This tuttorial answeers the folloowing questiions:

- How to
t avoid thee 3ds Max crash when it
i is not eno
ough RAM??
- What should I doo when V-raay turning off during reendering?
- How to
t deal the RAM
R
lack in V-Ray?
- How to
t render thee scene withh many millions of pollygons?
- How to
t make com
mputer workk faster duriing renderin
ng?
- What is raycastinng and how V-Ray acceelerates its work?
w
- What is BSP tree and how dooes its struccture look liike in V-Rayy?
- What is the differrence betweeen Static Raycaster
R
an
nd Dynamic Raycaster??
- Whenn does V-Raay use paginng or swapping?
- How to
t switch V--Ray for woorking with dynamic raaycaster?
- What are the Vraay buckets?
- Why do
d we need the VRay rendering
r
loogs?
- How to
t change thhe V-Ray reendering proocess prioritty?
- What should I doo if V-Ray crashes
c
durinng the Ligh
ht Cache callculation?
- How to
t calculate the best am
mount for Dyynamic Mem
mory Limitt?

V-Raay Crassh Prob

blems
There iss one disgussting thing while
w
rendeering compllex scenes inn V-Ray. It can make most
m VRay useers nervous.. It can evenn fully disarrm someonee, killing anny enthusiassm to contin
nue any

further work on the current scene. Especially unexpected and tricky this thing becomes when
one is working on the commercial rendering with clearly defined deadline. All forums and
discussion boards about V-Ray renderer are just snowed under with the pleading requests for
help in completion rendering of heavy scene :D
Of course, we are talking about the lack of RAM during rendering, which is the prevailing
reason of 3ds Max and V-Ray
system crash.
Why is this happening? What
causes this error? Cant you do
anything simple? Can it really
be true that to complete a big
project we inevitably need to
increase the amount of RAM,
installed in computer? Is it
true, that the only way out is to
go to the computer store and
buy a few more sticks of
RAM?
To answer these questions, let us see how V-Ray uses the memory and what tools of
managing the process of its use are available to us.
In any software, the memory management and the way of placing the data there is a very
complicated and routine material. Well, at least it is a true for 3d artist. There is absolutely no
sense to go deep into describing the data arrays and the ways of addressing to them. Such
details are deeply rooted in the programming field. For easy managing the RAM of any
software at a professional level, you have enough to know only the general idea about the
processes occurring in it. Especially, considering that the user is entirely limited to the
proposed interface. V-Ray is not exception here.

Raycasting, the Basis of V-Ray Rendering

Before start the rendering, V-Ray has to load into RAM the scene geometry for operative
using it during calculation of the final image. This is the initial aspect of the entire rendering
process. After realizing such necessity of renderer, the importance of memory management in
the rendering immediately becomes clear. But, of course, we wouldnt just stop on this and
will follow the order of rendering step by step.
Once data is loaded into memory, V-Ray rendering can begin. The calculating of each pixel
starts with the basic operation, namely the "probing" the geometry. This is done by using a
special algorithm, the so-called ray casting. The essence of this algorithm is that camera
shoots a ray, which that flies until it hits some object in the scene. Each ray intersection is
fixed and thus V-Ray determines the location of geometry in the scene, its basic properties
and other information required for further rendering.

Disadvantages of Not Organized Data

The proocess of calcculation of the

t single raaycast, i.e. the
t ray interrsection witth geometry
y and
the deteermining off its propertiies, is not tim
me significaant. Howevver, the num
mber of raycaasts
during photorealist
p
tic rendering can exceeed manyfold
d the numbeer of rendereed image piixels.
For exaample, the HD
H 1920x10080 resolutiion render iss made of more
m
than 2 million sep
parate
pixels. This
T scale changes
c
the situation fuundamentallly, making the
t raycastiing process very
resource-intensive..
t
a formaal analogy to
t the techniically comp
plicated rayccasting algoorithm. Thiss
Let us take
analogyy will greatlly help us unnderstand thhe specific problems
p
off memory m
managementt in VRay.
So, letss imagine thhe scene geometry as a set of usuaal green treee leaves, andd the raycassting
algorithhm as a tirelless ant, whhich have to find the mo
ost delicious yellowishh leave amon
ngst all
green ones. In our analogy, this yellow leeaf will emb
body the neeeded data abbout the geo
ometry,
hit by a raycasting ray.
Initiallyy, the data on
o the scenee geometry, which will be loaded into
i
memoryy, is arrangeed
random
mly in terms of raycastinng process. Let us simiilarly suppoose that all thhe leaves were
w
chaoticaally thrownn into pile.
Our harrd working ant knows that
t he needds to find a yellow
y
leaff among the myriad of
unnecesssary for him
m green onees. How cann he do this? Of coursee, he will haave to go
sequenttially througgh a bunch of
o green leaaves, starting from the closest
c
to onne, until he find the
one andd only yellow
w leaf.

