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Table of Contents

This page gives information about the Sampler Info Render Element.

Overview


The Sampler Info Render Element is a color image that provides information about the scene, with the choice to show any of various aspects as color blocks. This render element provides information about various aspects of the shaded points such as position, normal, bump normal, reflection/refraction vectors and UVW coordinates, which previously were only available through the Extra Texture Render Element. This render element can be used either for world position passes or normal passes. It extracts particular information about the scene, converting the gathered information into RGB data for use in compositing.


UI Path: ||Display Render Settings button|| > Render Elements tab > Sampler Info

 

 

 

To use render elements, select from the Available render elements column and click the Add button to add the passes you wish to generate at render time. When you render the scene, the added render elements listed in the column on the right, will also render, which can be viewed from the VFB window's channel drop-down menu.

For more information on the parameters on this dialog, see the Render Elements tab page.

 


 

 

 

Attributes


The parameters for this render element appear in the Attribute Editor under Extra V-Ray Attributes.

Enabled – The render element is generated.

Deep output – Specifies whether to include this render element in deep images.

Filename suffix – The text added to the end of the rendered file, when saved as a separate file (e.g. myrender.samplerInfo.vrimg).

Type – Controls the type of render element produced by vrayRE_Sampler_Info:

Point  The X, Y, and Z coordinates of the point are converted to RGB data according to the Coordinate system that is set. This outputs a Position Pass for use in compositing.
Normal vector  The direction of the normal at the particular shaded point according to which  Coordinate system is set (Object, World, Camera or Relative space)
Reflection vector  Commonly used for adjusting reflections in the composite.
Refraction vector  Commonly used for adjusting refractions in the composite.
UVW coordinates  Extracts the UVW coordinates of the object at the particular shaded point.  This can be used to apply another texture at a composite level.
Normal vector with bump mapping   Produces the bump normal according to the Coordinate system that is set.
Backward occlusion  The red and green components of this render element represent the screen position of the shaded point at the beginning of the motion-blurred frame, while the blue component represents camera occlusion at the beginning of the motion-blurred frame. Together with the Forward occlusion render element, this can be used for denoising and/or post-process motion blur.
Forward occlusion – The red and green components of this render element represent the screen position of the shaded point at the end of the motion-blurred frame, while the blue component represents camera occlusion at the end of the motion-blurred frame. Together with the Backward occlusion render element, this can be used for denoising and/or post-process motion blur.
Integer ID from node user attribute – Extracts any integer node user property into an integer render element. Can be used as an extended Object ID.
Float number from node user attribute – Extracts any floating-point node user property into a single-channel floating-point render element. Can be used to extract additional masks.
Face index in mesh – Correlates points between separate bakings of the same mesh.
Barycentric coordinates from face – Displays the Barycentric coordinates of the rendered objects.
Tangent vector in object space –  Displays tangent vector according to the Object space.
Bitangent vector in object space – Displays bitangent vector according to the Object space

Point multiplier – Acts as a multiplier when Type is set to Point.

Refraction IOR – Sets the index of refraction when Refraction vector is set as the Type.

UVW Channel – The UVW mapping channel used when the Type is set to UVW coordinates, if no UVW Channel Name is specified.

UVW Channel Name – The default UVW mapping channel used when the Type is set to UVW coordinates. Specifies the UVW Channel to render by the name of the UV set. 

UVW Mode – Specifies what happens to UVW values outside the 0.0-1.0 range of the unit texture square:

Normal – Stores the UVW coordinates without modification.
Clamp – UVW coordinates above 1.0 are clamped to 1.0, and values below 0.0 are clamped to 0.0.
Tile  Wraps the UVW coordinates to the unit texture square.

  Coordinate system – Controls the coordinate system used:

World –  X, Y, and Z coordinates (in world space) of the point are converted to RGB data.
Object – X, Y, and Z coordinates (in object space) of the point are converted to RGB data.
Camera – X, Y, and Z coordinates (in camera space) of the point are converted to RGB data.
Relative  X, Y, and Z coordinates in the object space of the Relative node are converted to RGB data.

Relative node  When Coordinate system is set to Relative, this specifies the scene node relative to which the point/vector data is stored.

Output – Controls the way data is stored in the render element when the Type is a Normal vector, or a Reflection/Refraction direction:

Vector (signed) – Values are stored directly without modification, including negative components.
Color (unsigned) – Values are scaled down by 0.5 and offset by 0.5 so that (0, 0, 0) maps to (0.5, 0.5, 0.5), (-1, -1, -1) maps to (0, 0, 0) and (1,1,1) maps to (1,1,1). This avoids negative values which might be necessary for some compositing packages.

