Overview

There are a number of different materials for use with V-Ray for 3ds Max. These materials are quite versatile and each can be used in a number of ways to achieve different looks as needed from simulating simple surface properties like plastics and metals to complex uses such as translucent objects, subsurface materials such as skin and even light emitting objects.

For more details on each material, please see the dedicated pages.

^{Image courtesy of Salih Göçmen}

UI Path: ||Material Editor window|| > Material/Map Browser > Materials > V-Ray

V-Ray Materials

V-Ray Material | VRayMtl

Blend Material | VRayBlendMtl

Light Emitting Material | VRayLightMtl

Translucent Two-Sided Material | VRay2SidedMtl

Subsurface Scattering Material | VRayFastSSS2

Volume Scatter Material | VRayScatterVolume

Skin Material | VRaySkinMtl

Hair Material | VRayHairMtl

Car Paint Material | VRayCarPaintMtl

Car Paint Flakes Material | VRayFlakesMtl

Wrapper Material | VRayMtlWrapper

Override Material | VRayOverrideMtl

VRscans | VRayScannedMtl

Point Particle Material | VRayPointParticleMtl

DarkTree Material | VRaySimbiontMtl

OSL Material | VRayOSLMtl

GLSL Material | VRayGLSLMtl

Bump Material | VRayBumpMtl

VRmat Material | VRayVRmatMtl

Stochastic Flakes Material | VRayStochasticFlakesMtl

MDL Material | VRayMDLMtl

alSurface Shader | VRayALSurfaceMtl

Tools and Utilities

Additionally, V-Ray provides a number of utilities and standalone tools for working with materials:

• Bake Vector Displacement - This is a utility material that allows texture baking allows you to generate displacement maps for Vector displacement when used along with texture baking. It requires that you have a low poly base geometry and a high poly target geometry. You can then generate a map that when used with vector displacement turns the base geometry into the target geometry. Vector displacement, unlike standard displacement which displaces only in a positive or negative direction from the surface of the low poly base, allows displacement to occur in all 3 axis. Thus instead of just being in a positive or negative direction, displacement can occur in many combined directions.

• VRmat Editor - The V-Ray Material Editor allows the creation, editing, and saving of multiple materials into a .vismat or .vrmat file that can then be opened by other scenes.

• VRmat Converter - The V-Ray .vrmat converter can be used to convert materials in 3ds Max to .vrmat files which can be loaded using the VRayVRmatMtl material.