He will have to appproach first leaf and seee whether it is yellow. Then, come up to the second
s
and look if he needds the seconnd leaf. Afteer this, he haas to go to the
t third onee, and again
n check

if that is yellow. Thereby, our ant needs to go through literally every leaf until he finds the
desired yellow one.
The situation when the ant reaches the yellowish leaf at the beginning of his search is
probable. However, there is also absolutely no guarantee that the yellow leaf not be the latest
in pile. In such case, to find a single yellow leaf, our ant would have to go over the whole pile
of greens.
A similar situation can occur with unorganized data on the scene geometry. Raycasting
algorithm will be forced to sequentially go through all the geometry for determining the
properties of a single point in the scene, which was intersected by raycasting ray.
This method of finding the required information is too tedious for our imaginary ant, as well
as for the computers CPU, which instead of actual rendering has to busy oneself with nonrational searching of data in memory.

BSP tree and Convenient Data Structuring

To expedite the process of determining the properties of the scene geometry by raycasting, VRay organizes all the geometry into a special convenient structure.
V-Ray lays out the geometry on the shelves of the hierarchical tree structure into RAM. This
structure is called the Binary Space Partitioning (BSP) tree. It is a special method of
presenting an array of data as a binary tree structure.
The BSP general idea is that scene with all geometry is subdivided into two parts. This action
creates the two branches extending from the origin (the scene), which is called the Root of
the tree. After the first subdivision, each of the data branches emanating from the root, are
again divided in half, forming new branches. Points from which the new branches emanate
called the Nodes of the tree. The process of dividing the geometry of the scene and the record
the tree structure branches in memory lasts as long as it reached the limit, which is set in the
BSP tree parameters. The result of the last division of branches is called the Leaves of the
tree. In that way, V-Ray creates the branched structure of the whole scene geometry, which is
great for the quick search of the properties of the required area in the scene.
For the obvious presentation of how this happens, let's go back to our entomological
example. The analogy with leaves and leaf-seeking ant perfectly illustrates how the initial
organization helps in finding the needed data.

If we doo not throw

w the leaves to a disordeered heap, but
b carefullyy arrange thhem on the branches
b
of a treee, we can siignificantly speed up thhe process of
o finding a yellow leaff. In such sittuation,
our ant,, avoiding all
a unnecessary branchees, can go sttraight to thhe needed deestination. That
T
happenss because he
h does not need
n
to checck all the leeaves. Insteaad, he can aalmost immeediately
see the path that coould lead him
m to the plaace where th
he yellow leeaf grows, aand quickly climb
there byy his strong legs.
According to this principle,
p
V
V-Ray
structuures the geo
ometry in thhe scene, caatching the one
o
more oppportunity to
t save our precious
p
tim
me, even on
n such seemiingly insignnificant operrations.
The bassic principlee of renderinng at this leevel is quite simple: loaad, structuree, found the
necessaary propertiees, and rendder :)
Now, when
w
we meet with the principle
p
of structuring data for rayycaster, we can proceed
d to the
next steep, which ussers come across
a
on thee way of ren
ndering big scenes in V
V-Ray.

Static Raycaster & Loading the Entire Scene into Memory

As we already know, to start the rendering process the scene geometry must be loaded into
memory. In the previous chapter, we looked at the tree structure, the accelerator of raycasting
process.
However, as we mentioned at the start of the lesson, there is one rendering issue left.
Everything goes smoothly during rendering, as long as the RAM amount, physically installed
on your computer, is enough to contain the whole scene geometry.
The fact is the V-Ray has different types of raycasting algorithms. The simplest of them is the
so-called Static Raycaster. It loads the geometry of entire scene into memory at once.
Imagine that we are going to start rendering a scene with many millions of polygons, so for
its entire loading the available RAM amount is not enough. What happens then?
Unfortunately, in this case the one of the most unpleasant V-Ray surprises occurs. It is the
program crash.

