The Scene Converter project is meant to convert V-Ray scenes, such as Evermotion DVDs, to Content that is renderable with MAXtoA. The project relies on the already established Scene Converter in 3ds Max and adds more conversion rules.

_{Rendering > Scene Converter}

When you open a V-Ray scene and open the Scene Converter, 3dsMax automatically loads the Arnold preset file. The Arnold preset includes scripts that convert scene elements such as lights, shaders, maps, and materials. Note that you could also do this conversion through scripting.

A Convert to OpenPBR preset is also available, which converts from Physical material, Arnold OpenPBR, and Standard Surface to OpenPBR Surface.

_{Convert to OpenPBR preset}

Known limitations

• Max XREF files are not handled yet.
• Global texture gamma function lacking, V-Ray can have arbitrary bitmap output values.
• Photometric lights aren't supposed to be used with Area lights in Arnold. See MAXtoA ticket.
• The specular component, in some cases, is still wrong.
• The transmissive component is, in some cases, fundamentally broken.
• MAXtoA doesn't handle the custom gamma override yet.
• Sun and sky + Sun node are not correctly implemented yet, only the actual scene assets location and direction, and map swap translates, no settings or rehashing occur yet.
• V-Ray SSS does not translate yet.
• The displacement modifier is not translating features, only the default modifier.
• Translucency in V-Ray 2-sided material is a different concept than in Arnold, working on writing a different logic that will consolidate the expression to Physical Material translucency.
• Maintainance upgrade of all shaders that lack transform inputs, and universal Scene scale Units.
• V-Ray Fur to 3ds Max native Hair/fur plugin (often used for carpets). You may need to mesh the V-Ray asset if you have too many features that aren't giving a good result.

Supported features

• Modified default render settings for better performance and look.
• Add AOV Imagers, OIDN Denoiser, Exposure, Color Correct, Tone mapper (Tone mapper set to Reinhard to bring the look towards V-Rays Reinhard curve Logics). This will make high-intensity light get down in the visible range while preserving other data, and making it look more in sync.
• V-Ray Proxy mesh is now renderable.
• Duplicated the V-Ray Material To Physical Material to our MaxToA bundle, and started fixing errors, the first improvement is we now handle IOR maps, which return correct reflections.
• Legacy Mix shader to OSL Interpolate shader.
• V-Ray 2-Sided Material To Arnold 2-Sided Material.
• V-Ray Bitmap to OSL Uber Bitmap.
• V-Ray Blend Material To Arnold Layers.
• V-Ray Color To custom OSL ACColor node (inline code spawned through a float node).
• V-Ray Color to Bump To Arnold 2d Bump.
• V-Ray Comp Tex To OSL AC Comp ( Inline code spawned through a float node).
• V-Ray Curvature To Arnold Curvature.
• V-Ray Dirt To Arnold AO.
• V-Ray Displacement Mod, to Arnold properties Modifier with Displacement mode enabled (this is only partially working).
• V-Ray Edge Texture to Arnold Rounded corner (this is working, but we need to integrate global Scene unit scale sync).
• V-Ray IES lights to MAX Photometric lamps (partially working, but works in most cases).
• V-Ray Light, Area, Point, Dome, Disk, Mesh To Arnold Light.
• V-Ray Light Material to Physical Material in emission mode.
• V-Ray Normal Map to Arnold Normal Map.
• V-Ray Override Material To Arnold RaySwitcher.
• V-Ray Physical Camera to Physical Camera (orientation, location, DOF integrated so far).
• V-Ray Sun to Physical Sun (position, orientation logics wired up). V-Ray Skymap is an integral part of this, in two modes.
• V-Ray Triplanar to Arnold Triplanar.
• Preset file updated to respect the above implementations.
• Preset file forces in Deselecting all scene nodes to avoid major slowdowns before conversion.
• Preset file Forces in Performance mode in viewports, so the user can start working with the scene right after the conversion is completed. Otherwise, MAX will stand and work on building baked shaders for a very long time before the user is granted access to navigate the application.