How to add render element in to mayas VAO ?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Yo

This is driving me nuts. If I create render layer while on new Layer, it auto creates AOV and adds that render layer in to it. But if I create render layer and then create layer, I can't add the AOV. How on earth can I add renderLayers to AOVs?

TIA

[yolov]

...But if I create render layer and then create layer...

I don't think I fully get that part. Create a render layer and then create a (?) layer?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Maya 2017/2018 has the new Render Scene setup or whatever they called it that is now replacing the legacy Render Layers. In that render setup when we create a new layer, I would like now to add a VAO to it and enable/disable VAO-render element. No matter what I do I cant seem to add vray render element to that layer. They auto add if I create render element after creating render layer but no idea how to do it the other way around?

[yolov]

You mean you want to add an existing render element from one layer to another?

[yolov]

Basically, just like you've noticed - when creating a render element on a render layer other than the default, the AOV collection and its per-render-element sub-collections are automatically created.
To create a new render element on that layer, just make that layer the active one and create a new render element - by default, it will only by enabled for the render layer it is created on.
Then, if you have existing render elements from other layers that are disabled for the layer you want to include them in, just make the layer the active one, select the render element and in the Attribute Editor add a new absolute override to the Enabled attribute.

I'm not sure if that's what you needed to know, so in case it's something different - do tell me and I'll look into it.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Ahh thats it. I was clicking Y/N in the render elements, and expected it to auto add an absolute override to VAO in my renderLayer. But if I click on renderElement/right click on Enable > CreateAbsoluteOverrideBlablabla then it works. Whhh. Ok, would it be possible to auto create layerOverride if we are on active render layer when we press Y/N in render elements tree view? I have tons of render layers and clicking 1 by 1 would be quite painfull to set up large scenes. Old render layers system (Legacy one) with render elements were able to detect it and auto key the change. Can we add the same functionality to the new maya render scene setup system, please?

Regards
Dariusz
TIA

[yolov]

The auto-detection that we have in place is only for one specific case - if the render element is *created* on a non-master layer. Then it is overriden as "on" for that layer and as "off" for all other layers. And this works both for the legacy layers and the new ones.
However, I think that the idea is actually pretty good and might be very handy to be able to directly right-click-override the on/off state of the render elements right in the render settings. I can already see some of the underlying logic required for this, as it will (probably) mean just hooking a new menu to already existing logic. I had a quick chat with the devs and we agreed to make a note, then research how easy/difficult/time-consuming this would be and decide upon it.

Thanks for the input.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Hey

That would be awesome :- )

In old legecy system if you are on a render layer(other than masterlayer), then if you shift click select 10 render elements, you just tick them on/off and all gets recorded for selected layer - this is awesome. If we can get thesame system for the new render Scenes/layer system - god the naming they did for it is hopeless... Anyway, yeah if you can port legacy functionality to the new system you are my hero. Thanks for all the help & great work!

[yolov]

I stand corrected. You are right - what you described works with the legacy render layers. We'll see if it's possible to make it work with the new render setup system.

[fasterG]

Hi,
Is there any update on this?

[yolov]

I believe we did some improvements there in V-Ray Next or one of the updates to V-Ray Next.
Do you mean the way render elements are created/overridden per layer or something else?
In what V-Ray version have you tried it? Is there something that doesn't work as expected?