Software crash is the appearing of the unexpected critical error that prevents further normal
work of the program. This like V-Ray fault happens when the free RAM has been exhausted
and further filling of the geometry to the memory is simply impossible. The message about
creating in memory the geometry tree structure Current Task: Buliding static raycast
accelerator ... is usually the last thing rendering artists see Rendering information window.
After that, the rendering, together with the work of 3ds Max and V-Ray, spontaneously break
off, causing the error report window.
In our analogy, for example, it is an attempt to use excessively branched tree for the location
of leaves. Too heavy tree that carries a huge amount of leaves and branches simply collapses,
rooting out from the holding it ground.

The onlly way out of

o this situaation withouut increasing
g the amounnt of RAM iis to abando
on the
one-tim
me entire sceene loading approach. Instead,
I
we have to loaad sequentiaally its certaain parts,
renderinng of whichh should occcur only at given
g
momeent of time.
As mighht be expeccted, V-Ray has such a way to load
d the geomeetry into thee memory. This
T
methodd is embodieed in a speciial, dynamicc type of raycaster, whhich is desiggned exactly
y for
such sittuations.

Dynaamic Raaycaster & Loaading Portions

P
s of Geoometry
In contrrast to the basic
b
raycastting engine called statiic, the Dynaamic Raycaaster allowss us to
load onnly a certain part of the geometry, needed
n
for rendering
r
of the currennt image parrt.

Dynamic raycaster loads into the memory only a certain portion of the geometry, not
exceeding a specified number of megabytes. Once the loaded portion has been used in
rendering of the current image area, the occupied part of the RAM is cleared and the new
piece of geometry loads to the freed place. Obviously, the new geometry portion will be used
to render the following part of the image.
Rendering using dynamic raycaster eliminates the memory overflow problems not only due
to the exact memory limit. Dynamic raycaster knows how to use the operating systems
potential in memory management. This means that even if the current image area calculation
needs to load objects, the total size of which exceeds the established memory limit, the
operating system still is able to allocate a resource for the successful continuation of the
rendering. In particular, Windows will use the so-called paging (or swapping), which is the
ability to save the data that cannot fit in the physical memory to HDD.
Despite the aforementioned advantages of dynamic geometry loading, we must realize that if
dynamic raycaster was the really universal solution, then an unreliable crashing static
raycaster would be simply needless. However, V-Ray uses the static raycasting engine by
default.
The loading and unloading of the data spends our precious time, as any other operation. Even
if we set the ideal (for our situation) RAM limit, the use of dynamic raycaster will
significantly increase the overall rendering time. Moreover, in case of need to use paging, the
rendering time will increase even more.
Shortly, these are the all the basics of raycaster work with memory and the problems of its
using. Now, when we met with the principle of raycaster, let us look at its practical
configuration and management tricks.

Raycaster Params: Binary Tree

Settings
Let's start with the settings provided in the Raycaster
parameters area of the V-Ray:: System rollout.
The first three parameters describe the properties of the
raycasting acceleration structure, the BSP tree. They are
quite abstract, so lets begin with determining the effect of
each of them.
Max tree depth is a parameter that limits the depth of the branches of a tree. It specifies the
number of divisions of the scene space. The numeric value of this parameter reflects the
maximum number of levels from the root to the leaf. The higher the Max tree depth value,
the more a tree becomes branched.
Min leaf size limits the structure of a binary tree by a minimum size of the leaves. This
option allows us to stop the division of the geometry in the scene by setting the value of the
minimum leaves size in system units. Small Min leaf values size let not to limit the branching
of the tree, and thus it grows as much as the previous parameter defines.

