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Iray+ Conversion Materials

Iray for 3ds Max has several materials that are used primarily to facilitate conversion from mental ray®. These conversion materials are optimised for compatibility not speed, for faster rendering time, we recommend using Iray+ materials where possible.

✱  Note: These materials will not appear in the material editor unless you have converted your scene using the scene conversion tool. We recommend using Iray+ Components where possible.

Iray+ Arch & Design

This material matches the mental ray® Arch & Design material in 3ds Max, allowing simple conversion of existing scenes to Iray for 3ds Max materials. This material is energy conserving; this is described in the original Arch & Design documentation, and Iray matches this.

Conversion from mental ray® Arch & Design to this material makes some assumptions based on your chosen parameter value. See the conversion notes for details.


Group Parameter Name Description Range/Input
Diffuse DiffuseLevel Defines the brightness of the diffuse color. Final level affected by Reflectivity and Transparency as this is an Energy Conserving Material. 0.0 – 1.0
DiffuseRoughness Known as Oren-Nayar diffuse: allows clay-like powder surfaces at higher values. 0.0 – 1.0/ Map
DiffuseColour The main color of the material. RGB/Map
Reflection Reflectivity The (maximum) amount of reflectivity. Final level dependant on BRDF values. 0.0 – 1.0
ReflectionGlossiness Defines the glossiness of the surface. 1.0 results in a perfectly mirrored surface, lower values result in more diffuse reflectivity. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
ReflectionColour The overall reflection color, usually white. RGB/Map
MetalMaterial When enabled, the color of the reflections is taken from the main diffuse color (DiffuseColour). Reflectivity sets the balance between the diffuse and glossy reflections. On/Off
Refraction Transparency The amount of transparency; final level is dependant on BRDF values. Transparency is also affected by RefractionColour, with black being completely diffuse. 0.0 – 1.0
RefractionGlossiness Defines the sharpness of the refraction. 1.0 will result in completely clear transparency, lower numbers are more diffuse. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
RefractionColour Can be used to create a colored glass. If the Refraction Transparancy is set to 1.0 in Iray/mental ray®, setting the transparency color to black will mean that the material reverts to its supplied diffuse color. Whereas in Iray this will result in a pure black material that ignores the diffuse colour. To mimic the mental ray® implementation, you can simply set the Refraction Transparancy to 0.0 RGB/Map
RefractionIOR The Index of Refraction of the material. 0.0 – 50.0
RefractionFalloffOn Enables falloff for refractions, used for materials where you cannot see the transparency beyond a certain distance/color. On/Off
RefractionFalloffDistance The distance where no transparency is seen or when the falloff color is reached. 0.0 –
RefractionFalloffColourOn Enables using RefractionFalloffColor. On/Off
RefractionFalloffColor Changes the color of the refraction at the extremities or edges of the material, for example, a glass bottle may look more green at its edges than its center. RGB/Map
ThinWalled Treats surfaces as thin wafers of material, rather than the boundaries of solids. On/Off
Translucency Translucency Enables material translucency. On/Off
TranslucencyWeight Determines how much of the existing transparency is used as translucency. For example, a value of 0.3 means that 30% of the transparency will be used as translucency. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
TranslucencyColour The color of the translucency. RGB/Map
Anisotropy Anisotropy Controls the shape of the highlight. At 1.0, the highlight is round: there is no anisotropy. Lower values create elongated highlights and reflection effects. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
AnisotropyRotation Changes the orientation of the highlight. The range 0.0–1.0 is mapped to 0–360 degrees. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
BRDF ByIOR When enabled, the BRDF uses the RefractionIOR value (Refraction group) to determine… On/Off
BRDF_0DegRefl Reflectivity at the angle directly facing the camera or viewer. 0.0 – 1.0
BRDF_90DegRefl Reflectivity as viewed at the 'grazing' angle or the appearance of reflectivity as it appears looking across the surface. 0.0 – 1.0
BRDF_CurveShape Alters the falloff of the BRDF curve. 0.01 – 25.0

Conversion Notes



Iray+ Fast SSS

This material matches the mental ray® Subsurface Scattering Fast Material in 3ds Max, allowing simple conversion of existing scenes to Iray for 3ds Max materials.