User attribute –  Determines which user attribute to connect to when Integer ID from node user attribute or Float number from node user attribute is selected as Type.

Occlusion Bias – Controls the positional bias of the Backward occlusion and  Forward occlusion types in order to prevent incorrect self-occlusion.

Filtering – Applies the image filter to this channel. Image filter settings are in the Image Sampler rollout in the VRay tab of the Render Settings.

Denoise – Enables the render element's denoising, provided the Denoiser render element is present.

The Denoise option is not available if the Type is set to Integer ID from node user attribute or Float number from node user attribute.

 

 


Render Samples


The following images are examples of passes generated by the vrayRE_Sampler_Info.

World Space

These renders use the World space coordinate system.


 


Point Type



Normal vector Type


 

 


Reflection vector Type



Refraction vector Type


 

 


UVW coordinates Type



Normal vector with bump mapping Type


 


Object Space

These renders use the Object space coordinate system.


 


Point Type

 


Normal vector Type

 

 

 


Reflection vector Type

 


Refraction vector Type

 

 


Camera Space

These renders use the Camera space coordinate system.


Point Type

 


 


Reflection vector Type

 


Refraction vector Type

 

 


Relative Space

These renders use the Relative space coordinate system.



Point Type




Reflection vector Type

 


Refraction vector Type

 

 




 

Supported UVW Coordinate Types


The table below provides some details on the supported UVW coordinate types within the Sampler Info Render Element. Pass types such as Normal vector, Normal vector with bump mapping, World coordinates, and Point can be used to relight a scene at a composite stage. While UVW coordinates and Object coordinates can be used to re-texture items in a scene while compositing. The Reflection vector type can be used to adjust or remap reflections, similarly the Refraction vector can do the same in a composite for refractions. Some types such as the Forward occlusion and Backwards occlusion can be used together for denoising and/or post-process motion blur. The Integer ID from node user attribute can be used as an extended Object ID.  

 

 

Pass TypeCoord. SystemUVW ModeOutputV-Ray CPUV-Ray GPU
PointWorld  
PointObject  
PointCamera  
PointRelative  
Normal vectorWorld Vector (signed)
Normal vectorWorld Color (unsigned)  
Normal vectorObject Vector (signed)
Normal vectorObject Color (unsigned)
Normal vectorCamera Vector (signed)
Normal vectorCamera Color (unsigned)
Normal vectorRelative Vector (signed)
Normal vectorRelative Color (unsigned)
Reflection vectorWorld Vector (signed)
Reflection vectorWorld Color (unsigned)
Reflection vectorObject Vector (signed)
Reflection vectorObject Color (unsigned)
Reflection vectorCamera Vector (signed)
Reflection vectorCamera Color (unsigned)
Reflection vectorRelative Vector (signed)
Reflection vectorRelative Color (unsigned) 
Refraction vectorWorld Vector (signed)
Refraction vectorWorld Color (unsigned)
Refraction vectorObject Vector (signed)
Refraction vectorObject Color (unsigned) 
Refraction vectorCamera Vector (signed)
Refraction vectorCamera Color (unsigned)
Refraction vectorRelative Vector (signed)
Refraction vectorRelative Color (unsigned)
UVW coordinates Normal 
UVW coordinates Clamp 
UVW coordinates Tile 
Normal vector with bump mappingWorld Vector (signed)
Normal vector with bump mappingWorld Color (unsigned)
Normal vector with bump mappingObject Vector (signed)
Normal vector with bump mappingObject Color (unsigned) 
Normal vector with bump mappingCamera Vector (signed)
 
Normal vector with bump mappingCamera Color (unsigned) 
Normal vector with bump mappingRelative Vector (signed)
 
Normal vector with bump mappingRelative Color (unsigned) 
Backwards occlusion   
Forward occlusion   
Integer ID from node user attribute   
Float number from node user attribute   
Face index in mesh  Vector (signed)
Barycentric coordinates from face  

Vector (signed)

Barycentric coordinates from face  Color (unsigned)
Tangent vector in object space  Vector (signed)
Tangent vector in object space  Color (unsigned)
Bitangent vector in object space  Vector (signed)
Bitangent vector in object space  Color (unsigned)

 

Notes


  • When included in a multichannel EXR, Sampler Info render element is always saved with lossless compression.