month or $658.80/year.
Read a full list of new features in Chaos Vantage 2.6 in the online documentation
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