Overview

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Render Elements are a way to break out renders into their component parts such as diffuse color, reflections, shadows, mattes, etc. This gives fine control over the final image when using compositing or image editing applications when re-assembling the final image from its component elements. Render elements are also sometimes known as render passes.

Render Elements are generated at render time based on the ones you choose before rendering. Most render elements have parameters that can be set to customize the render element or its later use in compositing software. These parameters are described on each render element's individual page, along with common uses and any notes on their generation and usage.

V-Ray supports the built-in 3ds Max Render elements user interface. However, V-Ray provides its own render elements and does not support the standard render elements implemented in 3ds Max. Therefore standard 3ds Max render elements do not work with V-Ray, and vice-versa.

For a complete list of render elements, see the List of Supported Render Elements below. All render elements support native V-Ray materials. Some render elements also support standard 3ds Max materials.

Since V-Ray Next Update 1, some of the render elements are rendered differently than before. The Lighting render element now contains all direct diffuse illumination and the GI element contains all indirect diffuse illumination. Similarly, all direct reflections of lights now go to the Specular element and all indirect reflections go to the Reflection element.

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When using the V-Ray frame buffer, V-Ray writes render elements only if you specify either one of the V-Ray raw image file output or the Separate render channels options. If you want to specify the render elements outputs using the 3ds Max Render Output field or using the output options of the various render elements, then you have to disable the V-Ray frame buffer.UI Path: ||Render Setup window|| > Render Elements tab

To use render elements, click the Add button to add the render elements you wish to generate at render time. When you render the scene, the added render elements also render. The exception is the RGB color Render Element, which renders automatically without needing to be added.

Render Elements Sub-groups

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Render Elements in V-Ray break down into four major groups:

Beauty Render Elements

The Beauty Render Elements are the primary render elements that form V-Ray's
pre-composited final render pass Beauty RGB_Color . These Include the
Lighting , Global Illumination, Reflection , Refraction , Specular, etc.

Matte Render Elements

The Matte Render Elements aid selection masking in the compositing process.
These include the Material ID, Multimatte, Object ID, and Render ID render elements.

Supported Render Elements

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The following render elements are supported by V-Ray. All render elements support native V-Ray materials. Some render elements also support standard 3ds Max materials, and are noted in the table below.

In order to render a correct Raw render pass you need to also render the corresponding main element and filter i.e. for Raw Reflection you need Reflection and Reflection filter, for Raw GI you need GI and Diffuse filter, etc.

Notes

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• When the V-Ray VFB is enabled, all V-Ray render elements appear switched off in the Render Elements tab inside the Render Scene dialog. This is a work-around so that 3ds Max does not create its own render elements bitmaps - this is not required as the elements are stored in the V-Ray VFB itself. If the V-Ray VFB is used, the render elements can be enabled or disabled by using their own V-Ray VFB parameter.

• VRayAlpha render element is available as an output only when VFB is disabled from Render Setup > V-Ray tab > Frame buffer rollout > Enable built-in VFB, and an output format is chosen from Render Setup > Common tab > Render Output > Save file.

• 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 will render in Distributed Rendering mode, both in the V-Ray frame buffer and the 3ds Max frame buffer.

• Render elements require additional storage when rendering and thus increase the amount of RAM taken during the rendering. When rendering to the V-Ray VFB , you can reduce this memory by rendering directly to a .vrimg file on disk and not storing the final image in memory.

• 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.

• The Illuminance Render Element can no longer be created in V-Ray Next and later. Instead, use the Lighting Analysis Render Element. If you work with scenes created with an older V-Ray version that stores this render element, it will be loaded in V-Ray Next and later.

• When selecting the Affect All channels option of VRayMtl/VRayToonMtl, be aware that the information of the respective component will affect all render elements, therefore the Back to Beauty composition will not match the RGB result from the renderer.