Vray Volume Grid Fire "emit even if not renderable" not working

[hmaximore]

Hello

I'm trying to render a pass for comp that is the smoke channel illuminated by the fuel/fire without the fire visible. Whenever I set "based on" drop down menu to 'disable', check emit light and check 'emit even if not renderable'. I get the smoke channel rendered without the influence of the fire. I assumed it had something to do with my fumefx data (fxd files post converted to .vdb and loading into a vray volume grid). But that is not the case. I recreated the error in phoenixFD. I can't post a file because I'm on a closed network at work. But here's what I did.

1. in a new max scene Create phoenix simulator and emit fire from a teapot
2. turn on emit light and scatter in smoke so you get fire lighting up smoke then render
3. now disable temp but check emit light and emit even if not renderable. as described here: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/P213M/Fire

We have 3DSmax 2016 (vray 3.30.03).

[tashko.zashev]

Hi,

The issue was reproduced and forwarded to our developer. Thank you for this report.

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Hey,

Unfortunately, this is not how the option works - 'Emit if Not Renderable' would make the Phoenix simulator/Volume Grid illuminate the scene when the simulator itself has 'Renderable' unchecked in its 3ds Max Properties. I see the docs text really is misleading and we'll correct it.

If you need just the lighting over the smoke, you can subtract the VRaySelfIllumination element (which contains only the fire) from the final image.

Hope this helps, cheers!