Product Overview
V-Ray for Maya is one of the latest developments by Chaos Group. Developed to meet the needs of the most demanding VFX & Film studios around the world, the rendering engine delivers uncompromised stability, interactivity, ease of use and unprecedented speed.
Now, V-Ray for Maya enables the rendering of even larger scenes with greater complexity and artists can rely on a faster rendering process.
The comprehensive list of features provided by V-Ray for Maya includes CarPaint Material, V-Ray Light Select Render Element, PText texture, true 3D Motion Blur, Sun & Sky procedural lighting system, Physical camera for matching live footage, and many others.
V-Ray for Maya became a renderer of choice of numerous renowned studios such as Method Studio, Zoic Studio, Lux VFX, The LAB NYC and many others. For less than two years since its official release V-Ray has been used as a major rendering tool in the latest award winning films and productions.
V-Ray 2.0 for Maya Key Features
General Overview
Here are some of the key features of the new V-Ray 2.0 for Maya. To enjoy the full list of improvements and videos, please click here.
VRayCarPaintMtl - create stunning car paint shaders complete with base, flake and coat layers.
Ptex textures - with V-Ray 2.0 you can stop worrying about UV coordinates and use PTex textures.
VRayLightSelect Render Element - extract the contribution of each light to the scene and compose all the lights back together and change their intensity in real time in any compositing software.
Running the installation
Before installing V-Ray for Maya, make sure that you have first installed the V-Ray license server on a machine in your network.
To install V-Ray for Maya, simply run the installation. Before copying the files to you system, the installer will ask for installation directories for the various components of V-Ray for Maya. For detailed installation instructions and troubleshooting, please see the installation PDF guide.
The installer file for V-Ray for Maya has a name of the format vray_adv_15000_mayaNNNN_PPP.exe, where NNNN is the Maya version, and PPP is a string that identifies the operating system platform (for example, x86 for Windows 32-bit, x64 for Windows 64-bit, darwin_x86 for Mac OS X etc). For example, the name of the installer could be something like vray_adv_15000_maya2009_x64.exe.
Windows XP
To install V-Ray for Maya on Windows XP, please follow these steps:
- Extract the contents of the installation .zip archive;
- Make sure that you have administrator privileges;
- Double-click the installer to run it;
- Follow the instructions of the installer.
Windows Vista
To install V-Ray for Maya on Windows Vista, please follow these steps:
- Extract the contents of the installation .zip archive;
- Make sure that you have administrator privileges;
- Right-click the installer and select the Run as Administrator... option.
- Follow the instructions of the installer.
Linux
To install V-Ray for Maya on Linux, please follow these steps:
- Extract the contents of the .zip archive to a suitable directory;
- Open a console window;
- Navigate to the installation directory using the cd command;
- Use the su or sudo command to run the installer;
- Follow the instructions of the installer.
For example, the sequence of commands might look like this:
| $ cd vray_install_dir $ su $ ./vray_adv_maya2008_linux_x64.exe .... $ exit |
Mac OS X
To install V-Ray for Maya on Mac OS X, please follow these steps:
- Extract the contents of the .zip archive to a suitable directory;
- Open a Terminal window;
- Navigate to the installation directory using the cd command;
- Use the sudo command to run the installer;
- Follow the instructions of the installer.
For example, the sequence of commands might look like this:
| $ cd vray_install_dir $ sudo ./vray_adv_maya2008_darwin_x86.exe .... $ exit |
Setting up the license
Before you can use V-Ray for Maya for rendering, you must set up the V-Ray license. If the license server with the dongle is installed on your local machine, it is enough to make sure that it is running. If the license server is installed on a different machine in the network, you will need to tell V-Ray where to look for it. To do this, please follow the steps below. See the installation PDF guide for more details and troubleshooting information.
Note that this setting is shared between all versions of V-Ray (i.e. V-Ray for 3ds Max, V-Ray RT, V-Ray for Maya and V-Ray Standalone) but may be different for 32- and 64-bit builds.
Windows
The V-Ray for Maya installer will automatically ask you for the license server information at the end of the installation of V-Ray for Maya. If you did not enter the correct information there, you can do that if you go to Start menu > All Programs > Chaos Group > V-Ray for Maya > Change license settings. Enter the IP address or the name of the computer where the license server is running.
Linux
Open a Terminal window and enter the following at the command line.
| /usr/autodesk/mayaNNNN/vray/bin/setvrlservice -server="serverName or IP" |
where NNNN is the Maya version (2008, 2009 etc), and "serverName or IP" is the name or IP address of the computer where the license server is running.
Mac OS X
Open a Terminal window and enter the following at the command line:
| /Applications/Autodesk/mayaNNNN/Maya.app/Contents/vray/bin/setvrlservice.exe -server="serverName or IP" |
where NNNN is the Maya version (2008, 2009 etc), and "serverName or IP" is the name or IP address of the computer where the license server is running.
Loading the V-Ray for Maya plugin
When you install V-Ray, initially it will not be loaded by Maya automatically. To load the V-Ray for Maya plugin, follow these steps:
- Start Maya;
- From the main Maya menu, go to Window > Settings/Preferences... > Plug-in Manager...
- Scroll down to the bottom of the dialog in order to see the vrayformaya plugin entry;
- Click on the Load and Auto-load options.
If V-Ray for Maya is loaded successfully, you should be able to choose it as a renderer in the V-Ray settings dialog. If you do not see the V-Ray renderer, check out the Script Editor for any errors. Consult the installation PDF guide for more information.
