V-Ray for SketchUp 7.20.00 release notes

Build 7.20.00

Official release

Released on Oct 8, 2025.

Download V-Ray 7 for SketchUp

Compatibility

• SketchUp 2026 is now supported.

AI features

• AI Image Enhancer is now available. Add the Enhancer Data render element to enable the workflow. Use the "Enhance image on Cloud Collaboration (beta)" button in the VFB to upload your render for enhancement.
• AI Material Generator is now available in Cosmos. It automatically converts a photo of a real-world surface into a render-ready PBR material.
• You can disable all AI features with the environment variable CHAOS_DISABLE_GEN_AI = 1.

Scatter

• Scatter has several updates, including a reorganised interface.
• Scatter Look At is now available. Enable it in the Transforms / Rotation section and select a scene object for the instances to face.
• Altitude Limitation is now available. Use it to restrict the scatter effect to a configured altitude range.
• Scatter Clustering is now available. Use procedural noise or an input texture to control how clusters form.
• Built-in Scatter distribution maps are now available in the Pattern drop-down menu. Use them to add density variation.
• Scatter Color Texture is now available. Use it to colour instances based on the host surface's colour.
• The default Scatter Area Modifier mode is now Exclude. The default falloff values have also changed to improve initial results.
• The Slope Limitation Scatter parameters are now grouped under a rollout with a toggle.
• Fixed an object alignment issue when using Scatter spline scattering.
• Fixed an issue that stopped Scatter Edge Trimming from working in some situations when guests had been scaled significantly.

Gaussian Splats

• Gaussian Splats clipping is now available. To clip a Gaussian Splat, connect a distance texture that references a scene object to its Clipping Texture slot. Set the texture's inside colour to black and its outside colour to white.
• The Gaussian Splats viewport preview in SketchUp has improved. Enable the V-Ray Viewport preview overlay to see a detailed, coloured point cloud representation of a splat.
• Adjust the Gaussian Splats preview point size in Extensions > V-Ray > Preferences > Viewport Point Size.

Night Sky

• Night Sky is now available. Enable Stars and Moon in V-Ray's Sun and Sky system, then adjust the camera exposure to see the effect.

Asset presets for water and grass

• Asset Configuration Presets are now available. Use the new Presets menu to apply a preset to the Generic material or Fur.
• Water presets are now available in the Generic material. Use them to configure a water surface shader.
• The Water Surface texture replaces the legacy Water map. It has advanced controls and built-in animation, and is used in the Water material presets.
• Grass presets are now available in the V-Ray Fur modifier. Use them to configure procedural grass with an automatically created material applied to the grass strands. Applying a different preset does not delete the previous material. Delete it manually when you no longer use it.
• The Strand Sampler texture is now available. Use it to vary a material's colour along a Fur strand or randomly between strands.

3D streaming

• Use the Cloud upload window to send a model to Chaos Cloud for interactive viewing or streaming.

Texture randomisation

• The Multi-Sub texture now supports batch texture loading. Use the Load Multiple Textures button to import image files in a batch.
• The Multi-Sub texture now has probability controls. Select Random mode and change each item's probability to adjust the distribution.
• Random Flip U/V controls are now available in the UVW Placement texture's randomisation options.

Eyedropper tool

• The V-Ray Color Picker now has an Eyedropper tool. Use it to sample colours from anywhere on screen.
• The Gradient texture now has an Eyedropper tool. Use it to sample multiple colours along a stroke drawn anywhere on screen.

Cosmos

• You can now import multiple assets at once.
• Cosmos Scatter presets are now supported.
• You can now select a Material Variant of a Cosmos asset in Cosmos and import it directly.
• The Cosmos asset library now includes thousands of new assets.

VFB

• The Exposure layer now has Whites, Blacks, Highlight and Shadows controls for finer control over image grading.
• The Highlight Burn parameter has moved from the Exposure VFB layer to the Linear Filmic tonemap.
• Fixed an issue that stopped the VFB's Save window from staying on top of the VFB.

