Plugins
While V-Ray works with most of the standard 3ds Max lights, materials and maps, it also includes several additional plugins which offer functionality not found in 3ds Max itself. They are specially optimized for work with V-Ray and using them instead of the standard ones can increase rendering speed significantly.
The V-Ray rendering system includes the following plugins for 3ds Max:
Plugin name | Description |
V-Ray renderer | The V-Ray renderer plugin |
VRay2SidedMtl | A utility material that allows to create thin translucent surfaces like paper, cloth etc. |
VRayOverrideMtl | A utility material that allows to specify different materials to be used for reflections, GI, refractions and shadows. |
VRayLightMtl | A material for creating light-emitting objects. |
VRayMtl | A specialized V-Ray material supporting (glossy) reflections/refractions, absorption, sub-surface scattering etc. |
VRayMtlWrapper | A specialized V-Ray material that allows you to specify additional rendering parameters for any material. |
VRayLight | An area light plugin |
VRaySun | A V-Ray sun light with accurate intensity and color based on its position over the horizon. |
VRaySky | A procedural HDR environmap map that works with the VRaySun light to create realistic daylight environments. |
VRayShadow | A raytraced shadow plugin (sharp and area shadows) |
VRayDirt | A procedural texture that can be used for dirt-like effects or for simulating ambient occlusion. |
VRayColor | A utility texture that always returns a specified color. |
VRayMap | A map for adding (glossy) V-Ray reflections/refractions to non-V-Ray materials |
VRayHDRI | A map for loading HDR images (.hdr file extension) and mapping them as environments |
VRayEdgesTex | A map that shows mesh edges (useful for wireframe-style rendering). Can also be used as a bump map to smooth the sharp edges of mesh objects. |
VRayDisplacementMod | A modifier that enables the V-Ray displacement for an object |
VRayFur | A plugin that generates simple render-time fur |
VRayProxy | A plugin that allows you to specify render-time geometry that will be loaded from an external file |
VRayPlane | A geometry plugin that implements an infinite plane primitive. |
VRayToon | An atmospheric plugin that produces simple cartoon-style effect. |
VRayBmpFilter | A plugin for loading texture maps without filtering. |
VRayPhysicalCamera | A new camera type that allows to simulate the workings of a real-world camera. |
VRayFastSSS | A material for quick simulation of sub-surface scattering |
VRayBlendMtl | A utlity material for efficient layering of several different materials. |