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This page provides information on the V-Ray Frame Buffer and its features.
Overview
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VFB Menu
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The V-Ray Frame Buffer menu holds the main frame buffer commands. Some of the options are also available in the VFB toolbar for a quick access.
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File | Save current channel – Saves the currently loaded channel to an image file format. Note that color correction layers are not saved. Save all image channels to separate files – Saves all the render elements to separate files. Select the options ( Save all image channels to single file – Saves the image to a single multi-channel EXR or .vrimg file. Load image – Opens an image file to be previewed in the V-Ray Frame Buffer. Batch image processing – Allows processing of multiple .vrimg files with the same layer tree changes at the same time. Upload image to Chaos Collaboration – Uploads an image to Chaos Cloud Collaboration for sharing and commenting.
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Save VFB color corrections to render elements – When enabled, all color corrections are saved to the render channels (as opposed to only the RGB and effectsResult channels). | |||||||||||
Batch Image Processing
Input folder – Specifies a path to start images. Output folder – Specifies a path for the output images. Layer preset – Specifies a layer tree corrections preset. Output filenames suffix – Specifies a suffix added to the output image filenames. Overwrite existing – Enables overwrite of existing files with the same name in the output folder. | |||||||||||||
Render | Start interactive rendering – Starts IPR. Abort rendering – Stops Cancels the current rendering. Render – Starts rendering. IPR Debug Shading – Enables the Debug shading/Isolate selected options in IPR. The submenu gives access to the following modes: Isolate Selected – Renders only the selected object(s), while the rest of the scene is rendered black. You can also select material or texture nodes to isolate all objects with the assigned shader; | ||||||||||||
Image | Follow mouse – Renders the closest bucket found to the mouse pointer, when using the bucket image sampler. If the progressive sampler is used, V-Ray samples the closest pixels to the mouse pointer. Follow mouse – Drag the mouse over the VFB while rendering to change what part of the image is sampled first; Copy current channel to clipboard – Copies the current channel to the clipboard. Duplicate to host frame buffer – Creates a 3ds Max virtual frame buffer copy of the current VFB. Clear image – Clears the contents of the frame buffer. This is useful when starting a new render to prevent confusion with the previous image. | ||||||||||||
View | Display color space – Specifies the color space, in which the image is displayed. None – Does not specify a color space; Zoom VFB – Zooms in/out the rendered image in the VFB. Zoom 50% – Zooms out to 50%; Channels – Chooses which channels to see. View red channel – Displays the red channel; Test resolution – Enables test resolution in VFB. The submenu allows choosing a percentage of the render resolution to set as the test resolution. You can choose between 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 110%, 125% and 150%. Note: This only affects V-Ray and does not affect the native 3ds Max test resolution setting found under 3ds Max's Render Setup dialog. Color clamping – Opens the color clamping submenu options: Force color clamping – Forces color clamping; Use pixel aspect – Enables visualization of the pixel aspect ratio. Flip – Mirrors the image in the VFB. This is a view only option, the flipped image cannot be exported. This function is only active while holding the menu button or the hotkey for the corresponding type of flip. The effect does not interrupt interactive rendering. Flip horizontally– Mirrors the image horizontally. Flip vertically – Mirrors the image vertically. Panorama View – Shows the image in 360° view. Show History – Shows the History panel. Show Layers – Shows the Layers panel. | ||||||||||||
Options | VFB settings – Opens the VFB Settings window where you can adjusts settings for Render View, Render Region, History and Layers. | ||||||||||||
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| Locks the mouse pointer coordinates and displays information for the selected pixel. | |
| Shows corrected colors. | |
| Shows the V-Ray Log which contains messages about the render process. The V-Ray Log is also available in the Log tab. | |
| Displays the red channel. | |
| Displays the green channel. | |
| Displays the blue channel. | |
| Displays the Alpha channel. | |
| Saves the image to disk. Select and hold the icon to bring up the submenu: Save current channel – Saves the current channel to an image file format; | |
| Clears the contents of the frame buffer. This is useful when starting a new render to prevent confusion with the previous image. | |
| Renders the closest bucket found to the mouse pointer, when using the bucket image sampler. If the progressive sampler is used, V-Ray samples the closest pixels to the mouse pointer. With this option enabled, you can right-click on the image and select Lock bucket starting point to lock the bucket (or sampling) starting point. | |
| Enables/disables test resolution in the VFB. Select and hold to bring up the submenu to select the percentage of the render resolution to set as the test resolution. Note: This only affects V-Ray and does not affect the native 3ds Max test resolution setting found under 3ds Max's Render Setup dialog.
