This page provides information on supported features in V-Ray for Houdini.
Overview
These features are supported by CPU and GPU rendering in Houdini for Production and IPR modes. In Houdini, IPR on the CPU is the same as Production rendering on the CPU when using the Progressive image sampler. Note that IPR uses Brute Force for GI by default. To use Light Cache in IPR, use the Engine > Light Cache option.
Limitations
GPU in Production mode does not support Distributed Rendering.
Supported Features
Geometry
Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
V-Ray Clipper (VRayClipper) |
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V-Ray Decal (VRayDecal) |
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V-Ray Enmesh (GeomEnmesh) |
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V-Ray Fur (GeomHair) |
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V-Ray Plane (GeomPlane) |
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V-Ray Proxy |
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Displacement1 |
| PARTIAL |
Subdivision |
|
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Fur/hair |
| PARTIAL |
Poly primitives as triangle mesh |
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Polysoup primitives as triangle mesh |
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Triangle fan primitives as triangle mesh |
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Triangle strip primitives as triangle mesh |
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Perfect circle |
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Perfect sphere |
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Perfect tube primitives |
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Metaball primitives |
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MetaSQuad primitives |
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Particles |
| PARTIAL |
VDB primitives |
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Houdini Volume primitives |
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Packed geometry primitives2 |
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Packed disk primitives (.bgeo, bhclassic) |
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Packed fragment primitives |
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Packed crowd agent primitives |
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Houdini Instancer |
| PARTIAL |
OpenSubdiv |
|
|
Lights
| Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
| Lights textures3 |  | |
V-Ray Direct light | | PARTIAL |
V-Ray Spot light | | PARTIAL |
V-Ray IES light | | PARTIAL |
V-Ray Sphere light | | PARTIAL |
V-Ray Dome light | | PARTIAL |
V-Ray Mesh light | | PARTIAL |
V-Ray Sun | | PARTIAL |
V-Ray Ambient light | |  |
| V-Ray Omni light | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray Rectangle light | | PARTIAL |
Image Based Lighting | (as V-Ray dome light) |
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Light linking | | |
| Procedural Clouds | | |
Materials
Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
V-Ray BRDFAlSurface4 (V-Ray alSurface) |
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V-Ray BRDFLayered (V-Ray Blend) |
| PARTIAL |
V-Ray BRDFBump (V-Ray Bump) |
| PARTIAL |
V-Ray BRDFCarPaint (V-Ray Car Paint) |
| PARTIAL11 |
V-Ray BRDFCarPaint2 (V-Ray Car Paint 2) |
| PARTIAL11 |
V-Ray BRDFScanned (V-Ray Chaos Scans) |
|
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V-Ray MtlGLSL (V-Ray GLSL) |
|
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V-Ray BRDFHair4 (V-Ray Hair) |
| PARTIAL |
V-Ray BRDFHair3 (V-Ray Hair 3) |
|
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V-Ray BRDFLight (V-Ray Light) |
| PARTIAL |
VRayMtl (V-Ray Material) |
| PARTIAL12 |
V-Ray MtlMaterialID (V-Ray Material ID) |
| PARTIAL |
V-Ray MtlMulti (V-Ray Multi ID Material) |
| PARTIAL |
V-Ray MtlOSL (V-Ray OSL) |
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V-Ray MtlOverride (V-Ray Override) |
| PARTIAL |
V-Ray BSDFPointParticle (V-Ray Point Particle) |
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V-Ray MtlVRayMesh (V-Ray Proxy Material) |
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V-Ray MtlRenderStats (V-Ray Render Stats) |
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V-Ray MtlRoundEdges (V-Ray Round Edges) |
| (no Radius Mode and Raytraced) |
V-Ray BRDFScatterVolume (V-Ray Scatter Volume) |
|
|
V-Ray MtlSingleBRDF (V-Ray Single) |
| PARTIAL |
V-Ray BRDFSkinComplex (V-Ray Skin) |
| |
V-Ray BRDFSSS2Complex5 (V-Ray SSS) |
| PARTIAL |
V-Ray BRDFStochasticFlakes (V-Ray Stochastic Flakes) |
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V-Ray BRDFToonMtl (V-Ray Toon Material) |