Face/level coef. determines the maximum number of triangles (minimal units of geometry)
contained in a single leaf node. Smaller values of Face/level coef. can produce more branched
tree, with lots of leaves.
As we know, V-Ray uses the organization of the scene geometry in a form of a BSP tree to
accelerate the raycasting process. It is logical to assume that the deeper our tree structure, the
smaller its leaves, and the smaller the units of the geometry each leaf contains, then the more
space in memory we need to hold trees branches and the greater is the potential raycasting
speed it can provide.
However, there is a limit in such acceleration. After a certain threshold, further division is not
reasonable, since the excessively branched structure of a BSP tree makes the work with itself
too difficult. The raycasting algorithm may spend the computational resources for walking
through the huge BSP tree, ruining all the gain in speed.
So, what is this limit and what is the best BSP tree size for getting the maximum raycasting
speed?
The answer for this question is not very encouraging. Only experimentation work can help in
finding the optimal BSP tree parameters. There are no fast settings for any scene. For best
raycasting speed, the each specific scene must have the individual BSP tree settings.
When rendering still images, the messing with numerous experiments on the above
parameters is completely unreasonable. Just because the spending lots of time for saving the
same time is nonsense. You may agree that it is an absurd to make 10 times the final
rendering in the search for BSP tree optimal settings, to eventually make the same rendering
the eleventh time 10 minutes faster :D
However, the parameters of a BSP tree are not just a demonstration of technical abilities of
the rendering engine. Their purpose becomes clear when it comes to animation. Suppose we
need to render sequence of 1000 frames. Then we can safely perform an experimental
selection of optimal BSP tree parameters. Even if the choice of the best values will take up to
10 or 20 final renders, and the rendering speed of each frame will increase by 20 seconds,
such effort is very useful. After all, this optimization can easily save about 5 hours of
computing time.
In practice of static rendering, the need to change the values of these parameters exists only
in theory. It can only make sense when we want to free memory to suit some other needs, so
we reduce the size of the BSP tree at the price of slowing the rendering time.
In the best V-Ray settings, the parameters responsible for the BSP tree structure should be set
to the default V-Ray values, without making any changes without well-considered necessity.

Raycaster Params: Configuring Dynamic Raycaster

Dynamic memory limit is parameter that determines the limit of memory available for
dynamic raycaster, in megabytes. It defines the maximum amount of RAM to be used for
every geometry portion during the work of the dynamic raycaster. Literally, established in
this parameter number of megabytes is divided between computational threads of the current

computer. Low values of dynamic memory limit can significantly reduce the raycaster
performance; they may lead to the frequency increase of loading-unloading the geometry
portions. Additionally, small values can cause the regular use of slow paging. From the other
hand, the very high values may slightly slow down the renderer and greatly affect the comfort
of work in operating system. The value of 60-80% of the total amount of RAM, installed on
your computer, gives the best performance. That value we should use in universal V-Ray
settings.

Dynamic Memory Limit calculator

Try this JavaScript dynamic memory limit calculator to determine the optimal number of
megabytes for using in this parameter on your computer:

Installed memory (RAM), GB:

Operating System:
Dynamic Memory limit, MB:

Next Default geometry parameter determines the method of loading the geometry into
memory. Here we can select the type of raycaster, which will calculate the geometry of the
current scene. The default geometry parameter is a drop-down list from which you can
choose the type of raycaster.
Before describing the default geometry options, we should mention the VRayProxy and
VRayFur objects. The feature of rendering such objects is that no matter what is selected in
default geometry; these exact objects are calculated by dynamic raycaster. Such a feature is
implemented because these like objects are extra high polygonal, and it is better to load them
by portions for avoiding the program crash.
Static is the most trivial raycasting mode. When we select static, all the data about the scene
geometry is entirely loaded into memory before rendering.
Dynamic is the compromise mode of default geometry. Dynamic raycaster does not load all
the scene geometry into memory at once. It loads the geometry data by portions. The number
of megabytes set in dynamic memory limit determines the maximum portion size.
Auto is the initial default geometry option. In this mode, V-Ray decides which objects in the
scene are better to calculate with static raycaster, and which are with dynamic. This decision
is based on the properties of the particular object. Whether this object should be calculated
with dynamic or static raycaster depends on the polygons and instances number of this exact
object. This is a hybrid method of loading geometry, which combines the work of static and
dynamic raycasters.
If we compare the types of raycasters, then we can conclude that dynamic is the most
unpretentious, but also the slowest raycaster. Using it, we are free from the 3ds Max

memory overflow issues, however, due to the need to fill and clean the limited amount of
memory continually, rendering speed substantially slows down. When rendering with static
raycaster, it on its one manages all RAM resource, available to the system. Static is the most
productive, but also the most unstable mode. If all the geometry can completely fit in
memory, then the rendering is as fast as possible. After all, we do not need to dose the
geometry, wait for clearing the memory to load the next portion of data, and use the sluggish
paging. However, if we have more data than can fit in available RAM, it will immediately
cause the downfall of the program. Just recall the picture with a broken tree :)
Nominally, the default geometry set to auto. Auto is the most universal mode, so it is
reasonable to use it in the Best V-Ray Settings.

