command line workflow

[ssve]

Hello everyone,

After having used RenderMan based renderer for a few years, we are actually evaluating the possibility to switch to VRay. There are a few things that we were wondering about the command-line based workflow:

Does the VRay command line renderer have directory mapping support:
Our client machines are on windows, but the whole render farm is on linux. ".vrscene" exported from the client will contain windows-style paths. Without directory mapping, we would have to farm the export itself and we'd prefer avoiding that if possible.

Is there some kind of RI Filter equivalent for VRay? For those who don't know, those are text filters ran on the ".rib" files generated by the RenderMan exporter before their content is passed on to the renderer. We've used that in the past in conjunction with procedural geometry generator for particle expansion at render-time.

Thank you for your answers,
Best regards

[Zdravko]

You can use VRAY_ASSETS_PATH environment variable to tell V-Ray for Maya and V-Ray Standalone where to look for resources.
Before to start it on each node you need to add the following command:
export VRAY_ASSETS_PATH=path/to/textures

Also, unfortunately we don't have such filters in V-Ray for Maya. But you can modify the .vrscene text file with different tools before sending it to render.

[alainfx]

we don't have such filters in V-Ray for Maya.

Well, VRay's Python callbacks could be used as filters, isn't it ?

[Zdravko]

You can use Python script on the node machines to change the directory in suitable Linux format.
If you need more info about the script let me know.

[t.petrov]

Zdravko, Alainfx is talking about the new python scene access - http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/maya...ene_access.htm
And he is correct - the user can modify the scene just before the export to vrscene file.

[Zdravko]

The only restriction is that animated parameters can not be modified with Python script at that time.