This page provides information about the V-Ray Frame Buffer settings.
Overview
The V-Ray Frame Buffer offers options to configure the Render View, Render Region, History and Layers options. The settings mainly control visibility, location of stored renders and presets, amount of disk space to use and navigating within the VFB.
VFB is available in 3ds Max 2018 or later. Older 3ds Max versions only support the previous V-Ray VFB.
UI Path: ||V-Ray Frame Buffer|| > Options menu
Buttons
Save and close – Saves parameters configuration and closes the VFB Settings dialog.
Close – Closes the VFB Settings dialog without saving the changes.
Render View
The Render View tab controls zooming, panning and comparing of rendered images. Some of the options are available only when Show Advanced Settings is enabled.
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 VFB2 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 render server will have its own single unique color for the markings.
White – All bucket outlines, names of DR render servers and local rendering machine are in white.
Black – All bucket outlines, names of DR render servers and 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 clipboard.
Render Region Controls
This tab holds settings related to the Render Region in the VFB. Some of the options are available only when Show Advanced Settings 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 – Controls the distance of the region controls from the render region itself.
Hit Tolerance – Specifies the distance (in pixels) away from the region controls, from which the controls can be picked.
Corner Ratio – Controls the size of the corner controls of the region as a ratio of the region 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 is visible.
History
The History tab controls the render history settings such as location, amount of disk space to use and visibility parameters. Some of the options are available only when Show Advanced Settings is enabled.
Enabled– Enables/disables render history, where the V-Ray VFB keeps a history of previously rendered images.
Location
Use Project Path – When enabled, creates a new vfb_history folder to use as the History Folder within the current 3ds Max project directory.
History Folder – Specifies the location where render history images are saved as V-Ray Image files (.vrimg).
Save – Opens a browser to search for a History Folder.
Recent – Shows a list of recently used locations for saved render history images.
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 Save Completed Only – When enabled, all completed rendered images are automatically saved to the history.
Auto Load Layers – When enabled, loading an image from history or from the Load image command also loads the layer tree saved with the image.
Layers are only saved to .exr and .vrimg files written through V-Ray's own output. The output in Render Setup > Common tab is written by 3ds Max so .exr files saved from there do not have Layers saved.
When saving layers to an exr/vrimg file, V-Ray writes a flag indicating whether the color corrections are baked in the RGB channel. For example, if you save an exr from the VFB File menu > Save all image channels to single file option, V-Ray creates an .exr file with corrections baked in. It also saves the layers as metadata and the flag that corrections are baked in. When loading images into the Frame Buffer, V-Ray checks if the image has corrections baked (using the flag), and if such are found, the layers are not loaded because this causes double correction.
If you want to keep the layers that come with the Max scene, turn the Auto Load Layers option off. If you want to load layers from an external image, enable the Auto Load Layers option and check how you save those images.
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 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.
Preset path – Shows the path where the layer tree presets are saved.
Save – 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 – When enabled, the Layer panel is disabled and 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 displays a table, containing all Shortcuts for navigating through the VFB image as well as controlling the panels of the VFB.
Please note that the VFB window must have the current focus for the shortcuts to take effect.
Note that only ASCII Characters are allowed.
Configuration profile – Allows you to save or load a configuration .vrhk file with modified shortcuts.
Load – Loads a configuration file (.vrhk) with modified shortcuts.
Recent – Shows a list of recently saved configuration files.
Save – Saves user-modified shortcuts in a configuration file (.vrhk).
Enable shortcuts – Enables VFB shortcuts when the VFB window is in focus. When disabled, all 3ds Max shortcuts are expected to take effect, even if the VFB window is in focus.
New hotkey – Sets a new hotkey by pressing specific key or key combination. If the hotkey has already been assigned to another action, press Resolve conflict to make it available.
Assign – Assigns the key or the key combination to the selected action.
Remove selected – Removes the key or the key combination to the selected action.
Filter by action – Filters the hotkeys by their actions.
Remove all hotkeys – Removes all hotkeys.
Reset all to default – Resets all user-modified hotkeys to the default hotkeys.
