Vray Software Guide for Maya (2023)

1. Download and install

Log in to the Web Manager (web panel) athttps://app.garagefarm.netand download our renderBeamer application for your operating system.

Install and launch the renderBeamer application. Once renderBeamer has finished the installation process, you will need to choose the default download directory. This path will be the main output location for all your renders. Then simply log in using the account ID you received or your account email address. Keep in mind that the app should always run in the background when loading a project or downloading rendered frames.

Once renderBeamer is installed and you are logged in, you will see thePluginsBlackboard. The plug-in installation window should automatically open after the first launch of renderBeamer. You can also open it whenever you need to install additional plug-ins for your 3D applications.

2. Prepare for dinner

Open your scene in Maya and prepare it for rendering in a render farm.

• Supported Maya versions - 2014 and later.
• Scene files must be saved in .ma or .mb format.
• Output - should be set the same as when rendering on your local machine. We support most Maya output formats. Note that we render to frames - not animations - so animated output formats such as .mov are not supported.
• To load your scene, you must prepare it in the correct project directory structure and the scene file must be in the folder called "scenes". Information on how to do it correctlyDefine a project in Mayayou find it here:https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2020/ENU/Maya-ManagingScenes/files/GUID-D5CA162A-0956-49C6-9FAC-2F73DCF03409-htm.html
• Make sure you've selected a renderable camera and that it doesn't have the same name as the default cameras: persp, sideShape, topShape, frontShape, perspShape, etc.
• It's best to set the animation mode to Standard and enter the range of frames you need to render. For a single image, enter the same value as for the start/end image.
• Plugins - We support many Maya plugins and add-ons (Yeti, Ornatrix, PhoenixFD, Golaem and many others). However, if you use some additional add-ons, please send us the information. We will review plugin availability and purchase options.
• Rendering interval should be disabled but if you need you can enable it but let us know in live chat we will configure rendering interval values ​​on our side.
• Simulations (e.g. X-Gen) - If dynamics/particle assets are used in the scene, you must create a cache file for them and properly link them in the scene. Here is an example guide for preparing caches for X-Gen:https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2020/ENU/Maya-CharEffEnvBuild/files/GUID-5CDC5D2C-6330-425B-98E9-E2A145CB42B6-htm.html

3. Use Plugin - Modo Set (V-Ray)

After installing our plugin, it should be visible in the Maya GUI. To send your project to the farm, locate therenderBeamer-Symbolwhich can be found in the bookshelf tabs and click on the icon to open the plug-in window. Remember to ensure you have the correct version of the scene to render before launching the plugin.

Plugin rendering modes for the V-Ray rendering engine:

• render as is- In this mode, your scene is rendered "as is". It's useful for scenes with GI already pre-cached or for photos that don't need GI caching. It can also be used forScene tests or for atypical GI setupslike brute force with brute force or brute force with light caching. We do not offer GI cache options in this mode. Rendering as is also has no additional settings.

• Bake and render the completed animation- This mode should be used for fully animated scenes that contain object animation, material changes, camera or light movement. In general, if your scene contains more than one animated camera, you should use full animation mode. Our plugin creates two jobs in this mode. The first one for GI caching - called the "back" scene. The second job is the rendering scene. The render scene uses pre-stored GI maps from the first job.

• Bake and render camera animation- This mode should be used for scenes where the camera is the only animated object. Camera animation mode only works with radiation map and light cache. Depending on the settings you choose, this mode creates 2 or 3 jobs - a GI cache, a merge and a render job.

IMPORTANT:According to the Chaos Group documentation, the Irradiance Map method has been deprecated for V-Ray 5.xx.xx. Therefore, for newer versions of V-Ray (5.00.00 and newer) for Maya, our plugin does not support modes other than Render As Is for animation rendering.

• Still image (high resolution single image)– This is our custom distributed rendering system. It is specially designed for high resolution still images. It works with all types of GI setups. Depending on the settings you choose, sending your scene using this mode creates two tasks - rendering and merging.

• If you already have GI pre-stored, you can plug your GI cards into the scene. They will be loaded with your scene and used for rendering. Static mode renders your scene with "stripes" (horizontal or vertical rendering regions). Once the strip rendering jobs are complete,stripesare then merged into a single final resolution image in a merge job. Note that using non-cacheable GI settings can sometimes cause GI rendering issues. For example, with the BR+BR setting, you can get visible seams where the tracks connect, as each of the render nodes recalculates the GI from scratch when rendering the track.