Buckets Options
The settings of render region division zone of V-Ray system configurations let us choose
the size of rendering portions and the order of their calculation.
Render region division or, as it is called, the bucket is the
minimum region, to which the final image is divided for
sequential multi-threaded rendering. The idea of such a
partitioning is similar to the idea of Number of passes
function work in Light Cache. Buckets are these little
squares that quickly (and sometimes not :D) running around
the frame buffer, gradually opening the final result of
rendering to our view.
It may sound banal, but the actual rendering process, which is considered a model of
multitasking, is not multi-tasked actually. The exact computation cannot be performed by
more than one core, even with the multi-core CPU. You can imagine how long will the
rendering last, if we use only a single processing core, while other are idle. This situation is
completely unacceptable and, of course, we need a way out it. The solution for this is the
equal division of the rendering process between different computing threads. The rendering is
divided into many independent parts, in other words, into many small renderers, and the each
of them can be computed by a separate processing thread. Thus, uniform computation is
divided into several parts, allowing the full load of all computing pipelines of the system.
This is how the little images, called buckets, render. When the bucket is rendered, it is
displayed in a frame buffer. The rendering result is like a puzzle, assembled from small
pieces into one final image :) In order for the final render does not look like a jigsaw puzzle
or a mosaic, with clearly distinguished borders of neighboring cells, buckets are the subject
for mutual interpolation.
Let us take a look at the exact buckets parameters.
X and Y values determine the size of the bucket in pixels horizontally and vertically. By
default, these two numeric fields are dependent and equal. Although, it is enough to press the
button L (lock) and the independent Y value becomes available. The X and Y determine the
size of bucket in pixels until the drop-down list next to X is set to Region W/H. If it set to
Region Count, then the numerical values in the X and Y determine the number of buckets, to
which the final render will be divided horizontally and vertically.

Obviously, if the final image is divided into many portions, then the more computing
resources V-Ray have to spend on interpolating their neighboring boundaries. At the same
time, the small bucket is a guarantee that one rendering portion catches the minimum amount
of geometry. That is good factor, because bucket is exactly that portion, which the dynamic
raycaster loads into RAM. Reducing the size of the bucket can be useful, when filling the
bucket objects exceed the limit of memory, available to a single thread. A smaller bucket
could theoretically take less amount of geometry, so it can possibly save rendering from the
use of paging. The long and short of it, this situation is difficult to predict, so the default
values 64x64 and Region W/H are the best for starting V-Ray configuration.
Region sequence is the option that specifies the type of portions rendering sequence or, in
other words, the pattern of buckets rendering. We can choose the one of the six rendering
patterns - Top/bottom, Left/right, Checker, Spiral, Hilbert curve, and Triangulation.
From the name of the first four of them it is quite to guess a way they render. With the
Hilbert curve mode, the buckets follow each other in a form of a snake out of blocks, just like
in game on first mobile phones :)
The last and the most interesting mode is Triangulation. With it, buckets plot the triangles of
different sizes, consistently covering all areas of the frame buffer. The main feature of
Triangulation is that its pattern gradually covers very dense image areas, what is very useful
for dynamic raycaster work. With such a pattern, there is a high chance that the part of
geometry used for rendering previous bucket, can be used for rendering the current one. This
certainly saves computational resources, avoiding unnecessary operations of loading and
unloading of data to limited memory amount. It is for this reason, even if you like a snake or
a checker pattern, in starting V-Ray settings always use a Triangulation as a pattern for
rendering buckets.
Reverse sequence can reverse the direction of buckets calculation. For example, if the
rendering pattern is set to Left/right, the activation of reverse sequence option will make the
buckets computed from right to left, i.e. in the reverse direction. This feature does not really
affect the rendering process. However, it can be very useful in cases when rendering of the
scene stopped before completion for some reason. Then the rendering can be resumed by
activating the reverse direction so we can continue to render the scene from the not-rendered
part of the image. In the Best V-Ray settings, the changing of this option has no practical
sense.
Previous render is an parameter to specify an action performed with the previous image into
a frame buffer during rendering of the new one. The Unchanged mode allows us leave the
previous rendering unchanged. Cross and Fields modes let us cover the previous render with
the corresponding pattern. Darken and Blue modes allow us to darken or give a blue tint to
the previous renderer for highlighting the contrast. The most useful of these modes is the
default Unchanged, which allows us easily watch the changes in the new render, comparing
to the previous. That is the mode we should use in the optimal V-Ray configuration.
On this, all the important system configurations of V-Ray end. Following zones and setups of
V-Ray:: System rollout are secondary and do not significantly affect the actual rendering.
However, we will surely learn how to use them also.

