This page provides information about the Bump material in V-Ray for SketchUp.
Overview
The Bump Material gives the ability to add bump map and normal map effects when using any material.
Simply apply a Bump Material to an object to add additional bump or normal map functionality. Stacking multiple Bump Materials together can create a more complex surface material by allowing the use of several bump and or normal maps together easily.
One of the common use cases of the Bump material is to produce a Round Edges effect for other materials with already existing Normal or Bump mapping. The correct workflow is the following:
- Have a material with set up Bump or Normal mapping;
- Create a Bump material set to Bump Texture Channel mode and connect an Edges texture for the rounded corners effect;
- Slot the first material into the Bump material to achieve the combined effect.
UI Options
The Bump material settings are organized in Basic and Advanced modes. You can switch the mode from the toggle button under the Preview Swatch or globally from the Configuration rollout of the Settings tab.
From the Add Attribute button, you can select additional attributes that can add up to the appearance of the material. For more information, see the Attributes section.
An Add Layer button is provided for some V-Ray materials, including Bump. You can select an additional layer that can add up to the appearance of the material. For more information, see the Layers section on Materials page.
The Bump material itself can be created by adding a Bump layer.
A Reset option is provided in the context menu of each Number Slider. You can reset the slider value to the default one.
Parameters
Base – Allows the user to select the base material to which the bump/normal effect is added.
Bump
Mode / Map – Allows the user to specify whether a bump map or a normal map effect is added to the base material.
Bump Map – A height map should be used.
Bump Texture Channel – Most commonly used for the Round Edges effect (Edges texture used as bump).
Normal Map – RGB map should be used. If a Bitmap texture is slotted its color space must be set to Rendering Space (Linear).
Normal Map Type – Specifies the normal map type. This options is available when Normal Map is selected as Mode/Map.
Tangent Space – Uses tangents set to each individual face.
Object Space – Uses each object's local coordinates.
Screen Space – Uses a flat projection along the camera direction.
World Space – Uses world coordinates.
Amount – A multiplier for the bump/normal map.
Delta Scale – It specifies a scale for sampling the bitmap when Bump Map is selected. The exact value is calculated automatically by V-Ray, but can be scaled here.
Binding
Binding – Enables connection/binding between V-Ray and the corresponding base application material.
Color – Enables color binding. Changing the V-Ray material color changes the corresponding base application material color and vise versa.
Opacity – Enables opacity/ transparency binding. Changing the SketchUp material transparency, however, does not change the V-Ray material. Instead, it disables the Opacity binding.
Texture Mode – Enables texture binding. Changing the V-Ray material texture changes the corresponding base application material texture and vise versa.
Auto – Binds the Diffuse texture to the base app material.
Texture Helper – Allows for the use of a helper texture as base application material map. The same helper is used if the binded texture is a procedural map. This is useful every time you have to set texture placement for a map that cannot be displayed accurately in the base app.
Custom – Allows for the use of a custom texture as base application material map.
Disabling this parameter allows for changing the base app material texture without affecting the V-Ray material.
Override Control
Can be Overridden – When disabled, the material is not overridden by the Material Override option in the Render Settings.
Attributes
The attributes from the following expandable menus are available for the Bump material.
Note
- Since V-Ray 5, both Reflective Coat and Diffuse Coat are legacy layers that can no longer be created or duplicated. However, the layers used in old scenes can be converted to VRayMtl through the Migrate Now button, located in the Asset Editor. The Diffuse coat layer can also be deleted and replaced by the parameters of the Coat and Sheen base layers.