Hi gang,
Bullet-pointing this for ease (hopefully!):
*Been in the trade for 20+ yrs and CAD-ding jewellery for the last 15 yrs with Matrix.
*Recently invested (over 20K!) into new hard and software in light of Windows 11 changes.
*Started with a lovely fresh Rhino 8 license. No worries there except for shite renderings gemstone-wise (compared to the V-Ray I was used to in Matrix 8 with Rhino 5).
*Purchased Crossgems Pro plugin. Ignorantly assumed (since it’s been 10+ years since our last software and computer upgrade) that everything would be faster with more beautiful renderings etc, but OMG what TF have I done?!
*Since installation of Crossgems, any materials I apply to layers in Rhino 8 don’t render, nor can I customize/create gem materials in Crossgems.
*The tutorial by Crossbytes about creating custom materials shows very different and/or non-existent menus to what I’m seeing. (During a short training course for Crossgems in late March this year, I was able to do this somewhat easily.)
*Currently trialing a Keyshot render plugin but oh dear…
2 Questions:
1: Does anyone know I’m doing wrong within Crossgems and Rhino material-wise?
2: Any ideas on a render plugin that is comparable to V-ray (the beautiful version that was auto-incorporated into Matrix 8)? With infinitely customizable gemstones and major photo-realism. (A subscription is fine if that’s the only way now and only needed on one device.)
I’m blown away that on top of all of this expense, we still have to continue to spend more time and moolah to have renderings anywhere near tech from 10 years ago. They’ve truly got us goldsmiths by the short and curlies here! Argh! So many regrets! I should have stuck with my old dinosaur computer and used Matrix & V-Ray offline. Ahhh hindsight…bless ya 
MANY thanks,
Pen 