Overview

The Global Illumination Render Element is a color image that stores indirect lighting information coming from reflected diffuse light in a scene ( without direct light and reflection contributions) when Indirect Illumination is enabled. This element may be used directly in Back to Beauty compositing and adjusted for brightness and color to control the final image easily.

For even more control of indirect illumination without rerendering the scene, the Global Illumination render element may be re-assembled by multiplying the VRayRawGlobalIllumination Render Element by the Diffuse Filter Render Element:

VRayRawGlobalIllumination x VrayDiffuseFilter = VRayGlobalIllumination

UI Path: ||Render Setup window|| > Render Elements tab > Add button > VRayGlobalIllumination

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 – Enables the render element inside the V-Ray 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 – Can be used to amplify the element by a number value.

Common Uses

The Global Illumination Render Element is useful for changing the appearance of Indirect lighting after rending in a compositing or image editing software. Below are a couple of examples of its use.

Global Illumination Render Element

Original Beauty Composite

Brightened GI

Tinted and Brightened GI

Compositing Formula

VRayRawGlobalIllumination x VrayDiffuseFilter = VRayGlobalIllumination