Build 4.02.01 (V-Ray Next, Beta 1) (11 December 2017)
==============

New features:
(*) V-Ray: Update the SDK to make greater use of SSE instructions for 3D vector, color and matrix operations;
(*) V-Ray: Update Embree to version 2.13;
(*) V-Ray: Add options for auto-exposure and auto white balance in the Camera section of the render settings;
(*) V-Ray: Add tooltip translation support for various languages;
(*) V-Ray: Add scripts for the 3ds Max Scene Converter (2017 and newer) for various scene elements to V-Ray ones;
(*) V-Ray: Add drag-n-drop support for V-Ray asset files onto the 3ds Max window (.vrmesh, .abc, .vrscene, .ies, .aur, .f3d, .vdb, .vrlmap, .vrmap);
(*) V-Ray: Require CPU with SSE 4.2 to support SIMD optimizations;
(*) V-Ray: Show render progress on the Windows taskbar buttons;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Add support for glossy Fresnel;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Improved GPU 3D displacement;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Initial version of GPU dedicated UI (to be further simplified in next versions);
(*) V-Ray GPU: Initial support for VRayEnvironmentFog (without textures);
(*) V-Ray GPU: Initial support of VRayVolumeGrid (brute force probabilistic volume sampling only);
(*) V-Ray GPU: Initial support for VRscans (VRayScannedMtl);
(*) V-Ray GPU: Support for Bercon Noise texture;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Support for DoF with pinhole camera;
(*) VRayLight: New adaptive dome light option to help speed up rendering of interior scenes and IBL in general (work in progress);
(*) VRayHairMtl2: Implement initial version of a new hair shader with melanin color control;
(*) VRayDenoiser: Ability to denoise multiple render elements in a single pass (also added denoising on/off in various other REs);
(*) VRayMDL: Ability to manage include paths through MAXScript;
(*) VRayMDL: Support for UTF-8 resource file paths;
(*) VRayMtl: Add a texmap slot for the GGX GTR tail falloff;
(*) VRayOSL/VRayMDL: Allow adding shader include paths from UI;
(*) VRayPluginNode: Initial implementation of VRayPluginNode material and texture;
(*) VRayProxy: Modifiers applied to VRayProxy objects are rendered correctly (the proxy is converted to a regular mesh);
(*) VRayRenderTime: Per-pixel render time information render element (bucket sampler only);
(*) VRayScannedMtl: Add triplanar mapping option;
(*) VRaySwitchMtl: Add switch material for selecting sub-materials based on a texmap value;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Integrate new velocity-based grid interpolation method;
(*) vdenoise.exe: Implement GUI for use without command-line parameters;
(*) vrstconvert.exe: Add the deep reader and converter for .vrst files to V-Ray for 3ds max and Nuke installations;

Modified features:
(*) V-Ray: Simplify code at key points by removing stale parts and avoid wasting time on branches;
(*) V-Ray: Better render time estimation for progressive sampling;
(*) V-Ray: Optimize the use of DR servers (early free servers at the end of a render so that they can join other jobs);
(*) V-Ray: Reduce the number of samples in the light cache;
(*) V-Ray: Optimize intersection calculations with SIMD where possible;
(*) V-Ray: Faster calculation of surface normals for 3D displacement;
(*) V-Ray: Allow licenses with the server to be accssed through a network proxy;
(*) V-Ray: Remove the "Show GI Only" option from the render settings as it's obsoleted by the VRayGlobalIllumination render element;
(*) V-Ray: Print a warning if a node has different shadow and GI visibility flags as this causes artifacts with the adaptive dome light;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Support for material IDs higher than 255 in the 3ds Max Multi/Sub-object material;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Faster VRayDirt & rounded corners in some cases;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Support for VRayDirt "Consider same object only";
(*) V-Ray GPU: Better sampling of rectangle and mesh lights in some cases;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Better sampling of glossy materials;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Optimize GPU displacement/subdivision compile times;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Improve normal mapping in procedural maps;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Broadcast 3ds Max rendering notifications during production rendering;
(*) V-Ray GPU: Export Ornatrix and HairFarm instances emitted by VRayInstancer;
(*) .vrscene export: Add export times for various scene objects (i.e. Nodes/Nodes' meshes/Materials/Texmaps);
(*) .vrscene export: Export for VRayNoiseLevel render element;
(*) .vrscene export: Export the Cryptomatte render elements;
(*) .vrscene export: When exporting animations to vrscene and motion blur is OFF, export at exact frame times;
(*) VFB: Ability to load as background OpenEXR images with data window;
(*) VFB: Auto-fit for A/B images with different resolutions;
(*) VFB: Save 3ds Max scene path to history and add option to load the scene from the VFB history right-click context menu;
(*) VFB: Support for gamma 2.2 color correction in the VFB history;
(*) VRayHDRI: Optimize memory usage for opaque and monochrome bitmaps (work in progress);
(*) VRayMtl: Faster rendering of glass materials with diffuse components;
(*) VRayMtl: Add "Compensate camera exposure" for Self-illumination;
(*) VRayMtl: Remove the highlight glossiness parameter and the lock button;
(*) VRayPhysicalCamera: Reintroduce the V-Ray physical camera and update its UI;
(*) VRayDistanceTex: Optimize both viewport preview and rendering speeds;
(*) VRayInstancer: Ability to instance Ornatrix and HairFarm objects;
(*) VRayFur: Add dynamic tessellation option;
(*) VRayGLSL/VRayOSL: Change range of GLSL/OSL anisotropy rotation parameter of GGX BRDF;
(*) VRayIES: Add option to specify the actual light power of the source, instead of using the prescribed power from the IES profile;
(*) VRayLight: Change the Half-Length/Half-Width options to Length/Width for Plane light;
(*) VRayMultiSubTex: Add a random seed parameter;
(*) VRayMultiSubTex: Add option for the VRayMultiSubTex texture to cycle through the textures;
(*) VRayMDL: Add support for "boolean" widgets;
(*) VRayMDL: Make widget types case-insensitive;
(*) VRayMDL: vMaterials autodetection;
(*) VRayMDL: Improve anisotropy precision;
(*) VRayScene: Possibility to use shader names with MtlMulti/GeomStaticMesh;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Ability to horizontally or vertically stretch and flip the selection in curve controls;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Implement stronger Approximate Scattering for brighter regions and lower scattering for the darker regions of the same volume;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Improve temperature interpolation using the Precise Tracing method;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Flickering when rendering Smoke Color based on a gradient with varying data range with Approximate Scattering;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Option to control the minimum visible voxel opacity for the volumetric shader;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Option to disable preview cache load during simulation or when not rendering;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Rename Cache Start to Cache Origin and Play Start to Timeline Origin;
(*) VRayVolumeGrid: Render negative Fire from caches imported from FumeFX;
(*) V-Ray scene converter: Add conversion from Autodesk Bitmap to VRayHDRI;
(*) V-Ray .vrmat converter: Add partial support for VRayLightMtl;
(*) ply2vrmesh.exe: Skip @subdivGeometry and displaced in vrscene files with and directly convert the linked static mesh;
(*) vdenoise.exe: Ability to denoise multiple render elements in a single pass;