This page provides information on the V-Ray Proxy ROP (rop_vrayproxy) node.
Overview
The V-Ray Proxy ROP node allows you to export .vrmesh files. Afterwards, they can be imported back into a scene using a V-Ray Proxy Import.
Meshes are exported to a special .vrmesh file format. This file contains all geometric information for a mesh such as vertices and face topology as well as texture channels, face material IDs, smoothing groups, and normals. In short, everything that is needed to render the mesh is included in the file. In addition, the mesh is preprocessed and subdivided into chunks for easier access. The file also contains a simplified version of the mesh used for preview purposes in the viewports. More information about the .vrmesh file format is available in the V-Ray SDK documentation.
It is important to note that the mesh is in a "ready to render" format. No further modifications to the mesh are expected. You can't change the mesh, or animate it in any way other than animating the position/orientation of the proxy object. There is no way to recover the original mesh from a .vrmesh file (this can be done in principle, but is currently not supported). Therefore, if you plan on doing modifications to the mesh, you should keep it in a Houdini file (which may be different from the file that gets rendered in the end).
Parameters
Render to Disk – Starts the export process.
Controls... – Launches the Houdini Render Control window.
Valid Frame Range – Specifies the frame(s) to export.
Render Current Frame – Exports the current frame.
Render Frame Range – Exports frames from the specified range set below as well as other frames if they are referenced by in-range frames.
Render Frame Range Only (Strict) – Only renders the frames in the specified range set below.
Start/End/Inc – Specifies the range of frames to render (start frame, end frame, and increment).
Render With Take – Renders using the settings from a specified take.
.vrmesh File – Specifies the export file name and location.
Overwrite Existing File(s) – When enabled, V-Ray automatically overwrites any existing .vrmesh files.
Create Intermediate Dirs – When enabled, intermediate directories are created during the export process.
Sources
These parameters are available only in the V-Ray Proxy ROP.
Use SOP Path – Activates the SOP Path option where you can specify the geometry node to export.
SOP Path – Specifies the geometry node to export.
Root Object – Specifies a root object to export.
Objects – Specifies objects to be exported.
Save Hidden and Templated objects – When enabled, includes geometry that is not visible or used for a template.
Export Each Object In Separate File – Creates a different file for each selected object. The name of each file is derived from the name of the corresponding Houdini node. Unless the World Transform option is enabled, the transformation of an object is not included in its mesh file, and the corresponding proxy must have the same transformation as the original object if it is to appear in the same place. Note that you can use this option even with a single object, which causes the object's pivot to be preserved in the exported .vrmesh file.
Use Last As Preview – When enabled, the last mesh that was selected using Shift + click is used as a preview mesh for the proxy.
Generate Velocity – When enabled, exports velocity information for the moving objects. This makes it possible to add motion blur to the final animation. However, exporting this extra information takes longer. If you are not going to need motion blur it makes sense to disable this option.
Main
Simplification Type – Specifies the simplification algorithm to use when generating preview geometry.
Face Sampling – Displays randomly picked faces from the original mesh for the preview. This is the fastest method but does not produce a connected mesh.
Simplify Clustering – Simplifies the mesh using vertex clustering. This method is fast and generates a fairly precise preview mesh, but does not preserve fine details.
Simplify Combined – A two-stage algorithm. This method is slightly slower than Simplify Clustering, but generates a more precise preview mesh.
Max Preview Faces – Specifies the maximum number of faces to display for the preview.
Max Preview Strands – Specifies the maximum number of strands to display for the preview.
Optimize for Instancing – Exports each separate mesh to a single voxel. This generally tends to make rendering faster if there is enough RAM, however it causes V-Ray to load the entire mesh at once, which might slow down the rendering if the dynamic memory limit is close to being reached. If you intend to use the V-Ray proxy as a geometry cache for characters or other relatively small objects, enabling this option improves performance.
Max faces per voxel – Specifies the maximum number of faces that a voxel can hold. Increase this value for meshes with a large number of faces.
Generate Velocity – When enabled, exports velocity information for the moving objects. This makes it possible to add motion blur to the final animation. However, exporting this extra information takes longer. If you are not going to need motion blur it makes sense to disable this option.
Scripts
Pre-Render Script – The specified script is executed before the exporting takes place.
Pre-Frame Script – The specified script is executed before exporting each frame.
Post-Frame Script – The specified script is executed after exporting each frame.
Post-Render Script – The specified script is executed after the exporting takes place.
Generate Velocity – When enabled, exports velocity information for the moving objects. This makes it possible to add motion blur to the final animation. However, exporting this extra information takes longer. If you are not going to need motion blur it makes sense to disable this option.
