Depth of Field: VRay Physical Camera needs to be unified into the overall architecture

[DougBowker]

This isn't a question that needs answering via here's how to work with/around the VRay system; I know how to do that. It's just that it's so poorly designed I'm asking as a long-time user if it might be considered updating/fixing some of these issues.

Vray Physical Camera: On one hand it's great to have this as an option, both for matching actual camera photos or video, as well as using traditional terminology for those of us who have the "real world" camera experience. But the way it's implemented is more than a bit confusing when terminology that doesn't seem to be related to anything is used to adjust it. From the online help menu (never all that great but this is especially bad).

Aperture – The size of the virtual camera aperture in world units. Small aperture sizes reduce the DOF effect, while larger sizes produce more blur.

What does that even mean? It's worded in a way that's the opposite of any real camera! And like so many other items in the "Help" menus, of course there is no example shown either...And worst of all: this setting isn't within the Camera Properties but is separated out into the VRAY Render Settings/Camera.

So for example if your VRay Physical Camera is set to use an Aperture of f2.0 it will let in much more light, which is exactly like a real camera would do, but that seemingly has no effect on the DOF parameters? Why? Just unify everything into the camera system. Right now there is confusing mix and match with settings in the camera, settings in the render tab, setting in Environment. To me, Environment should be rolled right into either the Render Tabs or the Camera itself, and not have three areas that each effect one another. Given that the Environment menu is sort of a "core" Max menu, then maybe VRay should just grey it out and implement any of its own settings into the VRay or Camera menus?

And please: Document it all a little better when and if you make these changes.

[kosso_olli]

Which version are you on? In 5, everything is fine. Also, please check the docs, especially the notes on the bottom of the page. VrayPhysicalCam overrides most of the values in the Render Settings.

https://docs.chaos.com/display/VMAX/...amera-Aperture

[hermit.crab]

But the way it's implemented is more than a bit confusing when terminology that doesn't seem to be related to anything is used to adjust it. From the online help menu (never all that great but this is especially bad).

Aperture – The size of the virtual camera aperture in world units. Small aperture sizes reduce the DOF effect, while larger sizes produce more blur.

This is actually correct. The "Aperture" in the Render Settings is measured in world units (it's not an F-number). So, small values (large f-numbers) produce less blur, while large values (small f-numbers) produce more blur.

What does that even mean? It's worded in a way that's the opposite of any real camera! And like so many other items in the "Help" menus, of course there is no example shown either...And worst of all: this setting isn't within the Camera Properties but is separated out into the VRAY Render Settings/Camera.

Yes, so you can apply a DOF effect on 3ds Max native cameras (or without a camera). There are separate Aperture settings in the VRayPhysicalCamera (as kosso_olli already posted), which override the DOF settings from the Render Setup.

o me, Environment should be rolled right into either the Render Tabs or the Camera itself, and not have three areas that each effect one another. Given that the Environment menu is sort of a "core" Max menu, then maybe VRay should just grey it out and implement any of its own settings into the VRay or Camera menus?

I'm pretty sure it's not as easy as it may look.