render element specular vs reflection Vray Maya vs Houdini

[jurweer]

In Vray 3.6 for maya and area light with a softbox and with Diffuse/Specular/Reflection Contributions ON ends in the reflection render element. It doesnt go in the specular render element.
The reflective part of the BlendMtl also ends up in the reflect render element.

In Houdini with the same light and softbox, the reflections end up in the specular pass. The reflection pass is empty and even shows a black reflection. Even when turning off Affect Specular it ends up in the specular pass.

Also the reflective part of the BlendMtl ends up in the specular pass instead of the reflective one.

Is this correct behaviour after the update the VrayNext? It seems as if they were switched...


- edit -

the image is the rendered with a dome light, but the same things apply, also without a softbox

[Miro]

Yes, that's the correct behavior when you have "consistent lighting elements" turned on, which is the default state. Also, if you have an adaptive dome light, the consistent lighting elements will be turned on automatically, regardless if you have them set to off.

This is from the V-Ray for 3ds Max documentation, but should give you an idea about this (the paragraph in yellow):
https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...VRayReflection

[jurweer]

Ah ok i understand! I missed that update I think, will look through the manual deeper next time!

so not only did the reflection/specular change, also the gi and lighting element.

would it maybe be possible to update the naming of those passes at a certain point to keep it consistent/clear as to what their functionality is?

[Gosho.Genchev]

I think renaming the passes is something that never came up, at least I've never heard colleagues discussing this. What do you think would be a suitable naming convention?

[jurweer]

The manual of the 3Ds Max Version describes it nicely.
maybe like this:

specular -> direct reflect
reflect -> indirect reflect

I personally found the name of the lighting element somewhat vague as it doesn’t really describe what it does. Is it all the light, or only direct or indirect.
Like described in the manual, it now only contains direct diffuse light, and the GI only contains indirect diffuse light:

lighting -> direct light or direct diffuse
gi -> indirect light or indirect diffuse