Max distance cutoff for raytracing?

[AardmanCGI]

Hi,
This might be a dumb question but I can't seem to find a setting for max ray-trace distance in vray. Does this exist? I can see that there is a "dim distance" under the reflection tab of certain materials but I am looking for a global way to limit tracing against distant objects.
Thanks,
Philip

[vlado]

There is no global distance, but I can add this as a feature request. Can you explain a bit why you need it? You might be able to set it up using a falloff map set to distance falloff, but it might be more complicated to organize.

Best regards,
Vlado

[AardmanCGI]

Thanks for the quick reply. I was hoping that having this feature would be a way to optimise renders for cases when I don't need to trace against objects which are far away. In Renderman this feature can make a huge difference to rendertimes. I appreciate that Vray works in quite a different way though so I do not know whether I could expect a similar speed-up or not.
My preference for application would be to have a global parameter and also per-object & per-material overrides which could be added as vray attributes.
Thanks,
Philip

[vlado]

I see; would this be like a gradual reflection dimming with distance, or just on/off switch?

Best regards,
Vlado

[AardmanCGI]

Dimming would be ideal but even an on-off would be good.
Thanks,
Philip