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V-Ray Mtl2Sided 6 (V-Ray Two Sided) |
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V-Ray MtlVRmat (V-Ray VRMat) |
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V-Ray MtlWrapper (V-Ray Wrapper) |
| PARTIAL |
V-Ray Material Builder |
| |
V-Ray Material Complex |
| |
V-Ray Material Output |
| |
V-Ray GeomDisplacedMesh (V-Ray Displacement) |
| |
File Textures
| Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
| V-RayTexGLSL |
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| V-Ray TexICC |
| |
| V-Ray MetaImageFile | | |
| V-Ray TexLut | | |
| V-Ray TexOceanSpectra | | |
| V-Ray TexOCIO | | |
| V-Ray TexOSL | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexPtex | | |
Cameras
Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
Camera motion blur7 |
| PARTIAL |
| Camera DoF | | |
| Perspective | | |
| V-Ray Physical Camera | | PARTIAL |
| Stereoscopic | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray Dome Camera | | |
Environment
Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
| Spherical Mapping | | |
| Mirror ball mapping | | |
| Angular mapping | | |
| Toon shading | | |
| SimpleFog | | |
| ScatterFog | | |
| EnvironmentFog | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray SphereFade Gizmo | | |
Texture Baking
Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
Regular texture baking | |
|
Spherical Harmonics baking | | |
Bake to vertex colors | | |
Bake to Ptex | | |
Distributed Rendering
Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
| Distributed Rendering | | |
| Automatic assets transfer | | |
| Don't use local machine | | |
| Asset cache | | |
Global Illumination Methods
Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
| Brute Force | | |
| Light Cache | | |
| Irradiance Map8 | | |
Utility Textures
| Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
| V-Ray AovBind | | |
| V-Ray AovExtraTex | | |
| V-Ray TexBezierCurve | | |
| V-Ray TexBezierCurveColor | | |
| V-Ray TexBlend | | |
| V-Ray TexBlendBumpNormal | | |
| V-Ray TexClamp | | |
| V-Ray TexAColor | | |
| V-Ray TexColorAndAlpha | | |
| V-Ray TexAColorChannel | | |
| V-Ray ColorCorrect | | |
| V-Ray TexColorCorrect | | |
| V-Ray ColorCorrection | | |
| V-Ray TexAColorOp | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexColorToFloat | | |
| V-Ray ColorTextureToMono | | |
| V-Ray TexMaxGamma | | |
| V-Ray TexCombineColor | | |
| V-Ray TexCombineFloat | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexCompMax | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexCondition2 | | |
| V-Ray TexDistanceBetween | | |
| V-Ray TexFloat | | |
| V-Ray TexFloatOp | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexFloatToColor | | |
| V-Ray TexHairSampler | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexHSVToRGB | | |
| V-Ray TexInt | | |
| V-Ray TexIntToFloat | | |
| V-Ray TexInvert | | |
| V-Ray TexInvertFloat | | |
| V-Ray TexLayeredMax | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexLuminance | | |
| V-Ray TexMaskMax | | |
| V-Ray TexMeshVertexColorChannel | | |
| V-Ray TexMix | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexNormalMapFlip | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexOutput | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexPatternID | |
|
| V-Ray TexRandom | | |
| V-Ray TexParticleSampler | |
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| V-Ray TexRaySwitch | |
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| V-Ray RefShader | | |
| V-Ray TexRemap | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexRGBMultiplyMax | | |
| V-Ray TexRGBTintMax | |
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| V-Ray TexRGBToHSV | | |
| V-Ray TexRgbaCombine | | |
| V-Ray TexSampler | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexSetRange | | |
| V-Ray TexTemperature | | |
| V-Ray TransformMatrix | | |
| V-Ray TransformToTex | | (no Gamma Correction) |
| V-Ray TexUserColor | |
|
| V-Ray TexUserScalar | | (no alpha attribute) |
| V-Ray TexUserInteger | |
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| V-Ray UserShader | | |
| V-Ray TexVectorOp | | |
| V-Ray TexVectorProduct | | |
Procedural Textures
Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
| V-Ray TexBerconDistortion | | |
| V-Ray TexBerconGrad | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexBerconNoise | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexBerconTile | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexBerconWood | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexBulge | | |
| V-Ray TexCellular | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexChecker | |
|
| V-Ray TexCurvature | | |
V-Ray TexDirt | | PARTIAL |
