V-Ray | Realistics CAUSTICS Effects

In this video you will learn how to use and setup Caustics in V-Ray. For this we will first discuss why, when and when not to use Caustics. Afterwards we will go through all the required Scene Preparation Steps such as setting up your Shaders and Render Settings properly. Finally we will explore how to use the 2 available calculation methods in V-Ray which are Progressive Caustics and Photon Map.
I am using 3ds Max and V-Ray 6 in this demo but you can also use older versions of V-Ray as well and it will work exactly the same.
A similar workflow can also be used in other software such as Cinema4d, Maya, Blender and different kind of render engine such as Corona, Octane, Redshift, Arnold, Cycles, CyclesX, Eevee and countless others.
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
01:28 - Scene Preparations
03:54 - Progressive Caustics
09:07 - Photon Map
14:38 - Summary
Be sure to subscribe to the channel in order to be notified about upcoming tutorials :-)
If you want to download all my scene files, watch additional videos or whole courses then please check out my Patreon:
/ jonasnoell

[@JonasNoell]

🔥EXCLUSIVE V-Ray 20% Discount: vray.jonasnoell.com Check out Patreon for all my scene files, bonus videos, a whole course on car rendering or just to support this channel 🙂 patreon.com/JonasNoell

[@nourchamseddine2252]

I watched many videos about caustics, but yours was the most helpful, you explained everything pretty well! Thank you!

[@Hartproduktie]

Very cool, thanks a lot! Tutorial is awesome thanks a lot, always learn something new

[@paulmarshall3053]

I always learn something new from your videos Jonas! Thank you man.

[@JonasNoell]

That’s great, I always learn something new making them 😃

[@Dheeraj_Mahajan]

This tutorial is awesome thanks mate ☺️

[@mohamedzgueb5080]

fvorite channel on YT thx Jonas

[@F10F11hm]

Amazing tutorial as always! I have a question, can I render the caustics pass seperately faster somehow for compositing purposes? Would it work properly if I used Vray's override material? One more request - could you dedicate one of your tutorials, even a short one, to proper PBR & Metalness workflow? Or physical shaders in Vray, so that maps from Substance Painter/Designer or Megascans can be used correctly? I'm finding this a bit confusing, in Corona for instance Physical material is now completely separate from the old glossiness based mtl.

[@L3nny666]

nice tutorial as always. have to say that the blueish tint in swimming pools is achieved through blue tiles and not by tinting the water. so i wouldn't go for that look.

[@shivamkhare9543]

Loved your work, needed some suggestions for Desktop Processor for Rendering and ArchViz purposes.

[@JonasNoell]

Depends on your budget I guess. The more cores the better

[@martindione386]

Shivan Khare, if you're tight on the budget, I would suggest a good AM4 motherboard for AMD Ryzen and the best CPU you can afford, you'll be able to update it later up to a Ryzen 9 5950X, which is comparable to a 24 core Threadripper in vray rendering. If money is not an issue, wait until Intel releases the new lineup and see how it compares with the new AM5 Ryzens

[@pixelquarry]

I like the new chapter style 👍 Are you going to make a tutorial on how to fake those render heavy caustics?

[@JonasNoell]

No real good option to fake it in my opinion. If the objects are not moving I would probably just save it out in a map like shown at the end of the video…

[@gogita]

Thanks, it's a cool lesson. You can do a tutorial on the underwater effect? thank you

[@JonasNoell]

What underwater effect do you mean?

[@MCruz-vg1ih]

thanks for the tutorial!!!! :) do you think is possible to make a cracked ice with parallax depth shadder in vray? i know is possible in blender and UE but i haven't found a way to do it in vray/3ds max

[@JonasNoell]

There is a video in my channel about how to use Parallax Occlusion in V-Ray

[@MCruz-vg1ih]

​@@JonasNoellbut is it possible to replicate this kind of effect?: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZoHFgmulqcdsadk

[@cappuchino7336]

Very cool, thanks a lot! Can you please tell me what processor are you using? what a monster ? ))

[@JonasNoell]

That's a Threadripper 3990x

[@SerhatK.]

Hi Jonas. In the corona renderer engine, there is an option to not reflect the chaostics on every object (include ve exclude). Is this option available in vray engine?

[@JonasNoell]

You can disable or enable the caustics effects for each object separately if you mean that.

[@SerhatK.]

@@JonasNoell How do we do this. Can you make a video for vray 🙏

[@khanhduynguyen7869]

Thanks for amazing tutorial video. Can i get this scene file for light setting ?

[@JonasNoell]

It' on Patreon

[@TheOtherMilly]

on vray 6 does not have the option "affect shadows" what i can make to caustics work in water? have anoter option? someone help me please :(

[@JonasNoell]

This tutorial was done in V-Ray 6, so it does have the affect shadows option.

[@eclairesrhapsodos5496]

How to enter vray properties? I have black caustics, no matter settings, I use Vray 6.

[@JonasNoell]

Hard to tell from this description. You can enter the properties with a right click on the light to change the caustic subdivs. You can also enter the render globals and navigate to the GI tab for the caustic settings.

[@nomad11811]

it seems vray gpu can not make caustics effect?

[@JonasNoell]

Yes, progressive caustics currently not supported by GPU

[@ayubfauzihafiz5599]

Let's make soft!

[@JonasNoell]

?

[@jaloliddinyaqubjonov6988]

you gave me 3dsmax???

[@JonasNoell]

Sure here you go

[@jaloliddinyaqubjonov6988]

Please

[@iamski]

Jesus christ dude, what are you rocking a 64 Threadripper!?

[@JonasNoell]

Yup 👍

[@JonasNoell]

Totally worth the investment if you are doing this kind of work professionally and time is money

[@iamski]

@@JonasNoell Yea I'm intimately aware. Now it makes so much sense why you always have super fast preview renders during your tutorials. Just outa curiosity, what GPU you using? And you ever play with RTX mode assuming it's an NVIDIA card, and how does it compare.

[@JonasNoell]

@@iamski I budgeted on the GPU, a RTX 3060TI, which at the time I bought it also was kind of expensive due to chip shortage but afaik the prices are more reasonable now. Never used it for GPU rendering,, it's only fo the viewport. In fact I rarely tried out VRay GPU so far as I would need to inviest heavily if I want to have a setup that would make sense to use as an alternative to the Threadripper. I think you either go CPU or GPU, you don't invest in both and then have 2 setups, because you will be only able to use one at a time 🙂 I also edit my tutorials, so sometimes rendering is speeded up. You can check the progressbar in the VFB if you wanna know how long something really took on my setup 🙂

[@iamski]

@@JonasNoell I always do brother, thanks again :)