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

This page introduces you to the VRayMtl, which is the major building block for most shading networks in V-Ray.


Overview

The VRayMtl is a very versatile material that allows for better physically correct illumination (energy distribution) in the scene, faster rendering, and more convenient reflection and refraction parameters. This material can be easily set up to simulate a huge variety of surfaces from plastics to metals to glass and more by adjusting a handful of parameters.

Furthermore, with the VRayMtl you can apply different texture maps, control the reflections and refractions, add bump and displacement maps, force direct GI calculations, and choose the BRDF for how light interacts with the surface material.


Read more about the Basic Parameters that control properties like the diffuse and opacity colors, or the articles on Reflection, Coat Layer, Refraction, Sheen Layer, Bump and Normal Mapping and the Options of VRayMtl.

For advanced information on the V-Ray Material structure, see the V-Ray Material Structure page.


Image courtesy of Mathew Monro


UI Path: ||Right-click on the geometry|| > Assign New Material...

||Right-click on the geometry|| > Assign New Material... > VRay section > VRay Mtl



||V-Ray Shelf|| > Right-click to Create V-Ray Materials button > VRay Mtl




||Hypershade|| > Window tab > Create... > VRay section > VRay Mtl




Presets

Presets – Available in the Maya Node Preset menu, the VRayMtl presets offer values for commonly used materials. See the VRayMtl Presets example below for more information.

Presets use settings that work well (in terms of speed and realism) as a starting point or for general-use cases. However, when a custom scene requires it, the material parameters values can be further edited to work best. For example, Glass and Glass (Tinted) use glossiness values that speed up rendering, but rendering a close-up view of a realistic glass object may require further adjustments. For an in-depth approach refer to the How-To tutorials.



Example: VRayMtl Presets


Default

Ceramic

Chocolate

Diamond

 

Glass

Glass (Architectural)

Glass (Frosted)

Glass (Tinted)

Plastic

Rubber

Soap Bubble

Water

Pink Satin

Red Velvet

White Satin

Aluminium

Aluminium (Brushed)

Aluminium (Rough)

Chrome

Copper

Copper (Rough)

Gold

Gold (Rough)

Iron

Lead

Silver

Silver (Rough)


Non-realistic material presets, such as Chocolate, Plastic, Ceramic, and Rubber are ‘quick’ compared to their realistic (SSS-enabled) counterparts. They can be used for generic plastic for the plastic backs of computer monitors or laptops in a meeting room, or for the car tires in a scene where the cars are somewhere in the distance, etc.



Each V-Ray Material rollout has its own dedicated page listed below: 




Basic


V-Ray Diffuse color, Opacity, Self-Illumination

Reflection 


V-Ray Material Reflection Parameters

Coat


V-Ray Material Coat Parameters

Refraction


V-Ray Material Refraction Parameters

Sheen 



V-Ray Material Sheen Parameters

Bump and Normal Mapping


V-Ray Material Bump and Normal Mapping Parameters

Options and Hardware Texturing



V-Ray Material's Options and Hardware Texturing
Was this helpful?