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Table of Contents

  1. Step 1: Install V-Ray
  2. Step 2: Activate your license
  3. Step 3: Load V-Ray in Maya

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.






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/Chaos Group/V-Ray/maya20xx/vray/plug-ins/ directory. The plugin will attempt to load a shared library, libvray.dylib, which is installed in the /Applications/Chaos Group/V-Ray/maya20xx/Maya.app/Contents/macOS/ 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 as the standalone version of V-Ray, which is located in the /Applications/Chaos Group/V-Ray/maya20xx/vray/bin folder. Attempting to load the V-Ray standalone library into Maya will cause Maya to crash immediately.

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/Chaos Group/V-Ray/maya20xx/vray/plug-ins/ directory. The plugin will attempt to load a shared library, libvray.so, which is installed in the /usr/Chaos Group/V-Ray/maya20xx/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_Linux_x64/lib/linux_x64 folder. Attempting to load the V-Ray Standalone library into Maya will cause Maya to crash immediately.


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 the Windows Start > All Programs > V-Ray for Maya 20xx folder > Register V-Ray render server as a service. V-Ray Standalone can now be used as a render server for Distributed Rendering, Network Rendering, and rendering with IPR.


Running V-Ray Standalone


V-Ray Standalone is installed as part of the V-Ray for Maya installation. It can be started from Windows Start > All Programs > Chaos Group > V-Ray Standalone for x64

Once started, you will need to start a command-line rendering by first calling the vray command and then adding the following arguments:

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

where [v-ray scene file] is a .vrscene file. Start it without parameters to see a list of available command line options. See the V-Ray Standalone documentation for more.

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/Maya20xx/VRay.app/Contents/MacOS/vray.bin directory:

/Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Maya20xx/VRay.app/Contents/MacOS/vray.bin -scenefile="[v-ray scene file]"

where [v-ray scene file] is a .vrscene file. Start it without parameters to see a list of available command line options.

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/Chaos Group/V-Ray/maya20xx/vray/bin/ directory, for example:

$ /usr/Chaos Group/V-Ray/maya2022/vray/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 using distributed rendering, you must start the V-Ray Standalone application in render server mode on the machines you wish to use. To do that, open the application from Windows Start > All Programs > V-Ray for Maya 20nn folder > Launch V-Ray render server.

Where nnnn is the particular version of Maya (e.g. 2024, etc.).

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

/Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/Mayannnn/VRay.app/Contents/MacOS/vray.bin -vrayserver

Where nnnn is the particular version of Maya (e.g. 2024, etc.).

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

$ /usr/Chaos Group/V-Ray/maya20nn/vray/bin/vrayserver

Where nnnn is the particular version of Maya (e.g. 2024, etc.).