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Render Elements Overview

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_01.png The V-Ray Render Elements are implemented as Pass Shaders in Softimage. To add render elements you need to go to the Current Pass options, select the Pass Shaders tab and then add the render elements as Output shaders.

List of Supported Render Elements

The following render elements are supported by V-Ray. All render elements support native V-Ray materials. Some render elements also support standard Softimage materials. This is noted in the table below.

Render element name	VRayMtl support	Std material support	Filtering control	Transparency support	Description
VRay Atmospheric Effects	yes	yes	no**	yes	The atmospheric effects.
VRay Background	yes	yes	yes**	yes	The image background.
VRay Bump Normals	yes	yes	yes	no	The normals generated by bump maps
VRay Caustics	yes	no*	yes**	yes	The caustics on the material. Only present when the Caustics option of V-Ray is enabled. This channel does not include GI caustics.
VRay Coverage	yes	yes	yes	no	Shows the part of the image taken by each visible object
VRay Diffuse Channel Color	yes	yes	yes**	yes	The pure diffuse surface color.
VRay DR Bucket	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Shows which render node rendered which bucket during distributed rendering
VRay Extra Texture	N/A	N/A	no	N/A	Renders the entire scene with one texture mapped on all objects.
VRay GI	yes	no*	yes**	yes	The diffuse surface global illumination. Only present if Global illumination is enabled.
VRay Lighting	yes	yes*	yes**	yes	The diffuse direct surface lighting.
VRay Light Select	yes	yes	yes	yes	Allows the user to extract the contribution of a light or a set of lights to the scene to a separate render element.
VRay Material_ID	yes	no	no (always off)	no	The material ID of the object.
VRay Matte Shadow	yes	yes	yes	yes	The matte shadow part of the image
VRay Multi Matte	yes	yes	no	N/A	Create selection masks based on object ID or material ID
VRay Normals	yes	yes	yes	no	The surface normals.
VRay Object_ID	yes	yes	no (always off)	no	The object gbuffer ID (set through VRayObjectProperty).
VRay Raw GI	yes	yes	yes**	yes	The raw diffuse global illumination (not multiplied by the diffuse surface color). Only present if Global illumination is enabled.
VRay Raw Light	yes	no	yes**	yes	The raw diffuse direct illumination before it's multiplied by the diffuse surface color.
VRay Raw Reflection	yes	no	yes**	yes	The pure surface reflection before it's multiplied by the reflection filter color.
VRay Raw Refraction	yes	no	yes**	yes	The pure surface refraction before it's multiplied by the refraction filter color.
VRay Raw Shadow	yes	no	yes**	yes	The raw light that was blocked by other objects.
VRay Reflection	yes	yes	yes**	yes	The reflections on the surface.
VRay Reflection Filter	yes	no	yes**	yes	The reflection filter (the color by which the raw reflections are multiplied to give the final surface reflection). This may be considered as an alpha channel for the reflections.
VRay Refraction	yes	no	yes**	yes	The refractions on the surface.
VRay Refraction Filter	yes	no	yes**	yes	The refraction filter (the color by which the raw refractions are multiplied to give the final surface refraction). This may be considered as an alpha channel for the refractions.
VRay Render_ID	yes	yes	no (always off)	no	The node render ID of the object that contributes most to the pixel value.
VRay Sampler Rate	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Shows an image where the pixel brightness is directly proportional to the number of samples taken at this pixel.
VRay Self Illumination	yes	yes	yes**	yes	The self-illumination of the surface.
VRay Shadow	yes	no	yes**	yes	The diffuse light that was blocked by other objects.
VRay Specular	yes	yes	yes**	yes	The surface specular highlights.
VRay SSS2	no	no	yes	N/A	Renders just the subsurface part of the VRaySSS2 material on a separate layer
VRayVelocity	yes	yes	yes	no	The surface velocity. This channel will not be generated if 3d motion blur is enabled.
VRayZDepth	yes	yes	yes	no	The z-depth of the surface.

* For Standard materials, the VRayLighting element includes the direct and indirect lighting as well as caustics, while the VRayGlobalIllumination and VRayCaustics elements are black. However for all materials, adding the VRayLighting, VRayGlobalIllumination and VRayCaustics elements always gives the total diffuse surface lighting.

** When an element is filtered, it will be dimmed by atmospheric effects like fog etc. However, when an element is unfiltered, it will not be affected by atmospherics.

Example: Render Elements and Combinations

Here are some examples of render elements and their combinations. Note that the original elements were generated by V-Ray on one pass (no re-rendering required).

Normally, render elements are added to each other in order to reproduce the final result; however, there are a few exceptions:

the Raw GI and Raw Lighting elements must be multiplied by the Diffuse element before they are added to the final image.
the Shadow element is not, strictly speaking, a part of the image; however, it can be added to the Raw Lighting element to adjust the shadow intensity. Simply adding the two elements produces lighting as though no shadows were computed.

Also note that multiplying the Raw GI element by the Diffuse element will give the Global Illumination element; multiplying the Raw Lighting element by the Diffuse element gives the Lighting element. This gives the user more freedom for adjusting the scene lighting.

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_2.png

RGB color

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_1.png

Real RGB color
Notice that the antialiasing is worse on very bright parts
(the area light and its reflections)

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_3.png

Self-illumination only

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_4.png

Direct Lighting only

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_5.png

Global illumination only

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_6.png

Reflections only

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_7.png

Refractions only

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_8.png

Diffuse color only

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_9.png

Raw lighting

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_10.png

Shadows only
Note the aliasing at the box shadow.
The RGB Color channel does not require more samples in that area.

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_11.png

Raw GI only

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_12.png

Raw lighting + shadows (added)
The resulting illumination is as though shadows were turned off.

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_13.png

Raw lighting * diffuse (multiplied)
The result is the same as the Direct Lighting only channel.

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_14.png

Raw GI * diffuse (multiplied)
The result is the same as the GI only channel.

V-Ray 3.0 for Softimage > Render Elements > RenderElements_15.png

Self-illumination + Direct lighting + Global illumination + Reflection + Refraction (all added)
The result is the same as the Real RGB Color channel.

Notes

V-Ray always antialiases with respect to the RGB color channel. Therefore other channels may appear jagged or noisy in areas where V-Ray has placed fewer samples.
Render elements may slow down the final image rendering a little bit, depending on the number of elements that the user has selected. They have no effect on GI/reflection etc. calculations.