Below all the rendering mode options you will find the checkboxRender in V-Ray Standalone instead of Maya. By default, this option is off and is used to render Maya scenes as .vrscenes. You can do this by enabling the "Send as .vrscene" option. This option forces V-Ray to export the scene to V-Ray Standalone. This can be used in different situations. For example, when the scene is very large or when most of the scene consists of V-Ray objects or V-Ray proxies and similar solutions. More importantly, rendering a .vrscene scene (V-Ray standalone scene) is significantly faster than rendering a .ma or .mb file in most cases. Also, this option is not available if the scene uses more than one render layer.

You can read more about the importance of testing and ways to estimate cost and rendering time in ourCommon questions.

4. Use plugin – project settings

After selecting the plugin mode, you can now continue the workflow in the configuration window and go to the range and resolution configuration.

settings tab

Our plugin automatically detects your preferences set in Maya's rendering configuration, but no matter which rendering mode you choose, you can always make changes here in the plugin before committing the scene.

‍resolution- Make sure the resolution entered is what you need to render.

frame area- Please make sure you input the area you need to render.

new project name- If you have already uploaded a project and will upload the same scene (from the same project) but using modified assets (with the same names as before), we recommend using this option. In that case all assets will be loaded again and you can be sure that you are using (new) modified assets. Otherwise, our plugin might not recognize the new features and therefore it won't load them. If you decide to enable this option, be sure to define a different project name (other than the default name).

Render Layers- This window provides information about current settings for render layers created in a specific scene.

You can check two settings for each created layer:

• Renderable - parameter "True" means that this layer is defined as renderable and rendered, if the parameter appears as "False" it means that the layer is defined as non-renderable and will not be rendered.
• Extension - This parameter indicates which extension has been selected for a specific layer (e.g. exr, png, jpg, etc.)

Assets tab.

Here you can check all the assets recognized by our plugin – you can replace a specific asset with another if needed or remove it.

just need to show- After activating this option, only missing assets will be displayed in the window

show directory- If you select this option, you can choose a global path for all assets

delete all not found- If you choose this option, you can remove all missing elements from the scene (remember to proceed with this if you are sure that these elements are not needed for the correct rendering of the scene).

to search for- If you select this option, you can only specify a location for this file

extinguish- As an alternative to the "Browse" option, you can remove the resource if it is not used in the scene

5. Load the project

Once our plugin finishes exporting the scene, your project will be forwarded to renderBeamer for upload. In short, renderBeamer is a standalone upload/downloader application that works in conjunction with our plugins. Simply put, it takes care of file transfers.

Once the scene is fully loaded, the application will show a window with a direct link to your scene in the web manager (web panel). To continue, use theClick here to submit workButton. If for some reason you closed the link window or it didn't work, don't worry, you can find your project in the web panel and upload your scene at any time by clicking on the scene file (more on that in the next step). You can also copy the link to your clipboard and manually paste it into your browser.

6. Submit the job (add the job to the render queue)

After uploading your project, you need to do the last step - create a job and send it to the render farm. The Web Manager is where all your projects and rendering jobs reside.

If you followed the link previously generated by renderBeamer, you will now see the job submission window with various fields and settings. If you didn't follow the link or it didn't work, you can do it manually by locating your project in the archive.projectsPanel, locate the scene file in the project folder (in your folder structure, look for the folder called "data", i.e.project name/data/scene name.mb) and click on it to open the order window.

Our system will automatically detect your settings in the scene and use them to render the job. Before sending the job to the render queue, check that everything is correct and make any necessary adjustments.

frame area- Use this field to enter the range of frames you want to render. Example of a frame range for animation: 1to780s1 - this is a sequence totaling 780 frames, and all frames from 1 to 780 are rendered. The "s1" parameter means that each subsequent frame will be rendered at the specified interval. If you want to do a test first, set a higher s value, e.g. "s20", which causes every twentieth frame in the animation area to be rendered. So if you set the range from 1 to 780 s 20, the frames1,21,41,61,81,101,...,741,761is processed.

If you have multiple layers and/or cameras in your scene and want to change the image area for each one separately. You need to check the option: "Render each layer/camera in a separate job" (more information with examples below).

If you only want to render a single frame (still image), enter a single frame number in the field. For example,1renders frame number 1.

resolution- Here you can set the output resolution in pixels.

