When you first open V-Ray Light Gen, you will be are presented with the following message. Note that to download the content, you need about 1200 MB of free disk space.
The HDR images for IBL are saved in the following locations: windows:\Documents\V-Ray Material Library\AEC\hdrs macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ChaosGroup/V-Ray Material Library/AEC/hdrs
If there is a previous installation of V-Ray 5 for 3ds Max detected, the files will be are saved in the already specified location.
Once the download is complete, the HDR assets remain permanently available. Every time you start Light Gen, V-Ray will connect connects to the Chaos servers to validate the completeness of the downloaded assets and check for updates. If a connection cannot be established, you can choose to proceed using what is already available on your hard drive. Note that you can change the directory and disable the automatic check for updates from the Configuration rollout.
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After the download is completed, select between Exterior or Interior lighting. Each option has a set of parameters.
SUN & SKY
Altitude Variations – Variates the altitude of the sun disc over the horizon.
Azimuth Variations – Variates the rotation of the sun around the up axis.
Thumbnails Size (px) –The thumbnails size in pixels.
Generate variants – The number of variants depends on the Altitude and Azimuth variations.
Load– Loads previously saved scenarios.
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The Custom Orientation parameters and the preview in the Asset Editor are updated depending on the applied scenario.
For the Interior option, Light Gen provides only options that are suitable for the space, taking into account its openings.
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HDR mode is available only for the Exterior scenario.
Custom HDR set – Activates the use of custom HDR images for scenarios generation. Note that only .hdr and .exr image files in the specified folder are considered. Keep the option disabled to use the built-in environments.
Unique Styles – The number of present HDRs in the V-Ray installer.
Variations – Rotations per HDR.
Seed– The random variation of each HDR. Seed of negative 1 (-1) disables the randomization.
Thumbnails Size (px) – The thumbnails size in pixels.
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The HDR option adds a Dome light asset with the following name: LIGHT_GEN_DOME.
Generate Variants – Generates a number of scene light variants.
Load – Loads previously saved scenarios.
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Disable lights on application– Artificial lights in the scene are automatically disabled to match the result from the thumbnail. When disabled, artificial lights like Point, Rectangle, Sphere, Spot remain unchanged. The Sun and Dome lights are always disabled on application to ensure that the Light Gen environment is in full effect.
Stop– Stops the generation of variants.
Save – Saves a .lightset file. If loaded, the file shows the geometry in the thumbnails, but note that only the light source info is kept. It is recommended to use .lightset files saved with the same SketchUp version.
Reset – Returns to the initial screen of V-Ray Light Gen.
