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The V-Ray Asset Editor is the place where you can create, save, open assets, and adjust their settings. These include materials, textures, geometry, and lights. You can also manage the Render Channels from the Asset Editor. From its Settings tab, you can choose the render engine, set up the camera, optimize the render process, or render with Swarm. You can also start the render or submit a scene to Chaos Cloud , as well as open the VFB.

 

 

UI Paths

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 ||V-Ray Toolbar || > Asset Editor button...

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||V-Ray Toolbar|| > Asset Editor (left-click) > Shows the Asset Editor window

||V-Ray Toolbar|| > Asset Editor (right-click) > Shows the File Path Editor

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Functionalities

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Categories

Assets are grouped in Categories for ease of access and use. On top of the central Asset Editor's panel you can find the Materials, Lights, Geometry, Render Elements, and Textures categories.

You can create an asset in the respective category by Left- or Right-click if the category is empty. If there are already items in it Left-click will select the directory, while a Right-click always opens a list of available assets to choose from in order to create them. The Asset creation dropdown lists remain active when the Ctrl key is held, allowing the creation of multiple assets in quick succession.

Each Category has a Search Scene tab on the top of the list. You can search for assets from the category selected. You can select more than one category or asset at a time with Ctrl+select(Cmd+select) or Shift+select.

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The Assets tab search function only displays top-level hierarchy assets.

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The Asset lists have some additional multi-selection functionalities:

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  • Ctrl + Left-click on deselected item - Adds to the selection;
  • Ctrl + Left-click on selected item - removes it from the selection;
  • Ctrl + A - Selects all items in the list/category;
  • Shift + Left-click - expands the range of the current selection;
  • Shift + Del - deletes the selected asset(s) without showing a confirmation dialog.
  • Left-Click + Drag - Drags only the clicked item entry;
  • Right-Click on deselected item - Shows the context menu for the item and does not change the current selection;
  • Right-Click on selected item - Shows the context menu for the item and doesn't change the selection. If multiple entries are selected the context menu will display only their common actions.
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Buttons

At the bottom of the Asset Editor you can find some utility buttons:

From the Create Asset button (Image RemovedImage Added) you can open a list of all V-Ray assets grouped into categories and select an item to add it to the scene. Using the Import Asset button (Image RemovedImage Added) you can open a directory and select to import a .vrmat file into your Library. Vice versa, an already created asset can be saved with the Save Asset to File button (Image RemovedImage Added). Delete the selected asset(s) with the Delete Asset button (Image RemovedImage Added). You can select more than one asset by using the Ctrl or Shift buttons. Purge all unused items of selected asset categories with the Purge Unused Assets button (Image RemovedImage Added).

In the right panel of the Asset Editor reside two navigation buttons:

Select Previous Asset (Image RemovedImage Added) traces back assets that were previously selected, while Up the Assets Hierarchy (Image RemovedImage Added) moves the selection one level up in the hierarchy.

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Some keyboard shortcuts are available for navigation in the Asset Editor.

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For Windows:

  • Ctrl + (1/2/3/4/5/6) - Switches to the corresponding category or the settings view;
  • Ctrl + 0 - Selects all categories;
  • Alt + (1/2/3/4/5) - Adds to the active categories;
  • Ctrl + A - selects all assets in the category of the current selection;
  • Shift + Left-click - expands the range of the current selection;
  • Delete - Deletes the selected asset/s;
  • Ctrl + Left Arrow - Selects the previous asset;
  • Ctrl + Up Arrow - Selects the parent of the active asset;

  • Ctrl + ( [ or ] ) - Toggles the left or right fly-off panels;

  • Cmd + (1/2/3/4/5/6) - Switches to the corresponding category or the settings view;
  • Cmd + 0 - Selects all categories;
  • Alt + (1/2/3/4/5

    Up/Down Arrow - Increases/decreases the number field with different step (the step varies depending on the parameter).

  • Up/Down Arrow or Left/Right Arrow - Increases/decreases the value of any other slider1.