Frame Stamp Statistics

Next, in V-Ray:: System rollout, is the Frame stamp area, which manages the only function
with multiple parameters.

Frame stamp enables adding the stamp with statistical information to the image of final
rendering. With this feature on, we can add to a render a stripe with different technical
information. This info can be the current frame rendering time, the name of the CPU, the
current version of V-Ray, and even the size of the final image in pixels. This particular
feature is designed for special occasions. For example, it may be useful when testing the
scene for determining the optimal size of a BSP tree. Enabling Frame Stamp also may help
you to boast before colleagues the new computer and the speed it renders the most difficult
scene :) Of course, enabling this function is useless as for the starting V-Ray settings.

Distributed Rendering Setups

The following area of a V-Ray:: System rollout activates and opens the configuration of a
distributed rendering mode.

This is one of the most revolutionary features of modern rendering engines. Distributed
rendering allows us to render a single image using the computational power of multiple
computers. To do this, the computers must be properly configured and be in a common
network. V-Ray can distribute and send separate buckets to different available computers,
and then collect the results of their calculation in a single frame buffer.
This is a very rich and interesting topic, which will be revealed on the RenderStuff pages in
future. For now, the rendering of an image by multiple computers is far from the idea of
starting V-Ray settings, so we do not need to activate the distributed rendering function.

Log of V-Ray Rendering

Next area is VRay log. It is entirely responsible for single similarly named V-Ray log
function.
Unlike Frame stamp, the usefulness of this function is
obvious. Enabling the Show window checkbox in the VRay
log settings, opens the information window called Vray
messages during rendering, which will show logs of V-Ray.
It is very convenient to see information about the rendering process. Such information can be

different warnings, errors, and just the statistics. For example, VRay log is indispensable in
the process of configuring the aforementioned distributive rendering. Vray messages can
clearly display which computers took part in the current rendering, and which are idle. Such
awareness allows us to save a lot of time and prevent many problems on the initial stages of
rendering.
VRay log additionally makes the records to a text file, the path to which you can specify in
the box below the Show window checkbox. It can be useful if 3ds Max has suddenly crashed.
In this case, we can always open the written file using any text editor and look for error
messages, among which is the one that caused the crash.
A numeric value Level indicates the depth of the ongoing statistics. The one (1) in this
parameter means that the log will contain only the error messages. Two (2) is the errors and
warnings. Three (3) specifies that logs must display the errors, warnings and general
informational messages. Four (4) in this parameter tells V-Ray to log all the events that
happen during rendering.
In order to be well informed about the most important events during rendering, in the nominal
starting V-Ray settings, the Show window option must be enabled and statistics Level should
be set to three (3).

Miscellaneous options
Next, are the Miscellaneous options. This zone contains all the remaining secondary system
parameters of V-Ray.

MAX-compatible ShadeContext (work in camera space) is a feature that allows V-Ray to

work with so-called camera space.
The case is that V-Ray nominally performs all calculations in the scene space. In other words,
the V-Ray itself uses geometry coordinates relative to the whole scene space. However, some
plug-ins, especially the older ones, work with coordinates relative to the current camera.
Activation of work in the camera space allows V-Ray to work with these plug-ins, bypassing
the problem of incompatibility. That is why, in the starting V-Ray configuration, we must
always keep the MAX-compatible ShadeContext option active.
The option Check for missing files enables check for missing files, such as not found
textures or proxies in the current scene. The result of this check is immediately displayed as a
warning in the log. Nevertheless, we usually know about the missing files in the scene. Just
remember the popping out list of missing files when the scene is loaded into 3ds Max. In
practice, the missing files check before actual rendering is more annoying than useful, and

