Overview

VRayVolumeGrid is a special kind of volumetric effect that works with grid-based cache formats, compared to Environment Fog which is a general purpose volumetric effect. The Volumetric Grid reads its data from an input file which supports grid-based representation of the volume.

Currently VRayVolumeGrid supports three volume formats:

• OpenVDB (.vdb ) - Supported by Houdini ^® , FumeFX ^® and RealFlow ^®

• Field3D (. f3d ) - Supported FumeFX ^® and Maya ^® (using 3rd party plugins)

• PhoenixFD (. aur ) - Phoenix FD ^® native volume format

Immediately after the VRayVolumeGrid is created, a dialog appears for selecting the input file. After selection of the input file, a number of options are available to fine-tune and customize the volume.

For a list of supported Render Elements, please check the V-Ray Render Elements Support page.

You may also check the Volumetric Rendering In-Depth guide for tips on speeding up the rendering of volumetric effects with V-Ray.

UI Paths

||Create menu|| > V-Ray > V-Ray VolumeGrid > Click in a viewport to create VRayVolumeGrid

||Create panel|| > Geometry > VRay category > VRayVolumeGrid > Click in a viewport to create VRayVolumeGrid

The VRayVolumeGrid can also be created by dragging and dropping a relevant input file inside the active viewport.

Volume Grid Options

The following options are provided for modifying the appearance and rendering of the volume grid.

• Volumetric Grid Parameters on the Modify panel set overall cell and volume behavior such as the type of effect, display resolution, surfacing, displacement type, etc.

• Volumetric Options specifically address the lighting, intensity, and opacity of fire and smoke.

• Volumetric Grid Atmosphere Settings affect probabilistic shading and gamma correction.

• Volume Grid Tips is an information page about input channels and distributed rendering.