This page provides information on the V-Ray Aur Convert ROP.


Overview

V-Ray Aur Convert ROP uses the Chaos Phoenix Cache Converter tool to convert VDB files and save them as .aur files. Chaos Phoenix’s Aura files render significantly faster than VDBs in many cases.

Note that you need to cache anything that you would like to convert to Aura files into VDB first.



Workflow

Go inside the |obj| network and dive into the node you want to convert. Cache to disk in the VDB format.




Then cache to aur to save to AURA with the help of the V-Ray Aur Convert ROP.







When converting from VDB to AURA, the names of the volumes change accordingly, e.g.:

density → Smoke_phx
temperature → Temperature_phx
Cd.x → ColorR_phx
Cd.y → ColorG_phx
Cd.z → ColorB_phx
vel.* → Velocity*_phx

Therefore, when applying the Volume Shader material to the cached AURA files, make sure to set up the proper names in the Bindings tab of the shader:


Render.


Parameters

Render to Disk – Starts a V-Ray render.

Controls – Launches the Houdini Render Control window.

Valid Frame Range – Specifies the frame(s) to render.

Render Current Frame – Renders the current frame.
Render Frame Range – Renders frames from the specified range set below as well as other frames if they are referenced by in-range frames.
Render Frame Range Only (Strict) – Only renders the frames in the specified range set below.

Start/End/Inc – Specifies the range of frames to render (start frame, end frame, and increment).

Render with Take – Renders using the settings from a specified take.

Output AUR File – A path to the output .aur file.

Storage Quality – Storage quality of the output .aur (lowest means max compression, highest means lossless).