Using V-ray 5 Material Library in Houdini.

Updated: Dec 15, 2023

Part 1 - Configuration (Windows)

The Houdini artist can install the V-ray 5 Material Library on the moment of the plugin installation or set it up manually. This tutorial will going to show the manual process, because its will also show how to change the library folder after the installation.

The installation path must be changed in Regedit. The path is set up under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Chaos Group\V-Ray Material Library. Download path is a string value that defines the location of the material library. The artist can change the original path here. Just move the library for the desired location and change the path inside the Download path key.

V-ray 5 material library configuration

If the artist has the material library downloaded and the Regedit key doesn't exist, it's necessary to create it manually. On the Chaos Group key, right-click and choose New>Key. Name it V-ray Material Library. Then, right-click on the left side window and choose New>String Value. Rename it to Download Path and write the location of the material library.

Part 2 - The V-ray 5 Material Library inside Houdini.

Unfortunately, the V-ray Material Library inside Houdini is not so beautiful as in 3DS Max, but it is easy to use. The artist can access the library through the Windows menu > Gallery Manager:

The V-ray 5 Material Library inside 3DS Max.

The V-ray 5 Material Library inside Houdini.

Windows > Gallery Manager to access the library.

A quick Exercise

Create a V-ray Shaderball in Objects network. Inside you can access the geometries, lights, materials, the camera and render settings. It is necessary to enable the background, the base, the inner ball and the shaderball geometry to be able to see them in the scene.

The V-ray Shaderball asset.

It is necessary to enable the Shaderball geometry to see it in the viewport.

You can change the render settings inside ROPS. If you render the scene as is, the default_materials network will be use for shading. We will going to assign a new material to mtrl_solid, which do not need to be enable visually. The camera settings can be changed through the mtrl_preview_Camera node. Lights and other settings are accessed on the upper level:

The V-ray Shaderball settings menu.

Inside the shaderball asset create a new material network and go inside it. Through the Gallery Manager, drag and drop the desired material to the material network.

Create a new material network...

... access the Gallery Manager and drag and drop the desired material to the material network.

Go back one level and select mtrl_solid, which controls the shaderball shading. Go to the Render tab and pick the material we added inside the material network:

Select the mtrl_solid and pick the bricks material.

The bricks material was assigned.

Do a test render and...

First test render.

...well, the scale of the texture is incorrect. We have to increase the UV tile to have a better fit. On the shaderball asset main controls, we can do this.