V-ray (3ds max) Lighting a scene using Vray-RT?

Jonathan85

Hello

I have been using Vray for quite some time now, i work in 3ds max and i do mainly enviroments (for non real time (game) use - not really low poly).

So far i was always setting my lights (lighting the scene) while using standard Vray renderer (adv) not the real time - RT.

I always set up a light, made a regular render (on  lower resolution and lower global settings (subdivs etc.).

But i saw (i think) people using RT for QUICKER iterating, setting and up and playing with the lights, you get "instant" feedback so its nicer. And then when its ready, they simply swap the RT render for the regular ADV render and render the final render of the scene/enviroment. Some dont even switch to ADV and use the RT for the final render anyway...

I would like to ask you, if you do the same? If it is a good idea to light the scene using RT. The reason as stated is that you should in theory at least get it done (the lighting of the scene) more quickly, its more comfortable, its more creative, its more responsive and you could get even a better result (since you can play with it more due to the reactivness).

is it a good aproach to lighting a scene? A scene that is not really intended for real time use in game... that means quite a lot polycount, using a lot of textures, using displacement, using vray proxies, using scatters like multiscatter (or Forest Pack Pro) etc...? Using Vray Fog etc...

AFAIK it should be ok right? In the past Vray RT didnt support a lot of the elements (like Vray fur, Vra Fog, etc. etc.) but today, in the end of 2019,  i think the latest versions of vray RT should support almost anything... And the few things they might not support, i could just hide for process of settings lights... Also the final render of Vray RT and Vray ADV should be quite similiar now, almost the same...?

So in essence? Is it a good idea to use Vray RT for setting lighting in your non-real-time "heavy" scene? And when done, just render it in regular Vray?

Is it a good idea? Do you do it? Do you know someone who does it? Does he get good results quicker then before...?

oglu

Vray RT is old tech. Go with Vray Next and a decent geforce is the way to go. Polycount doesnt matter that much. Up to 60 million unique poly is no problem with a 8gb card. If you use instances and vray proxy you dont have a polylimmit. 

Jonathan85

Well Vray next is just Vray 4.xxx right...? They just changed the name? Vray Next still has "CPU render component" (called adv previously) and GPU render "component" (engine) (called RT)... the names dont matter, the question still stands.

Can someone give their take on it?

oglu

The GPU part of Vray 4 does have a new core. It based on optix like most other GPU render engines. Its a new renderer from the ground up.

If you have enough GPU power i would jump on it. I use it every day and wont go back to CPU.

Noren

The GPU/Hybrid and the CPU renderer deliver similar, but not always identical renderings as they are basically two different renderers and GPU also doesn't support all functions of CPU, so your setup might be different between the two. While you theoretically could set up your scene roughly in GPU and render your final scene in CPU with minor adjustments, interactive rendering for CPU gives quick enough results to get a quick impression of the scene as well, and the quality of GPU is good enough that I usually pick one according to the requirements of the scene and stick with it.
Haven't used the latest update with rtx optimizations, but I don't think that changes much in that regard.

Eric Chadwick

We use IPR for this instead. But still, like RT it has limitations. Displacement settings for example require a refresh.