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This page provides information on installing To run V-Ray for Maya.

Overview

This guide is to serve as a reference for installation of V-Ray for Maya. 

If you experience any problems, please check the Troubleshooting section.

A complete installation of V-Ray for Maya consists of:

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, you have to:

Overview

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Installing V-Ray for Maya

This section describes the installation of V-Ray for Maya using the provided installer.

2. You will be presented with the V-Ray licensing agreement. Please take a moment to review the agreement. Once you've carefully read the End User License Agreement, you can click "I accept the Agreement" if you agree to the terms.

If you need to customize your V-Ray installation, click the Advanced button.

V-Ray type

The available installation types are:

Full – This is a full installation and includes all components as described in the “Installation overview” section. It will allow you to use V-Ray in Maya for Distributed or Network Rendering, to run IPR render server, use V-Ray SDK, and have V-Ray license server on this machine.
Standalone only – This installation includes V-Ray Standalone and IPR render server. Please choose this option if you plan to use this machine only for Distributed Rendering with V-Ray Standalone and an IPR render server.
Add firewall exceptions – Automatically adds firewall exceptions so IPR for Maya and V-Ray Standalone can run uninterrupted.

Install Chaos Cloud Client – Enable this checkbox to install the Chaos Cloud client application. Chaos Cloud is a software as a service (SaaS) which allows you to submit and render scenes with cloud-based V-Ray. See more information on the Chaos Cloud page.

Directories

Here you can specify the installation paths. Please check if the default folders are correct.

Help make V-Ray even better – Participate in the improvement decisions for future version of V-Ray. No intelligence property is violated when agreeing to participate in the feedback program. Chaos does not gather scenes, assets, materials, etc. What Chaos receives is user preferences on just a few key render settings and the resulting render times. The point of this feature is to improve V-Ray's performance and the user experience. This preference can be changed at any time later on from the V-Ray Render Settings > Settings > About V-Ray > Feedback program settings. For more information, see the Chaos Telemetry page.

Licensing

In this step, you can specify whether the V-Ray license server runs locally or on another machine.

If you select the Remote option you have to fill in the IP address of your V-Ray license server in the field Primary License Server. Please leave the port 30304 unchanged. An Alternate License Server is used when the primary one does not respond.

3. If you select the Local Licensing Option, you are presented with the Chaos License Server installation. Note that if you choose Remote V-Ray license server on the network option, the License Server will skip its installation process.

Chaos License Server Options

4. At this step you can choose the license server directory.

Add firewall exception –  Enabling this option allows the default licensing port (TCP 30304) in the firewall. If you disable it at this step, you will need to manually add firewall exceptions later.

6. Now V-Ray is ready to render! 

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OS Specifics

2. You will be presented with the V-Ray licensing agreement. Please take a moment to review the agreement. Enable the I accept the Agreement checkbox and click Install to proceed with standard installation.

If you need to customize your V-Ray installation, click the Advanced button.

V-Ray type

The available installation types are:

.

Directories

Here you can specify the installation paths. Please check if the default folders are correct.

Help make V-Ray even better – Participate in the improvement decisions for future version of V-Ray. No intelligence property is violated when agreeing to participate in the feedback program. We do not gather scenes, assets, materials, etc. What we receive is user preferences on just a few key render settings and the resulting render times. The point of this feature is to improve V-Ray's performance and the user experience. This preference can be changed at any time later on from the V-Ray Render Settings > Settings > About V-Ray > Feedback program settings. For more information, see the Chaos Telemetry page.

Licensing

In this step, you can specify whether the V-Ray license server will run locally or on another machine.

If you select the option Remote you will have to fill in the IP address of your V-Ray license server in the field Primary License Server. Please leave the port 30304 unchanged. An Alternate License Server is used when the primary one does not respond.

3. If you choose the Local Licensing Option, you are presented with the License Server installation.

Note that if you choose Remote V-Ray license server on the network option, the License Server will skip its installation process.

4. At this step you can choose the license server directory.

Add firewall exception –  Enabling this option allows the default licensing port (TCP 30304) in the firewall. If you disable it at this step, you will need to manually add firewall exceptions later. 

5. After you click the Continue button, the installer will proceed to uninstall any previous versions and install V-Ray on your machine.

6. Now V-Ray is ready to render! 

Open a terminal and navigate to the location where the installation file was saved (vray_install_dir in the example below).

Ensure you have permitted

Linux

1. Save the installation file to a temporary folder (called vray_install_dir below);

2. Open a console and navigate to that folder;

4. Make sure you have given permission to the Installer to run as an executable. That is done with the command chmod +x.

Operating system

Maya version

Installer name

Follow the instructions of the installer.

