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The VRayHairSampler is an a utility texture that provides extra output attributes which can be used when shading hair.

Used with the Hair Next Material, this texture allows you to map color, incandescence , and transparency along the length of a hair strand, as well as . It also gives the ability to randomize such properties on a per-strand basis to create stunning hair looks.

UI Path: Texture > V-Ray > VRayHairSampler

Texture – Specifies a texture to be mapped when the Output is set to Position Across Strand.

Output – Determines how the texture is mapped. See the examples below for more information.

Distance Along Strand – Provides information about the shaded part of the hair strand. For the base of the strand, the value is 0.0, and for the tip it is 1.0. With this option, a texture can be mapped along each strand regardless of each strand's length.
Distance Along Strand Absolute – Provides information about the shaded part of the hair strand using absolute distance. This option uses the Hair Max Distance parameter to allow length-dependent mapping. For instance, when used with a gradient, this allows for all hair strands (regardless of length) to have a root color all up to the same length followed by the rest of the ramp. Note that when Hair Max Distance is lower than the actual length of the hair strand, the gradient is repeated over the length of the hair strand.
Position Across Strand – Allows textures to be mapped across each strand.
Random By Strand – Provides an a unique random floating point value for each strand in the hair system, which allows shading each strand with a random color, sampled from a texture.

Hair Max Distance – Sets the max strand length when using Distance Along Strand Absolute. Typically, this value should be equal to the longest strand of hair. This option is mappable, allowing different parts in a hair system to have different max lengths.

The ramp is driven by the Distance Along Strand parameter.
The ramp is connected to the VRayHairNextMtlV-Ray Hair Next Material's Diffuse Color.
Multiple colors are set with smooth interpolation Smooth Interpolation.

Resulting Render

The ramp is driven by the Distance Along Strand Absolute parameter.
The ramp is connected to the VRayHairNextMtlV-Ray Hair Next Material's Diffuse Color.
Multiple Colors are set with smooth interpolation Smooth Interpolation.

The ramp is driven by the Position Across Strand parameter.
The ramp is connected to the VRayHairNextMtlV-Ray Hair Next Material's Transparency.
Grayscale map is set with Linear interpolation Interpolation.