vray material

[proces2]

I am just starting to feel my way around with Vray. I am wondering what the difference would be in using the vray material over the max (5.1) standard materials.

 

Do both work properly for the vray GI (light bouncing, color bleeding)?

 

Do certain material types render better as one or the other? glass? metals?

 

I have a scene where alot of materials have already been created (as max standard materials) - so i wanted to see if i should leave them as is or remake them as vray mats. i will, in the least, switch the reflection map on the glass materials to the vray map (damn that max raytracer!).

 

Thanks in advance.

sean

[siliconbauhaus]

you can use both but the Vray mats are much better.

 

try converting your max mats using the vRay wrapper, it gives the option to keep the original settings.

 

also go check out the forum here they're the most friendly and helpful bunch

[kid]

Max Standard Mats are a bit slower to render, also global photon mapping only works with the Vray Material.

 

For chrome, glass, etc, it is possible to use VRay reflection and refraction maps in the slots of a Max Standard Mat but it takes a bit of playing around with FallOff maps to get nice results. It's much better and easier to use Vray Mats for this.

 

And don't use Max's Raytrace Material.

[Christopher Nichols]

Besides the cool advanced features such as SSS, Anisotropic reflections etc... the rendering times can do a lot better with normal GI (not photon mapping) using a vray mat. I think I had a scene go from 1 hour a frame to 12 mins a frame.... but this was a while ago.

[schmoron13]

does vray FREE have the maps or is it only in the paid version?

[proces2]

thanks for the help. is there a tutorial for how the vray material works?

 

sean

[Christopher Nichols]

That is one of the major things missing from VrayFree is the Vray Material. It DOES have the VrayMap... that can ba added to the reflection and refraction map similar to a raytrace map in standard max.

 

As far as tutorials are concerned. Nothing officical but looking through http://vray.info can help. This is an independent site supported by some users. The official tuts will be shiped out when 1.1 comes out very soon. That is all I know.

 

Be prepared to be confused... Vray Mat is very powerful but very complicated. Don't let the simple interface fool you. From what I have seen in Brazil... I am not an officcial user I just watch Scott's presentations, Brazil's shaders are a lot more artist friendly (less techy). You could say that Vray Mat is a raytrace purist material... hence the lack of specular color.

[proces2]

thanks. for now, i am figuring out how to create a good arch. glass. i think i found a couple things on that website. hopefully, it will help.

 

currently, i am using a standard mat with vray map in reflection - falloff map in opacity. there's alot of glass in the scene (interior) and the render time has gone through the roof. will using a vray mat make this any quicker? if not, way to optimize rendering time of reflections?

 

sean

 

[ May 22, 2003, 01:01 PM: Message edited by: proces2 ]

[Christopher Nichols]

it will help... what version of vray are you using? part of th issue is shadows through glass... a complex issue.

[proces2]

i have vray advanced.

 

i think i am getting something to work. i am developing a water material and by reducing the Reflect - subdivision it seems to bring down the rendering time.

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/forum/filepush.asp?file=vray_water_mat.jpg

 

i haven't tested this yet with all the other glass objects in the scene (the image is just a few objects isolated from the scene so i could get the water and sand working), so i am not sure how efficient i have made it.

 

also, i can't figure out how to add transparency to the water (not seeing any easy transparency slider like standard mats).

 

thanks for you help!

sean

[kid]

'Refract' controls transparency.

[Torgeir Holm]

Originally posted by siliconbauhaus:

try converting your max mats using the vRay wrapper, it gives the option to keep the original settings.

This is a common misconception. The VRayMtlWrapper actually does not convert materials to VRay materials. All it does is add controls for GI multipliers, and things like shadow/matte control on a material level. You will find the same controls in the Object settings under the System rollout of the render scene dialog, but on an object level, not material level. The wrapper will not make your standard material render faster, and you should only apply it if you need to adjust multipliers or need shadow/matte materials.

 

BTW: if you want some fast glass and wax for VRay advanced, these are some I'm working on at the moment. (an update with more materials will be out shortly)

 

http://vray.info/materialbeta.asp