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BASIC VRAY RENDER SETTING

Before you start This tutorial will explain very briefly many of the Vray render settings. A very basic 3D Studio Max nowledge is needed to be able to follow the tutorial. !or more info on each topic" please refer to the online manual. #t$s also a good thing if you have a basic understanding of rendering in general. Terms li e %lobal #llumination" raytracing" antialiasing" displacement and so on should sound familiar before you start wor ing with Vray. The Vray version # used for this tutorial is &.'(.)3. 1. Set Vray as the production renderer *pen the render settings dialog" go to the current renderer rollout and clic the assign button for production renderer. +hoose Vray from the list.

. E!tra ro""outs# After Vray has been set as the main renderer" you$ll notice a lot of new rollouts. ,very rollout with -Vray.- in front of its name is filled with Vray render settings... The next steps will each cover one rollout in general.

$. Vray fra%e &uffer /hen enabled" the Vray frame buffer replaces the Max virtual frame buffer. The Vray frame buffer has much more options to post process images and lots of other interesting settings. #n this rollout you can control the si0e of it by disabling the $get resolution from max$ chec box. 1endering to Vray raw image file enables you to render very high resolution images" without eating up all the available 1AM. The use of the Vray frame buffer is for advanced Vray users only. Don$t bother using it when you$re new to Vray.

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'. Vray ("o&a" s)itches 2ere you can control and override many of Vray$s settings" mainly used to speed up test rendering. 3ou can turn off all displacement" lights" default max lights" hidden lights and shadows by 4ust untic ing the appropriate chec box5 The -don$t render final image- button is used to let Vray only compute the %# 6irradiance map for example7 without actually rendering the image. !orget this for now .87 Turn all reflections and refractions in the scene on or off by untic ing the chec box. Very usefull for testing purposes. The max depth controls the depth of the reflection9refraction 6the number of times a ray can reflect9refract before it is being ignored in the raytracing process7. 3ou can also turn off al maps" all filtering of maps etc... %lossy effects are for example blurry reflections or refractions. Turning them off greatly improves rendertime" very neat while doing testrenders. *verride material can be used to give every ob4ect in the scene the same material. Secondary ray bias. please refer to the manual.

*. I%a(e sa%p"er +Antia"iasin(, #n Vray" you can choose between 3 types of image samplers to compute the anti aliasing of the image. This controls how sharp and smooth your image will be" and has a huge effect on rendertimes5 !ixed rate is very predicatble" but slow in many cases. :se this one if there are a lot of glossy materials" area shadows" motion blur etc... 2igher subdivs means better ;uality" higher rendertimes. Adaptive <M+ is my favourite. As its name already indicates" it$s an adaptive sampler" it will adapt its calculation to the situation. #t will compare the ;uality of the computed pixel by some thresholds" and decide if it$s good enough or if there$s more calculation needed. This samplers ;uality is controlled by the <M+ rollout 6further down in the rollouts7. :se adaptive <M+ if you have many glossies" area shadows" motion blur etc in your scene" and if you want maximum control over the speed vs ;uality of the image. #t ta es some time to get a grip on it" but once you get it" you have full control over Vray with 4ust a few clic s. Adaptive subdivision is also an adaptive method. Altough very fast is many cases" it can get very slow with lots of glossy effects in the scene. #t also uses more 1AM memory while rendering. :se this sampler if you have large smooth areas in your scene 6for example an interior with large white walls7. The min9max rates control the ;uality" )9= are good values" 8=98& are good for very fast test renders. Some testing will be needed to understand the differences between the 3 samplers. The online documents have

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very good explanations on this topic" with lots of examples showing all differences. The anti aliasing filter can be changed if you have problems with fine textures or fine details in the scene. ,very sampler has its own characteristics" but it is not the goal of this tutorial to explain them all. #n many cases you can get away by simply turning the filter off5 A few filters # use often. 8 none 8 mitchell netravali. smooth result" good controls 8 catmull rom. very sharp 6a bit li e the result of $unsharp mas $ in photoshop7 8 soften with radius around =.> 6smooth and fast7

-. Indirect i""u%ination +GI, This rollout controls the main options for the %# 6? bounced light7. @i e most %# renderers" Vray ma es a difference between first and secondary bounces. A simple spotlight will cast direct light. This light hits an ob4ect and will be absorbed a bit" but the rest bounces bac into the scene. This is the first bounce. This first bounce will probably hit another ob4ect and will bounce again 6second bounce7 and so on untill no energy is left. The direct light and first bounce will have the largest impact on the lighting loo " because this bounced light has still a lot of energy. So these need to be computed very accurately to create realistic lighting. The secondary bounces are usually less important 6a lot of the light energy is already absorbed" there$s less impact on the visual result7" so approximisations can be rougher here. 6interior scenes are an exception" the secondary bounces become important too7 3ou can choose between different ways of computing first and second bounces" and ad4ust the strength of them 6multipliers7. Aost processing options can desaturate the %# light" or its contrast. +austics are light patterns formed by refracted9reflected light. %# caustics are caustics created by refracted9reflected %# light 6light bounces7. The standard first and secondary bounces don$t ta e the reflective9refractive material properties into account" only the diffuse properties. 3ou need to turn them on or off with the two appropriate chec boxes. An example of very visible reflective caustics is the light pattern you will see if you put a spotlight on a chrome ring lying on a table. 1efractive caustics are generated for example by a glass sphere" which bundles all light that passes through it" creating a very bright spot underneath it. Bote that when you want %# light to pass trough transparent ob4ects" you must set $refractive %#$ caustics *B5 1emember that caustics is only a name for refracted9reflected light. Cecause light coming from a max spotlight for example is direct light and not %# light" you also have the ability in Vray to render these direct light caustics.

