Vray 1.6 open beta

Gus R · 19 May 2013, 19:34

Do we have to be selected as a beta tester or do we simply download and install the beta version and are automatically considered a beta tester? I was expecting a confirmation email.

holmes1977 · 19 May 2013, 21:43

@halroach said:

Am I the only person having trouble accessing the beta testing thread at the chaos group forums?

I am a registered vray user, yet since the beginning (a few years ago) I've had so many issues with registering and accessing their forums. It is true chaos, as their name suggests.

I had to register once just to download vray, and had to register a second time with a different name to be able to access the forums - because they needed a username that is linked somehow to the email I bought the software with, or so I thought... but that didn't work either... after emailing them for weeks I finally got access to the forums which were almost empty since they did the union with which ever other company they were before... and now I am blocked from the beta testing threads... great! I could download the beta, but not report about it...
What is with these guys?? This is truly ridiculous !!! of course I sent them a support request ticket and waiting for an answer now...

Why not just open up the forums to the wide public like sketchucation is without all these ridiculous restrictions.

Anyway - I have a list of so many bugs to report about this beta release, and I have nowhere to write them... other than here maybe.

Yes, they have an email to report bugs, but in my opinion that is not the way to do beta testing... I don't want to report something twice + there is the pressure effect when the bugs are out in the open. So... should I open a new thread here in sketchucation? or dump my list into this thread?

Happy betaing everyone!

Hi

This was posted by Devin on the Chaos Forums
"if you can't see the forum, send an email to support@chaosgroup.com so that they can fix your account to have proper access."

Im the same as you, I cant see the beta forums. But have just sent an email to support and hope to hear back from them soon.

Krisidious · 20 May 2013, 01:50

I was sent a special account login for Beta... Aside from my other account.

dkendig · 20 May 2013, 04:27

actually, reporting bugs on this forum, or the chaos group forum, is a complete waste of time, if your only goal is to alert us of the issue. I completely agree that double posting an issue is silly, so I recommend skipping the forum and just sending us the report directly. We have a bug tracker that we use to track issues. The forums are a great place to discuss workflow with other users, maybe some workarounds or show off your work, but if you're trying to tell us about a problem, the bug tracker is the best/only solution that is even remotely effective.

In the forum, threads go off topic, duplicate issues can't be linked, confidential information can't be shared, etc. It's just not the place for that sort of thing. vfswip@chaosgroup.com is how you can send a bug off to our bug tracker. We have a bug reporting tool that is built in to our plugin now, but ironically, it's not working right now, and it ranks low on the items to work on, so -sigh- it will likely not be in working order by the end of this beta. Anyway, for those of you who are having trouble, and feel this is your only outlet for communication with us, here is a copy and paste of our bug reporting thread:

How to submit a bug report
Hello everyone!

Thank you for participating in our beta testing process for V-Ray for SketchUp! We are looking forward to a swift and productive closed beta, followed by a public beta phase, and finally a release in the not so distant future. If you are using nightly builds, please keep all comments about those builds in our private forum and our bug tracker. We need as tight of a feedback loop as possible, and we need to stay focused on squishing any, and all bugs you encounter. To keep things simple, here's some basic ground rules for sending us reports. Discussing nightlies in this forum, will be confusing, as most of the users in this public beta forum, will be using stable builds, not nightly unstable builds.

If you encounter a bug and believe the bug has been reported already, report it anyway. We can link related reports together in our tracker so we can have a good idea of how many users are affected by a bug, and we can gather as much info as possible about the bug from different machine/os/workflow configurations. The more example scenes, screen shots, videos, bug descriptions, and steps to reproduce a bug, the easier it will be to accurately identify and repair an issue.

We now have a bug reporting tool (which I'm told is currently having issues...), so if it works for you, I would recommend using this tool. It can save you the trouble of filling out the template below, which we need if you email us a bug report. It can also save you the trouble of tracking down all of the assets that are related to your scene, when you send us example scene files that demonstrate your issue. The bug reporting tool can be found in the Plugin->V-Ray->Debugging->Report a Bug menu. We will try to get the tool fixed for anyone that is having trouble, as soon as we address some of the more pressing tasks on our list.

