This page describes the settings available in the V-Ray Frame Buffer for Blender.
Overview
The V-Ray Frame Buffer offers options to configure the Render View, Render Region, History, and Layers options. These settings mainly control visibility, location of stored renders and presets, amount of disk space to use, and navigation within the VFB.
UI Path: ||V-Ray Frame Buffer|| > Options menu > VFB settings
Note that closing the Settings window without saving will revoke any changes made. Click on the Save and Close button at the bottom of the window to save your changes before closing.
Render View
The Render View tab controls zooming, panning and comparing of rendered images. Note that the Compare and Keyboard Pan options are available only when the Show Advanced Settings checkbox is selected.
Zoom
Zoom Multiplier – Multiplies the zoom for one mouse click.
Outside Margin – The fraction of the displayed region allowed to be outside of the displayed image. Useful when panning the image while zoomed in.
Compare
Compare Fit Mode – Specifies how to fit the compared images when their resolutions are not the same. You can choose between Horizontal, Vertical and Center.
Split Hit Tolerance – Specifies a number of pixels around the split lines when deciding they are close enough to be dragged with the mouse.
Center zoom on Split Line – When enabled, zooming in/out, while in history compare mode, is centered around the split position(s).
Keyboard Pan
Use VFB 3.x keyboard pan – When enabled, keyboard pan is in image pixels. When disabled, keyboard pan is in fractions of the displayed image.
Keyboard pan display fraction – Specifies the number of pixels (or fraction of the image) to pan with the keyboard.
Keyboard pan shift multiplier – Specifies a multiplier for the pan amount when the Shift key is pressed.
Bucket outlines – Controls the appearance of buckets in VFB during rendering.
Different color by bucket – Each core from local rendering machine receives its own color for the bucket outlines and machine name. Each DR server will have its own single unique color for the markings.
White – All bucket outlines, names of DR servers and the local rendering machine are in white.
Black – All bucket outlines, names of DR servers and the local rendering machine are in black.
None – No bucket outlines and markings are displayed during rendering.
Resize VFB On Resolution Change – When enabled, loading an image from history or new render start also resizes the VFB to fit.
Dither colors – When enabled, colors are dithered for a smoother transition between them.
Copy to clipboard with alpha – When enabled, alpha is added when copying the current channel to the clipboard.
Render Region Controls
This tab holds settings related to the Render Region in the VFB. Note that only the Show controls on hover only and the Show region sizes options are visible when the Show Advanced Settings option is enabled.
Thickness – Controls the thickness of the render region hover controls.
Opacity – Adjusts the opacity of the region hover controls in a 0-255 range.
Distance – Specifies the distance between the region controls and the render region itself.
Hit Tolerance – Specifies how far (in pixels) away from the region controls the controls can be picked.
Corner Ratio – Determines the size of the corner controls of the render region. The value is calculated as a ratio of the region's width to its height.
Middle Ratio – Controls the ratio of the side render region controls.
Move Ratio – Controls the move ratio of the render region controls.
Show controls on hover only – When enabled, controls are visible only when hovering over the render region. When disabled, the controls are always visible.
Move the region with the crosshair – Allows moving the region with the crosshair in its center. When disabled, the region is moved with the additional move controls that appear between the controls for resizing the region.
Fill rectangles – When enabled, the region controls have fill. Otherwise, the controls are only drawn as outlines.
Draw Outlines – When enabled, the region controls have outlines.
Show region sizes – When enabled, the size value of all four sides of the render region rectangle are visible.
History
The History tab controls the render history settings, such as location, disk space used, and visibility parameters. Note that the Font size and Background opacity sliders are only available when the Show Advanced Settings checkbox is selected.
Enabled – Enables/disables render history, where the VFB keeps a history of previously rendered images.
Location
Use Project Path – This option is currently work in progress.
History Folder – Specifies the location where render history images are saved as V-Ray Image files (.vrimg).
Max Size on Disk (MBs) – Specifies the maximum amount of disk space to use for the render history images. When the history exceeds the specified amount, the oldest images are deleted.
Auto Save – When enabled, all rendered images are automatically saved to the history.
Auto Load Layers – When enabled, loading an image from history also loads the layer tree saved with the image.
Position and Thumbnail
Left/Bottom – Specifies the position of the Render History panel.
Min Thumbnail Width – Specifies the minimum width of the thumbnails in the Render History panel. You can additionally specify the image ratio for the thumbnails.
Center/Fit Inside/Fit Outside – Specifies how to fit the thumbnail in the History panel.
Info Font and Background
Font size - resolution and time – Specifies the font size of the resolution and time information on the thumbnail.
Font size - note – Specifies the font size of the notes on the thumbnails.
Font size - shortcut key – Specifies the font size of the 1-9 shortcut keys.
Background opacity - resolution and time – Specifies the opacity of the resolution and time background.
Background opacity - note – Specifies the opacity of the note background.
Background opacity - compare letter – Specifies the opacity of the compare letter background.
Show resolution/time – Specifies whether to show details about the resolution and time of the rendered image. You can choose between Never, On History Hover, On Image Hover, and Always.
Show note/name – Specifies whether to show the name/note at the bottom of the thumbnail. You can choose between Never, On History Hover, On Image Hover, and Always.
Show shortcut key – Specifies whether to show shortcut keys on the rendered image thumbnail. You can choose between Never, On History Hover, On Image Hover, and Always.
Layers
The Layers tab specifies a location to store the layer tree presets. The same settings are available for this tab regardless if Show Advanced Settings is enabled.
Preset path – Shows the path where the layer tree presets are saved.
Browse for Layers path – Specifies a path to save the layer tree presets.
Recent
– Shows a list of recently used locations for loading layer tree presets.Use own image Layer stacks when comparing in History – Disables the Layer panel, so that History A/B/C/D Compare uses the respective Layers setup of each image. When comparing the current render to one from the History panel, editing the Layers setup is available and is applied only to the current render. When comparing images from the History panel, the Layers panel is disabled and editing the Layers tree is not possible.
Shortcuts
The Shortcuts tab allows you to toggle hotkeys on and off and to specify your own custom hotkeys.
Enable shortcuts – When disabled, turns the hotkeys off in the VFB for the current session. This option is enabled by default, and when re-loading Cinema, it will again be enabled, regardless of the previous setting.
Configuration profile – If you have a premade V-Ray Configuration file .vrhk, you can load it here to transfer your configuration to Cinema 4D.
In the Edit hotkeys section, you can assign additional hotkeys to an option or replace the default ones with custom ones. Select an option from the list. It is then displayed instead of the Select a shortcut to edit placeholder. Type the new hotkey in the New hotkey slot. When happy, click on the Assign button to add the hotkey shortcut. You can preview all the keys assigned to the current option in the Assigned hotkeys window. Select one and click on Remove selected to remove it.
You can also Remove all hotkeys or Reset all to default, using the corresponding buttons. Remember to click Save and close to apply your changes.