The V-Ray Render Elements are implemented as Pass Shaders in Softimage. To add render elements you need to go to the Current Pass options, select the Pass Shaders tab and then add the render elements as Output shaders.
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List of Supported Render Elements
The following render elements are supported by V-Ray. All render elements support native V-Ray materials. Some render elements also support standard Softimage materials. This is noted in the table below.
Render element name
VRayMtl support
Std material support
Filtering control
Transparency support
Description
VRay Atmospheric Effects
yes
yes
no**
yes
The atmospheric effects.
VRay Background
yes
yes
yes**
yes
The image background.
VRay Bump Normals
yes
yes
yes
no
The normals generated by bump maps
VRay Caustics
yes
no*
yes**
yes
The caustics on the material. Only present when the Caustics option of V-Ray is enabled. This channel does not include GI caustics.
VRay Coverage
yes
yes
yes
no
Shows the part of the image taken by each visible object
VRay Diffuse Channel Color
yes
yes
yes**
yes
The pure diffuse surface color.
VRay DR Bucket
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Shows which render node rendered which bucket during distributed rendering
VRay Extra Texture
N/A
N/A
no
N/A
Renders the entire scene with one texture mapped on all objects.
VRay GI
yes
no*
yes**
yes
The diffuse surface global illumination. Only present if Global illumination is enabled.
VRay Lighting
yes
yes*
yes**
yes
The diffuse direct surface lighting.
VRay Light Select
yes
yes
yes
yes
Allows the user to extract the contribution of a light or a set of lights to the scene to a separate render element.
VRay Material_ID
yes
no
no (always off)
no
The material ID of the object.
VRay Matte Shadow
yes
yes
yes
yes
The matte shadow part of the image
VRay Multi Matte
yes
yes
no
N/A
Create selection masks based on object ID or material ID
The raw diffuse global illumination (not multiplied by the diffuse surface color). Only present if Global illumination is enabled.
VRay Raw Light
yes
no
yes**
yes
The raw diffuse direct illumination before it's multiplied by the diffuse surface color.
VRay Raw Reflection
yes
no
yes**
yes
The pure surface reflection before it's multiplied by the reflection filter color.
VRay Raw Refraction
yes
no
yes**
yes
The pure surface refraction before it's multiplied by the refraction filter color.
VRay Raw Shadow
yes
no
yes**
yes
The raw light that was blocked by other objects.
VRay Reflection
yes
yes
yes**
yes
The reflections on the surface.
VRay Reflection Filter
yes
no
yes**
yes
The reflection filter (the color by which the raw reflections are multiplied to give the final surface reflection). This may be considered as an alpha channel for the reflections.
VRay Refraction
yes
no
yes**
yes
The refractions on the surface.
VRay Refraction Filter
yes
no
yes**
yes
The refraction filter (the color by which the raw refractions are multiplied to give the final surface refraction). This may be considered as an alpha channel for the refractions.
VRay Render_ID
yes
yes
no (always off)
no
The node render ID of the object that contributes most to the pixel value.
VRay Sampler Rate
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Shows an image where the pixel brightness is directly proportional to the number of samples taken at this pixel.
VRay Self Illumination
yes
yes
yes**
yes
The self-illumination of the surface.
VRay Shadow
yes
no
yes**
yes
The diffuse light that was blocked by other objects.
VRay Specular
yes
yes
yes**
yes
The surface specular highlights.
VRay SSS2
no
no
yes
N/A
Renders just the subsurface part of the VRaySSS2 material on a separate layer
VRayVelocity
yes
yes
yes
no
The surface velocity. This channel will not be generated if 3d motion blur is enabled.
VRayZDepth
yes
yes
yes
no
The z-depth of the surface.
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* For Standard materials, the VRayLighting element includes the direct and indirect lighting as well as caustics, while the VRayGlobalIllumination and VRayCaustics elements are black. However for all materials, adding the VRayLighting,VRayGlobalIllumination and VRayCaustics elements always gives the total diffuse surface lighting.
** When an element is filtered, it will be dimmed by atmospheric effects like fog etc. However, when an element is unfiltered, it will not be affected by atmospherics.
Info
Example: Render Elements and Combinations
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Here are some examples of render elements and their combinations. Note that the original elements were generated by V-Ray on one pass (no re-rendering required).
Normally, render elements are added to each other in order to reproduce the final result; however, there are a few exceptions:
the Raw GI and Raw Lighting elements must be multiplied by the Diffuse element before they are added to the final image.
the Shadow element is not, strictly speaking, a part of the image; however, it can be added to the Raw Lighting element to adjust the shadow intensity. Simply adding the two elements produces lighting as though no shadows were computed.
Also note that multiplying the Raw GI element by the Diffuse element will give the Global Illumination element; multiplying the Raw Lighting element by the Diffuse element gives the Lighting element. This gives the user more freedom for adjusting the scene lighting.
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RGB color
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Real RGB color Notice that the antialiasing is worse on very bright parts (the area light and its reflections)
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Self-illumination only
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Direct Lighting only
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Global illumination only
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Reflections only
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Refractions only
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Diffuse color only
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Raw lighting
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Shadows only Note the aliasing at the box shadow. The RGB Color channel does not require more samples in that area.
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Raw GI only
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Raw lighting + shadows (added) The resulting illumination is as though shadows were turned off.
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Raw lighting * diffuse (multiplied) The result is the same as the Direct Lighting only channel.
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Raw GI * diffuse (multiplied) The result is the same as the GI only channel.
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Self-illumination + Direct lighting + Global illumination + Reflection + Refraction (all added) The result is the same as the Real RGB Color channel.
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Notes
V-Ray always antialiases with respect to theRGB colorchannel. Therefore other channels may appear jagged or noisy in areas where V-Ray has placed fewer samples.
Render elements may slow down the final image rendering a little bit, depending on the number of elements that the user has selected. They have no effect on GI/reflection etc. calculations.
