Hdri with Vray

This tutorial has been done with 3d Studio Max 5 and Vray 1.03.09r.
First of all you must download an hdri: you will find some free hdri on the Paul
Devebec's site. The one i'm using can be found here (1.26 MB).
Then, let's create a simple scene with a sphere and a plane where you will see the
hdri effects. Open 3dsmax and create a box from the right panel (see the image on
the right) and, in the rollout Keyboard Entry, type 3000 in the Lenght and Width
field, -1 in the Height field, and 20 in the Lenght Segs and Widht Segs field; then
click on Create. You'll have a 20x20 poligons box. Then, create a Sphere whose
radius is 30, and move it until it touchs the plane you created.

Hdri map settings

Create an Omni light from the menu Create > Lights > Omni light. Place it wherever you
want; then, make sure it is selected and from the right panel select Modify
and in the
rollout General Parameters > Light type deselect on (refer to the image on the left).
You will see that the scene has become darker. Right-click on Perspective (in the top left
corner of the perspective quadrant) and click on Configure. In the new opened window, under
Rendering Options, check Default Lighting, and check 1 light. Finally, click on Ok and the
scene will become clear as before.
Open the Material Editor window
, select a free slot and click on Get Material
, then
look for and double-click Vray HDRI. Click on the Browse button, search for the hdri map file
you have downloaded, doubleclick/open it and finally select Spherical Environment.
From Rendering > Environment menu (in max's main window), set Color (under
Background ) to white, then close the window. In the Render Scene window
, if you
haven't done it already, open the Current Renderers rollout and click on the Assign button
on the left side of Production, select Vray in the new window and click ok.
Now, under the Environment rollout, under Reflection/refraction ecc environment groupbox
check Override MAX's, and again set a white color, then click on None. In the new window,
select Mtl Editor under Browse From, and doubleclick on the map named Vray HDRI.

Plane material settings

In the Material Editor window
select another free slot. In the Blinn basic parameters
rollout, under Specular Highlights, set Specular level to 130 and Glossiness to 60. Then
expand (if it isn't expanded) the Maps rollout. Click on the button named None near Diffuse
color and it'll appear the Material/Map Browser window. Under Browse From select Mtl
Library and doubleclick on the Tiles.jpg map. Click on Go to Parent
(this button will
take you to the main window of our material). You will notice that Tiles.jpg substituted "None"
on the button near Diffuse: drag and drop this map on Specular Level and on Bump buttons,
and any time 3DsMax will ask you if you want an instance or a copy, click Copy. Click on the
None button near Glossiness, and this time select New from Browse From; then, click on
Noise. Leave the default settings untouched and click Go to Parent
. Last thing to do is
to click on None near Reflection. In the new window, doubleclick on Falloff, set the Falloff
Type to Fresnel. Click on the None near the white color and in the new window select Vray

Map, leaving the settings untouched. Once you have done this, click on Go to Parent
until you reach our material's main window (that is, until you cannot click it any longer).
Finally, again near Reflection, set the number in the edit box from 100 to 40.

Sphere material settings

In the Material Editor window
select another free slot. In the Blinn Basic Parameters
rollout select any color you want (this will be the color of the sphere) by clicking on the
rectangle near Ambient. Under Specular Highlights, set Specular level to 250 and Glossiness to
70. In the Maps rollout, click on the None near Reflection. In the new window doubleclick on
Falloff, and set the Falloff Type to Fresnel. Then click on the None near the white colo and
select Vray Map in the new window. Once you have done this, click on Go to Parent
until
you reach the material's main window. Finally, again near Reflection, set the number in the
edit box from 100 to 50.

Vray settings
In the Render Scene window
, in the Image sampler (antialiasing) rollout, select
Simple two level. In the Indirect Illumination (GI) rollout, select On, and make sure that
under First diffuse bounce Irradiance Map is selected (set 25 for HSph.Subdivs and 85 for
Interp.Samples), and under Secondary bounces Direct Computation is selected. Finally, in
the Caustics rollout select On.
Last thing to do: in the perspective quadrant, select the box and from the right panel click on
Modify
, then on Modifiers List and select UVW Map. Under Mapping groupbox, select
Box, and set Lenght, Widht and Height to 150.
Once you have done this, you only need to assing materials to objects that you created,
dragging and dropping the material sphere from the Material Editor window to the object.
Then, reopen the Render Scene window

, click on Render and see the result!