With a recent update to V-ray for Autodesk Maya, users can now enjoy using the VRayDistanceTex, which was always available in V-Ray for 3ds Max, and sadly missed for quite a long while in the Maya version.
The VRayDistanceTex is a texture node in V-ray that can return a color based on the distance of a point to an object, which, in itself can be useful for many things. Here, João from The Render Blog shows how you can use the VRayDistanceTex to create boolean operations at render time.
how to use the VRayDistanceTex to make render-time booleans
There are some advantages to creating booleans at render time, instead of directly into the model. It can provide a cleaner and more flexible result, leaving the mesh as modeled while also providing some interesting opportunities for animation.
João notes that the setup for creating render time booleans in V-Ray is quite easy, but does involve a few steps. Check out the tutorial for Creating V-Ray Render Time Booleans using the VRayDistanceTex here.