therefore, we are better turn off this function when setting the starting configuration of VRay.
Optimized atmospheric evaluation is an option that disables shading on the scene objects
that are inside or outside the zone of atmospheric effects. When the option enabled, renderer
does not shade the objects, which are slightly visible through the opacity of atmospheric
effects. The enabling of optimized atmospheric evaluation can save significant computational
resources on skipping materials calculation for barely visible objects. In such case, V-Ray
first calculates the atmospheric effect and estimates the visibility of objects in advance. Since
that evaluation, the non-visible objects are treated like those that do not need the shading. Of
course, the automatic determination of the objects visibility through atmospheric effect is not
always perfect. There may be a situation, in which the object actually is visible enough, but
still not shaded. In the Best V-Ray Settings, this function should nominally be disabled.
Low thread priority is an option that automatically assigns the low priority to the rendering
process in the operating system. The same can be manually done using the Windows Task
Manager on the Processes tab. Low thread priority option use can relieve the computer a bit,
freeing up computing resources for other applications. It allows us to work with those
comfortably, even during rendering. However, resource-intensive applications can still lag
despite the activation of the Low thread priority.
Additionally, assigning the low priority to any process reduces its effectiveness and, as a
result, slows down the computation speed, which is very unacceptable in most cases.
Therefore, in starting V-Ray settings, this option must be turned off.
Last part of Miscellaneous options section are the Objects settings, Light settings, and Presets
buttons.
Objects settings and Light settings buttons call the Options windows of objects and light
sources settings, similar to those that can be accessed by clicking the right mouse button on
the selected objects in a viewport. These features are not actually the V-Ray settings, so they
have no relation to the optimal V-Ray settings.
Presets is a function that allows us to save the settings of the current scene to the V-Ray
profile and its further loading into any other scene. Using this feature can leave us from
routine of setting the same checkboxes and values from project to project. This function is
directly related to the nominal starting V-Ray setup. If we configure V-Ray and save its
setting to profile, then we can easily use them in any new scene.
This function is obvious even without further explanation, but, in any case, its practical
application and its alternatives will be described next tutorial in detail.

GI Maps Out of Control

It is noteworthy that all the described in this tutorial settings, which control the scene
geometry data management, are not related to the management of GI maps data in RAM.
This means that regardless of what the BSP tree size is, what kind of raycaster we have
selected, and what the memory limit is, the GI maps will be fully loaded into memory and
will occupy there as much space as they need.

It is a reeal situationn, when the render passsed all prepaaratory stagges, associatted with loaading
geometrry into mem
mory, and evven started the renderin
ng of GI maaps, such ass Light Cach
he.
Then, having
h
rendeered certainn amount off LC, the ren
ndering crasshes, showinng the hated
d V-Ray
exceptioon error. Thhis happens because thee memory that
t remainss after loading geometrry is
simply not enoughh to keep thee LC inform
mation.
Unfortuunately, therre are no eleegant solutiions for solv
ving the memory overfflow during GI
calculattion. Howevver, some way
w out exissts. The mosst obvious is to reduce the GI map
ps size,
by loweering the vissual qualityy of the finall rendering. There is also another ccompromisee. We
can go the
t way of subdivision
s
n, simply breeaking the rendering
r
off one imagee into severaal parts.
For exaample, it is possible
p
to render
r
entirre image usiing smaller region rendders. For exaample,
we can render firstt half of the image usinng region ren
nder, and thhen render thhe remainin
ng half,
movingg the borders of region there. Of coourse, if we render Lighht Cache onnly for half of the
current frame, thenn its map wiill take twicce as less meemory than when rendeering the wh
hole
image at
a once.

Concclusion
That is the all the system
s
settinngs and feaatures of V-R
Ray that every V-Ray rrendering arrtist
must knnow.
We hoppe that this tutorial
t
willl help you inn difficult siituation when project ddeadlines arre close,
and 3dss Max suddeenly crashess. Now, when you undeerstand the basic princiiples of worrking
with V--Ray renderrer system settings, youu are able to
o manage thhe renderingg of huge scenes,
regardleess of your computerss RAM amoount.
All, havve easy settiings and beautiful 3d reenderings!
The tutoorial is writtten and prepared by:

Anton (Ren
nderStuff)

3d renddering artist at Ren3d with

w more thhan eight yeears of experrience in phhotorealisticc 3d
renderinng. Author of all RendeerStuff renddering tutorials and muuch of the C
CG images on
o this
site.

Max (Rend
derStuff)

Professional 3d modeler working at Ren3d, has seven years experience in creation of various
3d objects. Author of 3d models, co-author & theoretical editor of all RenderStuff
publications.