This page gives some basic details about the Raw Total Lighting Render Element and explains how it is used in compositing.
Overview
The Raw Total Lighting Render Element is the sum of all raw lighting (both direct and indirect) in the scene, without any diffuse details. This render element is useful for changing the appearance of the scene's lighting in a compositing or image editing application.
||Render Setup window|| > Render Elements tab > Add button > VRayRawTotalLighting
Parameters
This render element is enabled through the Render Elements tab of the Render Setup window in 3ds Max and displays its parameters in a rollout at the bottom of the window:
VrayVFB – When enabled, the render element appears in the V-Ray Virtual Frame Buffer.
Deep output – Specifies whether to include this render element in deep images.
Color mapping – Applies the color mapping options specified in the Color mapping rollout of the V-Ray tab in the Render Setup window to this render element. This option is enabled by default.
Multiplier – Sets the overall intensity of the render element, where 1.0 is the standard multiplier.
Denoise – Specifies whether to denoise this render element.
Common Uses
The Raw Total Lighting Render Element is useful for changing the appearance of the entire lighting of the scene after rendering, using a compositing or image editing application. Below are a couple of examples of possible uses. The first two images show the render element itself and the Beauty render put together. In the following examples, a Matte Render Element was used to isolate different parts of the scene, and then the Raw Total Lighting Render Element was brightened and tinted differently to show the range of editing possible.
The Raw Total Lighting Render Element
The Original Beauty Composite
Brightened Lights with different brightening for the floor, wall, and ceiling
Tinted Lights with different tinting for the floor, wall, and ceiling
Underlying Compositing Equation
VRayRawTotalLighting x VRayDiffuseFilter = VRayTotalLighting
VRayRawLighting + VRayRawGlobalIllumination = VRayRawTotalLighting