iray Render Elements

The iray renderer has its own set of elements you can render.

• Main toolbar > Render Setup > Render Setup dialog > Choose NVIDIA iray as the production renderer. > Render Elements panel > Render Elements rollout > Add button > Render Elements dialog > Add an element to the elements list (or select an existing element in the list).
• Rendering menu > Render Setup > Render Setup dialog > Choose NVIDIA iray as the production renderer. > Render Elements panel > Render Elements rollout > Add button > Render Elements dialog > Add an element to the elements list (or select an existing element in the list).

iray render elements are specified by Light Path Expressions.

The iray renderer can render up to 19 render elements at a time.

• Custom LPE: Lets you enter a Light Path Expression of your own.
• iray: Alpha: Renders the alpha channel.
• iray: Irradiance: Renders irradiance data.
• iray: Normal: Renders normals, encoded as blue for vertical depth information, and red and green channels for the direction vector.
• Light: Area: Renders light cast by area lights.
• Light: Environment: Renders light cast by the environment.
• Light: Point: Renders light cast by point lights.
• Mtl: Caustics: Renders reflective and refractive caustics.
• Mtl: Diffuse: Renders diffuse lighting on surfaces.
• Mtl: Reflections: Renders reflections.
• Mtl: Self Illumination: Renders self-illuminating objects.
• Mtl: Translucency: Renders translucent areas of the scene.
• Mtl: Transparency: Renders transparent areas of the scene.
• Z Depth: Renders Z depth as a grayscale.

Caution: Don't Combine "Light" and "Mtl" Elements in Compositions

The default iray render elements are in two "groups": the ones whose names begin with "Light:" and the ones whose names begin with "Mtl:".

Both these groups add up to the final rendering. If you composite all the "Light:" elements (adding them in a linear color space, not a nonlinear space such as sRGB), they sum up exactly to the final render. You can change the intensity of an element and get exactly the same result as if you had changed the intensity of the corresponding lights.

Similarily, if you linearly add all the "Mtl:" elements, they also sum up to the final render.

However, a composition that mixes elements from both categories will have double contributions of some light. The results will be incorrect.