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| Renders regions in the VFB. See the Render Region section for more information. | |
| Enables the Debug shading/Isolate selected options in IPR. Select and hold to choose between the different modes: Isolate Selected – Renders only the selected object(s), while the rest of the scene is rendered black. You can also select material or texture nodes to isolate all objects with the assigned shader; |
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| Starts IPR. If there is more than one camera in the scene, hold left mouse button to display a list of the available cameras. | |
| Stops the current renderingCancels the current render. When the render is cancelled, the Denoiser is not applied or saved, equivalent to the behavior of the Cancel button in the Rendering window. | |
| Starts rendering. If there is more than one camera in the scene, hold left mouse button to display a list of the available cameras. When pressing Shift + this button, starts Render last and the last rendered viewport/camera is rendered. | |
| Pauses interactive rendering when using V-Ray GPU. | |
| Refreshes interactive rendering. | |
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The V-Ray VFB keeps a history of previously rendered images, and lists each with a number, thumbnail, and textual details in the Render history panel. Up to four images can be called from the history to be compared in the VFB (as shown below). History files are stored as .vrimg files in a user-specified folder. Render history settings can be configured in the VFB Settings window.
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| Enables or disables image A/B vertical comparison. Select images A and B from the render history. |
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| Enables or disables image A/B horizontal comparison. Select images A and B from the render history. |
| Enables or disables image A/B/C/D comparison. Select images A, B, C and D from the render history. |
| Saves the current image from the VFB to the render history. The image is placed at the top of the render history list. |
| Loads the selected image from the render history to the VFB. |
| Removes the selected image from the render history. |
| A search field where you can filter can filter the images based on the scene paths and notes. The filter text is selected when pressing Enter from the keyboard. |
If the Render History is disabled, a link to the Settings History tab is displayed in the panel.
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The keyboard keys from 1 to 9 can be used to quickly load the first 9 images from the history to the VFB. |
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| When using A/B or A/B/C/D Compare, if you want to keep each render's Layer setup, enable the Use own image Layer stacks when comparing in History. The option is located under ||VFB|| > Options > VFB Settings > Layers. |
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Edit note – Allows adding a text comment to the image; the comment appears below the image.
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If you want to keep the layers that come with the Max scene, turn the Auto Load Layers option off from VFB > Options > History tab. If you want to load layers from an external image, enable the Auto Load Layers option and check how you save those images. |
Layers
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The redesigned V-Ray Frame Buffer includes a suite of color corrections and tools for adjusting the image. The tools are added as layers and displayed in a layer tree. You can enable or disable a particular tool using the visibility icon (
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icon indicates that a layer is disabled(). The icon indicates that a layer is disabled. All layers have a vertical line marker for clear differentiation between fixed and flexible layers. Fixed layers are marked with a grey line, while newly added layers, which can be moved around freely and put into groups, are marked with a blue line.
Layers are only saved to .exr and .vrimg files written through V-Ray's own output. Note that the output in Render Setup > Common tab is written by 3ds Max so .exr files saved from there do not have Layers saved.
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For more information on using the Layers, see the Layers page.
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| Creates a layer. Multiple layers of the same type can be added. Folder – Allows grouping multiple layers; For more information, see the Layers page. |
| Deletes the selected layer(s). |
| Saves a layer tree preset. |
| Loads a layer tree preset. |
| Quick access to custom layer presets. You must set the path to it in the VFB Settings. |
| Undo various actions related to layers such as create, delete, reorder, or modify a layer. |
| Redo various actions related to layers such as create, delete, reorder, or modify a layer. |
Each layer has a context menu. Right-click to display it:
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| Reset | Resets all changes done to the selected layer. |
| Save | Saves the layer as a preset. |
| Load | Loads a preset for the selected layer. |
| Delete | Deletes the selected layer. |
| Save as LUT | Bakes all the color corrections to a LUT file. |
| New Layer | Creates a new layer. |
| Duplicate | Duplicates the selected layer. |
| Blend Modes | Specifies how the selected layer blends with the result from all layers below it. |
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Right-click to display a context menu, allowing you to copy the Stats values. |
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Log
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The Log panel provides messages about the render process. Verbosity control is available and you can filter the type of messages shown in the Log: All, Error Only, Error & Warnings, or Error, Warnings & info. Additional options are available when you click the Open options 
button:
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Ctr+F opens a search field at the bottom of the Log tab. |
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Collaboration
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The Collaboration tab provides a collaboration tool for sharing your work with other users. You can upload images from the VFB to the Chaos Cloud Collaboration where other users can add comments and annotations.
