Chaos Vantage 3.0 Expands Its Reach with USD, MaterialX, and Gaussian Splats
Chaos presents Vantage 3.0, currently in public beta, an update to its real-time ray-tracing render engine 🚀. This version introduces support for USD and MaterialX, rendering of 3D Gaussian Splats, an integrated material editor, and compatibility with volumes and scatter, opening the software to new pipelines in architecture and visual effects.
A GPU-Accelerated Engine
Since 2020, Vantage has allowed exploring complex scenes exported from V-Ray in .vrscene format with near real-time visualization. Although it started oriented towards architecture, over time it adopted VFX features like deformable meshes and animated characters. Now it also connects live with Corona 12.1, expanding its ecosystem 🎬.
USD and MaterialX: Opening to New Workflows
Support for USD (.usd, .usda, .usdc, .usdz) and MaterialX allows importing static or animated scenes without depending on V-Ray, integrating Vantage into Houdini, Maya, or Unreal pipelines. This reinforces its role as a versatile visualization tool and industry standard.
Rendering of 3D Gaussian Splats
The incorporation of 3D Gaussian Splats rendering brings Vantage closer to modern scene reconstruction workflows from photos or video. Although it doesn't yet support .ply directly like V-Ray, it's already possible to render splats from .vrscene and via live link, expanding its potential for archviz and VFX 🌐.
Material Editor, Volumes, and More
Vantage 3.0 adds an integrated material editor, support for importing and rendering volumes from VRayVolumeGrid or Phoenix, and partial compatibility with Chaos Scatter. It also incorporates VRay2SidedTex and camera tracking options for virtual productions, integrating protocols like LONET 2, EZtrack TCD, FreeD, and Stype HF 🎥.
Conclusion
With USD, MaterialX, Gaussian Splats, volumes, and virtual production tools, Chaos Vantage 3.0 positions itself as an increasingly versatile engine for architecture and VFX. That said, although it promises real-time rendering, your boss will still ask why it “takes a few seconds” to look perfect 😅.
In Vantage 3.0 almost everything is instant... except your boss's patience ⏳