Alternatively, you can submit a new ticket by sending an email to:
vfswip@chaosgroup.com

PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WHEN SUBMITTING A BUG VIA EMAIL:
(otherwise we'll just end up asking you for it after you submit the bug anyway)

BETA BUILD VERSION!!!!
Operating system (xp 32-bit, vista-64bit, Mac OS X 10.6, etc)
SketchUp Version (Help->About SketchUp)
A description of the bug
Step by step description of how to reproduce the bug
Any screen shots or images that would help demonstrate or explain the bug
Any example scene files that could be used to diagnose the issue
A copy of your V-Ray for SketchUp Error log (C:\ProgramData\ASGVIS\VfS\vfs_stderr.txt or C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ASGVIS\VfS\vfs_stderr.txt)
Error messages (if any) that appear in the Ruby Console when the bug occurs
(You must have the SketchUp Ruby console open prior to the bug occurring to see these error messages)

Without this information, we won't have a clear picture of the situation surrounding the bug, and that can make the repair process very difficult, if not impossible. There are some bugs that may only occur when you don't use English as your primary language, or when you have a certain parameter set to a particular value. It's really hard to say what can cause a bug, so it really helps when we have all the information we need to diagnose the issue.

Thank you,
V-Ray for SketchUp Development Team

dkendig · 20 May 2013, 04:34

also, another quick note. Support for this, is US based (Eastern Standard Time, UTC -5), and is only Monday - Friday, 8am-4pm. If you try to contact anyone outside of that time frame, they will respond as soon as possible (typically within a couple hours unless they're slammed with questions about the beta). Your email gets fed in to a ticketing system, and will be addressed in the order it was received.

Krisidious · 20 May 2013, 05:13

@halroach said:

BTW, is this the place to write about all the beta testing issues? or on the horrid forums of chaos group?

I think it's fine to post here... Chaos is here and part of the thread. I'm sure they would appreciate bugs being reported on their own forum but as long as they find the issues, that's the main point.

See the next post.

CadFather · 20 May 2013, 11:25

Hi Devin, sorry to bug you with this here, but i'm totally confused on this beta thing and had no reply at all from CG. is there a place to download this beta or only if you are accepted? and how do i get accepted if i can't get through to them? thanks for any help!

pedrinalex · 20 May 2013, 12:58

Hi jimeny-billy-bob

@jiminy-billy-bob said:

Only CPU for now.

Regards

Pedro

jiminy-billy-bob · 20 May 2013, 14:53

What are you trying to tell me ?

halroach · 20 May 2013, 15:00

I will be sending bug reports by email to the vray developers and posting them in this thread for all to see aswell.
My specs:

Hardware:
CPU: Intel core i7-2600k @ 3.40GHz
Memory: 16GM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560Ti

Software:
Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Sketchup Pro 8.0.16846
Vray 1.6 Beta

Bugs I've encountered:

Animations not working!!!
Created two scenes with different positions
Chose to save render output as jpgs in an existing folder.
Checked animation on
Checked Include Frame Number
NTSC 30 fps

Ran Render - Sketchup Camera moves between the render scenes and Rendering of frames begins. It renders the same first frame over and over again. The jpgs are saved in consecutive frame numbers yet as above... all the same image.

RT Render - materials not updating consistently in render when changed.
bug reproduction:
a. Creating a box
b. Turning it into a component
c. Running Render RT - window opens and renders live - nice!
d. applying a blue color to the box (not to the surfaces but to the outside) - material in RT changes.
e. applying a different material red color... to the box - in RT the the box keeps rendering blue...
f. the same bug occurs in other scenarios - doesn't immediately update when materials are changed... sometimes needs to be closed and re-opened to see material changes.
RT Render crashes sketchup sometimes - will send more info when it happens again
Undo not working during or after RT render

under regular render undo still works.

Sketchup logo on Sketchup Program tab on taskbar changed to Vray Logo. I'm sure Trimble will be very glad to see that
Live update materials not always working:
In Materials Window Live update of materials doesn't always update live, even after pressing enter... It's kind of selective when to update and when not to.
Exporting a component as a proxy - works well and componet is transformed...
Upon import of the proxy into another model, the textures are lost.
Sketchup Freezes
Sometimes when zooming in and out with the mouse wheel in a render window, all of sketchup freezes. The only way out of it is to press CTRL-ALT-DEL and to press ESC (back to windows) and sketchup is freed up. - this happened on last two previous versions of vray as well. Only happens on windows 7.

Minor Annoyances:

a1. When running a render the Vray Progress Window pops up. the progress bar progresses normally. If the render is stopped the progress stops - all is nice and well. the only minor annoyance is that the progress bar keeps flashing in that fashionable Windows 7 Aero Theme kind of way... It's just annoying, and makes you think that maybe the progress bar is actually still progressing, and the render is still running...

Suggestions?

b1. Would be nice if the Render window and Render RT window were done in two separate windows. I personally would use RT as a preview to see how I should make quick changes in the regular render I just did... dunno if that is possible or makes any sense?!

b2. Have an option for thumbnail view (i.e. material preview balls) on left sidebar of material window. (like in 3DSMAX or Rhino) If we're spending all this time making previews why not see them all aligned up next to each other for comparisons and pure joy of having a real library...

