Square Enix © Goodbye Kansas

Important: Update Your Chaos License Server by January 28, 2025
To ensure uninterrupted access to your licenses, an essential update is required by January 28, 2025. Failure to update your Chaos license server will result in the loss of access to your licenses. For detailed instructions, please visit the FAQ Article.

Table of Contents

  1. Step 1: Install V-Ray
  2. Step 2: Activate your license
  3. Step 3: Load V-Ray in Maya

Loading the V-Ray for Maya Plugin

Once you have installed V-Ray for Maya, you can load the plugin from the Maya plugin Manager:

  1. Start Maya.

  2. Open the Plugin Manager from the Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager menu.

  3. Scroll down to the vrayformaya.mll plugin entry.

  4. Check the Loaded and Auto-load options to load V-Ray for Maya.

  5. Click Close.






If you do not see the vrayformaya.bundle entry, you will need to browse explicitly for it. The file is located by default in the /Applications/Chaos/V-Ray/maya20xx/vray/plug-ins/ directory. The plugin will attempt to load a shared library, libvray.dylib, which is installed in the /Applications/Chaos/V-Ray/maya20xx/Maya.app/Contents/macOS/ folder and should be readily accessible for Maya to load without modifying the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.

Note: do not attempt to make V-Ray for Maya load the libvray.dylib library with the same name as the standalone version of V-Ray, which is located in the /Applications/Chaos/V-Ray/maya20xx/vray/bin folder. Attempting to load the V-Ray standalone library into Maya will cause Maya to crash immediately.

If you do not see the vrayformaya entry, you will need to browse explicitly for the V-Ray for Maya plugin, which is called vrayformaya.so and is located by default in the /usr/Chaos/V-Ray/maya20xx/vray/plug-ins/ directory. The plugin will attempt to load a shared library, libvray.so, which is installed in the /usr/Chaos/V-Ray/maya20xx/lib folder and should be readily accessible for Maya to load without modifying the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.

NOTE: do not attempt to make V-Ray for Maya load the libvray.so library with the same name for the standalone version of V-Ray, which is located in the /usr/Chaos/V-Ray/Standalone_for_Linux_x64/lib/linux_x64 folder. Attempting to load the V-Ray Standalone library into Maya will cause Maya to crash immediately.


Register V-Ray Render Server as a Service

You can register the V-Ray Standalone application as a Windows service so that it runs automatically on Windows boot from the Windows Start > All Programs > V-Ray for Maya 20xx folder > Register V-Ray render server as a service. V-Ray Standalone can now be used as a render server for Distributed Rendering, Network Rendering, and rendering with IPR.


Running V-Ray Standalone


V-Ray Standalone is installed as part of the V-Ray for Maya installation. It can be started from Windows Start > All Programs > Chaos > V-Ray Standalone for x64

Once started, you will need to start a command-line rendering by first calling the vray command and then adding the following arguments:

vray -sceneFile = "[v-ray scene file]"

where [v-ray scene file] is a .vrscene file. Start it without parameters to see a list of available command line options. See the V-Ray Standalone documentation for more.

V-Ray Standalone is installed as part of the V-Ray for Maya installation. It can be executed using the vray bash script, which is normally installed in the /Applications/Chaos/V-Ray/Maya20xx/VRay.app/Contents/MacOS/vray.bin directory:

/Applications/Chaos/V-Ray/Maya20xx/VRay.app/Contents/MacOS/vray.bin -scenefile="[v-ray scene file]"

where [v-ray scene file] is a .vrscene file. Start it without parameters to see a list of available command line options.

V-Ray Standalone is installed as part of the V-Ray for Maya installation. It can be executed using the vray bash script, which is normally installed in the /usr/Chaos/V-Ray/maya20xx/vray/bin/ directory, for example:

$ /usr/Chaos /V-Ray/maya2022/vray/bin/vray -scenefile="[v-ray scene file]"

Use the -help option to see a list of the available command line options.


Running a V-Ray Standalone Render Server


You can use V-Ray Standalone render servers for distributed rendering, where a single frame is simultaneously calculated across many machines. Before using distributed rendering, you must start the V-Ray Standalone application in render server mode on the machines you wish to use. To do that, open the application from Windows Start > All Programs > V-Ray for Maya 20nn folder > Launch V-Ray render server.

Where nnnn is the particular version of Maya (e.g. 2024, etc.).

You can use V-Ray Standalone render servers for distributed rendering, where a single frame is simultaneously calculated across many machines. Before using distributed rendering, you must start the V-Ray Standalone application in render server mode on the machines you wish to use. To do that, run the following command from a Terminal window:

/Applications/Chaos/V-Ray/Mayannnn/VRay.app/Contents/MacOS/vray.bin -vrayserver

Where nnnn is the particular version of Maya (e.g. 2024, etc.).

You can use V-Ray Standalone render servers for distributed rendering, where a single frame is simultaneously calculated across many machines. Before using distributed rendering, you must start the V-Ray Standalone application in render server mode on the machines you wish to use. This is done with the vrayserver command, for example:

$ /usr/Chaos/V-Ray/maya20nn/vray/bin/vrayserver

Where nnnn is the particular version of Maya (e.g. 2024, etc.).

Was this helpful?