- For V-Ray 6, please refer to the table below to assess whether a Render Element produces correct results when using a specified Render Mode or Particle Shader configuration.
- For V-Ray 5, V-Ray Next and V-Ray 3, the Fire/Smoke Simulator needs the Render Mode to be set to Volumetric Geometry in order to produce correct Render Elements.
- For V-Ray 5, V-Ray Next and V-Ray 3, the Particle Shader needs Render as Geometry to be enabled In order to produce correct Render Elements.
- Note that Particle Shader rendering is not supported with V-Ray 3 GPU and V-Ray Next GPU.
- Keep in mind that V-Ray Next or V-Ray 3 Adv. CPU produce correct results with Progressive sampler for Render Elements only when Enable Filtering is on.
- Rendering of Fire/Smoke elements with V-Ray Next GPU requires Phoenix 3.12 and V-Ray Next update 1 nightly 28798 (18th December 2018) builds or newer.
List of Supported V-Ray Render Elements
Render Element | V-Ray 6 Volumetric | V-Ray 6 Volumetric Geometry | V-Ray 6 GPU Volumetric | V-Ray 6 GPU Volumetric Geometry | V-Ray 6 Particle Shader | V-Ray 6 Particle Shader: | Description / Additional Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MultiMatte | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | Creates selection masks based on object G-buffer ID or material ID. |
✓ | ✓ | Not Available | Not Available | ✓ | ✓ | Alpha transparency. | |
✓ | ✗ | ✗* | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | Gives Fire + Smoke. | |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | The image background. | |
| VRayBumpNormals | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | The normals generated by bump maps, in screen space (which is not the same as camera space). Use the VRaySamplerInfo render element to get the normals in camera, world or object space. |
✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | The caustics on the material. Only present when the Caustics option of V-Ray is enabled. This channel does not include GI caustics. | |
| VRayCryptomatte | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | Uses the Cryptomatte convention by Psypop to encode mattes into multichannel OpenEXRs. |
| VRayDenoiser | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Applies a denoising operation to the image after it is rendered (with the necessary channels). |
| VRayDiffuseFilter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | The pure diffuse surface color. Note that this is different from the standard 3ds Max Diffuse render element, which contains the diffuse surface lighting. |
| VRayExtraTex | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Renders the entire scene with one texture mapped on all objects. |
| VRayGlobalIllumination | ✓ (when Use Light Cache is disabled) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | The diffuse surface global illumination. Only present if Global illumination is enabled. |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | The diffuse direct surface lighting. | |
| VRayLightingAnalysis | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | Provides visual representation of the lighting intensity within a rendered frame. |
| VRayLightSelect | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | Extracts the contribution of a user-defined light or a set of lights in the scene as a separate render element. |
| VRayMatteShadow | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | The matte shadow part of the image. |
| VRayMtlID | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | The material ID of the object. |
✗ | ✗ | Not Available | Not Available | ✗ | ✗ | This element allows you to write the result of a V-Ray compatible material into a separate element. The material can be a top-level material or a sub-material of VRayMtlBlend. | |
| VRayNoiseLevel | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Outputs the noise level for pixels. Same as the noiseLevel render element produced by the VRayDenoiser, but as a standalone render element. |
| VRayNormals | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | Fog Mode only | Fog Mode only | The surface normals in screen space (which is not the same as camera space). To output the normals in camera/object/world space, use VRaySamplerInfo render element. |
✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | The object G-buffer ID (set through the node's Properties dialogue). | |
| VRayObjectSelect | ✗ | ✓ | Not Available | Not Available | ✗ | ✓ | Stores only the object(s) called out with a specific Object or Material ID. |
| VRayRawDiffuseFilter | ✗ | ✗ | Not Available | Not Available | ✗ | ✗ | A solid mask of raw diffuse surface color information not affected by Fresnel falloff. |
| VRayRawGlobalIllumination | ✓ | ✓ | Not Available | Not Available | ✓ | ✓ | The raw diffuse global illumination (not multiplied by the diffuse surface color). Only present if Global illumination is enabled. |
✓ | ✓ | Not Available | Not Available | ✓ | ✓ | The raw diffuse direct illumination before it's multiplied by the diffuse surface color. | |
| VRayRawReflection | ✗ | ✗ | Not Available | Not Available | ✗ | ✗ | The pure surface reflection, before it is multiplied by the reflection filter color. |
✓ | ✓ | Not Available | Not Available | ✓ | ✓ | The pure surface refraction before it is multiplied by the refraction filter color. | |
| VRayRawShadow | ✓ | ✓ | Not Available | Not Available | ✓ | ✓ | The raw light that was blocked by other objects. |
| VRayRawTotalLighting | ✓ | ✓ | Not Available | Not Available | ✓ | ✓ | The sum of all raw lighting - direct and indirect. |
| VRayReflection | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | The reflections on the surface. |
| VRayRefraction | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | The refractions on the surface. |
| VRayRenderID | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | The node render ID of the object that contributes most to the pixel value. |
| VRayRenderTime | Bucket Sampler only | Bucket Sampler only | Not Available | Not Available | Bucket Sampler only | Bucket Sampler only | Shows a floating-point number for each pixel's render time measured in milliseconds. |
| VRaySampleRate | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Shows an image where the pixel brightness is directly proportional to the number of samples taken at this pixel. |
| VRaySamplerInfo | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | Provides information about various aspects of the shaded points - position, normal, bump normal, reflection/refraction vectors and UVW coordinates. Can be used e.g. for world position passes or normal passes. Using V-Ray Next or V-Ray 3 Adv. CPU - this Render Element will work correctly only with Bucket sampler and Enable Filtering is off. |
| VRaySelfIllumination | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | The self-illumination of the surface. |
| VRayShadows | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | The diffuse light that was blocked by other objects. |
| VRaySpecular | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | The surface specular highlights. Specular should hold direct illumination - illumination from the fire comes as GI so result here should be correct: the element is not affected by the Fire. |
| VRayTotalLighting | ✓ | ✓ | Not Available | Not Available | ✓ | ✓ | The total lighting in the scene, direct and indirect. |
| VRayUnclampedColor | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | The unclamped image color. |
| VRayVelocity | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | The surface velocity. This channel will not be generated if 3d motion blur is enabled. |
| VRayWireColor | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | The wire color of the object as set in the 3ds Max scene. This can be used to generate masks for the objects based on their wire color. |
| VRayZDepth | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | The z-depth of the surface. Using V-Ray 6 CPU - this Render Element will work correctly only with Bucket sampler and Enable Filtering is off. |
* - VRayLightSelect in Light Path Expression mode can be used to obtain an equivalent of the Atmosphere RE on V-Ray GPU with a Phoenix Simulator or Particle Shader in fog mode present in it.
A possible example expression would be (C[O])|(CV.*). Note though that the (C[O]) part will also capture other directly visible emissive objects (excluding the lights) in the scene alongside the directly visible fire.