V-Ray TexDistance | | |
| V-Ray TexEdges | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexFalloff | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexFresnel | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexGradRamp | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexGrid | | |
| V-Ray TexMulti | | |
| V-Ray TexNoise | |
|
| V-Ray TexRock | | |
| V-Ray TexSky | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexSmoke | | |
| V-Ray TexSnow | | |
| V-Ray TexSoftbox | | |
| V-Ray TexSpeckle | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexSplat | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexStencil | | |
| V-Ray TexSurfaceLuminance | | |
| V-Ray TexSwirl | | PARTIAL |
V-Ray TexThickness | | |
| V-Ray TexTiles | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray TexTriPlanar | | |
| V-Ray TexUVW | | |
| V-Ray TexUVWGenToTexture | | |
| V-Ray TexWater | |
|
Mapping
Feature | V-ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
| V-Ray UVWGenObjectBBox | |
|
| V-Ray UVWGenChannel | | (no Use Double Sided Mode) |
| V-Ray UVWGenMayaPlace2dTexture | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray UVWGenEnvironment | | (no DUWA Scale) |
| V-Ray UVWGenExplicit | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray UVWGenObject | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray UVWGenProjection | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray UVWGenPlanarWorld | | PARTIAL |
| V-Ray UVWGenRandomizer | | |
Other
Feature | V-Ray CPU | V-Ray GPU |
|---|---|---|
| Additional object properties and attributes |
| |
| Global overrides | | |
| Add V-Ray image output to Houdini Render View panel Instead of using custom Qt widget | | |
| Add background rendering to Houdini Render Scheduler | | |
| VrayStereoRig | | |
| VrayLensEffects (VFB) | | |
| VrayLightMeter | | |
VrayExposureControl | | |
| Antialiasing | | |
Color mapping | | PARTIAL |
| VFB | | |
| Embree | | |
Render elements | | PARTIAL9 |
| UDIM texture tags | | |
| UVTILE texture tags | | |
| Anisotropy | | |
UVWgen Projections |
| (perspective & planar modes) |
| Keep geometry cache | | |
Keep bitmap cache | | |
Dynamic bucket splitting | | |
Progressive image sampler |
| PARTIAL |
| V-Ray Lights Preview | | |
| V-Ray VolumeGrid | | PARTIAL10 |
Footnotes
1 – Displacement results between CPU and GPU rendering may differ slightly because of Pre-tessellation and Cache Normal settings.
2 – It is recommended to use Alembic files instead.
3 – V-Ray GPU does not support V-Ray Mesh Light textures.
4 – IPR rendering does not support BRDFAlSurface shader.
5 – GPU always uses raytraced multiple scattering for V-Ray SSS. V-Ray GPU Single Scatter is supported only in None and Simple modes. GPU also does not support the following V-Ray SSS parameters: Color Mode, Surface Offset, Prepass Rate, Prepass ID, Interpolation Accuracy, Prepass Mode, and Prepass File.
6 – IPR GPU does not support the Multiply by front diffuse option of the 2SidedMtl.
7 – IPR rendering supports motion blurred frames on integer numbers only. For example, starting the render from frame 1 will produce correct motion blur, but starting from frame 1.25 will produce incorrect motion blur.
8 – Irradiance map loaded from a file is supported in GPU only in Production rendering mode. In IPR mode, Brute Force is used as the primary and secondary engines for both GPU and CPU.
9 – The following render channels are not supported in GPU: Caustics, Coverage, Material ID, Matte Shadow, Raw Diffuse Filter, Raw GI, Raw Lighting, Raw Reflection, Raw Reflection Filter, Raw Refraction, Raw Refraction Filter, Raw Shadow, Raw Total Lighting, Reflection IOR, Reflection Glossiness, Refraction Glossiness, V-Ray Toon.
10 – Fire Lights (Fire Lights tab) and Volume Light Cache (Smoke tab) options are not supported with V-Ray GPU. For more information, refer to their relevant pages.
11 – V-Ray GPU does not support the following V-Ray CarPaint and V-Ray CarPaint 2 parameters: Trace Base Reflections, Bump Type, Trace Coat Reflections, Trace Depth, Use Environment Override, Environment Override, Environment Priority. For CarPaint it also does not support Filtering Mode and Trace Flakes Reflections.
12 – The following V-Ray Material parameters are not supported with V-Ray GPU: Roughness, Roughness Model, Opacity Mode, Dim Fall-off, Soften, Cutoff, Use Irradiance Map, Energy Preservation, Use Environment Override, Environment Override, and Environment Priority.
13 – Support through the Renderer ROP > Objects tab > Material Overrides.
Notes
- GPU supports up to 16 UV sets per material.
- GPU supports map channels from 0 to 15.
- GPU only supports normal maps in tangent space.
- Integer attributes for points are supported.