vray for sketchup - issues completing the manual exercises

[Manganelli]

Hello,

I am evaluating Vray for SketchUp. I have been going through the online Vray for SketchUp Manual. I've had several difficulties and would appreciate any insight or advice. Questions/issues are:

- 1 -
When I right click on Scene Materials>Add Materials, I have four options (VrayMtl, Vray2SidedMtl, VraySkp2SidedMtl, VrayAngleBlendMtl). There is no VraylinkedMtl option. I don't know if this is a big deal because Vray seems to autogenerate a Vray material when I paint a material onto an object using the SketchUp materials pallete. Nonetheless, in the forums I see people discussing using the VraylinkedMtl option and I don't seem to have it.

- 2 -
Several of the exercises require forum research and tinkering well beyond the scope of the exercise in order for me to complete the exercise. For instance, in order to get the transparency mapping exercise to work out, I had to adjust U&V down to .01 which was not addressed in the literature. These extracurriculars are adding a lot of time to each exercise and greatly slowing the learning process.

- 3 -
Several exercises have not worked out and I have not figured out the necessary tweaks yet. Notably, the bump mapping and displacement mapping exercises produce appropriate looking textures in the Material Editor preview but then the finishes look flat when I render. I've spent more time than I should fiddling with U&V and multiplier settings trying to make it work and have been unsuccessful. Also, I have not successfully placed a background image in a scene. I've linked the image, followed all of the steps but it never renders.

Any advice is much appreciated. It has been pointed out to me that these issues may be related to using Vray in sketchup exclusively. Have any other sketchup users had any of these problems?

Thanks,
Joe

[bluesummers]

Re: vray for sketchup - issues completing the manual exercises

yes I also experience some problems too.

I'm having trouble with the Fog in refraction layers, even though I followed the instructions in the manual, in the update on material editor the fog color works but when I start rendering it, it remains transparent .. a bit of advice on how to make it work would be much appreciated.. thanks

[TqM]

Re: vray for sketchup - issues completing the manual exercises

I cant answer #2, but for #1:
In the latest service pack all materials are essentially 'vraylinkedmtl' as in they appear both in the SU material editor and in the Vray material editor.
Make sure you have the newer manual (not sure if it is any different, but hopefully is)

#3 You need to up the multiplier on the bump and displacement. The sample size in the material editor isn't scaled to your project so displacements on there that look massive might be tiny on your actual model.
On the background issue, by linked do you mean your using it as an enviroment map? or that you are placing an image in the scene.. if its an image in scene then read this link (list of tutorials floating around including one for backgrounds: http://asgvis.com/index.php?option=c...24746#msg24746

[TqM]

Re: vray for sketchup - issues completing the manual exercises

yes I also experience some problems too.

I'm having trouble with the Fog in refraction layers, even though I followed the instructions in the manual, in the update on material editor the fog color works but when I start rendering it, it remains transparent .. a bit of advice on how to make it work would be much appreciated.. thanks

have you tried rendering the other side of the material? if you take a look you'll notice that one side has the fog and one side doesn't. Common trait of arch glass (like you get oh sky scrapers). It'll be the white main default side. If your making glass the way to get around it is to give it 3dimension and flip the 2nd pain so that the fogged side is facing out on both sides