# For example:
$ cd vray_install_dir 
$ chmod +x 

vray_adv_

60000_maya2022_centos7

$ ./vray_adv_

60000_

maya2022_centos7
# Follow installer instructions 
$ exit

Some Linux GUI distributions may not be compatible with the installer's GUI. In that case, run the installation with the -gui=0 attribute.

# For example:
$ cd 

5. Follow the instructions of the installer; if you had a previous version of V-Ray for Maya, the installer will try to automatically remove it first.

vray_install_dir

 
$ chmod +x

 vray_adv_60000_maya2022_

centos7 -gui=0
$ ./vray_adv_60000_maya2022_

6. Upon the start of the installation, Linux may ask you for permission to run the installer with administrator privileges. Please confirm.

centos7
# Follow installer instructions 
$ exit

Running the Installer

10. Now V-Ray is ready to render! 

Some GUI Distributions of Linux may be incompatible with the GUI of the installer. In that case run the installation with -gui=0 attribute.

UI Steps
UI Step Section Section Column width 20% Column width 60% Image Removed Column width 20% 7. You will be presented with the V-Ray licensing agreement. End User License Agreement Please take a moment to review the agreement. Enable the I accept the Agreement checkbox and click Install to proceed with standard installation Expand title Click here to see the Advanced installation options... License Agreement. Once you've carefully read the License Agreement, you can click "I accept the Agreement" if you agree to the terms. Proceed to click the Install button. If you need to customize your V-Ray installation, click the Advanced button. the Advanced button.  20% Section Column width 5% Image Removed Column width 60% 35% Image Added UI Step Section 20% Column width 60% V-Ray type The available installation types are: Advanced settings Full – This is a full installation and includes Includes all components as described in the “Installation overview” Overview section. It will allow you to use V-Ray in Maya do Distributed or Network Rendering , run IPR render server, use V-Ray SDK, and have Standalone or a V-Ray license server on this machine render server for Distributed or Network Rendering. Standalone only – An installation which includes VNS and IPR Installs only V-Ray Standalone and V-Ray render server. Please choose Choose this option if you plan to only use this machine only for for Distributed Rendering. Add firewall exceptions – Automatically add firewall exceptions so Distributed Rendering with and V-Ray Standalone and an IPR render server can run uninterrupted. 20% Section Column width 5% Image Removed Column width 60% 35% Image Added UI Step Section 20% Column width 60% Directories Here, you can specify the installation paths. Please check if the default folders are correct. Help make V-Ray even better – Participate in the improvement decisions for future version versions of V-Ray. No intelligence property is violated when agreeing to participate in the feedback program. We do Chaos does not gather scenes, assets, materials, etc . What we receive is user preferences on just a few key render settings and the resulting render times. The point of this feature is to improve V-Ray's performance and the user experience . This preference can be changed at any time later on anytime from the V-Ray Render Settings > Settings > About V-Ray > Feedback program settings. For more information, see the Chaos Telemetry page. section20% Column width 5% Image Removed Column width 60% 35% Image Added UI Step Section 20% Column width 60% Licensing In this step, you can specify whether the V-Ray license server will run Chaos License Server runs locally or on another machine. If you select the option Remote licensing, you will have to fill in enter the IP address of your V-Ray license server Chaos License Server in the field Primary License Server field. Please leave the Leave port 30304 unchanged. An Alternate License Server is used when can be used for redundancy in case the primary one does not respond. 8. If you choose the Local Licensing Option, you are presented with the License Server installation. Note that if you choose Remote V-Ray license server on the network option, the License Server will skip its installation process. section The License Server will not install when the Remote option is selected. When Local licensing is selected, the Chaos License Server is installed with V-Ray. For information about the advanced Chaos License Server installation settings, visit the Advanced Installation page. Column width 20%5% Image Removed Column width 60% 35% Image Added UI Step Section Column width 20%60% Chaos License Server Options At this step, you can choose the license server directory. 9. After you click the Continue button, the installer will proceed to uninstall any previous versions and install V-Ray on your machine. Section Column width 20% Column width 60% Image Removed
Column
width 20%

Check your License

Once the installation of the License Server is done, you are directed to the License Server local host (127.0.0.1:30304) in order to sign in and activate it.

Image Removed

For full information on the License Server options and settings, see the Licensing section of the documentation.

Configure V-Ray

Next Step

Go to step 2 to activate your Chaos License.

