Revit Materials viewed in Vray 5

[merca3]

Hi, loving the new Vray 5, some great improvements, but I am still struggling with materials, I.e. my Revit materials are not porting well, E.g. relief (bump), roughness maps etc...not recognised.
The default Vray material library is fine but limited, is there another source for decent vrmat files for architects?? Free, commons or paid vrmat libraries?
I urgently need some large format plywood, concrete and terrazo!
Cheers

[Ana Lyubenova]

Hi merca3 ,

What did you mean by saying that Revit maps are not recognized? Did you mean they completely disappear from rendering?
Extending the material library is in our plans. I'm not aware of any external resources for vrmat files though.

Best,
Ana

[merca3]

Hi Ana

see attached, the materials I made in Revit typically look most accurate in Enscape but Vray interprets them differently.
Revit materials are made up in so many different ways with diffuse, bump, normals, reflectance, roughness maps etc...
I am not sure if there is a reliable way to display all these in Vray or if I just need to make the Vray materials from scratch?

[Ana Lyubenova]

Hi merca3 ,

All Revit materials are converted to V-Ray ones under the hood, so that their diffuse, bump, reflection etc. parameters correspond to those in a V-Ray material.
I'm not quite sure what you imply saying that those are "most accurate in Enscape", though I can clearly see that both the left wall and the ceiling have no reflections at all, which makes me put that accuracy under question.

Back to the main topic:
1. Check what type of Revit material you are using. In Revit 2019, Autodesk introduced various new material types, stating that the rest of the materials will become legacy. While those materials can still be found in Revit's UI, they are all marked with a yellow warning sign and Autodesk themselves encourage everyone start using their new format which btw contains a reduced amount of parameters and is easier to understand. With that being said, I'd also encourage you switching to that format (if you haven't done it yet), as we can guarantee a better V-Ray conversion there.
2. In the example you sent, in case you want to see more of the wall's diffuse color, then decrease the reflectivity. If I had your model in front of me, I could have been more specific.

[merca3]

Hi Ana

thank you for the detailed response, sorry if I was unclear, by 'accurate' I just mean
how close the renderer matches the material's appearance as seen within Revit,
not the physical accuracy of the raytracer! From what you are saying, Vray is the
truest representation, so I should forget the rivals.

I am using the latest PBR materials (not the yellow flag) but note that only a few
of the older Revit materials have normal maps and most seem to have bump.
I'll experiment with varying the different parameters to see the effect in Vray but I am
guessing the advance material parameters (triplanar etc..) are only native to Vray.

Are there any tutorials or guides on how to build quality materials in Revit for Vray?

[Ana Lyubenova]

Yeah, triplanar is only native to V-Ray. I'd say "for now" because we are working on a feature that will fill that particular gap.
Aren't you using our library materials? Or you want to create everything in Revit just once, and having your renders match Revit's realistic view? What's the case?

So you mean a guide on Revit material parameters with regards to their V-Ray conversion? Is that correct? Or simply V-Ray material guides?
We don't have a guide on the first topic, while probably we should consider adding such. Whereas for V-Ray materials, I strongly recommend you our documentation, as it is very detailed and there is plenty of visual examples explaining what each parameter does.

[merca3]

Hi Ana
I am using the Vray library materials but haven't fully explored a workflow to make my own custom Vray materials.
I can learn this but there would be some duplication (E.g. I would need to remake the Dinesen plank in my render).
The Vray documentation is a few years old, are there any plans to update this? Or is there a tutorial to make an
amazing timber floor, corten sheet, terrazo worktop etc???

[Ana Lyubenova]

I highly doubt the documentation is a few years old, as we update it regularly. Here is a link to it: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/VREVIT
I also recommend you following our youtube channel. Check the product playlists there. As the Asset Editor is shared across V-Ray for SketchUp, Rhino and Revit, I'd recommend you have a look at those products playlists as well. And I think you'll find the type of tutorials you're looking for.