This page provides some details on how to get V-Ray up and running.
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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.
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V-Ray for Houdini can be downloaded from the V-Ray | Downloads section of the Chaos Group website (please make sure you use your login credentials to ensure access to the download links). It's recommended that you make sure your computer meets the System Requirements for running Houdini with V-Ray before installing V-Ray.
Under the hood, the V-Ray installation relies on the Houdini 3-rd party plugins package system. Houdini's packages are .json files that specify the location of custom modules. For more information, please refer to the documentation on the SideFX website. The "vray_for_houdini.json" package that is used to load V-Ray when Houdini is started is placed under "$HFS/packages" (e.g. "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 18.0.532\packages" for Windows) when running the installer. You may set things up differently depending on your studio pipeline. By default, when using the installer, the location of V-Ray itself is "C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray". Just as with the "vray_for_houdini.json", V-Ray itself can be placed anywhere on disk. As long as the "INSTALL_ROOT" variable in the json file points to a valid location, Houdini should be able to find the required modules to load V-Ray. |
{ "env": [ { "INSTALL_ROOT" : "C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\Houdini 18.0.532" }, { "VRAY_APPSDK" : "${INSTALL_ROOT}/appsdk" }, { "VRAY_OSL_PATH" : "${INSTALL_ROOT}/appsdk/bin" }, { "VRAY_UI_DS_PATH" : "${INSTALL_ROOT}/ui" }, { "VFH_HOME" : "${INSTALL_ROOT}/vfh_home" }, { "PYTHONPATH" : "${INSTALL_ROOT}/appsdk/python27" }, { "PATH" : [ "${HFS}/bin;${VRAY_APPSDK}/bin", "${VFH_HOME}/bin" ] }, { "HOUDINI13_VOLUME_COMPATIBILITY" : 1 }, { "HDF5_DISABLE_VERSION_CHECK" : 1 } ], "path" : [ "${VFH_HOME}" ] } |
To deploy V-Ray using the ZIP archive instead of the installer:
In Linux or Mac envronment, the process is exactly the same.
For detailed information on how to run V-Ray for Houdini, see the QuickStart Guides Introduction tutorial.
Once V-Ray is installed you will want to make sure that your V-Ray license is properly configured. The Set Up Your V-Ray License page includes everything you need to get V-Ray licensed and running properly. You can download the License server installation pack from Chaos Group's website > Downloads.
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.
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.
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