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Create new project – Creates a project folder where the images are uploaded to the Chaos Cloud Collaboration.
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The Collaboration tab has several sections: Upload files containing a list of images for upload, Recent containing recent projects, and Browse with locations where the images are uploaded.
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A direct upload of images by dragging them from the Explorer to the Collaboration tab is also possible. |
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Example: How to use Cloud Collaboration to fast-forward design reviews in the cloud
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VFB Shortcuts
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These shortcuts navigate through the VFB image. Please note that the VFB window must have the current focus for the shortcuts to have effect:
| Mouse | Description |
| Mouse wheel | Zoom in/Zoom out |
| Double-click left button | Zoom to 100% |
| Middle button dragging | Pan (hand tool) |
| Ctrl+Shift+Left click | Zoom in the rendered image |
| Ctrl+Shift+Right click | Zoom out the rendered image |
| Keyboard | Description |
| Global | |
| H | Show/hide history |
| P | Show/hide only layers tree |
| Ctrl+L | Show/hide whole right panel |
| F11 | Toggle full screen |
| S | Show/hide VFB settings |
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| E | Enable history A/B/C/D compare mode |
| Q | Enable history A/B horizontal compare mode |
| W | Enable history A/B vertical compare mode |
| N | Edit a note in VFB History panel |
| 1-9 | Load the respective image from the VFB history |
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| Ctrl+Y | Redo various actions related to layers such as create, delete, reorder, or modify a layer. |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo various actions related to layers such as create, delete, reorder, or modify a layer. |
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| Del | Delete layer |
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| Esc | Close search |
| Ctrl+F | Activate the Search field in Log tab |
| Return | Find next |
| Shift+Return | Find previous |
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| Esc | Abort Cancel render |
| Ctrl+C | Copy the VFB image to the Windows clipboard; the image is copied exactly as it appears on the screen (meaning sRGB/LUT/OCIO etc. corrections are applied). The full resolution image is copied to the clipboard, even if the VFB view is zoomed in/out. |
| Ctrl+O | Load image |
| L | Lock the mouse pointer coordinates and display information for the selected pixel, i.e. activate the Lock pixel info coordinates button. |
| Arrow keys | Pan image left, up, right, down |
| A | Switch to Alpha channel |
| B | View Blue channel |
| G | View Green channel |
| R | View Red channel |
| Page Down | View next channel |
| Page Up | View previous channel |
| * | Zoom to 100% |
| + / = | Zoom in |
| -/_ | Zoom out |
| F | Fit region or whole image in the VFB |
| M | Hold to flip image horizontally |
| Shift + M | Hold to flip image vertically |
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VFB Shortcuts are customizable in the VFB > Options > Shortcuts tab. |
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VFB IPR Options
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Real Zoom – When enabled, scrolling does not zoom the pixels of the rendered image, but instead moves closer or further from the rendered geometry.
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Note that the keyboard shortcuts work only within the VFB window.The Undo shortcut (Ctrl+Z) affects the layers when VFB has focuswithin the VFB window. The Undo shortcut (Ctrl+Z) affects the layers when VFB has focus. |
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Geometry and lights which are set to be invisible to camera are still detected using the IPR commands Select object, Get object material and Set focus distance. Although the objects are not directly visible, they still matter for the scene rendering and IPR tracks them accordingly. |
Render Region
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Region rendering can be used in both IPR and Production modes to isolate only part of the frame for rendering. Usually, when a render region is used, you would like to save the whole frame instead of the region only.
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Saving multi-channel .exr files writes just the render region data in the file by default but it can be set to save full frame instead. If the file output is saved through Render Setup > V-Ray tab > Frame buffer > V-Ray raw image file, in order to save the render region with the rest of the frame, add VRayOptionRE render element and set its exr data window option to Whole Image. Saving multi-channel .exr files from VFB > Save all channels to single file saves the render region when it is enabled from the VFB. This happens even if you have selected a render region on top of the already rendered frame, without an actual region used in the rendering process. To save the full frame from VFB, disable the render region.
Notes
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