New Tutorials

[KristinIvanova]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to update you on some new content we added recently.

We've updated the Interior Render Settings tutorial with information for still images and animation: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...ender+Settings


We've also updated the information about the Universal V-Ray Settings here: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...V-Ray+Settings

Another new content is a general guideline on how to render vector displacement exported from Mudbox: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...ent+with+V-Ray and displacement map exported from ZBrush: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...ent+with+V-Ray

You might also want to check the Houdini to 3ds Max Open VDB workflow guide: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...n+VDB+workflow and the Houdini to 3ds Max Alembic Workflow: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...embic+Workflow


Cheers,

Kristin

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Amazing work!
+1 for the interior render settings tutorial, which shows how easy V-ray is when it comes to sampling and render settings.


About the universal settings page,

With the Progressive Image Sampler, the default Render time (min) is set to 1.0

I don't know why the default value is 1, I really think it should be 0 by default
People use this option mostly for animation, to set a time limit per frame. On the other hand, new users will get noisy results out of box which can be confusing(seen this plenty of times)

You can control the amount of AA vs shading samples (for materials/lights/GI) using the Min samples parameter

I think this is wrong
Min shading rate controls the balance between AA vs Shading effects like GI/reflections..etc
Min samples works differently, I haven't touched this parameter since 2016
There is no reason someone would ever need to play with this, even Min Shading rate, the default value of 6 works nicely for pretty much all scenes.

Best,
Muhammed

[Ihno]

I don't know why the default value is 1, I really think it should be 0 by default
People use this option mostly for animation, to set a time limit per frame. On the other hand, new users will get noisy results out of box which can be confusing(seen this plenty of times)

I use it for optimizing rendertimes mostly.
Its a very fast workflow to set it to something like 1 minute, render and compare the reached noise threshold's. Unlike allways wait for vray to cleanup the entire image or region and compare the time it took.
I also don't see a reason for setting this to 1min by default, though.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

There is nothing as optimizing render times in V-ray.. The only setting you touch to control quality vs speed is your noise threshold.

Its a very fast workflow to set it to 1 minute, render and compare the reached noise threshold's

Like what will you compare this to?
How would it reach a lower noise threshold? what settings would you change?
and I really think that 1 minute is very short to get meaningful results anyways for mid to complex interiors.

[Ihno]

Like what will you compare this to?
How would it reach a lower noise threshold? what settings would you change?
and I really think that 1 minute is very short to get meaningful results anyways for mid to complex interiors.

Materials, lighting, hide stuff in the environment that isn't in the camera frustum and so on. There is much to optimize. I don't talk about the render settings here.
Blend mtl's can get very heavy, I often have to optimize them.
I compare it to the initial noise level it reached.

I render once wtith a ridiculously low noise threshold (so it can't reach it within the time I set) - Save the image in the history and wright the final noise threshold it reached in the comment.
Then I start to optimize what ever I think could take long without contributing much to the image.
When the noise level is lower after it ran through I know it did indeed saved me some render time.

I don't always use one minute, it depends on the time I have and the complexity of the image or region I use.
Sometimes I use 2 or 3 minutes and a small region in order to be able to judge if I'm starting to change the look too much.

But we're a bit off topic now.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Thanks for explaining your workflow!
totally makes sense, and I do agree that shading can affect render times specifically V-ray's blend material. where lighting gets calculated for each coat
I used to hack all layers into a single material whenever possible, but now with GPUs ..render times are usually 7-15 minutes, and I started using blend materials again.

[KristinIvanova]

Amazing work!
+1 for the interior render settings tutorial, which shows how easy V-ray is when it comes to sampling and render settings.


About the universal settings page,



I don't know why the default value is 1, I really think it should be 0 by default
People use this option mostly for animation, to set a time limit per frame. On the other hand, new users will get noisy results out of box which can be confusing(seen this plenty of times)



I think this is wrong
Min shading rate controls the balance between AA vs Shading effects like GI/reflections..etc
Min samples works differently, I haven't touched this parameter since 2016
There is no reason someone would ever need to play with this, even Min Shading rate, the default value of 6 works nicely for pretty much all scenes.

Best,
Muhammed

Hey Muhammed,

Thank you so much for the appreciation!

Regarding the Universal V-Ray Settings, you are right. We've changed the page to show the Min shading rate found under the Image Sampler rollout. Thank you for noticing!

Kind Regards,
Kristin

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Awesome!

Thanks!

[KristinIvanova]

One more tutorial showing how to use User Defined Properties to match instanced proxies with corresponding material, using VRaySwitchMtl and VRayUserScalar: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...y+and+Material (freshly baked out of the oven)

Cheers,

Kristin

[Gergana]

Hey guys,

We've added a new tutorial showing how to set Environment Priorities to several Environment Maps in a scene: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...vironment+Maps

Best,
Gergana

[Jiri.Matys]

Nice, thank you for all of them.
Please can you make tutorial for setting sss in vraymtl. About what is proper way to set first and second and so on, because there are lot of things influencing each other. One video is for corona renderer, I think will be good to have one for Vray, especially when VRay has much more control about sss. Things like refraction, refraction glossiness and fog has majore influence on sss. Thank you.

[squintnic]

some more advanced phoenix stuff would be great as well

[KristinIvanova]

...
Please can you make tutorial for setting sss in vraymtl. About what is proper way to set first and second and so on, because there are lot of things influencing each other. One video is for corona renderer, I think will be good to have one for Vray, especially when VRay has much more control about sss. Things like refraction, refraction glossiness and fog has majore influence on sss. Thank you.

Hey Jiri,

We are working currently on this, so I would say soon

Meanwhile, you might want to check our Courseware tutorials:

for 3ds Max https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...+SSS+Materials
for Maya https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...SSS2+Materials

Hey squintnic


Can you pinpoint few advanced topics, please? I think it will be very helpful to hear in what direction to think.
The brilliant Phoenix FD team is working to prepare more content, so any input is welcome!

Kind Regards,
Kristin

[Jiri.Matys]

Hey Kristin, great to hear that, looking forward, thank you.

[KristinIvanova]

New Quick Start Tutorials for V-Ray Next for SketchUp are available here: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...tart+Tutorials