Environment

Table of Contents

Options
Background Environment
GI Environment
Reflection Environment
Refraction Environment
Environment Fog

The Environment section in VRAYforC4D render parameters is where you can specify a color and a texture map to be used during GI and reflection/refraction calculations. This group allows you choose Environment settings for indirect illumination calculations.

Options

Override GI env. - allows override GI Environment
Override Reflection env. - allows override Reflection Environment
Override Refraction env. - allows override Refraction Environment

Background Environment

Color - lets you specify the environment color.

Brightness - a multiplier for the color value. Note that the multiplier does not affect the environment texture (if present).

Texture - lets you choose a GI environment texture. Note that if present, the texture overrides the specified Color.

Multiplier- a multiplier for the Texture value.

Map type - allow you to choose type of apply of texture map.

Offset U - allows you to adjust the refraction texture placement in horizontal direction.

Offset V - allows you to adjust the refraction texture placement in vertical direction.

GI Environment

This group allows you to override Environment settings for indirect illumination calculations. The effect of changing the GI environment is similar to sky light.

Color - specifies the environment color for GI. This color is ignored if there is an texture specified.

Brightness - a multiplier for the GI env. override value. Note that the multiplier does not affect the Texture (if present).

Texture - lets you choose a GI Environment texture. Note that if present, the texture overrides the specified color.

Multiplier - a multiplier for the Texture value.

Map type - allow you to choose type of apply of texture map.

Offset U - allows you to adjust the refraction texture placement in horizontal direction.

Offset V - allows you to adjust the refraction texture placement in vertical direction.

Reflection Environment

This group allows you to override environment settings when reflections and refractions are calculated. Note that you can also override the reflection/refraction environment on a per material basis (see VRAYforC4D Materials section). If you do not enable the Refraction override, this group of controls affects both reflections and refractions. If you enable the Refraction override, then this group affects only reflections.

Color - specifies the environment color for reflection. This color is ignored if there is an texture specified.

Brightness - a multiplier for the reflection env. override value. Note that the multiplier does not affect the Texture (if present).

Texture - lets you choose a reflection Environment texture. Note that if present, the texture overrides the specified color.

Multiplier - a multiplier for the Texture value.

Map type - allow you to choose type of apply of texture map.

Offset U - allows you to adjust the refraction texture placement in horizontal direction.

Offset V - allows you to adjust the refraction texture placement in vertical direction.

Refraction Environment

This group allows to override the environment for refraction rays only. When this override is disabled, VRAYforC4D will use the environment specified in the Reflection/refraction group when calculating refractions.

Color - specifies the environment color for refractions. This color is ignored if there is an texture specified.

Brightness - a multiplier for the Refraction env. override value. Note that the multiplier does not affect the Texture (if present).

Texture - lets you choose a Refraction Environment texture. Note that if present, the texture overrides the specified color.

Multiplier - a multiplier for the Texture value.

Map type - allow you to choose type of apply of texture map.

Offset U - allows you to adjust the refraction texture placement in horizontal direction.

Offset V - allows you to adjust the refraction texture placement in vertical direction.

Environment Fog

Environment Fog is an atmospheric effect that allows the simulation of participating media like fog, atmospheric dust and so. Volumetric properties can be determined by 3d texture maps. The atmospheric effect can also be confined with atmospheric gizmo helper objects.

Fog color - defines the color of the fog when it is illuminate by light sources.

Texture - this texture controls the fog color when it is illuminated by light sources.

Fog distance - controls the fog density. Larger values make the fog more transparent, while smaller values make it more dense.

Fog emission - controls the fog emission (self-illumination). You can use this parameter to substitute the ambient illumination inside the fog, instead of using GI.

Texture - this texture controls the fog light emission (self-illumination).

Fog density - controls the fog density.

Texture - this texture allows you to modify the fog density. Black values in the texture correspond to perfectly transparent fog; white areas correspond to the density specified by the Fog distance parameter.

Use fog height - when this option is on and no atmospheric gizmos are specified, the fog is assumed to start from a certain Z-level height and continue downward indefinitely.

Fog height - This parameter determines the starting point along the Z-axis. If there are atmospheric gizmos listed in the Nodes section, this parameter is ignored.

Scatter GI - when on, the fog will also scatter GI. Note that this can be quite slow. In many cases, GI within the fog can be substituted with a simple emission term. When this option is on, the currently selected global illumination algorithm in the Vray settings will be used to accelerate GI inside the volume (e.g. the Irradiance map, Light cache, Photon map or Brute force ).

Scatter bounces - when Scatter GI is enabled, this controls the number of GI bounces that will be calculated inside the fog.

Subdivs - this parameter determines the number of points inside the fog at which volumetric lighting is evaluated. Smaller values for this parameter render faster, but may produce noise in the image. Higher values render longer, but with less noise.

Step size - determines the size of one step through the volume. Smaller steps produce more accurate results but are slower to render. In general, dense volumes require smaller step sizes than more transparent volumes. In practice, step sizes that are two to three times smaller than the Fog distance parameter work well.

Texture samples - determines the number of texture samples for each step through the volume. This allows to sample textures more accurately than the volumetric lighting. It is useful in cases where the textures vary much faster than the lighting itself (e.g. for detailed fractal textures).

Simiplify texture for GI - When this option is checked Vray will use a simiplified method for calculating the GI when rednerderin parts of the fog that are textred or are being faded out.

Cutoff threshold - this parameter controls when the raymarcher will stop traversing the volume. If the accumulated volume transparency falls below this threshold, the volume will be considered opaque and tracing will be aborted. Higher values make the rendering faster but may introduce artifacts.

Max steps - specifies the maximum number of steps through the volume.

Affect background - when this option is off the background will not be obscured by the fog.

Fade out radius - when the fog effect is contained within a gizmo this option allows you to specify a falloff radius for it. This way the fog effect does not have sharp edges at the edges of the gizmo.

Texture - this texture controls the fade out radius.

Fade out edges - XXXX.

Fade out mode - this option allows you to chose between two different falloff modes.

Gizmos - A list of atmospheric gizmos and arbitrary meshes within which the fog will be calculated.

Lights - a list of lights that affect the volume.