Questions:
c1. Is there a way to edit an imported proxy, change it's materials... or must one remake a proxy every time?

c2. Does the toon material still exist? I couldn't seem to find it.

c3. BRDF. I have no idea how to use it - hope there is a manual.

Bravos:
d1. Prview renders are working a lot faster.

d2. Renders seem to be looking good.

d3. Transfer of materials between models seems to be working fine. My library of components with vray materials from vray version 1.48.96 (where material transfers between models used to work) still works!! Great!

d4. Organization of the Options and Materials windows seem to be making more sense.

andybot · 20 May 2013, 15:06

@halroach said:

c1. Is there a way to edit an imported proxy, change it's materials... or must one remake a proxy every time?

My workaround for proxy amterials disappearing: go into the group object that is within the proxy component, and directly apply all the materials of that proxy to some faces. That way, SU can keep track of the materials, and you don't lose them when saving or loading the proxy.

thomthom · 20 May 2013, 15:49

@cadfather said:

Hi Devin, sorry to bug you with this here, but i'm totally confused on this beta thing and had no reply at all from CG. is there a place to download this beta or only if you are accepted? and how do i get accepted if i can't get through to them? thanks for any help!

Go to the ChaosGroup website - login (or create an account if you don't have one) and follow the links to apply for the beta from this page: http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/vrayforsketchup_beta.html

Gus R · 20 May 2013, 16:40

@thomthom said:

@cadfather said:

Hi Devin, sorry to bug you with this here, but i'm totally confused on this beta thing and had no reply at all from CG. is there a place to download this beta or only if you are accepted? and how do i get accepted if i can't get through to them? thanks for any help!

Go to the ChaosGroup website - login (or create an account if you don't have one) and follow the links to apply for the beta from this page: http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/vrayforsketchup_beta.html

I did that on the 15th and received an automated response that included, "Our team is processing your application and you will soon receive confirmation to download the Beta builds." Never heard back from them. I have already downloaded the beta install.

dkendig · 20 May 2013, 16:52

@krisidious said:

Vray Beta is warning me when I open another instance of SketchUp that the program did not close properly and asks me to send a report. I believe this is happening because the other instance has not shut down.

When loading our plugin, we check our error log to see if we have our shutdown message printed in there. If we don't find it, we pop up the error message and ask you to submit a bug report. I'm told the bug report tool may be having issues... so... the error message is pointless at the moment...

anteolic · 20 May 2013, 17:58

I really dont know where to ask this question than i ask here.

Does vrayforsu 1.6 beta has some limitation or what cause i cant get more prepass in IRRADIANCE MAP than just one.

dkendig · 20 May 2013, 18:49

anteolic - I believe another user has submitted a bug report that sounds similar. Could you please send us a bug report at vfswip@chaosgroup.com ? We would like to hear details about your experience with this issue, to ensure that we rectify this for everyone's workflow.

Gus R · 20 May 2013, 18:50

Update. Misread an email and apparently I was approved for beta testing. So far so good and it loads up better than the previous version.

andybot · 20 May 2013, 19:37

@anteolic said:

I really dont know where to ask this question than i ask here.

Does vrayforsu 1.6 beta has some limitation or what cause i cant get more prepass in IRRADIANCE MAP than just one.

There's an option for "multi-pass" (under "advanced options") If it's unchecked, you will only see one pass even though it is doing all the calculations. See if that is the case.

caecarvalho · 21 May 2013, 03:42

Hi all,

I'm having problems on windows 8 and SU8 latest MR.
-The RT doesn't update the sun and shadows position, and used on a havy scene it even crashed my computer by overheating (it turned off- first time this ever heppened with this machine- it's a sager notebook, wich I consider a very well cooled notebook).
-And seems to be a problem with the progress bar when RT is running, couse it never passes 1%. (I saw in the demostration video that it stays in 97 or 98...)
-The render needs much more memory than the older version and always runs out of memory in identical scenes that I used to render in the 1.49.01 version with no problems.
There are many other problems that I found as well. It's definitely unusable for me like it is now.

I received a link for the video demonstrations of the new features, and I think the guy is using windows 7.It 's definitely running way diferent than in my machine with windows 8.

Does anyone had problems installing on windows 8?

dkendig · 21 May 2013, 13:59

If you haven't done so already, please send us a bug report about this. We haven't seen an out of memory error yet.

The RT render does not show a progress bar, because generally if you are using RT, you are trying to tweak materials or lighting, rather than producing a final render. It can produce a final result after a while, but generally it's used for previewing.

We have no known issues with Windows 8, and yes in the video the OS was most likely Windows 7.