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.. Irradiance %ap / 0uasi %onte car"o / photon %appin( / "i(ht cache Depending on the method for first and secondary bounces you have chosen" the above rollouts will appear. They are all ways of calculating %# bounces. ,ach have their specific advantages and uses. # will explain these in a seperate tutorial as this is too complicated for this basic settings overview. !or now" remember that all these methods are ways to approximate %# lighting. %# calculations are very time consuming" that$s why methods are invented to speed things up by using approximate values. 1. Caustics 1emember the direct light caustics from step DE /ell" here you can turn them on or off" and control some parameters. To get nice direct light caustics" you will also need to ma e ad4ustments in the Vraylight settings. #f # find the time" # will ma e a direct caustics tutorial too5 A simple tric to eliminate the need for direct light caustics" is simply not to use direct lights .87 /ith only %# light" you tic $refractive9reflective %# caustics$ in the #ndirect #llumination rollout and all caustics will be calculated according to your %# settings5 *f course it is not always possible to use only %# light...

2. En3iron%ent Vray allows you to override the Max environment with these controls. :se the s ylight to light the scene with a $s ylight$. #f you put a map in the slot behind it" the color swatch is neglected and instead" the map is used to light the scene. 3ou need to enable %# for the s ylight to become visible. The s ylight is not a direct light" it$s actually treated as first bounce" that$s why %# is needed to ma e the s ylight visible. Bote that if %# is enabled" s ylight is turned off and you have put a color in the Max bac ground" that color will be used as s ylight5 The other swatch controls the reflection9refraction environment. Bo matter what the max environment is" your ob4ects will always reflect9refract this Vray override. 3ou can also put a map in there li e with the s ylight option. Bote that these settings will not show up in the bac ground of the render5 :se the Max environment setting for this.

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14. 05C Sa%p"er The <M+ sampler can be seen as a global ;uality control center. #t controls all paramters that have anything to do with <uasi Monte +arlo calculations li e adaptive <M+ AA" <M+ %#" #rradiance map" %lossy effects" area shadows" Motion Clur and Depth of field. The most important parameter is the noise threshold" this controls the accuracy of al the calculations. The highest ;uality setting is ).))&" but this of course re;uires the longest rendertime. The global subdivs multiplier can be used to lower9increase all subdivision parameters in the scene 6#rradiance map" <M+ %#" glossies" area shadows" Motion Clur" Depth of field"...7. This is very usefull for fast testrenders.

11. Co"or %appin( +olor mapping can be used to inda post process an image within Vray. Alease refer to the manual for more information about the different types.

1 . Ca%era 3ou can choose different camera types instead of the default standard Max camera" for example fish eye lense" spherical camera" cylindrical etc... Alease refer to the manual for more information about these different camera types. Depth of field is an effect caused by the diameter of the diafragma opening of the camera. *b4ects that are out of focus will become blurred. The further away from focus and the bigger the diafragma" the more the ob4ect will be blurred. Motion blur is the blur that you get when ob4ects move very fast" or when the camera is moving. Coth of these effects are raytraced" not fa ed with some fancy tric s" so they have a big impact on rendertimes...

1$. Defau"t disp"ace%ent These parameters control the default Vraydisplacement settings. More on displacement can be found in the online manual" with lots of illustrations.

1'. Syste% Another rollout that controls all inds of general parameters. 1aycaster parameters are used to control the amount of memory Vray uses for a specific scene. #n FFG of all

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cases you don$t need to touch these5 1ender region division. H and 3 control the width and height of a render buc et. !or small render resolutions" you can lower these" for high resolutions you can increase these. %ood values are s;uares between 3= and &=Ipx. 1egion se;uence alters the order in which the buc ets get rendered. Distributed rendering is the process of rendering & image with different A+$s. -Arevious render- controls how the previous render in the frame buffer is overwritten by the new buc ets. Default geometry static9dynamic. refer to the manual. !rame stamp is usefull to print rendertimes and such on the rendered image. *b4ects and lights settings control Vray specific properties for scene ob4ects and lights. 3ou can turn off9on all inds of things locally for each ob4ect in the scene. Aresets can save all or some render settings for easy and ;uic switching between for example test settings or high ;uality settings. The Vray log is the small window that appears while rendering" giving you some textual feedbac about the rendering process. The level controls how much feedbac is printed inside the box.