‍aspect ratio lock- If you want to change the resolution and keep a specific aspect ratio, you can use one of the available presets: 4:3; 16:9; 16:10; 21 9; 1:1 If you leave the option set to "none", you can change the "Resolution" values ​​without considering the aspect ratio.

way out- Here you will find the default way to save the rendered frames in the respective job. The default output path is based on your project and scene name. You can edit this path if you clone your work and need to render a different area in this project.

Output file (without extension)- By default, the frame file name is set based on your scene name. If you want to create a unique name and/or need to customize the naming of the output to suit your pipeline, you can specify your own output file name.

renovation- a format for the output file is the same as in scene settings. However, if you want to change the extension to another one, you can choose from the available options, i.e. H.:BMP, IRIS, PNG, JPEG, TGA, RAW TGA, CINEON, DPX, MULTILAYER, EXR, HDR, TIFF.

‍project files- By default, here you will find the project location, where all files associated with a scene are collected.

priority- Before adding a job to the render queue, you can decide how you want to prioritize it. Depending on the farm's queue and traffic, a higher priority might allow your job to acquire nodes earlier to render your project faster. Each priority has a different rate and offers a different number of nodes - see a detailed list here:https://garagefarm.net/pricing

execution- By default, the Maya version is set to the same version you loaded the project with. However, if you need to use a different version than the detected one, you can select a specific version available from the list.

‍repetitions- The value for this option is set to 2 by default. This means that if a render fails or the software crashes, our system will make two additional rendering attempts. We recommend leaving this option at the default setting (value 2) as this is the ideal setting to try to re-render in case of some random 3rd party software errors.

Preferred hardware (groups of nodes)- By default, the system sets preferred hardware to nodes with 62 GB of RAM. Since we are rendering V-Ray projects on a CPU device, you can toggle the Node Groups button to a custom setting and select the specific group of nodes based on CPU cores or RAM:

The complete technical specification of the nodes can be found here:https://garagefarm.net/pricing#specs

Advanced Settings

• occupational dependencies- If you want this job to start rendering after another job in the queue finishes, you can select it here. Therefore, the current job will not start until the selected dependency job completes.
• Custom node version- If you need a different software configuration (for example, a customized software version), please enter the value that our support provided you. Please note that entering an incorrect number may result in rendering errors.
• custom script- if your work requires a modified environment or adding a custom script (prepared by our support team), for example custom plug-in installation, select the available script from the list.

layer list- In this window you will find the settings of your render layers created in the scene. By default, the settings are the same as for the scene. Renderable layers are checked, non-renderable layers are turned off. You can check these settings and turn off the layers you don't want to render.

Render each layer/camera in a separate job- If you need to render each of your renderable layers and/or camera(s) as a separate job, you should select this option. By doing this, each layer is added to the queue as a separate job and rendered independently of other jobs. By default, this option is disabled.

By enabling this option, an individual image area can be defined for a specific render layer and/or for a specific camera. It can also be useful if you want to split a single long multi-layer/camera render job into several shorter jobs.

Each selected item is added to the queue as a separate job with an individual image area.

Below are some examples of how this option can be used in practice:

• EXAMPLE 1 - each layer with individual area:

Option: "Render each layer/camera in a separate job" is ON

Each layer has a separate individual frame area. This means three jobs will be added to the queue. Each job will be a separate layer with all its cameras.

• EXAMPLE 2 - each camera with individual range:

Option: "Render each layer/camera in a separate job" is ON

In this case, instead of rendering all layers with cameras included, all cameras are selected, so each camera is added to the queue as a separate job. Therefore, there will be 7 cameras in total and each one with its own area.

To enable cameras, first deselect a specific layer, expand the list to a specific layer and choose which cameras to render as a separate job. You can define a separate area for each camera.

• EXAMPLE 3 – complex scenario: :

Option: "Render each layer/camera in a separate job" is ON

This case uses a combination of settings for the Multi Camera/Layer feature.

With these settings, two separate jobs are added to the queue. The first job is a camera view called "camera03" for the layer: "defaultRenderLayer". This camera renders with an image range: 150 to 250.

The second task is the rs_renderSerupLayer2 layer, which contains two cameras and both are rendered in a single task with a defined frame range for the layer, i.e. 420 to 580.