Group Parameter Name Description Range/Input
Diffuse OverallDiffuseColoration This is the overall diffuse color. All other colors in this material are multiplied by this color to give the final result. Useful for tinting the final effect. RGB/Map
UnscatteredDiffuseColour The color of the material which is not scattering light. RGB/Map
UnscatteredDiffuseWeight The contribution of the unscattered element to the overall look. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
Subsurface FrontSubsurfaceColour The color of the front surface scattering. RGB/Map
FrontSubsurfaceWeight The contribution of the front surface scattering to the overall look. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
BackSubsurfaceColour The color of the back surface scattering, i.e. light going through the object. RGB/Map
BackSubsurfaceWeight The contribution of the back surface scattering to the overall look. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
SubsurfaceScatterRadius The scatter radius in the subsurface. Light will scatter this distance in the subsurface. 0.0 – /Map
Specularity SpecularColour The color of highlights on the reflective parts of the object. RGB/Map
Shininess Shininess affects the size of the specular highlights, and the amount of reflectivity visible on the object. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
Advanced ScatterBias Control the mix of forward and backwards scattering. A value of 0.0 gives completely uniform scattering. Positive values favor forward scattering, and negative values favor back scattering. −1.0 – 1.0
IOR Controls how much the material refracts (or distorts) the transmitted light. 0.0 – 50.0



Iray+ Metallic Paint

Iray+ Metallic Paint Material

This material matches the mental ray® Car Paint material in 3ds Max, allowing simple conversion of existing scenes to Iray for 3ds Max materials.

Group Parameter Name Description Range/Input
Diffuse BaseColour Sets the base color for the paint. RGB/Map
Roughness Increasing the roughness gives materials a flatter, more matte appearance. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
EdgeWeight Defines how much of the geometry is defined as Edges (glancing angles). 0.0 – 1.0/Map
EdgeColour The color seen at the edges&emdash;this usually is set much darker than the BaseColour. RGB/Map
EdgeBias Defines how much of the appearance is biased to the EdgeColour, i.e. the falloff rate towards the edge (color). A value of 0.0 gives no falloff. 0.01 – 25.0/Map
LightFacingWeight Defines how much of the geometry is defined as a Face (geometry facing towards a light). 0.0 – 1.0/Map
LightFacingColour The color seen illuminated on the object's surface. RGB/Map
LightFacingBias Defines how much of the material appearance is weighted towards the LightFacingColour. A smaller number increases the amount of LightFacingColour seen. 0.01 – 25.0/Map
Reflectivity ReflColour The color of the reflection. RGB/Map
ReflEdgeWeight The reflective strength at the edges. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
ReflFacingWeight The reflective strength for facing geometry. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
Flakes FlakeColour Allows different colored flakes of paint in the appearance of your material. RGB/Map
FlakeWeight Defines how much of the surface should be covered by flakes. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
FlakeScale Controls the size of individual flakes. 0.0 – /Map
FlakeDensity Defines how close together the flakes will appear. 0.0 – /Map
UnitConversion Adjusts, FlakeScale, to control the size of individual flakes, when using non-metres units. 0.0 –



Iray+ Skin

Iray+ Skin SSS Material

This material matches the mental ray® Subsurface Scattering Fast Skin material in 3ds Max, allowing simple conversion of existing scenes to Iray for 3ds Max materials.

