Previously known as Project Lavina, Chaos Vantage is the latest application released by Chaos Group for realtime ray tracing. Chaos Vantage brings new capabilities for 3D artists and content creators. They just need to drag-and-drop a V-Ray scene, or live link from Autodesk 3ds Max, to bring it into realtime. Chaos Vantage has fast learning curve and users need not trade-off between speed and quality, says the company.  Vantage works with .vrscene files exported from V-Ray Next and runs on an Nvidia RTX series GPU. The supported features per host application can be checked here.

The press release follows:

Los Angeles, CA—Chaos Group has released Chaos Vantage, a new application that allows users to instantly explore their 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 from Autodesk 3ds Max, to bring it into real-time. Architects and designers can now interact with their designs in the simplest and most realistic way possible.

“Vantage removes the hurdles that used to hold people back, introducing a ‘real-time anytime’ workflow that lets designers and artists use real-time as freely as they use 3D,” said Phillip Miller, VP of product management at Chaos Group. “As real-time begins to live comfortably within every stage of the design process, it will make a huge impact on how people get their work done, from client meetings and over-the-shoulder reviews to the way they art direct various iterations. This will change everything.”

Vantage, formerly known as Project Lavina, is designed for massive scenes and can handle billions of polygons without any loss in detail or a significant decrease in speed. Vantage automatically reads V-Ray’s physically based lights and materials to produce photorealistic results with 100% ray tracing, even on complex scenes. Vantage is currently averaging 24-30fps on a consumer-grade NVIDIA RTX card at HD resolution, with additional speed boosts available using two GPUs.

Vantage can open scene files from any recent V-Ray integration and also live links with V-Ray for 3ds Max, giving users the ability to see every camera, model and lighting adjustment in Vantage as they create. This turns Vantage into a fully ray-traced viewport that allows artists to make their creative decisions with higher fidelity than ever before.

Vantage also includes an Animation Editor that can create, edit, and render animated sequences for presentations or previsualization purposes, using a simple transition-based method. With cameras set in Vantage as markers, designers can direct the editor through the various milestones, manipulating transition times and moves at will. An onboard tool keeps track of all new cameras/poses during this process, ensuring scene consistency across a production.

Other features include:

• Object Transforms and Controls – Move, rotate and scale objects in real-time. Controls to copy, hide and delete objects are also available.
• Lookup Tables (LUTs) – Apply a color filter to any camera for a more cinematic look.
• Collision Detection – Similar to playing a game, automatic collision detection allows users to walk up stairs and avoid walking through walls without any authoring.
• Layered Fog – Quickly add atmospheric depth to dramatize expansive scenes.
• Record Camera – Easily record a real-time session as an MP4 video for easy sharing.

“For too long, the production process has been getting in the way of the design. With Vantage, you can manipulate scenes right in front of your clients. There’s no more waiting or ‘let me get back to you,’ which completely changes the dynamic of a meeting and the way you collaborate together,” said Carlos Cristerna, principal and RadLab director at Neoscape. “Our work is focused on large-scale developments and international competitions with some of the biggest architecture and development companies. When you are working at that level, anything that helps get people on the same page is extremely powerful. Vantage does that faster than anything I’ve ever seen. It’s truly the way of the future, there’s no going back.”

“Building Utopia” contest

To celebrate the release of Chaos Vantage, Chaos Group has partnered with Lenovo, NVIDIA, KitBash3D and CGarchitect to launch the “Building Utopia” real-time rendering challenge. Running until January 25, 2021, the contest will focus on real-time animation using Vantage and a free futuristic 3D city model provided by KitBash3D.

Prizes include a Lenovo ThinkPad with an NVIDIA RTX 5000 professional GPU, an NVIDIA RTX 8000 professional GPU, and more. Registrations are now open on CGarchitect, with the winners to be revealed on March 26.

Pricing and availability
Chaos Vantage is available now and is compatible with all V-Ray Next and V-Ray 5 integrations. A one-year license is free until June 2, 2021, after which it will cost $389 annually. Vantage is also included in V-Ray Collection, an annual plan that gives users full access to 15 Chaos Group products and services for $699/year. Vantage uses DXR ray tracing and currently requires an NVIDIA RTX series GPU.