---
title: "V-Ray Next, Beta 1"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VRAYHOUDINI/113280247/V-Ray%20Next%2C%20Beta%201"
format: markdown
---
**Date** – August 09, 2018
**Download** – [Build 4.03.03](https://download.chaosgroup.com/?platform=58)
## **Key Features**
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### **GPU Rendering**
- V-Ray for Houdini comes bundled with the same GPU rendering improvements implemented in the other V-Ray Next DCC integrations.
### **Volume Rendering **
- Support for VDB rendering through the Volume Grid Cache SOP and the Volume Grid Shader VOP.
- Support for direct rendering of volumetrics without the process of loading the files through a Volume Grid Cache SOP is coming in the future. A major advantage of V-Ray vs competitive products is the fast computation of volumetric lighting, ie. fire illuminating the smoke and fire illuminating the scene.
### **VRScene Rendering**
- Instancing of VRScenes with custom transformations and orientation is fully supported, allowing the user to easily transfer assets in a V-Ray based pipeline.
- Custom overrides on the imported VRScene are fully supported. Geometry in the VRScene is represented as Primitive Groups, allowing you to override the material assignments on a per-object basis.
### **Alembic support**
- Targeting of individual objects in the packed alembic hierarchy for material assignment is fully supported. Transformations, copying, instancing, etc. are supported.
### **Hair & Fur**
- Rendering of Houdini hair generated at the SOP level is fully supported. V-Ray for Houdini comes with the new Hair 4 shader.
### **Particles**
- Driving the shader parameters through custom attributes on a per-point basis is supported.
### **Packed Primitives**
- Targeting of primitives in the packed object hierarchy for material assignment is fully supported.
- Rendering of Packed Fragments and Agents for Rigid Body and Crowd simulations is supported.
### **Material Stylesheets**
- Full support for material overrides based on groups, bundles, attributes, etc.
### **Instancing**
- Copying of Packed Geometry, Instancer and “instancepath” attribute works with all supported object types, including Volumes.
- Instancing of lights is supported, with options for per-instance overrides of the light parameters.
## **Other Features**
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### **Object Types**
- Regular Polygon Geometry as GeomStaticMesh
- Regular Poly Soup Geometry as GeomStaticMesh
- Packed Geometry
- Poly Lines as GeomMayaHair
- Curves (NURBS, Bezier) as GeomMayaHair
- Points as GeomParticleSystem
- Instanced Geometry
- VRayProxy loaded through VRProxy SOP node
- VRayScene loaded through VRScene SOP node
- Volumes as VDBs loaded through Volume Grid Cache SOP node
- V-Ray Infinite Plane
- Subdivision and Displacement
- Node linking through *op:/path syntax*
### **Lights**
- Support for Houdini’s Light Linker
- Ambient, Direct, Dome, IES, Mesh, Omni, Rectangle, Sphere, Spot, Sun
- V-Ray Sky as Environment or Dome Light texture
- Light Instancing through instancepath attribute or Houdini Instancer - support for color and intensity per-instance overrides and Light Linker overrides (per base object)
### **Camera**
- V-Ray Physical Camera -- Aperture, Focal Length and F-Stop inherited from Houdini’s camera settings so the camera manipulator handles can be used.
- Spherical, Cylindrical, Box, Fish-Eye, Warped, Ortho, Pinhole, Spherical, Cubic projection
- Depth of Field and Motion Blur supported
### **Animated Geometry**
- Full support for transformations
- Full support for deformations.
### **Instancing Types**
- Instancing through Instance node
- Light Instancing through Instance node
- Instancing through instancepath attribute
- Light Instancing through instancepath attribute
- Instancing of volumetrics supported
### **Simulation Types**
- Particle Simulations
- PBD Grain Simulations
- Crowd Simulations
- Cloth Simulations
- RBD Simulations
- Volumetric rendering of VDBs with Volume Grid Cache -> Volume Grid Shader
- FLIP simulation rendering of meshed surface
- FLIP secondary effects (Foam, Bubbles, etc.) as particles or VDBs
### **Import/Export**
- Proxy Import/Export
- VRScene Import/Export
- Alembic - Full Support
- Houdini bgeo - Full Support
- Yeti caches through VRayPgYeti SOP
### **Stylesheets**
- Limited support of VEX
- String overrides not yet implemented per polygon
- Full support for overrides based on primitive attributes, groups, bundles, etc
- Support for Global Stylesheets
- No support for per ROP stylesheets akin to Mantra ROP -> Decale Style Sheets / Apply Style Sheets parameter yet.
### **IPR**
- Limited GPU update support