I noticed the new map VRaySoftbox. Most of us probably know what it does but I’ve seen no documentation on how to utilize this.
Should it be loaded in a VRayLight or VrayLightMtl or both?
regards,
Nils
It is designed to be used as a texture for rectangle VRayLights; I did not originally plan to include it in this SP, but it seems to have slipped through 
Which is one of the reasons there is no information about it in the help index. I will see if we can add some basic info.
Best regards,
Vlado
thx! Cool feature BTW.
You guys must have worked your butts off for this SP. Good job!
Hehe, you should thank Brett Simms for it as well, as the VRaySoftbox texture was suggested by him
Best regards,
Vlado
Where exactly do I find this new SP?
Edit: Ah, never mind, didn’t know there was a SP released in December. BTW, is there a changelog for 2.20.03?
It just deals with the multi-byte characters issue.
Best regards,
Vlado
The Vraysoftbox is a small add to the program, but I think it’s a really useful tool. I’m sure Chaos will post some info soon, but in the meantime I put something up on my blog about it:
Couldn’t this be achieved by using the standard Gradient, with of course some tweaking to get the same falloff from the center etc etc ?
of course i understard why it is usefull and much faster to set up 
Of course; the advantage is mostly in the set up time.
best regards,
Vlado
Actually, not exactly. For some of the stuff you could certainly do it with only one or two Gradient shaders, but to do all of the same stuff you need 4-5 Gradient Ramp shaders and they need to be stacked up (I used the Composite map originally). You only need a handful of the parameters for each GR shader though, and the interface of the VraySoftbox shader is vastly simpler to use.
b
Man, vray just gets better and better every day. Vlado I can’t say how great a job you and your team are doing in general. Excellent and useful updates all the time.
We shot a set of soft box HDRI’s a few years ago & always map them onto lights for an extra touch of subtlety. Definitely looking forward to giving this a whirl
I use photos of boxes a lot too - but found the approach a bit limited when I needed to do things like vignette the light across one of it’s directions, or move the hotspot around within the light to create better falloff in the highlights. I spent a lot of time in Photoshop tweaking and guessing. Try loading your softbox photos into the base layer of the Vraysoftbox layer and you will have the best of both worlds
(there is still some guessing/testing needed until the Vraysoftbox is supported in RT, but it’s still wildly faster than the alternative).
/b
Hi Sims, wheres this softbox material ? I’ve searched high and low and I can’t find it.
I’m using the latest 2.20.02
It sounds like a great idea, its like having HDR Light Studio in Vray Live using RT.
cheers
It’s a map type, not a material!
Hey Java -
Like John said - you’ll find it in the Maps rollout of the Material Editor. Just a note though: it’s not showing up in RT just yet, but it does overlap with the functionality of HDRLS.
I really like the softbox map. Very handy indeed.
It would be nice if it could work on non-rectangular shapes. Is that possible?
Aaah yes, I realise its a map, I found it, I was expecting to see in Vrays rollout not 3dsmax’s standard rollout.
For sure - I do that all the time. The maps are based on Gradient Ramps so they work on any shape. I often used octagonal poly’s to create umbrella type reflections, disc shapes are common for me too, and very often I start with a rectangular polygon and do a ton of vertex moving to craft a custom shape. Just add the shader to a VrayLightMaterial and you are off and running with whatever shape you want. You can expand the options by adjusting the UV’s as well.
wouldn’t it make more sense to have stuff enabled by default in the softbox? Everything seems to be off by default, so when you add it to a light, you still have to enable some parts, kinda like an extra step.