For Mac OS X:

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    - Adds to the active categories;
  • Cmd + A - selects all assets in the category of the current selection;
  • Shift + Left-click - expands the range of the current selection;
  • Fn + Delete - Deletes the selected asset/s;
  • Cmd + Left Arrow - Selects the previous asset;
  • Cmd + Up Arrow - Selects the parent of the active asset;

  • Cmd + ( [ or ] ) - Toggles the left or right fly-off panels.

  • Left Click + Up/Down Arrow - Increases/decreases the EV number field with 0.5.

  • Left Click +Up/Down Arrow or  Left/Right Arrow - Increases/decreases the value of any other slider1.

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Preset

Library Buttons

Material Library Buttons

In V-Ray 6, the V-Ray Material Library is part of the Chaos Cosmos Browser. The Browse Materials in Cosmos button in the left panel of the V-Ray Asset Editor opens the material library.

In earlier V-Ray versions, the V-Ray Material Library is called Preset Material Library and it resides in the Asset Browser. It The Preset Material Library also has some functionality buttons at the bottom of the Asset Editor.

Import Asset File (Image RemovedImage Added) button adds a directory in which your .vrmats reside. When you load the directory, the .vrmats files will load in the Preset Material Library as separate assets.

You can change the view between a row and a column via the (Image RemovedImage Added) button. The assets' display can be changed between a grid and a list view (Image RemovedImage Added). Use the zoom in/out buttons (Image RemovedImage Added) to adjust the size of the preview swatches in on the list.

Note that materials that have already been downloaded with any earlier V-Ray version remain unchanged and can still be loaded as a custom folder with V-Ray 6.

For more information about all the functionalities that the Preset V-Ray Material Library offers, follow the link.

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Multi-selection of assets is possible in the Library, but you cannot drag-and-drop more than one asset at a time.

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Preview Swatch

The Preview Swatch resides in the right panel of the Asset Editor, rendering all changes done to the currently selected asset. This is a quick preview of materials, textures, and lights. It has several controls that can be customized for your workflow.

You can enable or disable the live preview of the swatch by pressing the corresponding button (Image RemovedImage Added/Image RemovedImage Added). As the Preview Swatch is an actual render, it might require some additional computing power. The Stop live preview button comes in handy in such situations. When you stop the live preview, you have the option to Preview the asset once (Image RemovedImage Added). The swatch will render the current settings of the asset, but will not take into consideration any changes done to it later.

When using the live preview swatch, there are other ways to reduce resource usage – choose the resolution of the rendered swatch from 100% (1/1) (which is the best quality , but is a slower render), 50%(1/2), 25%(1/4) and 12.5% (1/8) (which trades off image quality for refresh speed).

The CPU/GPU (Image Added) allows you to change the render engine for the live preview.

Selecting the scene used to preview the asset (Image RemovedImage Added) is available for materials and textures. You can choose from Generic, Fabric, Floor, Ground, Subsurface Scattering, Wall and , Wall Closeup and Sphere.

Pulling the bottom line of the Preview Swatch up and down reduces or expands the swatch.

For Material assets, you can also choose among several swatch scenes. Some are more suitable than others at displaying certain material types. For example, a Brick material will be best seen in a wall preview, instead of a shader ball.

The pin (Image RemovedImage Added) on the top left is used to preview a specific asset regardless of the currently selected one. It will display the pinned asset until unpinned.

The context menu of each Color slot provides options to Copy and Paste, as well as to Reset it back to its default value. Number slots also have a Reset option.

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When changing the Units of a given light, its preview will be updated accordingly. Changes of the light intensity value are displayed up to a certain amount in order to guarantee the preview remains illustrative.

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Using the Stop Preview Swatch option releases the V-Ray Render node License, if there is no other rendering process taking place.

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Asset Tagging

Custom grouping scene assets of any type is now possible in the V-Ray Assets Outliner. Tags help to organize and work more efficiently in complex projects.

Each tag can be assigned to multiple assets all at once via the context menu and one asset can be assigned multiple tags.

Tags can be assigned to assets of all categories - materials, textures, lights, etc. When a tag is assigned to assets of different types, the tag indicator will appear in each category.

Right-clicking on a tag allows its renaming or deletion. Alternatively, double-clicking a tag name allows its renaming directly.

