File name – The source .vrmesh file. Animated proxies can be stored either in one single file, or as a sequence of files with one file per frame. In the latter case, you can use the string <frame0n> in the file name to have it replaced with the current frame number at render time, where n is an integer number specifying the number of digits. For example, if you enter my_proxy_<frame04>.vrmesh as the file name, this will be expanded to my_proxy_0000.vrmesh for frame 0, my_proxy_0001.vrmesh for frame 1, and so on. If you use a sequence of files, the Playback type option is ignored, as V-Ray doesn't know how many frames are in the animation. The Playback speed parameter may also work unreliably with sequences of files.
Geometry to load – Select the viewport preview mode from the drop down menu. This does not affect the final render. This parameter is Keyable and can be used as a driven key as Geom Type in the Channel Box.
None – No preview. This mode does not read any information from the proxy file and is useful for loading many and massive proxies for final scene assembly. Bounding box – The mesh is represented as a box scaled to fit the object in viewport. Preview Geometry – The mesh is represented as a low poly proxy preview as defined in the .vrmesh file. A preview is generated on the fly for .abc files. Full Geometry – The full geometry of the mesh is visible in the viewport. The new V-Ray Proxy uses an optimized preview based on Maya GPU Cache objects in this mode.
Viewport proxy file – Allows you to load a .vrmesh file that represents the actual VRayProxy in the viewport.
Flip Axis – Switches the proxy's vertical axis between Y and Z. It allows aligning vertical axis of the proxy with the vertical axis in the scene in cases where the proxy was not exported from Maya or when loading Alembic files.
Particle Render Mode – Controls how the particles in the proxy are rendered in the viewports. The available options are Point and Sphere.
Tessellate Hair – When enabled, tessellates hair strands for files containing hair.
Edge length (in px) – Specifies hair edge length in pixels for smoothing hair strands.
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The proxy file structure is represented in a tree view with its full hierarchy. You can select individual elements and assign visibility or material overrides. Double click on the hierarchy level labels to expand/collapse the hierarchy.
Viewport Picking – This option is available when Geometry to load is set to Bounding boxes. It allows you to select parts of the proxy directly from the viewport and mark them in the Object Hierarchy.
Filter – A field allowing you to filter the nodes from the hierarchy list. Wildcards can be used in this field. Note that your filter input will not transfer if you copy the tab.
Override Shader – Allows overriding the material for the currently selected node in the tree. You can also enable an override for the selected material via its icon. When an override is enabled, it is indicated by icon.
Material Override – Connect a material to override the currently selected material node. The override can be removed with the bin icon ().
Override Visibility – Allows overriding the visibility for the currently selected node in the tree. You can also enable an override for the selected object via its icon. The override can be removed with the bin icon ().
There are 3 states of the visibility override: default (inherit), force visible and force invisible.
Default – In this state , the selected object in the hierarchy will inherit the visibility override from its parent(s). The parent objects in the hierarchy may have the same default state, which means that visibility is not overridden.
Force Visible – In this state , the selected object in the hierarchy will always be visible. This can be used to force an object visible, while the parent objects are forced invisible. The state is inherited by the object's children in the hierarchy.
Force Invisible – In this state , the selected object in the hierarchy will always be invisible. This can be used to force an object invisible, while the parent objects are forced visible. The state is inherited by the object's children in the hierarchy.
Import/Export material rules () button – Right-click the button to select import or export of material override rules to/from the current proxy. The syntax is the same as the Material assignments file, utilizing the new sceneMaterial tag. For more control over the command, you can use the scripting version to import/export material rules.
The import option reads the file and applies the rules in the Attribute Editor. Importing material assignment rules only adds to the existing ones, overriding only the matching ones. Import can be undone.
The export option writes all material overrides from the tree hierarchy as well as any custom overrides. Exporting the rules does not remove them from the scene.
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Old material assignment rules (that don't use the sceneMaterial tag), cannot be imported from this button and only show a warning. Newly exported rules can be imported or used as а Material assignment file together with a .vrscene file with materials.
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The new VRayProxy offers rule-based visibility and material overrides. Note that the rule-based (advanced) overrides are executed prior to the hierarchy overrides.
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V-Ray 5.0 for Maya 2018 and above supports instancing of .vrmesh files via the Maya Instancers found in FX menu set > nParticles > Instancer.
To create a Maya Mesh from the geometry from file (including normals, default uv set and per face shaders), you can use the -vrayImportVRmeshGeom command. Available flags are -frame (specifies which frame from an animation to consider), -loadHair (imports hair data) and -name (sepcifies a name for the newly created node).
