Materials process for VRay Proxies

[andy_smith]

Hi all.

Sorry for the long post, but if it gets answered, it might be helpful for others (like me) in the future.

I have a complex scene that is becoming heavy to navigate in Sketchup. It’s a multi tenant commercial building exterior view which contains 4 different store layouts which are visible in view. Each of these stores is decorated and accessorized with materials, geometry, etc.

I want to have separate skp files for each of these interiors which I can proxy and drop in to the building shell so that they render fully but are lightweight when I’m editing the building shell and its surroundings.

I watched a YouTube video for a previous version of VRay (I’m running the latest version) which showed exporting the interior layout as a Vray proxy and then grabbing a Multi Material that was produced during the proxy export process. They then imported the proxy into their other skp scene and reconnected the multi material to it and it rendered.

From the help pages I’ve found here, it says that proxies are ready to render which should - in my mind - include all materials (even if you have to manually relink them)

To test this, I created a new skp file and made a simple cube. I applied Vray materials to two faces (gold and chrome) and a couple of my own materials to two other faces. I rendered it before turning it into a proxy and it worked fine.

I then turned it into a proxy (without overwriting the original geometry because I may well need to go back and update/edit the store interiors later) and rerendered it in the original skp window and it looked fine. I then duplicated the original geometry in the same skp file as my proxy source and put it side by side. I proxied the duplicate cube and this time chose to “overwrite” and it simplified the cube into a clearly-“proxified” version. I rendered again (proxy side by side with original geometry) and it looked fine - materials etc.

But then, when I imported the proxies into my commercial building file, the cubes rendered but with material ID type faces: greens, yellows, pinks, etc. I went back to the source skp file and checked the materials list but there’s no sign of a multi material for me to import.

Given that my store interiors each have a few dozen unique materials, how can I do what everyone else seems to be able to do: export a proxy of a complex object (or even a simple one) and have it render correctly in a new scene, with all of its materials that it rendered with in its source file?

thanks!
Andy

[nikoleta.garkova]

Hey andy_smith,

Here you can find a short tutorial for the correct Proxy workflow so you wouldn't have issues with the materials - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IjP...mZ-nW7NpX/view

[andy_smith]

Thanks Nikoleta,

This is definitely a helpful video and covers the process much better than the written help guides. Having to "save as" the .vrmat from the mesh is the key. As is importing the .vrmat in the destination file and then dragging the proxy from the components window into the scene - none of these things is obvious and using the "import proxy" function (which IS obvious) doesn't work.

I found though that, if you have any faces that are set to default material in your source scene, they render with random colours in the destination and - by then - it's too late to do anything about it because you can't seem to edit the proxy at that stage. So you have to identify any faces that have the default material and change them to an ACTUAL material BEFORE you create the proxy and .vrmat.

I also found that you cannot seem to use cached maps: they render fine in the source file but I found that I always had to archive and repath all the maps in the source file and purge all unused materials before I export to a proxy mesh and save the .vrmat. But I need to experiment more with this to be certain - maybe you have comments on this?

Thanks again.

[skavan]

Hey andy_smith,

Here you can find a short tutorial for the correct Proxy workflow so you wouldn't have issues with the materials - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IjP...mZ-nW7NpX/view

This video is tremendous. Is there an equivalent for 3ds max vrmesh/vrmat export?

[nikoleta.garkova]

Hi andy_smith,

Regarding the cached maps, I might need some clarification here. Any recordings outlining the steps would be greatly appreciated.

skavan Thanks for the feedback! Not for now, I'm afraid, but I'll definitely mention there is further interest and we'll look into expanding those tutorials. The docs page should also suffice in case you need to check the workflow.