You can also see that rs_randerSetupLayer1 is unchecked with all cameras (no items are selected) so it won't render

Legacy-Renderebenen- This option is automatically enabled or disabled. This depends on your Maya rendering preferences. If you use Render Setup as the default mode for the Preferred Render Setup system, this option will be disabled in the Web Manager. However, if you are using "Legacy Render Layer", this option will be enabled in the web manager.

frames per run- This option is only available for animations. By default, the FPE value is set to 1 for CPU-rendered projects. This means that each frame is rendered as a new run (a separate task), i.e. the scene is loaded into each node each time a new frame is started. Projects rendered on the GPU have FPE set to 5 by default. So this means 5 frames are rendered in a row in a node.

The FPE (Frames Per Execution) option allows you to render multiple frames (the entered value) in a row without reloading the scene into a render node and can potentially improve rendering efficiency. If your scene has a long load time but a short render time, you can set the FPE to a higher value (eg 4). If the loading time is not long but the rendering time is long, leave the default value or set it to 1.

For detailed application information and practical examples of the FPE option, see our dedicated guide:https://garagefarm.net/documentation/how-to-use-and-optimize-frame-per-execution-fpe

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‍work node limit- By default, the value of this option is blank, so nodes are automatically assigned based on job priority and node availability in the farm. However, if you want to limit the number of nodes for a given job, enter the value for the maximum number of nodes you want to use during rendering here.

Add work as paused- If you check this option and submit your work, it will be added with 'paused' status. This means that rendering will not start automatically. It makes sense to use this option when you intend to add the job to the queue, but do not currently intend to process it. After adding a "held" job, you can resume it at any time by selecting the "Resume Job" option (right-click on the job).

To send- When you click this button, the system immediately adds the job to the render queue. Remember to check all settings before submitting an order!

‍Cancel- If you don't want to add the current job to the render queue or want to reset your settings and add the scene again, you can use this option. The submit window with the settings for the specified job is closed and all changes are discarded.

7. Monitor rendering progress

After making a final review of your render settings and selecting your preferred priority, clickTo sendto add your job to the render queue. If you are a first-time user, you have received a $25 credit to try our service. The credits should be enough to run some test jobs and familiarize you with the service.

Once the job starts rendering, you can check the progress of currently processed frames in real-time. To do this, just select the rendering job in the main project list and click on the arrow in the upper right corner to open the progress window.

The progress panel (the panel on the right side of the screen) only shows its contents when one of the jobs is selected. the panel isdivided into 3 sections.

‍active boards- Shows currently rendered frames. When a frame is completed, it is moved to the second section,finished frames. If you select any frame from the list of finished frames, you can access the render output process log in the bottom sectionprocess results.

8. Download and check the frames

Each completed rendering of a frame is automatically downloaded to your local drive in a directory you chose in the renderBeamer application. If you're not sure where your downloads folder is, you can check or change it in the renderBeamer settings (click on the gear). Also make sure you haveautomatically downloadenabled to download frames as soon as they are available. If this box is not checked, you will need to click on each job in Beamer's Downloads tab and download the frames manually.

If you want more control over what to download and when, you can also download your frames manually. To do this, just turn off theautomatically downloadActivate the renderBeamer settings and go to the Downloads tab..Then select the desired rendering output with a checkbox and click the download button.

This workflow will downloadall frames renderedfor the selected job or jobs. However renderBeamer also offers a download optionsingle frame. To do this, you need to use the feature to list files in RMB.

Once the files for the selected job are listed, simply scroll down the list and select the files you want to download using the checkboxes.Then use the same download button.

After the frames are downloaded, you can use the Open Directory option in RMB to open the folder where the frames are stored.

9. Buy credits

You must charge your account to continue using the Service after you have used up all of your trial credits. Please note that when your balance isless than $0, you cannot download rendered frames or start new rendering jobs. You can make payments in the billing section in Web Manager. We accept debit cards, credit cards, PayPal and DotPay payments. You can also buy credits through Revolut or Zen.

If your rendering requirements are high or you plan to render regularly, check out ourbulk discount.

10. Please contact us at any time

You can talk to the GarageFarm.NET technical team any time of the day, any day of the week. We're here to help you get started, answer your questions, and support you in every way. Do not hesitate to call us.

You can reach us through our live chat, which you can access from your web dashboard or our desktop app when you log in to your account or send us a message herethe guest chat.

We also recommend taking a look at ourFAQ-Set, which answers most questions from new users.