Chaos Vantage 2 is out now, giving artists the ability to explore massive, production-quality 3D scenes (complete with full ray-tracing) and make changes in real time.

It’s a standalone real-time ray tracer for Archviz and VFX and the company behind it believes it will change the way VFX teams approach digital scenes and environments. Chaos Vantage 2, is, “a massive upgrade to the most realistic real-time visualization tool on the market. With nearly 20 major new features, Vantage has become as powerful for VFX as it is for architectural visualization, providing easy access to photorealistic animations, previs and scene explorations at lightning speeds.”

Imagine being able to explore a scene that is almost the same quality as what audiences will see, but still have the freedom to make changes. Artists can experiment like never before, while VFX supes and the clients can iterate without adding days or weeks to a project. It also changes the nature of previz by turning storyboards into animation, and that’s just one piece of it.

“In 3D, you tend to wait for quality and people accept this, even when it disrupts their whole flow,” said Simeon Balabanov, Senior Product Manager at Chaos. “With Vantage 2, we are giving them quality, speed and flexibility in one place, so they can respond to any creative idea or client request.”

New animation capabilities

Representing years of proprietary R&D, Vantage was designed to help users instantly explore massive 3D scenes in a fully ray-traced, real-time environment. Unlike traditional real-time methods, the import process is simple — no geometry to optimize, UVs to unwrap or lighting to bake. Users simply drag and drop a V-Ray scene, or Live-Link to Vantage while working within their favorite 3D creation tool, to bring it into real time with astounding quality.

According to the company, “Vantage 2 builds on this simplicity, adding new features that make it even more attuned to over-the-shoulder reviews and look development. With Scene States, artists can easily respond to both needs, using non-destructive variations to explore different styles, moods and camera angles. Each state can easily be saved and cycled through with a click, making it easier for teams to determine which lighting, materials or post-processing effects will appeal most to their intended viewers.”

To enhance realism, Vantage 2 now features a host of new animation capabilities, including support for deforming meshes, AXYZ’s anima 4D people and eye-catching .vrscene effects that have only been available in V-Ray. Deforming Meshes will be particularly striking for artists, as they’ll open up the type of natural movements you often see in human bodies, which bend and contort as different parts move. VFX artists will also be delighted to finally have access to real-time Playblasts, packed with all the detailed lighting and shader information that usually gets left out of their director/supervisor reviews.

Real-time editing in post

“Vantage’s speed is just unbelievable. 20K images are taking 20 minutes,” said Dương Thanh Nguyên, Founder at BOC Studio. “This is especially helpful because our clients are looking for fewer iterations and faster feedback. Vantage helps us interact with them more effectively, so they can explore their projects, see changes and make important decisions faster — even while collaborating online.”

The addition of Render Elements (aka AOVs) has also prepared Vantage for the world of production rendering, which requires careful composites to achieve the best look. Rendered output can now be split into their back-to-beauty components for real-time editing in post, enabling more artistic effects and quick integration with live-action footage.

Other new features Include:

• Chaos Scatter — Millions of 3D objects can now be distributed in just a few clicks, easily forming forests, fields and crowds without weighing down the scene.
• NVIDIA AI Denoiser with Upscaling — Quickly denoise high-quality images or take them from HD to 4K without adding more render time.
• New Animation Effects — All animated materials, textures and lights within .vrscenes work seamlessly in Vantage, from flickering and fading lights to moving tiling offsets.
• Light Creation and Placement — Different light types can now be efficiently created directly within Vantage, helping designers conduct lookdev without a 3D creation tool.
• Scattering Fog — Set the mood for your scenes with realistic environmental effects, including god rays, light shafts through windows, streetlights and volumetric fog that comes with realistic light scattering.
• Quality Presets — Users can now set the quality and interaction speed of their visualization with a single slider.
• NVIDIA RTXDI — Pack scenes with dynamic lights without worrying about performance or resource constraints.
• HDR Monitor Support — Pick up every color and detail of a project thanks to new HDR monitor support.
• Nested Scenes — .vrscenes referenced within other .vrscenes are now supported, enabling more scene assembly scenarios between 3D creation tools.
• Orthographic Cameras — Easily create plan, elevation or axonometric renderings with orthographic camera projection.
• Mesh Lights — Full and efficient support for Mesh Lights has been added to .vrscenes, enhancing the artistic lighting possibilities authored with V-Ray.
• Camera Grouping with States Override — For over-the-shoulder discussions with clients, Vantage 2 offers better and more structured grouping cameras and assigned states.
• Multiple UV Channel Support — Sophisticated materials, such as stacking labels and decals, are now supported via multiple UV channels.
• Refined UI — Vantage 2’s UI now has a more modern look that makes it easier to access key tools and features.
• AMD GPU Support — Vantage can now run on DXR-compatible AMD graphics cards, providing more hardware flexibility.

Pricing and availability

Vantage 2 is available now for Windows 10 (version 2004 or newer) and is designed for DXR-compatible NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. Current V-Ray users that already have a Premium or Enterprise subscription will have full access to Vantage 2 until the end of their current subscription. New Vantage licenses will include both Vantage 1.x and 2. Pricing information can be found on the Chaos pricing page. Try Vantage 2 with a free 30-day trial.