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This page provides a step-by-step introduction to V-Ray for Unreal.

Page Contents

Overview

Tutorial Assets

To download the files used in this tutorial, please click on the button below.

Part I - Opening Unreal project and initial setup

Step 1. Launch Unreal Engine 4

Launch you version of Unreal from the Epic Games Launcher. (currently supported versions are 4.18.3 and 4.19)(1.1). A window appears. Click the Browse button and navigate to the project you wish to open. In our case it is called VRayInteriorDemo.uproject. (1.2)

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Column width 50% 1.1 Column width 50% 1.2

Step 2. Enable The V-Ray Plugin

When you open a project created with V-Ray for Unreal and you get a warning message (2.1) that means that the V-Ray plugin isn't enabled. From "Edit/Plugins" enable the VRayForUnreal plugin. You will need to restart Unreal for this to take effect.(2.2)

Step 3. Test Lightbake

After Unreal is restarted and the project opened, do a test lightbake to get a feel of the lighting in the scene. The scene contains one VRay Light Dome with an HDRI image plugged into the Dome Tex slot (3.1). Make sure to be on Preview in the Lighting quality to speedup the baking process (3.2). To do a test lightbake go to Build options menu > Build Lighting Only (3.3).

Part II - Camera, materials and Lightmass settings

Step 1. Post Process Settings

In order to have maximum visual parity between viewport and final render you have to disable some of the Unreal posprocess and lighting components. You can do so from in viewport Show > Post Processing and leave only Postprocess Material (1.1) . From Show > Lighting Component uncheck Ambient Occlusion (1.2).

Step 2. Enabling VRayPlugin in Content Browser

To create a V-Ray supported content such as lights and cameras you will have to enable its visibility in the Content Browser. Go to View Options and enable Show Engine Content and Show Plugin Content (2.1).

Step 3. Set up Camera

Next create a camera. Click on the Show or hide the source panel button to see the tree structure of the Content Browser (3.1). From there go to VRayForUnreal > Content > BP > Actors and drag and drop in the viewport the VRayPhysicalCamera (3.2).

After you've placed the VRayPhysicalCamera in the level you can look through it by going to the Viewport Types and select VRayPhysicalCamera from the dropdown menu (3.3). After that you can position the camera by holding down the Right Mouse Button and using the WASD keys for translation and the mouse for rotation (3.4).

The view looks dark due to the fact that the camera's exposure is not set correctly for this lighting scenario. To change the exposure parameters select the VRayPhysicalCamera and go VRayPhysical Camera Settings category and adjust the Shutter Speed=25 and F-number=1.4 (3.5). Next adjust the Current Focal Length value by going to Current Camera Settings category to make the camera more panoramic. Set Current Focal Length=20 (3.6). Then make any additional changes to the camera's position to make the final composition (3.7).

Step 4. Adjust Materials

Step 5. Inrease Lightmass Settings

Part III - Rendering the final image

Step 1. Render Image

Step 2. Refine the Render inside the VFB

Step 3. Save  the Render

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