V-Ray GPU

• Gaussian Splats are now supported.
• V-Ray Luminaires are now supported.
• Caustics dispersion is now supported.
• Caustics calculation is more stable, uses less memory and performs better.
• Fixed an issue with interactive rendering when using material override on Cosmos assets.
• An infrastructure upgrade makes Chaos Cloud GPU rendering faster and more cost-efficient.

Other improvements and bug fixes

• The Enhancer Data render element is now available. Add it before rendering to enable AI Enhancement.
• The new Discard Denoiser Data option excludes utility render channels used for denoising from multichannel .exr and .vrimg output images.
• Asset Preview no longer uses a render node licence.
• The default render resolution is now 1280 x 720.
• The Generic material's Volumetric Translucency now has an Illumination parameter. Its two modes, Directional and Uniform, change how light scatters.
• VRScan material is now called Chaos Scan.
• You can now add Cosmos assets to Enmesh.
• The Cosmos Assets preview now shows the current variant correctly.
• Bokeh Rotation is now correctly disabled when Blades are disabled.
• You can now use negative values for the Dirt texture's distribution.
• The Export V-Ray scene window now automatically suggests a default file path.
• Fixed an issue with the Fur Taper parameter slider.
• Fixed an issue that stopped Decal displacement from working correctly.
• Fixed an issue that stopped Environment Fog > Affect Secondary Rays from working correctly.
• Loading scanned materials without a Scans licence no longer displays an error in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue with the Gradient texture's Position slider.
• Fixed an Asset Editor freeze when creating a Falloff map in a material.
• Fixed several issues with the vrscene importer.
• Fixed an issue with copying and pasting colours between colour slots.
• Fixed a typo in the About window's notification message.
• Fixed an issue that stopped the Telemetry log file from being generated.
• Fixed an issue that caused new layers to disappear from a layered texture when wrapping it in a gradient. The "Add Layer" button becomes inactive during this process.
• Fixed an issue that stopped Two Sided, Override, and Wrapper Materials from showing the Custom Viewport Texture option.
• Fixed an issue that made the log file directory slow to open on macOS.
• Fixed missing metadata in images uploaded to Chaos Cloud through the Collaboration Window opened from the Asset Editor.
• Fixed an incorrect Asset Editor render icon state during Interactive GPU rendering.
• Fixed a precision issue with colour values serialised to the model.
• Fixed error messages when changing the Chaos Cosmos proxy settings.
• Fixed a typo in the Marble texture's Color Vein parameter label.
• Fixed an issue with the Asset Editor's appearance when moving it between displays.

Integration

• Viewport zooming performs better during Interactive rendering.
• Improved geometry modifier deletion during interactive rendering.
• Fixed an issue that hid Scatter guests when you hid the referenced scene object.
• Fixed transparency synchronisation between V-Ray's Emissive material and its SketchUp counterpart.
• Fixed a freeze when setting Gaussian Splat > Preview Percentage to 0.
• Fixed a crash when importing a specific Cosmos asset.
• Fixed crashes when exporting Proxy Meshes in certain situations.
• Fixed a crash or hang when changing the render output in Two-Point Perspective mode with Enscape installed.
• Fixed an issue that increased render times between V-Ray 6 and V-Ray 7 in specific projects.
• The material slot count now updates correctly when you change a Proxy Mesh file.
• Fixed errors when closing SketchUp in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue that caused Cosmos assets to render black when both Material Override and Preserve Properties were enabled.
• Fixed an issue that misplaced a VFB region when first defined.
• Fixed an issue with the viewport representation of a Gradient texture with nested maps.
• Fixed an issue that stopped Falloff texture viewport previews from updating.
• macOS: Fixed incorrect render results when starting Batch Render during a transition between scenes.
• GPU: Fixed lighting artefacts from Enscape Spherical lights.
• Fixed an issue that stopped interactive Enmesh updates in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue that removed the Distance Texture's effect when an object was unhidden during Interactive rendering.
• Adding a bitmap texture to a Material's Diffuse slot no longer turns on SketchUp colourisation.
• Fixed crashes or hangs when deleting Gaussian Splats.
• Fixed a crash at render start after deleting a light referenced in Environment Fog.
• Fixed issues on the second attempt to Batch render specific projects.