Can you use Vray for Unreal in Maya?

[emanshiu]

Can you use Vray for Unreal in Maya? All the videos show max only. THanks!

[Alexander.Atanasov]

Hi emanshiu,

V-Ray for Unreal can import a .vrscene from any host platform that has V-Ray, so it can work with Maya as well. However not everything is supported in terms of parameters and nodes. You can check here for the supported features of V-Ray for Unreal: Supported features. Just click on the Maya tab in the Listed Supported Features section. All videos that show any workflow are from V-Ray for 3ds Max because it has the majority of supported features compared to other host apps.

Best regards,
Alexander

[emanshiu]

Is there a tutorial that shows it working with Maya?

[Alexander.Atanasov]

Hi emanshiu,

Sorry for the late reply.

No, there isn't a tutorial online about working with Maya but the workflow is the same:

1. Export a .vrscene from Maya (https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...-RaySceneFiles)
2. In UE (after having V-Ray for Unreal enabled) create an empty level and in the Content browser create a new folder with an appropriate name.
3. Import the scene in the folder from the Add/Import button > Import to and choose the exported .vrscene.
4. In the V-Ray Scene Import Options window check Treat Y-axis for Up Vector because by default Maya has its Y-axis set as an up vector.
5. Set any additional settings(https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...ng+a+VRayScene) and click Import
6. After the progress bar finishes your scene should be loaded.

Best regards,
Alexander

[Aleksandar Stiglic]

Hi Aleksandar !

Somehow in my head I thought the Vray for UE will be magic. Press the export to vrayscene and you are done. Import into UE and your lovely everything is there and you are ready to go.
Unfortunately, that is how it is advertised, but tried doing this, while geometry is there all materials are pink.
There is so many questions about what is working and not, but seems that max is supported, maya not at all.
I'm testing it with old project, also not clear what kind of material might work. For example couldn't find if I can use samplerInfo maya node, or that is so far from supported ?
Also for materials which don't work (which seems all of them at the moment), you have special 5 things to do.
Export materials. How ?
Vray convert materials doesn't produce any output at all, and it's to export in mat file format.
Some quick tutorial really would be needed, without skipping important parts...
If I can't export vray materials, what's the point ?
I also tried new vray plugin for Unreal, that didn't even install. Just did nothing.

Please help

Thanks


Aleksandar

[Alexander.Atanasov]

Hi Aleksandar,

Somehow in my head I thought the Vray for UE will be magic. Press the export to vrayscene and you are done. Import into UE and your lovely everything is there and you are ready to go.

We know that marketingwise this is the message but unfortunately there isn't a one click solution for every project. The best practice to have a smooth import in UE without any problems (this is applicable for all DCCs not only Maya, mentioned in other threads in the forum) is to have simple(without procedural or complex textures) shaders. Transferring complex scenes between 2 DCCs require matching or similar representation of what you are transferring in both of them. Most of the time either shaders/geometries/lights are simplified but kept the general meaning or just omitted and not transferred at all because there isn't a valid representation for them. In that mind we try to support as much as possible but also we are limited to what UE offers in terms of functionality.

I'm testing it with old project, also not clear what kind of material might work. For example couldn't find if I can use samplerInfo maya node, or that is so far from supported ?

As mentioned above you can check here for the supported features: Supported features. Just click on the Maya tab in the Listed Supported Features section. If a material or texture is not listed there then it is not supported. Materials that import as pink indicate that something is not supported in it - could be the material entirely or a texture in it as input. You could use the Render material from .vrscene option to use the original Maya shaders at render time only in UE.

Export materials. How ? Vray convert materials doesn't produce any output at all, and it's to export in mat file format.

Can you elaborate on "How to export materials"? You can assign your materials to a simple box or sphere and export to a .vrscene which you then import in UE.

I also tried new vray plugin for Unreal, that didn't even install. Just did nothing.

You mentioned the installation problem in another topic(https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/...allation-issue). In order to determine the problem, could you provide the information I requested there?

Best regards,
Alexander

[Aleksandar Stiglic]

Hi Alexander,

Those are excellent answers, thank you very much.
If you can please add them into your information on the site, specially the part of exporting material, it's very simple, but not obvious.
As far as supported list, a bit more details would be helpful. For example if I have coating in the material, does it except more then one channel, etc.
Some tutorial on preparing scene for export to UE would be really helpful, or few more test scenes in marketplace.

Thanks


Aleksandar

[BeneZ]

A common issue with materials not exported correctly in a vrscene (from 3dsMax) came, when texture path issues were not solved before correctly.
Sometimes it works for working in the DCC but at export it doesn't work then anymore.

(I'm working with Max and Maya, also doing first steps in UE)

[Aleksandar Stiglic]

Well, this is good point, but I sort of thought of that.
As far as I remember, max has texture path by the full path, while in Maya, by default you should have textures in sourceimages directory, and maya finds them by where the project is
and the textures should start with sourceimages/imagename.ext.
I will check in .vrscene for the path.
But I think it's more because of the complex shaders, then anything else...

Still, thanks for the tip.


Aleksandar