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This page describes how to set up your local system so that it loads the files for the correct version.
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Overview
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Installing V-Ray for Houdini from a .zip file provides several advantages over the regular installer:
- The ZIP installation allows for setting a custom environment when starting each Houdini instance. In contrast, running the regular installation multiple times overwrites the V-Ray environment variables.
- The ZIP installation can be used to run V-Ray for Houdini and V-Ray Standalone from an arbitrary location or even a network drive. That way, multiple users can start Houdini along with V-Ray for Houdini using just a script that sets up the environment variables without the need to run local installations.
- Upgrading a ZIP installation is a lot easier too, as you don't need to run the installer on every user's computer.
- The ZIP installation allows for quickly switching between different V-Ray versions without reinstalling it.
Installing V-Ray from Zip
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Under the hood, the V-Ray installation relies on the Houdini 3-rd party plugins package system. Houdini's packages are .json files that specify the location of custom modules. For more information, please refer to the documentation on the SideFX website. The "vray_for_houdini.json" package that is used to load V-Ray when Houdini is started is placed under "$HFS/packages" (e.g. "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini ##.#.###\packages" for Windows) when running the installer. You may set things up differently depending on your studio pipeline. By default, when using the installer, the location of V-Ray itself is "C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray". Just as with the "vray_for_houdini.json", V-Ray itself can be placed anywhere on disk. As long as the "INSTALL_ROOT" variable in the json file points to a valid location, Houdini should be able to find the required modules to load V-Ray. |
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Note that the EULA is accepted only for new major versions during installation from zip. |
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{
"load_package_once" : true,
"env": [
{ "INSTALL_ROOT" : "REPLACE_WITH_PATH_TO_UNPACKED_ARCHIVE" "C:/Program Files/Chaos Group/V-Ray/Houdini 19.0.383},
{ "VFH_HOME" : "${INSTALL_ROOT}/vfh_home" },
{ "VRAY_APPSDK" : "${INSTALL_ROOT}/appsdk" },
{ "VRAY_SDK" : "${VRAY_APPSDK}" },
{ "VRAY_OSL_PATH" : "${INSTALLVRAY_ROOTAPPSDK}/appsdk/bin" },
{ "VRAY_UI_DS_PATH" : "${INSTALL_ROOT}/ui" },
{ "VFH_HOME" VRAY_FOR_HOUDINI_APPSDK_BIN" : "${INSTALLVRAY_ROOTAPPSDK}/vfh_homebin" },
{ "PATH" : [
"${HFS}/bin",
"${VRAY_FOR_HOUDINI_APPSDK_BIN}/bin",
"${VFH_HOME}/bin"
]},
{ "VFH_DSO_PATH" : {[
{ "houdini_version == '20.5.278' and houdini_python == 'python2python3.10'": "${VFH_HOME}/dso_py2"py310/20.5.278" },
{ "houdini_version == '20.5.278' and houdini_python == 'python3.11'": "${VFH_HOME}/dso_py3"
}},
py311/20.5.278" },
{ "PYTHONPATH" : [houdini_version == '20.5.332' and houdini_python == 'python3.10'": "${VFH_HOME}/dso_py310/20.5.332" },
{ "methodhoudini_version == '20.5.332' and houdini_python == 'python3.11'": "append", "${VFH_HOME}/dso_py311/20.5.332" },
{ "houdini_version == '20.5.370' and houdini_python == 'python2python3.10'": "${VRAYVFH_APPSDKHOME}/python27dso_py310/20.5.370" },
{ "methodhoudini_version == '20.5.370' and houdini_python == 'python3.11'": "append", "${VFH_HOME}/dso_py311/20.5.370" },
{ "houdini_version == '20.5.410' and houdini_python == 'python3.10'": "${VRAYVFH_APPSDKHOME}/python37/dso_py310/20.5.410" },
]},
{ "VFU_PLUGINS" houdini_version == '20.5.410' and houdini_python == 'python3.11'": "${VFH_DSO_PATHHOME}/usddso_plugins/hdVRay/pluginspy311/20.5.410" },
{ "VFH_ASSET_PATH" : "C:/Users/USER/Documents/V-Ray Material Library/assetshoudini_version == '20.5.445' and houdini_python == 'python3.10'": "${VFH_HOME}/dso_py310/20.5.445" },
{ "HOUDINI_DSO_PATH" houdini_version == '20.5.445' and houdini_python == 'python3.11'": "${VFH_DSO_PATH}HOME}/dso_py311/20.5.445" }
]},
{ "HOUDINI_GALLERY_PATHPYTHONPATH" : [
{ "method": "append", "value": "${VRAY_APPSDK}/python" },
{ "method": "append", "value": "${VFH_DSO_HOMEPATH}/gallerypython" }
]},
{ "HOUDINI_DSO_PATH" : "${VFH_DSO_PATH}" }
],
"path" : [
"${VFH_HOME}"
]
}
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Windows
To deploy V-Ray using the ZIP archive instead of the installer, follow these steps:
- Unzip the V-Ray for Houdini archive.
- Move it to a location of your choice (e.g. "D:\V-Ray").
- Place the "vray_for_houdini.json" file under "$HFS/packages".
- Edit the "vray_for_houdini.json" and set the "INSTALL_ROOT" variable to point to the location of the V-Ray files (e.g. "INSTALL_ROOT" : "D:/V-Ray").
- Start Houdini.
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You can use the "{INSTALL_ROOT}\appsdk\bin\setvrlservice.exe" utility to set the address for licensing. |
Linux and macOS
In Linux or and macOS environmentenvironments, the process is exactly the same.
For macOS: Note that the "packages" folder resides in Applications > Houdini > Houdini 18##.5#.### > > Frameworks > Houdini.framework > Versions > 18##.5 > # > Resources > packages > ...
For Linux: The "packages" folder resides in /opt/hfs/packages
For detailed information on how to run V-Ray for Houdini, see the QuickStart Guides Introduction tutorial.
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You can use the "${INSTALL_ROOT}/appsdk/bin/setvrlservice" utility to set the address for licensing for Linux and OSX. |