Drag & dropping an asset over a tag assigns the tag to this asset.

Upon creation each tag is assigned a random color.

A new Tag View button, located at the top-right corner of the Asset Outliner, next to the search field, allows toggling tags visibility on or off.

Right-clicking on any asset and hovering over its "Tag" context menu entry displays a list of all available tags in the scene, as well indicators which tags are currently assigned to the asset.

Tags are considered scene-specific, meaning they are serialized in each project file and they cannot be transferred between scenes.

Saving any asset as a .vrmat does not write its tags to the file keeping it clean of any scene-specific data.

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Mathematical Expressions

Entering mathematical expressions as text in the input number fields of the asset editor is also allowed. Find some useful examples below.

If a non valid mathematical expression is written in the input field, it is ignored and the value of the input remains the same.

Examples of supported operations:

InputResultExamples
+Addition1 + 3 = 4
-Subtraction4 - 2 = 2
*Multiplication3 * 2 = 6
/Division3 / 2 = 1.5
ModModulo6 Mod 4 = 2
!Factorial5! = 120
logLogarithm with base 10log1000 = 3
lnNatural Logarithmln2 = 0.6931...
powPower functionpow(2,3) = 8
^Power function2^3 = 8
rootSquare rootroot(4) = 2

Trigonometric functions are supported such as "cos", "sin", "tan" are also supported.

The following mathematical constants are supported as well.

  • pi = 3.1415...
  • e = 2.71...

Parenthesis are also supported which allows for complex mathematical expressions such as: (3*2)^2/4 = 9. Parenthesis are not necessary for some of the operators: e.g.

  • root2 = root(2)
  • ln2 = ln(2)
  • sin60 = sin(60)
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Color Picker
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The V-Ray Color Picker can can be accessed by clicking on any color slot in the Asset Editor. It is a color manager that allows numeric color value selection in Screen (sRGB) and Rendering (RGB) Color spaces, options to regulate RGB, HSV and temperature. V-Ray Color Picker automatically converts Kelvin to RGB values, as well as RGB to Kelvin whenever possible.

Left-click on the current color to save it in the palette. Alternatively, right-click on an empty slot in the palette. Right-click on a saved color in the color slot to replace it with a new one.

The V-Ray Color Picker has a Color Assistant that can be opened by clicking on the side bar at the bottom of V-Ray Color Picker window. The Color Assistant provides color palettes to pick a color from.

Left-click on a color from the Color Assistant to pick the current color. Right-click on it to use as a base for a color palette.

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V-Ray Frame Buffer Buttons

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The following buttons are available:

ButtonDescription

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Opens

The Frame Buffer button opens up

the V-Ray Frame Buffer.

For more information on V-Ray Frame Buffer, see the Frame Buffer page

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Opens the V-Ray Light Gen.

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Opens Chaos Cosmos Browser window.

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Opens the V-Ray log window.

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Opens V-Ray File Path Editor.

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Opens Chaos Cloud Collaboration.
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Render Button

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The Render button allows you to choose how you wish to render, Render with V-Ray, Render with V-Ray Interactive, and Export V-Ray Scene File.

 

ButtonDescription

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Renders the current view with the V-Ray production renderer.

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Stops the current V-Ray production render.

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Starts a V-Ray Interactive Render.

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Stops the V-Ray Interactive Render.

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Exports the scene to Chaos Cloud.

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Exports a V-Ray Scene File (.vrscene)
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Notes

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1 - Sliders are allowed to be focused and controlled by the keyboard. The visual indication that a slider is focused, is the same as if you have hovered over it

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3 - Most numeric V-Ray parameters come with a slider to make fine-tuning easier. Each slider is set to a default range of recommended or commonly used values. If a value above that range is used the slider adapts by increasing its range accordingly (2x the input value) to maintain usability. If a value below the current slider range is used, the slider again adjusts its range by shrinking it to twice the amount of the input value.

 

4 - The slider range of some numeric V-Ray paramters does not indicated indicate the parameter's total minimum and maximum input values. The absolute minimum and maximum values of each parameter can be found by hovering over its spinbox.

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