V-Ray Free Trial: Photorealistic Rendering for 3ds Max and More

V-Ray has been a standard rendering engine in architectural visualization and visual effects for many years. It is not a standalone modelling program: you install it into the 3D application you already use, and it replaces or adds to that program’s renderer.

Host applications

For architecture and design work, Chaos offers V-Ray for 3ds Max, SketchUp, Rhino, Revit and Cinema 4D. Each version is installed separately and integrates with its host’s menus and materials. Which operating systems are supported depends on the host: Revit and 3ds Max run only on Windows, while SketchUp, Rhino and Cinema 4D also have macOS versions.

What V-Ray is known for

• Physically based lighting, materials and cameras for photorealistic stills and animation.
• CPU and GPU rendering options.
• A large asset and material library, plus training through Chaos Academy.

How to get the trial

1. The Download button opens the V-Ray page on chaos.com.
2. Choose Start your free trial and pick the version for your host application.
3. Sign in with a Chaos account; the trial lasts 30 days.

After the trial, V-Ray is sold as a subscription through Chaos and its resellers.

V-Ray, Corona or Enscape?

All three come from Chaos. Corona focuses on ease of use for 3ds Max and Cinema 4D archviz artists, Enscape is the real-time option inside BIM tools, and V-Ray is the most broadly supported. If you model in Blender, its built-in Cycles renderer is a free starting point before buying a commercial engine.