Chaos is a rendering and

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

software developer Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, Computer programming, programming, software documentation, documenting, software testing, testing, and Software bugs, bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applic ...

headquartered in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, Germany and

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, Bulgaria. It was founded in 1997 by Peter Mitev and Vladimir Koylazov. Chaos is best known for the development of

V-Ray V-Ray is a biased computer-generated imagery rendering software application developed by Bulgarian software company Chaos . V-Ray is a commercial plug-in for third-party 3D computer graphics software applications and is used for visualizatio ...

. In 2022, it merged with

Enscape Enscape is a commercial real-time rendering and virtual reality plugin. It is mainly used in the architecture, engineering, and construction fields and is developed and maintained by Enscape GmbH, founded in 2013 and based in Karlsruhe, Germany w ...

, with the resulting company keeping the Chaos brand.

History

Chaos was founded in 1997 in Sofia, Bulgaria as Chaos Group by Peter Mitev and Vladimir Koylazov. The company released its first product, fire and smoke simulation software ''Phoenix'', then called ''Phoenix FD''. In 2002, it released the first version of 3D rendering software ''

''. In 2017, Vladimir Koylazov, then CTO of Chaos, received a Scientific and Engineering Award from the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

for his work on V-Ray. In 2021, Chaos went on to win an Engineering Emmy Award from the

National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, edu ...

for their work on it. Other products released by Chaos include ''Cosmos'', ''Vantage'', ''Scans'' and ''Cloud'', most of them tying into V-Ray. In 2017, the company acquired Czech software developer Render Legion, known for Corona Renderer, later rebranding the subsidiary to Chaos Czech. As part of a larger rebranding effort by Chaos, Corona Renderer was rebranded to ''Chaos Corona'' in 2022, bringing it in line with the rest of the company's products. In 2021, the company rebranded from Chaos Group to Chaos. In January 2022, the company merged with German software developer

, with the resulting company maintaining the Chaos brand. Following the merger, Chaos acquired Danish 3D product visualization platform developer Cylindo in April. In May, the company acquired architectural visualization website CGarchitect, best known for their 3D Awards program. As part of the latter purchase, all paid features of the newly acquired website were made available to all accounts for free.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.chaos.com/ 2022 mergers and acquisitions Companies established in 1997 Software companies of Bulgaria Companies based in Sofia