Group Parameter Name Description Range/Input
Diffuse OverallDiffuseColoration The overall coloration. This affects all skin layers. RGB/Map
UnscatteredDiffuseColour The color of the material which is not scattering light, ie the very top layer of the skin. RGB/Map
UnscatteredDiffuseWeight The contribution of the unscattered element to the overall look. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
Subsurface Scattering SubsurfaceScatterRadius The scatter radius in the subsurface (all 3 layers). Light will scatter this distance in the subsurface. 0.0 – /Map
TopScatterColour The color of the epidermal (top) skin layer. RGB/Map
TopScatterWeight The weight of the epidermal (top) skin layer, default is 0.5. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
SubdermalScatterColour The color of the subdermal skin layer. This is the thicker 'meat' layer and is usually reddish in human skin. RGB/Map
SubdermalScatterWeight The weight of the subdermal skin layer, default is 0.5. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
BackScatterColour The color of the back scatter layer. This is often used for 'through' skin effects like ears. RGB/Map
BackScatterWeight The weight of the back scatter layer. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
Specularity OverallSpecularWeight The overall weight of all the specular effects in the material. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
SpecularColour1 The color of the broad, soft specularity of skin. RGB/Map
SpecularWeight1 The weight of the broad, soft specularity of skin. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
SpecularEdgeWeight1 The additional weight at the edges of the broad, soft specularity of skin. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
Shininess1 Affects the size of the broad, soft specularity of skin. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
SpecularColour2 The color of the near-reflective specularity of the top layer oiliness and wetness of skin. RGB/Map
SpecularWeight2 The weight of the near-reflective specularity of the top layer oiliness and wetness of skin. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
SpecularEdgeWeight2 The additional weight at the edges of the near-reflective specularity of the top layer oiliness and wetness of skin. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
Shininess2 Affects the size of the near-reflective specularity of the top layer oiliness and wetness of skin. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
Reflectivity ReflectionWeight The weight of the reflections. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
ReflEdgeWeight The weight of the reflections at the edges. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
ReflGlossiness The glossiness of the surface. 1.0 results in a perfectly mirrored surface, lower values result in more diffuse reflectivity. 0.0 – 1.0/Map
Advanced ScatterBias Control the mix of forward and backwards scattering. A value of 0.0 gives completely uniform scattering. Positive values favor forward scattering, and negative values favor back scattering. −1.0 – 1.0
IOR Controls how much the material refracts (or distorts) the transmitted light. 0.0 – 50.0

Iray+ Generic

This is a diverse, multipurpose material that is designed to mimic the features of the Autodesk Generic material.

The purpose of this conversion material is to allow accurate conversions of the whole Autodesk Material library. For example, the scene convertor works by converting an Autodesk Concrete material into an Autodesk Generic material, and in turn into an Iray+ Generic material.

Group Parameter Name Description Range/Input
Generic Colour The base color of the material. RGB/Map
Image Apply an image to the material, this will usually hide the color unless you omit tiling from the map. RGB/Map
ImageFade Controls the fade between the Colour and the Image parameters. 0.0 – 100.0
Glossiness Controls the glossiness of the surface. 0.0 – 100.0
UseGlossinessMap When enabled, the Glossiness parameter is ignored and the GlossinessMap parameter is used instead. On/Off
GlossinessMap Apply a map for the glossy pattern. Only active when UseGlossinessMap is checked. RGB/Map
Highlights Uses metallic specular highlights for the material. When switched off this uses non-metallic highlights. On/Off
Reflectivity EnableReflectivity When enabled, the material is reflective. On/Off
DirectRefl Controls the normal reflectivity. 0.0 – 100.0
UseDirectRefltMap When enabled, the DirectRelf parameter is ignored and the DirectReflMap is used instead. On/Off
DirectReflMap Apply a map for the normal reflectivity pattern. (Ignore the numeric value field.) Map
ObliqueRefl Controls the grazing reflectivity. 0.0 – 100.0
UseObliqueRelfMap When enabled, the ObliqueRefl parameter is ignored and the ObliqueReflMap parameter is used instead. On/Off
ObliqueRelfMap Apply a map for the grazing reflectivity pattern. (Ignore the numeric value field.) Map
ByIOR When enabled, RefractionIOR (Transparency group) is used to determine reflectivity. On/Off
Transparency EnableTransparency When enabled, the material is transparent. On/Off
TransparencyAmount Controls the overall transparency. 0.0 – 100.0
UseTransparencyImage When enabled, the TransparencyImage parameter is used in combination with the Reflectivity. On/Off
TransparencyImage When UseTransparencyImage is enabled, this will be used. (Ignore the numeric value field.) Map
TransparencyImageFade Controls the compositing of the effect of the image map. 0.0 – 100.0
TranslucencyAmount Controls the translucency of the material. 0.0 – 100.0
UseTranslucencyMap When enabled, the TranslucencyMap is used instead of the TranslucencyAmount. On/Off
TranslucencyMap Apply a map for the translucency pattern. (Ignore the numeric value field.) Map
RefractionIOR The Index of Refraction of the material. Controls how much the material refracts (or distorts) the transmitted light 0.0 – 50.0



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