The irradiance map viewer can be used to view, merge, and save irradiance map files created by V-Ray.
Overview
The Irradiance Map viewer tool allows you to navigate around a 3D projected version of a scene to view where GI samples were taken during the rendering process.
The viewer is a separate program and does not require the V-Ray host application (Cinema 4D, 3ds Max, MODO, etc.) to be running.
Installation
By default, the installation of V-Ray for Cinema 4D installs the irradiance map viewer in the folder [ Program Files ]\Maxon Cinema 4D R23\plugins\V-Ray\tools. A shortcut to the irradiance map viewer can be found within Start menu > Chaos Group > Irradiance map viewer.
Windows: start the imapviewer executable from C:\Program Files\Maxon Cinema 4D Rnn\plugins\V-Ray\tools
macOS: start the imapviewer executable from Applications/Maxon Cinema 4D Rnn/plugins/V-Ray/tools
Note: nn is the Cinema 4D version.
There are several methods of running the irradiance map viewer, which are outlined below. The simplest way is to double-click the imapviewer.exe file. This will bring up an Open File dialog box that lets you browse for a light map to open. This is the same as starting the irradiance map viewer from the Start Menu. The menus of the program allow you to do various things with the light map (merging and saving, etc). You can also run the irradiance map viewer from the command line. In this case, there are several possible choices: If you type just > imapviewer on the command line, this is the same as double-clicking the file. It brings up the File Open dialog for selecting an irradiance map or a light cache map file. You can also type > imapviewer <filename> where <filename> is the name of an irradiance map or a light cache map file. This file is opened automatically. A third way is to use the viewer to merge several maps into one: > imapviewer -load <map1> -load <map2> ... [-save<finalmap>] [-nodisplay] This loads the specified maps and combines them into one light map of the same type. If the -save option is specified, the result is written to the given file. If the -nodisplay option is specified, the resulting map is not displayed (otherwise, the viewer displays the final result). [-incremental] -load <filename> {-load <filename>} [-save <filename>] Merges the specified irradiance/light maps and writes them to the specified file. If the -incremental option is specified, the imapviewer discards samples that fall in areas where there is already sufficient information. This option must be specified before any -load options. Usage
Options
Option Description -info Prints out information about the current irradiance map. -noDisplay When this option is specified, the resulting map is not displayed (otherwise, the viewer displays the final result). -up_axis [z|y] Chooses the up axis (default is z). -convert <filenameFrom> <filenameTo.pts> [-rgb] Converts the irradiance map file into a PTS file. -help Prints a help message.