This page provides some details on how to get V-Ray up and running.
Overview
Setting up V-Ray for Houdini comprises of several steps: installing and licensing through your OS and then loading the V-Ray shelf and setting V-Ray as the renderer inside Houdini.
Installation can be done via a pretty straightforward and easy to follow installer as well as via a zip file. Follow the step-by-step guide below to set up the V-Ray installation.
Installing V-Ray via Installer
The V-Ray installer automatically removes any previous installations. This allows you to seamlessly upgrade from previous versions. If you experience problems you can manually uninstall the previous versions to perform a clean install.
Before running the installation, make sure your Windows account has administrative privileges.
Run the installer.
1. Upon the start of the installation, Windows may ask you for permission to run the installer with administrator privileges. Please confirm.
2. You will be presented with the V-Ray licensing agreement. Please take a moment to review the agreement. Check the I accept the Agreement checkbox and click Install to proceed with standard installation.
If you need to customize your V-Ray installation, press the Advanced button.
3. If you choose the Local Licensing Option, you are presented with the License Server installation.
Chaos License Server Options
At this step you can choose the license server directory.
Migrate data during installation – When enabled, transfers all of your settings made with older versions of the License Server, such as enabled dongle subsystem, proxy settings, etc. Disabling this option will install License Server with all settings at their defaults and any custom settings from the previous installation will be lost.
Add firewall exception – Enabling this option allows the default licensing port (TCP 30304) in the firewall. If you disable it at this step, you will need to manually add firewall exceptions later.
4. After you click the Install button, the installer will proceed to uninstall any previous versions and install V-Ray on your machine.
If the installer detects any applications that need to be closed, it will show an error before being able to continue. Please close them and click CONTINUE ANYWAY, or start the restart the installation.
5. Once V-Ray installation has finished, the Material Library installation starts. Note that the download process might take a while. If you abort the download, it will affect only the Material Library download and not the whole V-Ray installation.
6. Now V-Ray 5 is ready to render!
Before running the installation, make sure your macOS account has administrative privileges.
Run the installer.
1. Upon the start of the installation, macOS may ask you for permission to run the installer with administrator privileges. Please confirm.
2. You will be presented with the V-Ray licensing agreement. Please take a moment to review the agreement. Check the I accept the Agreement checkbox and click Install to proceed with standard installation.
If you need to customize your V-Ray installation, press the Advanced button.
3. If you choose the Local Licensing Option, you are presented with the License Server installation.
Chaos License Server Options
At this step you can choose the license server directory.
Migrate data during installation – When enabled, transfers all of your settings made with older versions of the License Server, such as enabled dongle subsystem, proxy settings, etc. Disabling this option will install License Server with all settings at their defaults and any custom settings from the previous installation will be lost.
Add firewall exception – Enabling this option allows the default licensing port (TCP 30304) in the firewall. If you disable it at this step, you will need to manually add firewall exceptions later.
4. After you click the Install button, the installer will proceed to uninstall any previous versions and install V-Ray on your machine.
If the installer detects any applications that need to be closed, it will show an error before being able to continue. Please close them and click CONTINUE ANYWAY, or start the restart the installation.
5. Once V-Ray installation has finished, the Material Library installation starts. Note that the download process might take a while. If you abort the download, it will affect only the Material Library download and not the whole V-Ray installation.
6. Now V-Ray 5 is ready to render!
Before running the installation, make sure your Linux account has administrative privileges.
Run the installer.
1. Upon the start of the installation, Linux may ask you for permission to run the installer with administrator privileges. Please confirm.
2. You will be presented with the V-Ray licensing agreement. Please take a moment to review the agreement. Check the I accept the Agreement checkbox and click Install to proceed with standard installation.
If you need to customize your V-Ray installation, press the Advanced button.
3. If you choose the Local Licensing Option, you are presented with the License Server installation.
Chaos License Server Options
At this step you can choose the license server directory.
Migrate data during installation – When enabled, transfers all of your settings made with older versions of the License Server, such as enabled dongle subsystem, proxy settings, etc. Disabling this option will install License Server with all settings at their defaults and any custom settings from the previous installation will be lost.
Add firewall exception – Enabling this option allows the default licensing port (TCP 30304) in the firewall. If you disable it at this step, you will need to manually add firewall exceptions later.
4. After you click the Install button, the installer will proceed to uninstall any previous versions and install V-Ray on your machine.
If the installer detects any applications that need to be closed, it will show an error before being able to continue. Please close them and click CONTINUE ANYWAY, or start the restart the installation.
5. Once V-Ray installation has finished, the Material Library installation starts. Note that the download process might take a while. If you abort the download, it will affect only the Material Library download and not the whole V-Ray installation.
6. Now V-Ray 5 is ready to render!
Licensing V-Ray
Once the installation of the License Server is done, you are directed to the License Server local host (127.0.0.1:30304) in order to sign in.
The License Server will skip its installation process for two reasons:
- If it detects a previous installation of the Online License Server on your machine.
- If you choose the option Remote V-Ray license server on the network.
For full information on the License Server options and settings, see the Licensing section of the documentation.
Loading the V-Ray Shelf
When starting V-Ray for Houdini for the first time, you will need to manually load the V-Ray shelf. From the Houdini shelf, click the plus + icon, navigate to Shelves, and select V-Ray from the list.
Selecting a Renderer
To render with V-Ray, simply press the Render button from the V-Ray Shelf. This will automatically create a vray_renderer node in the Network Editor (if one is not already present) and launch the V-Ray Frame Buffer.