Render Elements Overview
The V-Ray Render Elements are implemented as Pass Shaders in Softimage. To add render elements you need to go to the Current Pass options, select the Pass Shaders tab and then add the render elements as Output shaders.
List of Supported Render Elements
The following render elements are supported by V-Ray. All render elements support native V-Ray materials. Some render elements also support standard Softimage materials. This is noted in the table below.
Render element name | VRayMtl support | Std material support | Filtering control | Transparency support | Description |
VRay Atmospheric Effects | yes | yes | no** | yes | The atmospheric effects. |
VRay Background | yes | yes | yes** | yes | The image background. |
VRay Bump Normals | yes | yes | yes | no | The normals generated by bump maps |
VRay Caustics | yes | no* | yes** | yes | The caustics on the material. Only present when the Caustics option of V-Ray is enabled. This channel does not include GI caustics. |
VRay Coverage | yes | yes | yes | no | Shows the part of the image taken by each visible object |
VRay Diffuse Channel Color | yes | yes | yes** | yes | The pure diffuse surface color. |
VRay DR Bucket | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Shows which render node rendered which bucket during distributed rendering |
VRay Extra Texture | N/A | N/A | no | N/A | Renders the entire scene with one texture mapped on all objects. |
VRay GI | yes | no* | yes** | yes | The diffuse surface global illumination. Only present if Global illumination is enabled. |
VRay Lighting | yes | yes* | yes** | yes | The diffuse direct surface lighting. |
VRay Light Select | yes | yes | yes | yes | Allows the user to extract the contribution of a light or a set of lights to the scene to a separate render element. |
VRay Material_ID | yes | no | no (always off) | no | The material ID of the object. |
VRay Matte Shadow | yes | yes | yes | yes | The matte shadow part of the image |
VRay Multi Matte | yes | yes | no | N/A | Create selection masks based on object ID or material ID |
VRay Normals | yes | yes | yes | no | The surface normals. |
VRay Object_ID | yes | yes | no (always off) | no | The object gbuffer ID (set through VRayObjectProperty). |
VRay Raw GI | yes | yes | yes** | yes | The raw diffuse global illumination (not multiplied by the diffuse surface color). Only present if Global illumination is enabled. |
VRay Raw Light | yes | no | yes** | yes | The raw diffuse direct illumination before it's multiplied by the diffuse surface color. |
VRay Raw Reflection | yes | no | yes** | yes | The pure surface reflection before it's multiplied by the reflection filter color. |
VRay Raw Refraction | yes | no | yes** | yes | The pure surface refraction before it's multiplied by the refraction filter color. |
VRay Raw Shadow | yes | no | yes** | yes | The raw light that was blocked by other objects. |
VRay Reflection | yes | yes | yes** | yes | The reflections on the surface. |
VRay Reflection Filter | yes | no | yes** | yes | The reflection filter (the color by which the raw reflections are multiplied to give the final surface reflection). This may be considered as an alpha channel for the reflections. |
VRay Refraction | yes | no | yes** | yes | The refractions on the surface. |
VRay Refraction Filter | yes | no | yes** | yes | The refraction filter (the color by which the raw refractions are multiplied to give the final surface refraction). This may be considered as an alpha channel for the refractions. |
VRay Render_ID | yes | yes | no (always off) | no | The node render ID of the object that contributes most to the pixel value. |
VRay Sampler Rate | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Shows an image where the pixel brightness is directly proportional to the number of samples taken at this pixel. |
VRay Self Illumination | yes | yes | yes** | yes | The self-illumination of the surface. |
VRay Shadow | yes | no | yes** | yes | The diffuse light that was blocked by other objects. |
VRay Specular | yes | yes | yes** | yes | The surface specular highlights. |
VRay SSS2 | no | no | yes | N/A | Renders just the subsurface part of the VRaySSS2 material on a separate layer |
VRayVelocity | yes | yes | yes | no | The surface velocity. This channel will not be generated if 3d motion blur is enabled. |
VRayZDepth | yes | yes | yes | no | The z-depth of the surface. |
* For Standard materials, the VRayLighting element includes the direct and indirect lighting as well as caustics, while the VRayGlobalIllumination and VRayCaustics elements are black. However for all materials, adding the VRayLighting, VRayGlobalIllumination and VRayCaustics elements always gives the total diffuse surface lighting.
** When an element is filtered, it will be dimmed by atmospheric effects like fog etc. However, when an element is unfiltered, it will not be affected by atmospherics.
Example: Render Elements and Combinations
Here are some examples of render elements and their combinations. Note that the original elements were generated by V-Ray on one pass (no re-rendering required).
Normally, render elements are added to each other in order to reproduce the final result; however, there are a few exceptions:
- the Raw GI and Raw Lighting elements must be multiplied by the Diffuse element before they are added to the final image.
- the Shadow element is not, strictly speaking, a part of the image; however, it can be added to the Raw Lighting element to adjust the shadow intensity. Simply adding the two elements produces lighting as though no shadows were computed.
Also note that multiplying the Raw GI element by the Diffuse element will give the Global Illumination element; multiplying the Raw Lighting element by the Diffuse element gives the Lighting element. This gives the user more freedom for adjusting the scene lighting.
RGB color
Real RGB color
Notice that the antialiasing is worse on very bright parts
(the area light and its reflections)
Self-illumination only
Direct Lighting only
Global illumination only
Reflections only
Refractions only
Diffuse color only
Raw lighting
Shadows only
Note the aliasing at the box shadow.
The RGB Color channel does not require more samples in that area.
Raw GI only
Raw lighting + shadows (added)
The resulting illumination is as though shadows were turned off.
Raw lighting * diffuse (multiplied)
The result is the same as the Direct Lighting only channel.
Raw GI * diffuse (multiplied)
The result is the same as the GI only channel.
Self-illumination + Direct lighting + Global illumination + Reflection + Refraction (all added)
The result is the same as the Real RGB Color channel.
Notes
- V-Ray always antialiases with respect to the RGB color channel. Therefore other channels may appear jagged or noisy in areas where V-Ray has placed fewer samples.
- Render elements may slow down the final image rendering a little bit, depending on the number of elements that the user has selected. They have no effect on GI/reflection etc. calculations.