This page provides information on exploring the parameters of materials and textures created from plugins with V-Ray.
Overview
Materials and textures can be created from any V-Ray Standalone material or texture plugin that comes with the V-Ray installation. The parameters of these materials and textures can be accessed through the command prompt.
Accessing Parameters in CMD
Details on plugin nodes from plugins is available with the plgparams.exe tool that comes with the V-Ray installation.
By default, the plgparams.exe can be found in C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\3ds Max 20xx\bin\ for V-Ray for 3ds Max 2021 and earlier, or in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\VRay3dsMax 20xx\bin for V-Ray for 3ds Max 2022 and later.
With the command prompt, navigate to the bin folder and run plgparams.exe without arguments to see a help message on the tool's usage. In general, you will need to run a series of commands to point plgparams to the plugin folder, locate the V-Ray name of the node (which might differ from its display name in the V-Ray UI), and list the parameters for the plugin.
To point plgparams to the folder where your plugins reside, use the -plugindir option:
plgparams -plugindir <plugin folder>
This command tells plgparams where to find your plugins. By default, the default plugins folder location is:
C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\3ds Max 20xx\bin\plugins for V-Ray for 3ds Max 2021 and earlier, or
C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\VRay3dsMax20xx\bin\plugins for V-ray for 3ds Max 2022 or later.
## Example for 3ds Max 2021 and earlier "C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\3ds Max 2018\bin\plgparams.exe" -plugindir "C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\3ds Max 2018\bin\plugins" ## Example for 3ds Max 2022 and later "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\VRay3dsMax2023\bin\plgparams.exe" -plugindir "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\VRay3dsMax20xx\bin\plugins"
To see the list of plugin names in this folder, use the following command:
## Usage plgparams -plugindir <plugin folder> -list ## Example for 3ds Max 2021 and earlier "C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\3ds Max 2018\bin\plgparams.exe" -plugindir "C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\3ds Max 2018\bin\plugins" -list ## Example foe 3ds Max 2022 and later "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\VRay3dsMax2023\bin\plgparams.exe" -plugindir "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\VRay3dsMax20xx\bin\plugins" -lilst
Note that the plugin folder must be specified with the -plugindir switch each time you run the command.
To see help on the parameters for a specific plugin, name the plugin in quotes after the -plugindir switch and folder. For example, to see help on the BRDFGlass plugin, use the command:
## Usage plgparams -plugindir <plugin folder> <plugin name> ## Example for 3ds Max 2021 and earlier "C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\3ds Max 2018\bin\plgparams.exe" -plugindir "C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\3ds Max 2018\bin\plugins" BRDFGlass ## Example foe 3ds Max 2022 and later "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\VRay3dsMax2023\bin\plgparams.exe" -plugindir "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\VRay3dsMax20xx\bin\plugins" BRDFGlass
This will list all the parameters for the plugin, and definitions for each.
