V-Ray Material Complex represents a network of connected V-Ray nodes that can be used for various purposes. It is basically a preset V-Ray Material Builder, that has its interface exposed for easier tweaking of the settings.
All assigned texture maps can be made visible in the Houdini viewport. The tabs of the V-Ray Material Complex have two options of displaying the parameters - in default mode, where the most common settings reside, and in advanced mode, where you can have finer control.
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UI Path: ||mat Network|| > V-Ray > Material > V-Ray Material Complex
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||mat Network|| > V-Ray > Material > V-Ray Material Complex
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||out Network|| > V-Ray Render Elements node > V-Ray > Material > V-Ray Material Complex
||out Network|| > V-Ray Environment node > V-Ray > Material > V-Ray Material Complex
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Default UI Options
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Diffuse
Color – The diffuse color of the material. Note: the actual diffuse color of the surface also depends on the reflection and refraction colors.
Roughness – Specifies the roughness of the diffuse part of the material. Used to simulate rough surfaces or surfaces covered with dust (for example, skin, or the surface of the Moon).
Opacity
Opacity – Assigns opacity to the material where 1.0 is completely opaque and 0.0 is completely transparent.
Self-Illumination
Multiplier – A multiplier for the self-illumination color of the material.
Color – The self-illumination color of the material.
Bump/Normal
Type – Allows the user to specify whether a bump map or a normal map effect is added to the base material.
Bump – Applies the map as a bump map. Normal (Tangent) – Applies the map as a normal map in tangent space. Normal (Object) – Applies the map as a normal map in object space. Normal (Camera) – Applies the map as a normal map in screen/camera space. Normal (World) – Applies the map as a normal map in world space. From Bump – The map is applied as determined by map type itself. Explicit Normal – Applies the map as an explicit normal.
Amount – Specifies the strength for the bump/normal effect.
Show Advanced Options – Enabling this option exposes some advanced options in this tab.
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Advanced UI Options
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Diffuse
Model – Specifies the Roughness model.
Oren-Nayar –A reflectivity model for diffuse reflection from rough surfaces that has been shown to accurately predict the appearance of a wide range of natural surfaces. We recommend using this roughness model. Gamma-based–The roughness model used in previous versions of V-Ray. This is not the recommended option.
Opacity
Model – Controls how the opacity map works.
Normal – The opacity map is evaluated as normal: the surface lighting is computed and the ray is continued for the transparent effect. The opacity texture is filtered as normal. Clip – The surface is shaded as either fully opaque or fully transparent depending on the value of the opacity map (i.e. without any randomness). This mode also disables the filtering of the opacity texture. This is the fastest mode, but it might increase flickering when rendering animations. Stochastic – The surface is randomly shaded as either fully opaque or fully transparent so that on average it appears to be with the correct transparency. This mode reduces lighting calculations but might introduce some noise in areas where the opacity map has gray-scale values. The opacity texture is still filtered as normal.
Self-Illumination
Self_Illumination Affect GI – When enabled, the self-illumination color affects GI computations.
Bump/Normal
Bump Shadows – When enabled, offsets the surface shading point in addition to the normal.
Compute Bump For Shadows – When enabled, V-Ray computes bump mapping for shadow rays in case the material is transparent. When disabled, V-Ray skips the computation and uses the bump map for shadow rays (faster rendering).
Advanced Options
Show Advanced Options – Enabling this option exposes some advanced options in this tab.
Dive to Surface Node – Press this button to dive into the Complex Material network of nodes and selects the Surface Node.
Dive to Bump Node – Press this button to dive into the Complex Material network of nodes and selects the Bump Node.
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Enabled Enabled – Enables the Wrapper options.
Main
Generated GI Mult. – A multiplier for the amount GI generated by the material.
Received GI Mult. – A multiplier for the amount GI received by the material.
Generated Caustics Mult. – A multiplier for the amount of caustics generated by the material.
Received Caustics Mult. – A multiplier for the amount of caustics received by the material.
Subdivs Mult. – A multiplier for the subdivisions of all secondary ray tracing done for the particular surface.
Matte Properties
Alpha Contribution – Determines the appearance of the object in the alpha channel of the rendered image. A value of 1.0 means the alpha channel is derived from the transparency of the base material. A value of 0.0 means the object does not appear in the alpha channel at all and shows the alpha of the objects behind it. A value of -1.0 means that the transparency of the base material is cut out from the alpha of the objects behind. Matte objects are typically given an alpha contribution of -1.0. Note that this option is independent of the Matte surface option (i.e. a surface can have an alpha contribution of -1.0 without being a matte surface).
Generate Render Elements – When enabled, V-Ray generates zDepth, velocity, extra tex and multi matte render element for matte objects. When this check box is disabled V-Ray does not generate any render elements for matte objects.
Matte Surface – Makes the material appear as a matte material, which shows the background, instead of the base material, when viewed directly. Note that the base material is still used for things like GI, caustics, reflections etc.
Shadows – When enabled, makes shadow visible on the matte surface.
Affect Alpha – When enabled, makes shadows affect the alpha contribution of the matte surface. Areas in perfect shadow produce white alpha, while completely unoccluded areas produce black alpha. Note that GI shadows (from skylight) are also computed, however GI shadows on matte objects are not supported by the light cache GI engine, when used as a primary engine. You can safely use that with matte surfaces as secondary engines.
Shadow Tint – An optional tint for the shadows on the matte surface.
Shadow Brightness – An optional brightness parameter for the shadows on the matte surface. A value of 0.0 makes the shadows completely invisible, while a value of 1.0 shows the full shadows.
Reflection Amount – Shows the reflections from the base material.
Refraction Amount – Shows the refractions from the base material.
GI Amount – Determines the amount of GI shadows.
Advanced Options
Dive To Wrapper Node – Press this button to dive into the Complex Material network of nodes and selects the Wrapper Node.