Loading the V-Ray for Maya Plugin

Once you have installed V-Ray for Maya, you can load the plugin from the Maya plugin Manager:

1. Start Maya.

2. Open the Plugin Manager from the Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager menu.

3. Scroll down to the vrayformaya.mll plugin entry.

4. Check the Loaded and Auto-load options to load V-Ray for Maya.

5. Click Close.

Register V-Ray Render Server as a Service

You can register the V-Ray Standalone application as a Windows service so that it runs automatically on Windows boot from C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\Maya nnnn for x64\maya_vray\bin\vraymayaspawnernnnn. V-Ray Standalone can now be used as a render server for Distributed Rendering, Network Rendering and rendering with IPR.

Note: nnnn is the Maya version.

Running V-Ray Standalone

V-Ray Standalone is installed as part of the V-Ray for Maya installation. It can be started from C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\Maya nnnn for x64\maya_vray\bin\vray. Once started, you will need to start a command-line rendering by first calling the vray command and then adding parameters to it:

vray -sceneFile = "[v-ray scene file]"

Use the -help option to see a list of the available command line options.

Running a V-Ray Standalone Render Server

You can use V-Ray Standalone render servers for distributed rendering, where a single frame is simultaneously calculated across many machines. Before you can use distributed rendering, you have to start the V-Ray Standalone application in render server mode on the machines that you wish to use. To do that, open the application from C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\Maya nnnn for x64\maya_vray\bin\vray

Loading the V-Ray for Maya Plugin

Once you have installed V-Ray for Maya, you can load the plugin from the Maya plugin Manager:

1. Start Maya

2. Open the Plugin Manager from the Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager menu.

3. Scroll down to the vrayformaya.bundle plugin entry;

4. Check the Loaded and Auto-load options to load V-Ray for Maya.

If you do not see the vrayformaya.bundle entry, you will need to browse explicitly for it. The file is located by default in the /Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Mayannnn/vray/VRay.app/Contents/MacOS/plugins  directory. The plugin will attempt to load a shared library, libvray.dylib, which is installed in the /Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Mayannnn/vray/lib folder and should be readily accessible for Maya to load without modifying the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.

Note: do not attempt to make V-Ray for Maya load the libvray.dylib library with the same name for the standalone version of V-Ray, which is located in the /Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Mayannnn /vray/VRay.app/Contents/libs folder. Attempting to load the V-Ray standalone library into Maya will cause Maya to crash immediately.

Running V-Ray Standalone

V-Ray Standalone is installed as part of the V-Ray for Maya installation. It can be executed using the vray bash script which is normally installed in the /Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Standalone_for_maverics_x64/VRay/Contents/MacOS/ directory, for example:

/Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Standalone_for_maverics_x64/VRay/Contents/MacOS/vray.bin -sceneFile="[vray scene file]"

Use the -help option to see a list of the available command line options.

Running a V-Ray Standalone Render Server

You can use V-Ray Standalone render servers for distributed rendering, where a single frame is simultaneously calculated across many machines. Before you can use distributed rendering, you have to start the V-Ray Standalone application in render server mode on the machines that you wish to use. To do that, run the following command from a Terminal window:

Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Mayannnn/vray/bin/vrayserver

where nnnn is the particular version of Maya (2020 etc).

Loading the V-Ray for Maya Plugin

Once you have installed V-Ray for Maya, you can load the plugin from the Maya plugin Manager:

1. Start Maya;

2. Open the Plugin Manager from the Windows > Settings and Preferences > Plugin manager menu.

3. Scroll down to the vrayformaya plugin entry;

4. Check the Loaded and Auto-load options to load V-Ray for Maya.

If you do not see the vrayformaya entry, you will need to browse explicitly for the V-Ray for Maya plugin, which is called vrayformaya.so and is located by default in the /usr/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Mayannnn-x64/maya_vray directory. The plugin will attempt to load a shared library, libvray.so, which is installed in the /usr/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Mayannnn-x64/vray/lib folder and should be readily accessible for Maya to load without modifying the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.

NOTE: do not attempt to make V-Ray for Maya load the libvray.so library with the same name for the standalone version of V-Ray, which is located in the /usr/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Standalone_for_centos7/lib/linux_x64 folder. Attempting to load the V-Ray standalone library into Maya will cause Maya to crash immediately.

Running V-Ray Standalone

V-Ray Standalone is installed as part of the V-Ray for Maya installation. It can be executed using the vray bash script which is normally installed in the /usr/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Standalone_for_centos7/bin directory, for example:

$ /usr/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Standalone_for_centos7/bin/vray -sceneFile="[v-ray scene file]"

Use the -help option to see a list of the available command line options.

Running a V-Ray Standalone Render Server

You can use V-Ray Standalone render servers for distributed rendering, where a single frame is simultaneously calculated across many machines. Before you can use distributed rendering, you have to start the V-Ray Standalone application in render server mode on the machines that you wish to use. This is done with the vrayserver command, for example: